My Stepbrother Banned My Fish Fry, So I Made Him Beg novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Friday, December 18

By eight on the Friday before Christmas, Hartmann's held ninety people and a wait out the door.

I had taped the card back over my fryer that morning with fresh tape.

The seltzer showed in pencil under his mother's brown ink.

I fried the cod at the pace I always did and called tickets in a steady voice.

Through the pass window I could see table twelve.

Gerry sat on one side with his bad leg out in the aisle.

My mother sat across from him with a glass of ginger ale.

She had a hand on the front of her yellow cardigan.

She caught my eye and winked.

At table nine sat Gunther Ebert in the gray jacket, with his phone face down beside his plate.

He had ordered the cod and had not touched it.

Karl stood at the end of the bar with the towel on his shoulder.

He was looking at me.

He had not looked at anything else for an hour.

At eight-ten Gunther rose and tapped his fork against his water glass.

The room took a moment to quiet.

"Good evening," he said. "I hope you'll forgive me. I have something for the Hartmann family."

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