Olivia...

Who: Brian and Mya
Where: The diner
When: Shift change

Having the morning off to sleep in and relax would've been much more enjoyable if Brian had actually wound up getting any extra sleep. Or even if he'd just had Domino over and hadn't gotten extra sleep for a good reason. But no. When he came in to the diner for a couple hours of afternoon shift, even though he'd had a nap in the hopes of making up for the stupidly early morning, he was yawning and feeling vaguely strung out, even though he really had no reason to be. Stupid fucking dreams.

So despite the fact that it was mid-afternoon already, he still went straight for the coffee after giving various people nods and weary grins in greeting. A few of them laughed at him, assuming the tired look was from partying too hard. He let them. He was looking forward to a quiet, undemanding few hours of cooking simple things for hungry people. It'd be nice.

Mya had gone back to her office after the little rush they had, she'd been looking over applications and had called a few references for people who'd applied for a manager position. She felt exhausted and was trying to keep her mind busy and not dwell on her earlier conversation with Olivia, which was hard because she was currently trying to re-work the shift schedule.

The lack of a head cook in the kitchen-- namely, Mya-- had Brian taking his coffee and drifting back to her office in search of her. He rapped gently on the door frame as he peeked in over the rim of his mug, then waved a little once she looked up from her paperwork.

"Hey." Mya said with a little wave, her pencil still between her fingers. "Come in, just finishing up." Ok well not, because it was harder to schedule Olivia in avoidance of Brian then you'd think. If she- they could get a new manager then things would be easier.

Brian wandered in and dropped himself into the chair opposite her desk, slouching down and pulling back more coffee. "What is all that?" he asked, eying the papers and hoping it made some kind of sense to Mya. It just looked like chaos, to him.

"Applications." Mya said, pointing to one stack. "Bad applications." She said with a similar point. "Schedule." This time the point was to the spread out papers before her.

"Well, at least there's some not-bad applications," Brian said philosophically, then gave the scheduling paperwork the evil eye. He knew what that probably meant. "Okay, so who quit?"

“They’re not -bad-.” Mya said, trying to clarify. “They’re just not good for management. And no, no one quit. But now that things are starting to calm again we’re going to pick up again and Olivia’s going out of town for a while- which isn’t that hard to deal with. The hard part is figuring out how to deal with when she gets back.”

"Seeing as we're one of the few places not half-destroyed or anything, and the grocery stores are still running low, we'll probably get hit pretty hard, actually," Brian agreed, though not exactly with disappointment. They could use some fresh business. The rest, though.... He sighed. "When she gets back?" He could guess what that meant.

"Yea." Mya said, gesturing to the seat as she shifted the papers into a pile. "Olivia's made a request that when she gets back, that she work opposite shifts to..." She could make it general or be upfront with Brian, she had to choose quickly. "You."

"Shit." The urge to throw the coffee mug across the room rose up, and was immediately quashed, because yeah, not going to throw a coffee mug across the room. Going to stay in control of his emotions, dammit. He wasn't really surprised, but at the same time he'd held on to some kind of hope that maybe she could forgive him. Maybe. Except it was Olivia and he really, really should've expected it. Ought to have been surprised not to have his truck keyed.

Not that it was worth it to key up an old truck like his. But still.

Gotta remember the short circuits, though. He scrubbed at his face with one hand, setting the mug down on Mya's desk so he didn't throw it, and asked calmly, "And you're having trouble fixing it to work?"

"A little, but only because we've lost some staff... I got four calls this morning from people who've decided to move out of Marquette. We're more lucky that no one died." Mya said, trying to look at the plus side of things.

Brian sighed again and picked up the coffee for another long drink. Then he suggested, "Don't move her. You and I can switch... I'll work afternoon and closing, you work opening and morning. She's gone before you get in, now, isn't she? And even if not, it wouldn't take much to just beg someone else to get in earlier if she wants to leave before I get here." He figured that would be easier than trying to re-arrange half a dozen people to find her a new spot that'd still work with her Babylon shifts.

“I can do that. Tired of coming in so early ‘eh’?” She asked with a grin. “Still have to work out the four bodies we’ve lost, but it shouldn’t be too hard I think there were some people looking for a few more hours. Or maybe one of these applications will work out.” Mya looked at the pile. “I’m hoping to be able to do interviews soon.” She wanted to ask more about Olivia, but the anger he’d felt wasn’t something she wanted to bring back, it was strange feeling like she was talking to her friend through safety glass.

"Mostly just want to make things easier on you...." And when the best thing about coming in that early was having most of the shift bantering with Olivia... well. Yeah, he'd rather sleep in. "Who all'd we lose? And anything really promising-looking in that stack?" They could live without a manager if they had to, but without four servers, busboys, and peak-time cooks it would be a lot harder.

Mya revealed who we lost, they were two servers, one buser and their only dishwasher. "There are some good applications, it's just that most of them came in before the vampires... so I'm hoping that some of these people are still around."

"Hell," Brian sighed. "Yeah, there is that. Let me know if you want me to call on any of 'em if I have some time today, a'ight?" Maybe it'd get his mind off shit like Olivia and vampires and dead vampires and all of it... He needed it. Either that or he'd pray for crowds at the only restaurant open in town. That one might actually get answered.

"You can tackle any of this stack." She said tapping the one that wasn't the 'bad' one. The one's I've left messages for are over here." Mya had a small file box next to her chair that had -another- pile of papers collected on it. "So... about Olivia." She'd have to risk the anger.

There wasn't so much anger now as resignation-- Brian kept anger in check as much as possible, after all, else things tended to start glowing, melting, or shorting out, and he was being even more careful about it today-- and he sighed, settling further back in his chair. "I told you my dad died.... Well, it was from a fight with a hunter. Turns out that hunter? Is Olivia's dad. Or, well... was. They pretty much... killed each other." It was still just so strange to say. Painful. Ugly. A huge, ugly, way-too-coincidental mess....

Mya put her hand to her mouth, this... she wasn't expecting. "And she's upset with you? But she knows you didn't get on with your father really, she must know you had nothing to do with her fathers death." She was trying to work it out in her head what could have upset Olivia so.

Actually, Brian got on with his dad great, had practically idolized him until Torziel's revelations that he'd not been the kind of man Brian thought he was. Which had apparently lodged in his brain more than he'd thought....

But that wasn't the point or the problem. "I didn't tell her right off, the day I learned her last name was the same as the guy's who my dad fought with. I didn't want to think it could possibly be the same person, and then the vampire shit came up, and...." He sighed dropping his head back and staring at the ceiling. "So yeah. She's pissed."

"Because you didn't tell her." That made a little more sense. For as close as they were Mya and Brian didn't talk -too- much about their families, probably because of how Mya'd been first introduced to his family through his sister. And Mya had left her home long ago and never looked back, it wasn't a bad home... it just wasn't what she was here for. "Do you think that things may have been different if you -had- told her?"

"I don't know." Honestly, no, he didn't think it would've been different; it might even have been worse, made her quit entirely, if she hadn't been here long enough to feel settled. And then she'd never have learned to cook and they'd never have really talked. He knew there wouldn't be a chance that she'd forgive him either way.

But that just might have been him being pessimistic, tired, and unhappy. He shut his eyes wearily. "Does it matter? I didn't. Can't really change that now. So now she wants a different shift."

"She's very upset, about to go track down the man she lost. It's a big thing. She needs closer and right now she's putting up barriers to defend against anything that might be associated with her pain." Mya reached across the desk for Brian's hand. "Right now she's hurt and trying to deal with that. When she finds closer and peace with what happened to her father she'll be more open to forgiving. You've been a good friend and didn't intentionally hide anything. She's going to hate you for a while, but I'm sure that after time things will get better. Maybe not back to normal... but eventually you'll probably at least be able to work the same shift."

Though right in that moment, Brian didn't believe her for a second, he still opened his eyes, rolled his head back up to look at her, and dredged up a tired smile. He appreciated what she was saying, but he just wasn't in a mood to really take it in. Hell, he was still working on his own dad dying, so he doubted Olivia'd be ready to talk to him any time soon. "I hope so, anyway," was what he said, and he gave her hand a squeeze. "Probably ought to get out there, in case people decide they need to eat, and stuff. You heading out, or working in here for a bit?"

"I think I'll head out." She said, looking down at her mess of a desk. "Maybe I'll be better if I tackle this on a clear head."

"I'll see what I can make of it, too, if we don't wind up swamped in the kitchen," Brian promised, and stood up, freeing his hand to pick up his coffee mug. He'd have to get one of the servers or busboys to double as dishwasher, apparently... They weren't going to like that.