by Iona Rose
“Actually no.” He grins. “This place is within walking distance of my apartment. The other branch was a forty-minute drive each way. And just between me and you, this place is a hell of a lot nicer than the other place.”
I spend the next hour or so filling Stewart in on the details of the restaurant. I tell him who can work which shifts, how many staff we usually have in place for each shift, and all of the little things that don’t seem important until you’ve worked in the trade long enough to know they’re often the most important things. I am careful to avoid any gossip or telling him too much.
“Thank you, Callie,” he says when I’ve finished. “You’ve been very helpful. Now I think I’ve taken up enough of your time, so I’ll let you go on.”
“No worries.” I leave the office satisfied I’ve done a good job of getting him up to speed. I head out into the dining area and ask Harriet which section is busiest, so I know where to place myself.
She shrugs and turns away from me.
I frown, but I dismiss it as I see her loaded up with four plates. She’s obviously just busy. I take a moment to assess the floor and work out for myself where I will be the most useful.
“Stewart seems nice doesn’t he?” I comment to Sasha as we pass each other on the floor.
“Wonderful.” She keeps going, not pausing to chat. It’s unlike her, but I guess it’s the effect of having a new manager. No one wants to be the one caught standing around chatting first.
I’ve been on the restaurant floor around half an hour when the restaurant starts to quiet down. I haven’t seen Matt yet and I’m starting to relax. He’s obviously not coming in tonight for whatever reason. I try to start a conversation with Mark, one of the waiters, but he brushes me off. I walk away, wondering what the hell is going on. It’s starting to seem like there’s more to this than just not wanting to be caught chatting.
I decide I’m being paranoid. The whole Matt thing has got me looking for problems where there aren’t any now. I go to the cleaning cupboard and get out the glass spray and a cloth. It’s a little too quiet for all of the wait staff to be kept busy, so I might as well do something useful. I move to the front of the dining room and begin polishing up the large windows that make up the front of the restaurant.
I’m halfway through the first one when Stewart appears beside me. I hope he’s not one of those managers who thinks we can’t do any sort of cleaning when there are diners in, and then expects us to stay for ages after our shifts end to clean up.
“You don’t have to do that on my account.” He smiles.
I laugh a little, relaxing. It doesn’t sound like he’s here to tell me not to do the cleaning around the diners. “I’d rather be busy. And when it quiets down like this, the shift supervisor is always the one to drop back from waiting on customers as we get paid a little more than the others, so it seems only fair that they’re first in line to get the tips.”
“Fair enough.” He nods. “Makes sense.” He walks away from me and walks around the floor for a while, chatting to the staff and some of the customers.
I finish the first of the windows and move on to the second one.
Sasha approaches me as I’m finishing it. “It’s really dying down now. Do you mind if I go for my break?”
I cast a quick look around the dining room. She’s right. There are only three full tables in the whole place. “No that’s fine,” I say. “Hang on a second and I’ll come with you.” I’m sure I see her roll her eyes, but I’m not quite sure enough to ask her about it. I go over to Harriet and tell her Sasha and I are going on our break and to give me a yell if they start getting busier.
She nods, but doesn’t say anything.
I let it go, turning back to nod at Sasha that I’m ready, but she’s already gone.
I know now I’m not imagining any of this. All of the wait staff are being off with me. Even the chef who I usually get on with really well has been kind of distant with me. In fact, the only person who’s been remotely nice to me today is Stewart. I head out to the back and down to the break room. I’m going to quiz Sasha and find out what the hell is going on, and why I’m suddenly public enemy number one. Surely, this isn’t because of yesterday? I mean none of the staff liked Marco anyway.
I go to the break room, ready to find out what’s going on. Sasha barely glances at me as I walk in and I can’t help but notice that she’s made herself a coffee and not made one for me.
I make myself a drink and then I sit down. “What’s going on?” I ask.
Sasha shrugs.
“Oh, come on Sash, don’t give me that shit. I know everyone’s pissed with me, I just need to know what I’m supposed to have done.”
“It would be easier if you stopped pretending like you don’t know what happened,” she says.
I frown. So this is about yesterday. “Is this about Marco? I have no idea what happened there.”
“It’s not so much Marco. He deserved to go. It’s more the fact we were all under suspicion and you didn’t say a thing.”
“Sasha I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I say.
Sasha reaches into her apron pocket and pulls out her phone. She looks at the screen and presses it a few times.
I start to think our conversation is done and this is her way of ignoring me.
She throws her phone down on the table in front of me. “Everyone knows. You can stop pretending now.”
I frown, but I pick up the phone. I glance over the headline. Something about a family run business empire that’s donated a load of money to some charity. What the hell does this have to do with me? I reread the headline, and that’s when the name jumps out at me. Hunter. But it can’t be anything to do with Matt. I mean he’s a waiter, not a business empire owner.
I scroll down, and a photograph of three smiling young men appears. There, smack bang in the middle is Matt. He’s a little younger in the picture, but there’s no mistaking it’s him.
I push the phone back to Sasha, my mind reeling.
She doesn’t seem to notice my complete amazement. Instead, she starts to explain, “When I came to work this morning on the opening shift, Stewart was here. He brought us all in here and explained it all. Matt’s no fucking waiter. His family owns the restaurant chain. And half of the businesses in the city by the looks of it. He’s old money, a billionaire. But you knew that didn’t you? Did you know him before he even came here?”
“I — no,” I stutter, still trying to process what she’s telling me.
“His whole thing here was a ruse. He pretended to be a waiter so he could infiltrate the business. There was money going missing and he wanted to find out who it was. I guess it was Marco.”
“So let me get this straight. Marco steals off the business, and everyone is somehow pissed at me that he gets fired for it, even though you all hate him?”
“No Callie, everyone is pissed at you because you went along with it and didn’t say a word to anyone. We’re meant to be your friends and we were all under suspicion at one point. And you didn’t say a fucking thing. I’m not surprised you got promoted. Fucking the boss is a good way up the ladder isn’t it?”
“I didn’t know Sash,” I say, begging her with my eyes to believe me.
She won’t even look at me. She just shakes her head and stands up. “Drop the lies Callie,” she says as she storms out.
I sit alone in the silence, my mind reeling. It all makes sense all of a sudden. Matt’s quiet arrogance when he first started, how he always seemed to have more money than the rest of us put together. How he got away with speaking to Marco the way he did.
And the card he showed Marco. It wasn’t a bribe. He was showing him his true identity. That’s why Marco agreed to leave without a fuss. He knew Matt knew what he was up to and he chose to leave while he still could.
It explains why I got promoted as well. I might not have known I was fucking the boss, but I was. And a couple of days after me telling Matt I was paying my way thr
ough college with this job, a promotion and a pay rise lands in my lap.
How could I have been so naïve? How could I not have seen it?
I was so caught up in the romance, in Matt, that I missed all of the signs. It also explains why Stewart was nice to me. He thinks I’m the owner’s girlfriend. And it explains why he didn’t feel the need to tell me any of this when he has told all of the other staff. He assumed I would know.
I can feel tears prickling my eyes again. I have fallen for Matt, far deeper than I care to admit. And the whole thing has been nothing but a game to him. A ruse. He was using me, getting close to me, hoping I knew something. That’s why he never told me anything about himself. That’s why he never took me to his apartment. He didn’t want me to know who he really was. Because then it would have been game over. Did he suspect me? Was he trying to catch me by taking me to expensive places to see if I had the money to pay for that kind of shit?
A single tear runs down my face as the truth comes crashing down around me. Matt used me. And now, he’s found out who was ripping him off and he’s gone, leaving me behind — without so much as a goodbye and thanks for all the sex.
I stand up abruptly, almost knocking my chair over. I have put up with so much shit working here because I need the money, but I don’t need it enough to stay here now. Not after this. I can’t work somewhere where everyone is gossiping about me, about the girl who slept her way up the ladder.
I grab my jacket and my handbag then go to Stewart’s office. I don’t bother to knock.
Stewart looks annoyed when he glances up, but his expression turns to concern when he sees me.
It’s then, I realize tears are running down my face. I wipe them away angrily. “I quit,” I say and then I turn around.
Stewart jumps to his feet. “Callie, wait. What’s going on? What happened?” he asks.
“I just found out the last few weeks of my life have been a lie. And I can’t stay working here. Did Matt tell you to be nice to me?”
“Who the hell is Matt?” Stewart asks.
“The owner,” I say, surprised that he doesn’t seem to know what I mean.
“I’ve never met the owner. My interview was carried out by Janine at HR and all of my paperwork and checks have gone through her. Callie, please sit down and let’s try and work this out,” he pleads.
Ok, I was wrong about Stewart. He was nice to me because it’s his style to be nice to his employees obviously. But it doesn’t change anything else. It doesn’t make me feel any less betrayed. I feel used, dirty, and being here is going to be a constant reminder for me. I shake my head. “I’m sorry to leave you in the lurch like this, but I can’t stay. This is beyond the point where it can be worked out. Sasha has worked here as long as I have. She can step up and be shift supervisor.”
I walk away before he can say anything else. I am just about managing to bite back the tears now, and if he says anything nice to me, I’m afraid it’ll be like a flood gate opening, and I want to walk out of here with my head held high, with what little dignity I have left still intact.
I decide to leave through the dining room. I want them all to see me, to see they haven’t broken me. Maybe to even realize they judged me with no idea what was actually going on. Because if they feel betrayed, it’s not even close to how I feel.
“Callie? Where are you going?” Sasha asks as I step into the dining room.
“I’ve quit… I had no idea Matt was the owner and trust me, I feel more betrayed than anyone here. But you know what Sash? A stranger betrayed you. And yes, me as well, because clearly I never knew the real Matt. But that’s not what hurts. What hurts is knowing everyone here, people who I thought of as friends, all assumed I would go behind their backs this way, and not one person, not even you, thought to come to me about it.”
“Callie, wait…” Sasha says as I walk away,
“There’s nothing to wait for.” I ignore her calling my name as I walk to the door. I pull it open and step out into the night. I wait until I’m out of sight of the restaurant before I let the tears fall once more.
Matt has well and truly played me for a fool. I actually believed him when he told me he cared about me. That I was his. I have to give him his dues. He faked being into me extremely well. But now I see it. He has broken my heart and now he’s taken away my job too. He really did a fucking number on me, and if I hear the name Matthew Hunter again in this life time, it’ll be too fucking soon.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Callie
The morning after I quit my job started out like any other morning. I got up, showered, and got ready. It wasn’t until I was grabbing my handbag and heading out of my dorm room I realized I now had no way to pay the bills. I was covered until the end of this month, and my final paycheck would cover next month, but after that, I was screwed with a capital S.
It meant I had around six weeks to find another job. There were plenty of other restaurants around, and with my experience, in theory, I could walk into any one of them, but who was I going to get a reference from? Marco? Yeah, right. He wouldn’t have done me any favors even before Matt fired him. Stewart? He seemed like a nice guy, but he didn’t know anything about me so he could hardly vouch for my work ethic or skills. Matt? Ha, there’s a joke.
I told myself to stop being so dramatic. I could always contact HR and get a standard company reference. Surely it would be enough to get a job? If all else failed, I’d have to find something else. Maybe I could see one of my professors and ask about doing some TA work, something I’d always tried to avoid because TAs worked an insane amount of hours and I didn’t want anything that would encroach on my studies. I wasn’t going to get myself into a financial mess to then fail my classes because I didn’t have the time to study.
I walk briskly, trying to outrun my thoughts. When my head wasn’t spinning with what the fuck I was meant to do for a job, it was filled with Matt. How he could have lied to me about who he really was all of this time? How he had turned all of my friends at the restaurant against me? It didn’t even matter that the latter part wasn’t directly his fault. It was all a part of the same thing. If he had told me the truth, I never would have blabbed to the others, but at least then I’d have been ostracized for something I had actually done. And I never would have taken the promotion.
I could see why they didn’t believe me when I told them I didn’t know the truth about Matt’s identity though. I mean who would believe that someone didn’t really know who their boyfriend was? If this had been the other way around and I wasn’t involved, I’d have either thought the girl was lying, or that she was incredibly stupid and naïve.
So yeah, that’s me. Stupid and naïve.
I scream inside of my head, telling my thoughts to just quit it, and for a moment they do, allowing me to focus on my plans for the day. I’m on my way to the library now to finish up a paper that’s due tomorrow. And then I have a couple of hours before my lecture, time I’m going to use job hunting. Maybe I’ll ask in the library, see if they need anyone.
As my head starts to clear and I am once more taking in my surroundings, I notice an all black car with blacked out windows moving along the road beside me. There’s nothing particularly alarming about the car. It looks like the sort of car a well to do lawyer gets driven around in, but the way it’s moving so slowly, like it’s tailing me, alarms me.
I tell myself I’m being paranoid, that the driver is clearly looking for an address. I need to be sure though. I stop walking and dig through my handbag, pretending I’m looking for something. Sure enough, the black car pulls into the curb behind me. Scared now, I begin to walk again, much faster than I was previously walking.
I scan to my left and my right, looking for a shop or a bar or something. Anywhere I can duck into. There’s nothing. All of the buildings on this street are residential, and I’m not about to barge into someone’s home with a story about how I may or may not have been being followed. I am being followed though. I’m almost c
ertain of it.
My heart is slamming in my chest. I up my pace again, moving so fast now that I’m almost running. I keep my gaze straight ahead, trying not to look at the car. I’m just pleased there are a few other people walking along the street, otherwise, who knows what might happen.
I hear rather than see the window of the car going down, a smooth, electronic whirring sound that I never would have noticed if my senses weren’t suddenly hyper aware of the car.
“Callie,” I hear.
Fuck. I’m definitely not being paranoid. Whoever is in that car knows my name. I keep walking, my eyes darting around, looking for a way out of the street.
“Callie,” I hear again.
It dawns on me that I recognize the voice and I glance back over my shoulder, already knowing it’s him. Matt. I am right. He’s half hanging out of the window, calling after me. Looking at him now, even after everything, I can’t help but feel a wave of desire rushing through my body, but I ignore it.
I shake my head, roll my eyes and turn away from Matt. I keep walking in the direction I was heading in, although I no longer almost run. Matt might be a lot of things I don’t want to think about, but he’s hardly going to drag me into a car and abduct me.
I hear the car engine stop and the door open and then close. I hear footsteps behind me, running to catch up with me. “Callie, wait,” Matt shouts.
God, the guy really can’t take a hint can he? I feel a hand on my shoulder, turning me. I stop abruptly and turn to face Matt. I ignore the desire I feel, concentrating instead on the anger bubbling up inside of myself. “Are you fucking insane? Who follows someone like that in a car with blacked out windows?” I shout, focusing on the lesser of the evils he’s committed.
“I — I’m sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just trying to get up the courage to talk to you.”