Free Bachelor Number Five (The Bachelor Series, Volume 1) by Kenneth Rosenberg

YouTube?”
    “Nope.  Sorry.”  Again Amanda held out the five dollar bill.  She just wanted him to leave at this point.  She was tired of having to explain herself; that the photo on the wall was of the guy she was stalking, that playing for a few friends at Rusty’s Road House didn’t make her a professional singer/songwriter, that she was a small-town waitress completely out of her element here.
    Peter reached out and took the bill from her hand.  “Thanks,” he said.  Amanda followed him out the bedroom door and through the living room.  “Did I say something wrong?” Peter asked.
    “No.”
    “Ok.”  He stepped out onto the landing.  “Because I didn’t mean to offend you.”
    “Why would I be offended?”
    “I don’t know.  Thanks for the loan.  I’ll pay you back later.”
    “Take your time.”
    Amanda closed the door and went to sit on the couch where she started in on folding her laundry.  Any hopes of having Peter help her track down Grant Hutchinson had completely evaporated.  Still, she realized how badly she’d wanted Peter to like her, even after everything Lauren had told her.  Even after seeing that sleazy girl leave his apartment.  Amanda still wanted to impress him.  It wasn’t as if she had feelings for him, it was more that she held him in awe.  He knew so much more than she did.  His life was so exciting.  As for Grant Hutchinson, she’d just need to come up with another lead, to find him all on her own.  Amanda was folding a shirt when her phone rang.  It was a number she didn’t recognize.  A local number.
    “Hello?” Amanda answered.
    “Hi, is this Amanda Perkins?”  It was the voice of an unknown male.
    “Yes.”
    “Hi, this is Kevin Webster, the manager at The Hamburger Hut.  I was just looking over your application.  Are you still looking for a job?”
    “Yes, I am!”  Amanda tried not to sound too excited.
    “Great, how would you like to come in for an interview?”
    “That would be fantastic.  Just tell me when.”
    “Four o’clock tomorrow?”
    “Four o’clock it is.  I’ll see you there!”
    “Thanks, Amanda.  We’ll see you tomorrow.”
    When she hung up the phone, Amanda immediately felt better.  So what if Peter thought she was some backwards country girl?  So what if she didn’t have a website, or any of her songs uploaded to YouTube?  Amanda was making her way in the city.  She had an apartment.  She had friends.  Very soon she would have a job.  As she lifted a skirt from her laundry basket and shook out the wrinkles, Amanda smiled to herself.  Everything was going to be ok.

Chapter Ten
     
    As she drove back home from The Hamburger Hut, Amanda was giddy.  She’d done it!  She actually had a job!  She and Kevin, the manager, had hit it off right away and by the end of the interview he went right ahead and put her on the schedule.  She would start training at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.  Kevin appreciated that she wasn’t an aspiring actress.  He was relieved that she wouldn’t be running off at a moment’s notice for casting calls and auditions.  He was encouraged that she didn’t hope to ditch the job as soon as she landed a part on a television show or in a movie.  No, Amanda persuaded him, she wasn’t going anywhere.  She might take some courses at a local community college if she could, but that was something they could easily schedule around.  Kevin had no problems with that.  In fact, he even encouraged her.  “I have great respect for anyone who wants to pursue their education,” he’d said.
    It also didn’t hurt Amanda’s mood to consider that everyone else who worked in the place had been in close contact with Grant Hutchinson.  Some of them might even still be friends.  How many actually had his phone number?  Surely a few of them at least.  These thoughts made him seem that much more real and that much less a figment of her imagination.  Sometimes when she saw Grant on the show it