A little smile pulls at her lips and she drops her arms, playing along. “How much did you get tipped?”
“After adding it all up, I made out with a little over two hundred dollars.”
“Wow, that’s not bad for one table,” she says, impressed.
I nod. It’s a good tip and lord knows I need the money. I’ve been broke since I returned from California.
Right now I’m living with my dad in my childhood home, but I’d like to get out as soon as possible. He’s finally moved on from my mom, and has moved in his fiancé, Rebecca. It feels weird and awkward crashing with them by staying in my old room. Especially because Rebecca has a fourteen-year-old daughter.
“I got a number, too,” I smirk and fish the little slip of paper out of my apron.
Grace laughs at that. “One of the guys with him slipped you his number?”
I smirk and nod. “Yeah, but it’s weird though.”
“How is it weird?” Grace holds out her hand, expecting me to hand it over.
I offer the little slip to her and she laughs at first before asking, “What the fuck? How were you clapping? And why would you give him a call when you stopped?”
Brett
I turn onto the highway leading back to the city and look over to Bear. He’s looking out the window. When I finish talking, he looks down at his phone and switches it to another Britney song.
Looking at me, he asks, “So, you never saw her again?”
“Nope.”
“Still angry though?”
“Yes… No… I don’t really know. It was a shock to see her back here again. I looked her up a couple of times, but never really saw anything about her. I figured she might have taken on a new name, but I never saw her in the movies or on TV.”
I lean back into my seat and just drive. No thoughts, no past, just the smooth lanes of highway.
It takes us about an hour to get close to the city. Half the time we are listening to Britney Spears for Bear and the other half we are listening to some good rock music for me.
I don’t really know how seeing Mandy affects me. It was a shock to be sure, but it’s been almost six years. Why should it have any effect on me? I’m not the same high school boy anymore. Though, those small flutters in my stomach and my flesh growing hot was jarring.
But fuck it, and fuck her.
We were a high school item, and those don’t last usually. So why should this time be different?
“So what are you going to do?”
“Not a damn thing. Live my life. It’s not like we were meant to be. People split up all the time.”
“Don’t seem like it to me. You had that cute little thing eating out of your hand, and then all of a sudden you drop her like a bad habit as soon as you see Mandy. It doesn’t seem like this thing is over to me.”
“Let’s drop it, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah, dropping it.”
“Thanks.”
We pull up in front of my house and Bear starts to get out of the truck. Pausing, he says “So this was your parents’ house?”
Nodding my head, I say, “Yeah, it was.”
I kept the house thankfully when they passed. I was in a world of hurt and had no clue what to do. I had no clue how to make house payments or keep up on my homeowners insurance. My parents friend, who was a lawyer, helped me out there and so did my family. I have thought about selling the house a couple of times and making a new start. But it hasn’t felt right to me.