Chapter 17 I’m Fine. Everything’s Fine.
I’M FINE. EVERYTHING’S FINE.
DELILAH
“Hey lady,” a woman says from table three, snapping her fingers in the air and looking me up and down like I’m a piece of trash.
I walk up to the table and smile, somehow keeping my composure even though I want to dump a glass of water over her head. “Can I get you something?” My voice is so sugary sweet and about an octave higher than normal.
She’s chewing gum and popping it between her teeth in the least classy way I’ve ever witnessed.
“We’d like another round.” She runs her fingers through her black hair, catching her fingers a few inches away from her head in the tons of hairspray keeping the nest in place.
She recovers well, pretending she meant to do it when she fluffs the bottom of the strands with her palms. “Can you handle that?” she asks when I don’t reply right away.
“I can handle it,” I tell her before repeating their earlier drink order back to them to make sure I remember. “Sound about right?”
“It’s right,” another woman at the table answers before the Aqua Net queen practically shoos me away.
I grumble under my breath, knowing these bimbos are going to leave me a shit tip. If Angelo or Lucio were serving them, I’m sure they’d get more than a few bucks, but I can tell these women are going to be cheap because I don’t flip their switch.
“What’s wrong?” Lucio asks as I walk up to the bar, mumbling under my breath.
“Nothing.” I give him a fake smile, pretending that my night is going amazingly well.
For the most part, it is. I’ve only spilled one drink. Thankfully, I was still at the bar when it happened and managed to keep the orders straight. I’d call it a victorious night in my book, except for some of the customers.
The men who have walked through the front door have been nice.
Some were overly flirtatious, but I was able to shut them down pretty quickly.
No one got handsy either, but the night is still young and the customers haven’t consumed enough alcohol to get too aggressive.
Besides the table of bitchy girls with their teased hair and long, fake nails, I’ve enjoyed mingling with the crowd at Hook & Hustle.
“I know that look,” he says, studying my face closely. “You’re upset about something.”
“No. I’m fine. Everything’s fine,” I tell him.
“What’s their order?” he asks, pointing his head toward the table of women currently gawking at him.
“Two Whiskey Sours, a Long Island Iced Tea, and a Screwdriver.”
He grabs the empty glasses and starts to make their drinks, but he keeps looking at me, waiting for me to spill my guts. “They giving you shit?”
“Nope. I swear. I’m fabulous.” I’m not telling him anything. I refuse to complain about a couple bitchy women. I’m sure they won’t be the last group of classless hussies who walk through the door of Hook & Hustle.
He pushes their drinks forward, and I snatch them up, walking off like I’ve been doing this a lifetime. Carrying four drinks isn’t hard, but resisting the urge to dump them over their heads is the bigger struggle.
“Who’s the tall drink of water?” the gum-popper asks as soon as I set the drinks down on the table.
“The owner,” I tell them before walking off, done talking to them. There’s no point in being nice and overly friendly when they already hate me. The fact that they’re staring at my man just adds to my level of agitation.
“Doll,” a man says, wrapping his arm around my legs as I try to walk by. “Why don’t you bring me something cold?”
I glare at him, my eyes going from his arm to his face and back again. “You better remove your hand if you want to keep it.”
“Oh, I like’m feisty.” He laughs. “I’ll throw in an extra twenty if you bend over and show me your panties.”
I smack his arm away and move out of arm’s reach. I have my hand in the air, ready to slap him, when Lucio touches my arm.
“Out you go,” he says, hauling the guy up by the collar of his shirt. “There’s no touching the ladies.”
The guy tries to twist out of Lucio’s grip and swings at him, but Lucio’s too fast and his arms are too long for the guy to connect.
“You ever come back in here again, you won’t walk out on your own two feet.” Lucio pushes the guy out the front door, kicking him in the ass at the very last second.
The room erupts into cheers, and Lucio bows to the right and then the left. Within seconds, the bar goes back to normal with loud voices talking about everything and anything as they drink.
I stalk toward him, a little upset because I don’t want him to step in any time someone gets a little too touchy-feely with me. “I could’ve handled him,” I tell Lucio with my hands on my hips.
I shouldn’t be so upset. He saved me a lot of trouble, and it was nice to have someone come to my rescue. But I wasn’t sure Daphne or Michelle were given the same treatment. No way did I want to be treated any differently from the other girls at the bar.
“He was bigger than you.”
“And?” I tap my foot, crossing my arms over my chest.
“What were you going to do with that hand? Slap him?” He raises an eyebrow.
“Of course.”
“And then what would’ve happened if he hit you back?”
I blink a few times, thinking about what he just said. I never thought about someone actually coming back at me. I was defending myself, after all. “Well, I…”
“If he would’ve hit you, I would’ve murdered him right here in the middle of the bar. For your safety and my sanity, I took out the trash before this place became a crime scene.”
“Thanks,” I say slowly, changing my tune because I hadn’t thought about how Lucio felt about the entire situation, or the fact that the guy could’ve cracked me back.
“If any man touches any of the ladies in this bar in an inappropriate way, they’ll get the same treatment. Don’t ever try to handle it yourself.”
I nod, feeling a bit like a fool. I had become used to taking care of myself. Lord knows my dad was never there to rescue me from uncomfortable situations. Then there was Dwight, but besides being a bad lay, he was one of the biggest pussies I knew.
“Are you okay?” Lucio asks, following me behind the bar when I go to pour myself a little water.
“I’m fine, Lucio,” I tell him. “I’ve handled assholes before. He didn’t hurt me.”
“But he could’ve,” he reminds me again, driving the point home.
“I got it.” I keep my back to him and guzzle down an entire glass of cold water before I face him again. “I’m sorry,” I say after I’ve cooled down a bit. “I just want to make sure I’m treated no differently from anyone else.”
He brushes my hair over my shoulder. “I can’t help it if I treat you a little different, Delilah. I love you, and no one gets to touch you or be mean. I’ll always step in to protect you.”
“Give me a chance to handle things on my own first, okay?”
“I’ll try.”
“If I can’t, I’ll call you in as backup. Deal?”
He holds on to my arm for a few seconds, his green eyes searching mine. “Deal,” he says before releasing me.
“I have to get back to my tables,” I tell him with a sigh before heading back to work.
Aqua Net knocks into me as I make my way across the room. She doesn’t say excuse me or even seem to notice that she almost makes me lose my balance. I turn, watching her as she stalks toward Lucio like a woman possessed.
A new couple sits down at my table near the window, and I try to give them my full attention. “Good evening. Welcome to Hook & Hustle. Do you know what you want, or would you like a few minutes?”
Somehow, I get the sentences out even though I can’t stop looking toward the bar as Aqua Net primps her hair and applies another layer of lip gloss. She’s a few feet away from Lucio, staring at him like he’s her next victim.
“I’ll take a pint of Guinness,” the man says to me as I finally make eye contact. “She’ll have a glass of Moscato.”
“Anything else?” I ask, glancing over at the bar again.
“Peanuts or chips, if you’ve got them.”
“Coming right up.” I give them both a quick smile before marching toward the bar. But this time, I go to Daphne for the drinks.
“I need a Guinness and a Moscato,” I tell her when she stops in front of me.
Aqua Net’s talking to Lucio, tossing her petrified strands behind her shoulder, shamelessly flirting with him. He’s not smiling or laughing, but she seems to be enjoying herself.
Daphne follows my eyes and snaps her fingers in my face when she realizes who I’m staring at. “Ignore them,” she tells me.
“She looks like she’s about to jump his bones.” My lip snarls out of reflex.
“Lucio isn’t enjoying himself.” She tips her head in their direction. “Look at him.”
“That tramp hasn’t been nice from the moment I waited on her, and now she’s all over my man.” I narrow my gaze, and I imagine myself grabbing her by the back of the hair and hauling her ass to the door like Lucio did to the scumbag.
Daphne places the two drinks on the bar and smiles at me. “I like this side of you.”
“What side?” I glance at her for only a second, because if Aqua Net touches him…all bets are off.
“The bitchy, territorial side. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were born here.” She laughs and smacks my arm. “I like it.”
Lucio catches my gaze from across the room and smiles, giving me a little wink. Aqua Net turns to see who he’s looking at, and her nostrils flare.
He says something to her and she turns around, but he isn’t there for more than a few more seconds before he walks away. Aqua Net watches me as she walks back to her table and says something to her girls before picking up her purse.
I walk quickly, sliding their bill down on the table before they can walk out. They look every bit the type to leave without paying their tab.
“The guy said it’s on the house,” Aqua Net tells me with a straight face.
“He did not.”
“Yeah. He did.”
“Listen, lady. You owe the bar money and you’re gonna pay up, or I’m calling the cops.”
She looks me up and down, her lip curling at me in disgust. “I don’t know who you think you are, talking to me like that, but I don’t owe you anything.”
“Just pay the bill, Jinny,” her friend tells her, yanking on the side of her black leather coat.
Jinny swats the woman’s hand away. “Fine, but the bitch isn’t getting a tip.”
I’m not even the least bit shocked. So instead of being upset, I give her my best smile and say, “It’s okay, Jinny. I’m taking the owner home, and that’s reward enough for a hard night of putting up with your bullshit.”
Jinny’s mouth falls open, and her head snaps backward. “I’m sure you’re a lousy lay. He’ll come to his senses eventually, and I’ll be around to make sure he gets what he needs.”
“He’s not into bimbos, Aqua Net. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you’ll never get that man. He’s mine. Always will be. So you can move on to your next victim and spread your infection elsewhere.”
She throws a twenty on the table and bares her teeth. “You’re nothing more than a high-class cunt,” she says, trying to wound me.
“He loves my cunt too,” I tell her with an even bigger smile.
She stalks away, giving me the evil eye as she slams her hand against the door and walks outside. Her girlfriends follow, whispering to each other and looking at me over their shoulders.
“Wow.” Daphne slaps my back. “Definitely a South Sider now. Those country-club folks would’ve had a stroke if they’d heard that shit coming out of your mouth.”
“Fuck them,” I say, but I’m not just talking about Jinny, I’m talking about all the people in my past. No longer am I anyone’s doormat, and I never will be again.
“My girl,” Daphne says and throws her arm around my shoulder. “It’s worth coming out of my own pocket to pay the rest of their tab for that kind of entertainment.”
“What happened?” Lucio asks, coming toward us with a concerned look.
“Delilah’s got a mouth on her,” Daphne tells him, laughing as she talks.
“I know.” He winks, and I about die of embarrassment.
God, I love every person in this family, even his crazy-ass sister. I finally feel like I’m part of something bigger. Something more. Something lasting.