I’d had enough of that for a lifetime.
16
Chloe
My last table was an old couple who was so stinking sweet, but also pretty freaking high maintenance. They kept doting on me, talking about how cute my belly was, and then would ask me to get them more ranch, a side of cheese, a new ketchup bottle because the one they had just wasn’t full enough. On and on. It was getting late, and I was surprised they kept on sitting at that table talking with each other. My feet had swollen to the size of Texas, my back was aching, and I’d had five contractions in the hour they’d been sitting there. I was freaking ready to go home.
My new boss, Vicki, found me hunched over the counter in the server’s station, breathing hard. “You’re lookin’ pretty rough, doll,” she observed. I sighed. “You should probably head out. I can finish off the old people and take the hunk that just sat in your section.”
My shoulders slumped. We were open for another two hours, but I’d been hoping no one else would come in, or at least they wouldn't sit in my section that was all the way in the back of the restaurant where no one usually sat unless the place was full. Which it wasn’t at this hour on a Tuesday night. Why would they even sit someone in my section to begin with? Though, if it was a hunky guy who was by himself getting a nightcap, I could probably do a bit of flirting and get a pretty good tip out of it. I needed every little bit I could get.
Even if Kai had stuck to helping me out with my bills and such after he left, I wouldn’t have accepted the money. Not after what happened. But he hadn’t. Which was why I’d gone and gotten a new job the day after our explosion. It was a little French café on the east side that was only open for dinner. I’d easily landed the job, and at a place that I could just work five hours a night and make out with a pretty decent-sized wad of cash no less. I hadn’t even given myself a day to mourn what was lost. While I may have been dying on the inside, every breath agonizing, I moved on and got a job to pay my bills like a big girl. Working as much as I was wasn’t good for me or the babies, but it was essential.
I straightened, glancing down at Vicki, who was about a foot shorter than me. She raised her chocolate brown eyebrows, crossing her thin olive-toned arms over a nonexistent chest. “You’re gonna tell me you wanna take that table, aren’tcha?”
“See, Vicki? We’re already getting to know each other so well. Didn’t I promise you at my interview that you would love me once you did?” I gave her my best smile that was not real at all but very well practiced. The same smile I’d been wearing in that picture with Jared that Kai had seen.
Fuck. Don’t think about those things!
She snorted, shaking her head, her short, pin-straight ebony hair swishing in her face. “You sure have an attitude you didn’t mention in that interview.”
“And you wouldn’t have me any other way.”
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “The hunk’s at table fifteen. He wants Glen on the rocks. I can go grab it for you.”
I raised my eyebrows with an impressed look. Glenfiddich was one of our nicest scotches in house. I hadn’t had one customer order it since I started working there. “Glen? Really?”
“Yeah. Seems like the fancy type. Probably the opposite of what you go for.”
With that, she spun, heading for the bar, my forced laugh following her the whole way. She had no idea what type I went for. Broody, tattooed, impossible to forget. But working with Vicki was even more fun than it had been with Tim, who wouldn’t even consider me coming back to work since my doctor told me to take a leave. I, of course, didn’t mention any of that nonsense to Vicki at my interview. And I also didn’t mention the fact that I was working again at my doc appointment that very morning.
I went up to the bar to grab my newest patron’s drink, only getting a glance at the back of his longer hair curling over the crisp collar of his shirt. On my way over to him, the old couple waved me down, so I made a stop at their table before I went to his. They’d finally put a card in their billfold, so I grabbed it and promised to be back in a few minutes. Then I went to the hunk’s table, which was in the dimly lit back corner of the restaurant. The way his head was tilted down, I couldn’t quite make out his face in the bad lighting when I set his drink on the table.
Then he looked up and smiled at me, his sharp cheekbones catching the dim light just right, his highlighted hair gleaming in it. My heart stopped working, my blood running cold.
I had prepared myself. I was prepared for my parents to show up if the picture of me got out—it hadn’t, which I knew because I checked every social media outlet, every online news website, every single day—but I hadn’t even considered him coming. I was lucky I’d already set his drink down since my hands had begun to shake.
“You don’t look very excited to see me,” he drawled, picking up his drink while he gave me a once-over. That one look made me feel dirtier than I ever had, which said a lot, considering how I’d lived my life over the last three years.
He sipped his drink. My mouth opened and closed, but there was no way I would be getting any words out anytime soon. His gaze rested on my belly when he set the glass back down. He tsked, shaking his head while playing with the rim of the glass. “Looks like you had no problem opening your legs once you left.”
That finally woke me from the shock of seeing him, my living nightmare, in person for the first time in three years. “What are you doing here?” I asked, going for intimidating, but it came out as a whisper.
Head tilted, he smirked. “Isn’t it obvious, Chloe? I came here to get my fiancée who’s been missing the last three years.”
“I am not your fiancée.” It came out hard, angry, his delusion helping me find some form of gumption.
His chuckle gave me the chills. He sipped his drink again before pointing at the old couple’s billfold I still held in my hand, saying, “Go take care of that. I’ll still be here when you get back.”
It was a command, and a threat. He wasn’t going anywhere.
As much as I wanted to ignore his demand, I needed to get them their bill so they could finally leave. I couldn’t lose this job, which was very likely to happen if I let Jared make any form of a scene.
I left his table without another word, but I could feel his gaze on me as I ran their card, then took the billfold back to them. They wished me good luck before heading for the exit. I was in serious need of it. I considered asking Vicki if she could take his table, but I was no coward. Or maybe I was, but I couldn’t run, not this time. I had to know if he’d spoken to my parents, if they were also going to find me.
It took several deep breaths for me to gain some semblance of strength before I went back to his table. He was still watching me, still calculating my every move.
“Why are you here?” I demanded, sounding a bit more intimidating than I had at first.
“You already asked that one, babe.” The term of endearment made me sick to my stomach. It wasn’t original. It was what he called any female he thought he could have. With another chuckle, he lifted his drink, swirling the ice in it. “I still can’t understand what you saw in this shit town. Why you chose this to run to when you could have gone anywhere in the world.”