Sam Merlotte had about fifteen more problems than he needed at the moment. Three chairs had been busted in a brawl caused by Jason Stackhouse last night and needed to be replaced. That morning's shipment of oranges had arrived damaged and half of them had had to be thrown away, leaving him short on juice and making him sorry he'd decided to open his place up for breakfast. There was a stray cat he couldn't manage to chase out of Merlotte's parking lot, an orange tabby that was driving Dean the dog crazy, causing him to bark through the whole lunch shift most days. Someone had broken in to Merlotte's the week before and rifled through Sam's office, though nothing had been taken. Andy Bellefleur didn't seem to be in a big hurry to solve the crime, and Sam's insurance company was giving him a hard time about paying for the repair of his broken back door and window.

On top of that, Arlene was pregnant, and Terry was a wreck, which made working with either one of them – or worse, both – a special sort of Hell. Sam did his utmost to be tolerant of them both, but with everything else piled on top of that, it wasn't easy. He had two new waitresses, one of whom was very good and one of whom was very bad… but both of whom were very pretty, the fact of which was causing him a whole different set of problems other than the day to day challenges of running the bar.

Anne Marie, a saucy Cajun red-head, worked nights and would take over for Arlene when she took her maternity leave. Sam had asked Arlene to train Anne Marie and this had mostly turned out to be a disaster.

"Saaaaaam," Arlene had moaned. "Why'd you have to hire a CAJUN, for Heaven's sake? You know she's only gonna make me think of Rene."

"Rene wasn't really Cajun, Arlene," Sam had replied sensibly, "Besides, I thought you were seeing Terry now." Arlene had punched his arm and stalked off. Anne Marie's training was not going well. Still, the customers seemed to like her and Lafayette had taken a shine to her, so Sam figured it would work out one way or another.

The second girl was so incredibly pale and blonde and tall that at first Sam had thought she might be a vampire. However, when she had asked if she could work the early morning breakfast shift, his sense of relief was so great that he had hired her on the spot before remembering to ask whether she had any waitressing experience. Turned out she didn't, but he put her in Sookie's care and hoped she would get by. The girl had introduced herself as Margaret but everyone was calling her Peggy by the time her first shift ended.

Sam was pretty sure that Peggy was a fangbanger. She and Sookie should get along just fine, he thought sourly. When Sam had introduced the breakfast shift, Sookie had leapt on it since it meant she could spend her entire evening with her boyfriend. No, Sam reminded himself, her fiancé. He hated himself for being sulky over her engagement to Vampire Bill when it seemed he couldn't get a date to save his life. In fact, his last lover had nearly been the death of him and put Sam off of dating for a good long time. However, the fact remained that he was still a guy and he still got lonely and horny, and there were two new women in his domain.

Even with all of this on his plate, Sam had a worse problem still to face. There was a letter on his desk written in an ancient hand, by an ancient hand, on Fangtasia letterhead, from Eric Northman, requesting a meeting. Although they had never met, Sam had no doubt that Eric Northman was both a vampire and someone he really, really didn't want to have a meeting with.

As he considered how to respond to the letter, Sookie poked her head in the door of his office.

"Lunch crew's here! Peggy and I are leaving!" she called cheerfully, then grabbed both of their purses off the small shelf that served as staff lockers and passed one back.

"Thanks, Sook," Sam said gratefully. He could see Peggy standing behind her, looking tired and spacey. As he looked, her eyes met his and immediately glanced away, as if she was afraid of him. Sam tried to smile but it came out as a grimace, and Peggy was no longer looking at him, anyway. Sookie didn't seem to notice the uncomfortable exchange. "Everything…go okay?"

"Except for the juice, sure. Peggy's gotten a LOT better. She even got some tips today! And I'll talk to Jason about those chairs… now what on earth is up with Dean?"

The dog, who had been blessedly quiet all morning, was barking again. Sam got up and looked out the open window.

"That damn orange cat is back," Sam grumbled. "I don't suppose you could take it home with you, Sookie?"

Sookie looked surprised, then sad. Sam knew she was remembering her last cat and he silently cursed himself for even asking her. "I… I… hey Peggy, you want a cat?"

Peggy slid her eyes back towards Sam and arched an eyebrow warily. "I suppose I could take it," she said after a very long pause.

"You'd be doing me a real favor," Sam said, giving her what he hoped was a charming look.

Peggy smiled faintly, and Sam realized that in the three days he had known her, he had not ever seen her smile. As pale as it was, it lit up her face and caused something to turn over in Sam's belly. Or maybe the feeling was centered a little lower. It was hard to tell. She was a really beautiful woman, Sam thought, but there was something very sad about her. He wanted to know her better. He wanted to know her secrets.

He had an odd, sudden impulse to tell her his own secret.

Before he could blurt it out and then deal with the ensuing disbelief, Sookie had turned and ushered Peggy out to the parking lot where Dean was facing off with the cat. As Sam watched, Sookie called off Dean and hauled him off out of view. Sam heard her yelling good-bye to Peggy, who was trying to lure the cat to her.

The cat growled and hissed at Peggy, but to her credit, she did not give up. Finally she grabbed at the beast, and earned a bloody scratch across her bare arm for her trouble. Cursing softly, she dropped the cat and looked at her injury. Rather than running away, the cat seemed to glare up at her.

Sam ran out of his office, and out the back door of Merlotte's without thinking. A moment later he was grabbing Peggy's hand. She didn't pull away but she froze, looking at him, a bit stunned.

"Sam, I'm sorry—"

"You're sorry! Oh, honey, this is all my fault." Sam looked down as something brushed against him. The cat was rubbing against his legs and purring. Sam sighed heavily. "Come on inside, Peggy, and let me put some peroxide on that."

"It's ok! Really, Sam. I ought to get home. It's really late."

"Peggy, it's barely noon."

"For me, it's late, Sam," she said with a gamine smile. "I'm a night owl."

"I see." His voice was frosty and her smile froze and disappeared. Immediately Sam was sorry, but he didn't apologize. The cat wound around his feet, purring even more loudly. Sam ignored it. The mysterious girl in front of him was a more pressing matter. She could tell he was judging her, and she looked disappointed in him. Sam fought mixed feelings of guilt and pride. There was no law saying he had to like vampires, or fangbangers. She should be grateful that he'd given her a job.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, and if you'll forgive me, I don't think I'll take that cat after all," Peggy said crisply, tossing her blonde locks and turning and walking away. And damn it all, Sam's eyes went right to her round rear end, swaying provocatively in the tight black shorts of her uniform. He ground his teeth together and the cat butted its head rather roughly against his legs.

Sam glared down at the cat, and a moment later, a white, brand-new Lexus roared out of the parking lot, spraying up gravel. A flash of golden hair and the fact that no one else had been in the lot with them told him that Peggy was the driver. A Lexus? What the hell? If she could afford a Lexus, what was she doing working at Merlotte's, making a measly ten dollars an hour. The cat meowed loudly. Sam growled at it and it cocked its head almost as if it were laughing at him. Before he could ponder more on either the cat or the car, Lafayette poked his head out the back door of the bar and called out to him.

"Sam, you better walk yo' sexy ass all back up in here, because those rednecks what wrecked half our chairs last night is back."

Sighing heavily, Sam headed back inside to deal with yet another problem.