The Staff Table: SECOND SEATING by Ren Vesper

Naomi Hale felt that they were through the tough stuff.

The jobs were secure. The business was standing firm. And somewhere amid the broken machinery, the crazy figures, and too many late nights, Gabriel Ward became someone she did not intend to become, someone whom she could trust.

But now comes summer.

The business collapses, salaries rise, and the pledges made to save thirty-one jobs start to unravel. Naomi must consider the chance that to save her people, she will need to become the one who destroys them.

Gabriel faces the same fight on the opposite end. He wishes to save Naomi, the staff, and the place he has fallen in love with, yet in doing so, there is always a price to pay, and once more he finds himself choosing which truth is best for Naomi not to know.

Friendships change, love breaks, and the staff table takes on a new feel.

For some reason, love can survive the crisis.

What remains to be seen is whether it can survive the truth.