His eyes widened and he pulled out his wallet and looked through it. Relief crossed his face. “I don’t know why you do this to me. For a second there, I actually believed you.”
I shrugged. “You never know.”
“Do you think Parker had a good time? I know I hogged the girls, but he looked comfortable talking with you.”
I had no idea of the actual answer, but I didn’t want Tony to feel bad about keeping the strippers to himself. “I’m sure he did. He was properly wasted with a smile on his face when I left him.” That wasn’t a lie. Everything that had come out of Parker’s mouth was, though.
We went to work preparing for the morning. Tony went on about things he did with the strippers, even though I begged him to stop telling me his personal business.
Our banter made me smile, though, and for a little while I was able to forget about the flame I held for Parker.
It was later in the morning when the Lamontes came in. Immediately I smiled and waved at them through the pass-through.
“I thought we were going to miss you today.”
“No dear,” Harriet said. “We had a doctor’s appointment. But thanks for asking.”
“Sure thing,” I said. “I’ll be right out with your coffee.”
Harriet and Ken always had a way of bringing up my mood. And as I felt myself start to backslide and check my phone every two minutes, I was happy to have them distract me.
I poured their coffee and brought it over to their table.
“Good morning,” I said cheerfully.
“Good morning, Sienna,” Harriet said. “How was your weekend?”
I didn’t tell them about the bachelor party, especially the fact that it was at the diner. I knew them well, but not well enough to inform them that there were strippers not too far from their table.
I stuck to the facts. “It was good. I went surfing and cleaned up around here. How about you?”
“Oh, well, we don’t do much now. We went to the movies to keep cool.”
“What did you see?”
Harriet told me about the movie. Then Kenneth proceeded to tell her she was wrong about the details. Even after forty years, they argued, and it was the cutest damn thing I’d ever seen.
“I hate to interrupt,” I said as Kenneth worked himself up so much he started hacking into his handkerchief. “But I have to get some orders out. You want the usual?”
“Yes, dear,” Harriet said. “And I’m going to look up this movie on my phone. I know I’m right about the dog being the villain.”
I smiled and left the two of them.
I was almost to the kitchen when the door opened. I glanced up and saw Parker entering the diner.
I shoved through the doors. We had four other tables of patrons, so I put my head down and worked hard to get their food done before I could start with the Lamontes. And maybe Tony would intercept Parker and tell him how busy we were.
Instead, Tony burst into the kitchen and I glanced over my shoulder at him. “What’s up?”
“Parker is here,” he said while grabbing an extra plate for the table he was working with.
“Oh?” I said, pretending as if I hadn’t seen him come in before.
I looked across the room. Parker stood in the middle of my diner, staring at me. It was the place where I had seen him get a lap dance. He looked much fresher than he did on Saturday. His blue eyes pierced through me, and he had the audacity to smile at me. Everything I’d pushed out of my head for most of the morning came rushing back.
I tor
e my eyes away from him and pressed the flat end of a spatula onto the french toast sizzling on the grill. How dare he come here and expect everything to be okay. Even if he forgot our conversation, which was probably going to be his excuse, there was no reason not to contact me for an entire day after I worked my ass off pulling together his bachelor party.