Charles's POV
I folded it twice and put it in my shirt pocket before anyone could see what was on it.
Not because anyone was watching particularly. My colleague Dara had passed at the moment I opened it and slowed for exactly one second before continuing toward the far end of the restaurant with her tray. Whether she had seen my face I couldn't be certain. What I was certain of was that whatever my face had done in those three seconds needed to not happen again on the floor.
I finished my shift.
This was a more deliberate act than it had ever been before. The clearing of tables required conscious instruction from my brain to my hands in a way that table clearing had not required in the seven months I had been doing it. The checking on the couple by the entrance required me to actively
