CHAPTER TWO #2
But apparently it was because he kept going.
He didn’t try to turn back around and ask for her phone number or anything crazy like that.
And she had to admit that when he was checking out her body, it did affect her.
And not in that creepy way when other customers did that to her.
But in a good way. In that way that made her want to check him out too, because he was a very nice-looking man.
But she didn’t bother. Because she knew it wouldn’t matter anyway.
But when she finally looked at the check he had written, she expected to find maybe fifty dollars, or a hundred bucks if she was fortunate.
But when she looked and saw that he had “tipped” her five thousand dollars, that fog of confusion lifted and she forgot everything about their encounter.
Because this kind of money was lifechanging for somebody like her.
She could pay off her car. She could put three months’ worth of mortgage payments in the bank and never be in the hole again. She could fill her frig with groceries.
She pulled out her phone, pulled up her bank app, and quickly deposited that big fat check. And thanking God as she did.
Because somehow she felt certain that he wasn’t playing with her. He looked like the kind of person who could easily cover a check like this, and she was certain it would clear. Somehow she was certain.
And just like that, her tears of pain turned to tears of joy in a matter of minutes during an afternoon she knew she would never forget.
But by the time she left the back hall and got back to work, she was pleasantly surprised when she saw that he was still in the restaurant. But she was annoyed to see that his obnoxious friends were too. She tried to avoid the table as much as possible, but it wasn’t possible.
While heading to a different table, she couldn’t help but nod and smile at Stuart when she saw him again. She even mouthed thank you to him.
Stuart nodded back at her, and he smiled at her too. It warmed his heart when he saw that smile in her eyes again. But she was so invisible to his friends that nobody even noticed their heartfelt exchange.
But Jennifer noticed when Tabby was walking past their table. “Hey you?” she yelled out. “Girl? Waitress!”
Tabby slowed her walk and turned around. She wasn’t certain who had called her at that table, but she was willing to bet it was that same heifer who had disrespected her. “You’re talking to me?” she asked her.
And Jennifer, being Jennifer, got smart too. “No, I’m talking to the cash register. Or maybe the bartender across the room. Of course I’m talking to your silly butt!”
Tabby went over to that table, despite Jennifer’s nastiness, because she’d already been paid dearly for her great service.
And although that heifer had already shook her pride, she was determined to not let her shake her smile.
She kept an annoyingly big fat smile on her face as she addressed the older woman. “May I help you?”
Kill her with kindness was a gangster move, Stuart thought, because he could tell that it baffled Jennifer.
But Jennie scolded on. “Why are you walking by our table as if you don’t have a job to do? Can’t you see we’re no longer eating? What’s the matter with you? Get these dirty dishes at once!”
Tabby looked at that woman with that smile Stuart could see was sincere. But not in the way Jennifer thought. “Get’em your own damn self,” Tabby said, still smiling, then she winked at Stuart and left.
Everybody in the group wanted to laugh at Jennifer. It wasn’t every day they got to see somebody put her in her place. But Stuart was the only one who actually did laugh. It was hilarious to him. Especially Tabby’s wink.
But his response surprised his friends. Especially his male friends. “You’re going to let that little bitch talk to your woman like that, Stu?” Logan asked him.
“She’s not my woman,” Stuart quickly responded as he looked Jennifer dead in the eyes. “And she knows it.”
“What are you talking about?” said one of the ladies.
“She has to be your woman. You guys are perfect for each other. You two are the glue that keeps this whole group together. And we must stay together. Surely you’re going to come to your senses and marry Jennie one of these days.
That’s a given.” Then she sounded doubtful. “Isn’t it?”
They all looked at Stuart. Including Jennifer.
But she knew the truth. He told her on day one that they could be friends, perhaps with benefits if she liked, but nothing more than that.
And privately she accepted those terms. But publicly she did everything in her power to behave as if there were no terms at all.
“Aren’t you going to propose to her at some point, Stu?” Gheri asked him.
Stuart was still staring at Jennifer.
“Stuart, you heard me. Aren’t you going to propose to Jennie at some point?”
“To be quite frank with you,” he said as he continued staring at Jennifer, “I’d rather propose to Donald Trump.” And he said it so loudly that customers at other tables heard him and laughed. Tabby, who was at another table, heard it too and laughed.
But shock filled Stuart’s friend group. They all looked at Jennifer. She was enraged. She was humiliated. “You bastard!” she yelled out, grabbed her Prada purse, and got up and left.
“Jennie wait!” Gheri and the other ladies in their group looked angrily at Stuart as they hurried behind their leader. They were flustered too. And their husbands, who knew Jennifer’s connections kept them just as connected as Stuart’s connections did, began hurrying behind their wives.
Logan stopped and looked at Stuart. “How could you do that to her, man?”
“How could I tell her the truth? Easy.”
He could tell his friend understood what he meant, but he was too steeped in the Cult of Jennifer to accept it. “You’re going to regret this move,” Logan said. “She’s a gorgeous powerhouse. She could only help any man’s brand. Including yours. She’s a great woman, Stuart.”
“If she’s so great then you marry her,” Stuart shot back.
Logan gave him a harsh look. He was already married to Gheri and Stuart knew it. And then he hurried behind his wife.
Stuart knew his days were already numbered as a member of that so-called exclusive group.
The only reason he still hung with them at all was because they were familiar and easy and fun when they weren’t obnoxious.
But more importantly, he just didn’t feel like getting to know new people.
It was, as everything usually was with him, pure selfishness on his part. And transactional.
But it was also true that Jennie was a powerhouse alright. She had every attribute imaginable. She just wasn't a good person. He saw how she treated her household staff. He saw how she treated her business associates. He saw how she treated Miss Morgan.
Not that he was some great man himself. He wasn't and didn’t pretend to be.
But he knew how to treat people. He knew how to move in circles that weren't money rich in any sense of the word because those were the circles he hailed from. He was raised in a trailer so raggedy he could lay in his bed and look up and see the sky through the holes in the roof. Or look down and see the dirt of the earth from the holes in the floorboards. He was the kind of people she despised. Which made her, in his eyes, the poster child for the kind of person he despised. And they expected him to marry her? Hell would have to freeze over first. And then he still wouldn’t marry her.
He got up, paid the tab his friends had conveniently forgot to pay, and headed outside. They came on his plane. They had no choice but to wait on him.
But when the SUVs pulled up and they all piled inside, Stuart didn’t say a word to Jennifer nor anyone else.
He sat quietly on the ride to the airfield. The trip was a waste of time.
But all he could think about anyway wasn’t his mother’s incorrigibleness, but that pretty young lady with the gorgeous brownish-gray eyes. He was pulling for the kid. She was going to make it and make it on her own terms he hoped. A part of him even wished he could see it.
But he never got encumbered. He never got involved.
Besides, Jennifer was sweet, too, when he first met her.
She was angelic even. But as he looked over at her as they rode to the airfield and he caught her looking at him with nothing short of disgust in her eyes, that angel had long left the building.
But Tabby Morgan? He smiled thinking about her, and the way she winked at him. He could only hope she would turn out to be a far better person than he or Jennifer would ever be. And that her dreams would ultimately come true.
But as soon as he got off of that plane and returned to his life back in New York, he forgot all about that cute, quirky young lady. Not because she was forgettable. But because he lived the kind of life that wouldn’t allow him to remember.
Never encumbered.
Never involved.