See, Blaire, normal people know who he is. “Yes, he’s… somewhere.” I glance around. I have no idea where he went.
“Do you think we could send him a drink? Is that allowed?”
“I’m not sure. Actually, I’m new. Let me find out.”
“Cool. I read he likes whiskey so we want to send him that. Like, up to twenty dollars.”
The girl in blue pulls out a compact and begins to check her makeup while her friend in red keeps talking to me. They must have had years of training in cosmetics to be so good at it. They look like supermodels from magazines. I’ve never worn anything other than ChapStick.
“I’ll take a dirty martini, extra dirty and get her a vodka cranberry, not top shelf, but none of the like, super cheap stuff. Go somewhere in the middle. Tell Lucian the drink is from Jen squared, because we’re both Jens.” She giggles.
“Emphasize we do everything together. Like, everything!” She winks and I don’t understand why. “And if he asks, please tell him where we’re sitting and tell him that we’re super hot.”
I write everything down because I don’t have a clue what any of it means. Then I rush over to the bar area for servers. I try to scroll down on the menu to find whiskey that’s under twenty dollars. I hit a button and the screen freezes. Glancing right and left to look for Patti, I realize there are no other servers in sight. I hit escape over and over on the screen and nothing happens. Chewing my lip, I wish hitting escape would teleport me far away. I wonder if I could hide under a table for the rest of the night. No. I can’t let Patti down again. One of the bartenders walks in my direction, so I yell out.
“Excuse me, sir?” I wave at him to try to get his attention.
“Sir?” He laughs. “You can call me Julian.”
“Julian, could you please help me?”
He scoops ice into a glass and adds a couple of different liquors to it. “You’re the new girl, huh?”
I nod.
“What do you need?”
I read him my notes. “Jen times two wants to send a cup of whiskey that costs under twenty dollars to Mr. Kane. And then they want a martini that is extra unclean and a vodka that’s somewhere in the middle of the shelf with cranberries in it. Does that make any sense to you?”
He looks slightly amused and confused at the same time. Julian wipes his hands on his pants, takes my pad from me, and reads it to himself.
He starts making drinks and placing them in front of me. When there are three glasses in front of me, he leans toward me and turns the monitor slightly so we can both see. He asks what the table number is, and proceeds to show me how to find the items and enter the prices.
I’m so thankful I want to hug him, but I’m awkward and he’s a boy, so I don’t. “Can those girls take him the drink they bought?”
“Nope. You’ll need to. We don’t need anyone slipping anything into his alcohol.”
“But Nadia said to leave him alone.”
“I wish I could help you more, but right now, I’m swamped. Just take it to him. It’ll be fine. His bark is worse than his bite.”
“But I don’t know where he is.”
He points to a staircase. “Take those and then turn left. He’s all the way in the back corner.”
Before I can open my mouth to emphasize how I was told to stay away from him, Julian is already on the other side of the bar talking to someone else. I place all three drinks on the tray and head back over to Jen times two. I have to hold the tray with two hands and it’s awkward. I end up carrying it at waist level rather than up high like Patti. How in the world does she do that?
I place the tray on the table and take one drink off. I remember the girl in blue got the cranberry, but I have no idea which is the whiskey.
“So you can buy him a drink, but I have to take it to him for you.”
The girl in red lifts her dirty drink off the tray and I’m thankful I now know which one is the whiskey.
“I figured. Tell us everything he says!”
As I reach the staircase, I wonder if I can just carry his drink in my hand. This tray is huge. Then, I remember that I’m already on his naughty list, so I decide I’d better try to look professional this time.
Don’t be an idiot. Don’t be an idiot. I repeat it over and over in my mind as I climb the stairs. Once I reach the top, I look left and see him sitting at a corner table with the same guy as before. They’re both looking at some papers.
Centering the drink on the tray, I lift it up toward my head and try to hold it steady as I approach him. He’s not looking at me, so it gives me a minute to study him. I think Julian is wrong. He seems like his bite would be nasty.
I take deep breaths as I tread in dread toward him. In and out quick. I can do this.
Lucian and his friend glance up at me as I stand in front of their table.
“Hi, again. I’m sorry to bother you, but these girls named Jen bought you a drink and Julian told me I had to bring it to you because everyone else is busy. And even though I know you must hate me and Nadia said stay far, far away, here I am. I said some awful things a few minutes ago and I apologize profusely. I really only know church music and I had no business judging any other genre. Clearly, I don’t understand.”
The tray wobbles in my hand as I speak. It’s very hard to keep it up that high, but I don’t want to give him the drink until he says it’s okay.
He stares at me and runs his fingers over his beard. He has four rings on his hand and bands around his wrist. I stare at his rings to avoid looking him in the eye. One of his rings is a cross. I wonder if he’s Catholic.
He’s very quiet, so I quickly glance at his face to gauge a reaction. He’s staring at me.
“Is that tray heavy?” he asks, pointing at it.
My hand shakes and the tray quivers. “Actually, at first, it’s just uncomfortable, but not so much heavy. After holding it up in the air like this for a few minutes, that all changes. It stays uncomfortable, but then it also starts to feel like you’re trying to balance an elephant while he tiptoes across a tightrope. There’s very little blood flow to my hand because the circulation to my wrist is cut off from being bent too far in one direction for too long. Honestly, it’s hard to talk and focus at the same time.” My hand feels numb and my anxiety spikes, so I blurt out, “Can I please give this to you?”
“I wish you would.”
Attempting to lower the tray gracefully, I end up tipping it to the side. I watch as everything seems to happen in slow motion. The glass slides to the far right, hitting the lip of the tray. As I try to rebalance it, it slides to the far left. I try to bring it down faster and realize the reason my hand feels numb is because my wrist is asleep. I can barely control it. My hand trembles and the glass travels to the far right again, hitting the lip once more just as I bring it toward him. Tilting ever so slightly, the liquid slowly drips out of the glass. Then out of nowhere, the glass seems to jump off the tray as if it’s skydiving. Liquid pours over the edge with a wave of regret. I gasp in horror as I watch it land all over his pants.
He jumps up from his seat. “What the hell?”
I grab the rag from my waist and fall to my knees in front of him, dabbing the zipper of his pants where most of the liquid resides.