IDLE TOWN, jess mariano

¹⁶venice bitch

「 chapter sixteen 」
❝ true love ignores bank numbers „

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"LOVES ME, LOVES ME NOT," Aries said, tearing up the piece of paper into bits. She got down to the last bit and threw it onto the pile on the counter. "Loves me!"

With a small smile, Briar swept the paper pile into the recycling bin.

"It's so busy," Briar noted as Luke walked past, carefully carrying two plates with care.

"Yeah, uh, family stuff happened so the Danes family is in town," said Aries, lowering her voice.

Oh, Briar mouthed.

"It's a weekday afternoon," Luke said quietly enough so that his customers wouldn't hear, returning behind the counter to get the coffee pot. "Don't these people have better things to do?"

"They're just here to eat," said Aries. "You're a diner, you provide the food."

"Doose's is right next door; they can grab an apple from there and move on."

"Am I hearing this correctly? Is the Luke Danes promoting Taylor Doose over himself?" Aries said incredulously. "Maybe don't have a monopoly on the diner industry in Stars Hollow."

"Are you saying that it's my fault that I'm swamped and understaffed?" Luke said, looking pointedly at Aries (who was just bored and leaning on the counter) and emphasizing the last word.

She clicked her tongue and straightened up, going off to help. Walking around the counter, she grabbed plates from Luke who just grabbed them from the kitchen before looking around to see who they were for.

"Not entirely your fault," she said after setting down the plates, "but if your problem is that you're busy, just don't have business."

"Thank you for that wonderful advice," Luke said. "I'll just close up shop and support Jess and myself with the money I don't make. I'm sure we'll find a lovely box to live on the street in."

The door jingled and they turned to find Kirk bumbling in and carrying a big box that was pretty much obscuring his vision. He almost crashed into Luke who swerved at the last minute, a bit of coffee splashing onto a table.

Aries rushed over and grabbed the coffee pot from Luke, placing it back on the counter as Luke wiped down the table.

"Jesus Kirk, what are you doing?" Luke asked.

"I was at the post office picking up my package for—"

"I don't wanna know what your package is for."

"Rude," said Kirk. "Anyway, there was a big box for Aries so I decided I would just deliver it to her."

He walked over to the counter, almost hitting Briar in the shoulder with the box before placing it down in front of Briar. Aries walked over and looked at the top, seeing the label to check who it was from.

"What is it?" Briar asked.

"I have no idea," said Aries. "I don't order anything. Tape job looks really shoddy and the label says—"

"It's from her mom since she had to ship some of Aries's stuff because she got a new boyfriend who wanted to make more space in their house," said Kirk.

Luke, Briar, and Aries all exchanged a weirded out look.

"Um ... thanks," Aries said, pulling the box closer to her and glancing warily at Kirk before looking away.