He waited until she was in the office before closing the door behind her. “Have a seat.”

She sat on the edge of the seat by the door as he sat back on the office chair. “I understand my brother was so impressed he hired you on the spot.”

Her posture was perfectly erect and tense like he remembered the day of the interview. So unlike how she’d been behind the bar when he first walked in. “Yes, and I explained to him about my age. I only wanted to get a chance to prove myself and I was going to tell you the truth after.”

“Yeah, well whatever the reason, lying on your application is pretty bad.” He crossed his arms in front of him and leaned back. “First impressions go a long way. Not the smartest thing to do is start off lying.”

With a slight lift of her chin she began, “I’ve already apologized to Alex and now I’ll apologize to you. I’m sorry. I was only trying to make a point. But you’re right. A liar is not how I’d like to be perceived. I’m only grateful that Alex was kind enough to give me the opportunity to prove myself.”

He stared at her for a moment and she didn’t look away. Instead stared right back. She didn’t seem at all intimidated by him. In fact, he’d bet she added that last remark as a jab.

“There are still a few things we need to get taken care of.” He sat up and spun the chair around so he faced the computer. “We’ll need to run a background on you and do a drug screening.” He turned to face her. The dry expression hadn’t changed. In fact it seemed even more severe. “I’ll also need to verify your past employment. You know, the bartending experience.”

“You don’t believe I have experience—”

Sal held up his hand. “This is standard procedure, Grace. It has nothing to do with believing you, but to be fair you did already lie about one thing and—”

“First of all.” She stood up. “It’s Graciela. And second, I just apologized for that. Alex didn’t seem to mind. If you just give me a chance I can—”

“Have a seat, Graciela. Please.”

“I’d rather stand.”

What the hell happened to the smiley Graciela at the bar? The one that didn’t have a problem with Alex referring to her as Gracie. Here, Sal wasn’t even allowed to call her Grace?

He turned back to the computer trying to shake off the annoyance he felt. “You do realize my brother is married, right?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

He lifted his shoulder. “Just thought I’d mention. That’s all.”

He felt like an ass now for even saying it. It was unprofessional and completely out of line. But it just came out. The fact that she didn’t say more about his comment did not go unnoticed. Maybe it had come as an unpleasant surprise—one that rendered her speechless. He was suddenly grinding his teeth.

“Are we done here, Mr. Moreno?”

Sal turned around. “No, we’re not. And I thought I asked you to call me Sal.”

For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why his words came out so harsh. The expression on her face was that of obvious aversion—aversion to him. And he couldn’t say he blamed her. He was being a total dick. This was so out of character for him.

In a tone completely opposite to his, she asked, “What else do you need from me… Sal?” It was almost condescending.

“I’ll need references.” No he didn’t. What the hell was he doing? They’d never once asked for references from any of the other employees.

“References? Like from past employers?”

“Yeah.” Sal glanced at her. She chewed the corner of her lip. The disdainful expression was now replaced with a look of concern.

“If you can get them,” he added, feeling guilty. “It’s not a big a deal.”

“Because the restaurant I worked at last, went out of business and the manager there moved back to Mexico. My other jobs were all in El Paso but—”

“That’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

Sal gave her all the information on where to go to get the drug screening and she went back to work. Even after sitting in the back mulling over why the hell he’d behaved as he did, he still couldn’t figure it out. He finally chalked it up to his already dire mood from the meeting with the investors, and then the surprise of finding out Alex had gone ahead and hired her, even though he knew Sal’s apprehension about her—hired her on the spot no less.

He sulked in the back for hours getting the inventory sheets ready for that weekend. By closing time he couldn’t stand it anymore, he needed to talk to Graciela. The more he thought about it the worse he felt about his behavior. His comment about Alex had been completely uncalled for.

The restaurant was closed now and everyone was cleaning up when he walked out into the bar area. Melanie and Graciela were laughing about something as Melanie wiped down the bar and Graciela filled the dishwasher.

“That time again, ladies. We’re almost out of here.” Both girls turned to look at him. Melanie smiled while Graciela’s lips flat lined.

Graciela continued to put glasses in the dishwasher. Melanie’s attention was taken by Oscar, who brought her more receipts to put in the closing drawer. Sal took advantage of Melanie’s distraction and walked past her coming to a stop next to the dishwasher. Graciela glanced at him but said nothing.

“Look, I wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier. That’s not me.”