The black envelope I dropped off five minutes ago rests on the edge of his table, a signal he’s ready to pay the $34 bill. The reprieve has ended. Small heavy steps get me to his table and not just because my feet hurt like a bitch.
The round black tray I carry with me is empty, but I haven’t spilled it today and that’s a win for me. He hasn’t touched the tea or salad I placed on his table with the bill and I get a little irritated. Well more irritated than I already am.
I drop the tray to my side and put my free hand on my hip. “You were here six hours,” I state the obvious to him in case he wasn’t aware of how crazy the whole thing is. "Don’t you have a company to run?” I’m pretty sure this is the man who once told me how he couldn't let RDA fail. That doesn’t include sitting at a diner for the entire work day.
Trey’s eyes meet mine. “Yes, but you’re more important.”
I lock my jaw so my mouth won’t fall open and I clutch the big black tray to my chest as a shield so his soft sweet words can’t penetrate my heart. There is nothing to say back, so rather than try, I grab his check and walk back to the register.
Less than a minute later I’m back beside him angrier than I thought possible. I slide the black envelope containing $120 cash on the table in front of him. “You over paid.”
My hands fall to my hips as he opens the flap and sees the untouched money. “No, I didn’t. The left over is your tip.”
“You can’t tip me almost $100 Trey. I don’t want your pity.” I whisper the words, but they’re harsh.
He shakes his head at me. “Yes, I can.” He pauses but then notices the steam releasing from my ears and smartly starts again. “Look I did the math. It was busy today, you could have flipped this table probably an average of twice an hour. If the average bill was around $30 and they tipped 20% it gives you $7 twice an hour. Over a six-hour period it’s $84 in tips I cost you.”
He runs through the numbers so fast, I imagine he’s trying to trip me up. But I work with numbers, this is what I do, and no one does it better than Simone Stevens. I wait to catch the flaw in his math, but when he finishes I realize he’s actually right on which is just…… irritating.
“But I didn’t flip the table because you were here,” I reiterate his biggest offense for the day and cross my arms across my chest.
“I know. Which is why I gave you the tip. It’s not from pity, but what you should have earned. It’s fair and I know you wouldn't deny me the chance to do the right thing.”
“Huh?” What are we even arguing about? How did a ridiculous tip turn into me letting him be fair? My mind sputters to try and work out a comeback to his stupid circular logic and he uses the opportunity to jump in again.
“Will you sit with me and talk?” He waits for an answer I don’t give him. “Please?”
“Fine,” the answer is ripped from me in an angry sigh. “I’ll be right back.” I grab his bill with a fast swipe of my hand and walk back to the counter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Against all the wishes I made over the last five minutes, Trey is still here when I step past the counter into the main area of the diner. He still hasn’t touched his salad and his eyes track my movements across the white titled floor —— probably so he can intervene if I try to make a run for it. He’s right to be concerned. I considered it while in the back.
“You’re here.”
I sit in the wooden chair on the other side of Trey’s small table and cross one leg over the other.
He leans his body further over the table. “You promise to stay here?”
“Yes.”
Trey’s eyes narrow for a fraction of a second. “Say you promise.”
“Fine,” I blow out a breath in frustration. “I promise I’ll sit and hear you out. Now talk.”
The legs of his chair scrape on the floor as he stands. “I need to take a quick break. I’ll be back.”
He doesn’t look behind him, but walks with deliberate and quick steps to the back of the restaurant toward the bathrooms. I laugh at him. I guess he’s not a camel after all. The diner is relatively empty again as Jamie and a new person prepare for an upcoming dinner rush in a few hours.
My stomach grumbles as my eyes fall on Trey’s untouched salad. I should have stopped at the display case and bought a piece of cake to eat before our little meeting. I’m always crankier on an empty stomach. Although maybe it would help me stay focused so I won't be so forgiving with Trey. Aspen’s words from this morning about me being too sweet ring in my ears. But on the other hand, I can’t pretend Trey’s six-hour commitment to wait for me didn’t mean anything. Can I?
Trey pushes in his seat while I stare out the front window in a daze and I allow a few seconds to pass before my head moves to his direction. He pushes the salad bowl in front of me then positions the cake and drink to either side.
“Eat.”
His monosyllabic commands annoy me. “No.”
“Simone.”
“I’m not eating your food, Trey.” Can the man be more exasperating with his bossy commands that I secretly find exciting? Damn him for stirring something up I wanted to be done with.
“I ordered it for you. You ate the Caesar salad on vacation, you drink tea all the time, and who in their right mind doesn’t love chocolate cake?” He waves his hand in the air to indicate each item as if it should be simple knowledge what I like and don’t like.
Even, Jay, my old boss who I spent an exorbitant amount of time with never remembered I drink ice tea. What am I supposed to do when faced with the knowledge Trey notices those little things?
We stare one another down until my stomach threatens to cause me all kinds of trouble unless I eat. I narrow my eyes at him but pick up the napkin and unroll it for silverware. Trey doesn’t take his eyes off me until the first bite is in my mouth. Then with a final sigh, he leans back in his chair like everything is all right in the world because I ate a lettuce leaf.
“Mari and I met right after Finn and I left college. Her parents are well known in the area and she helped me navigate the business world for a while. When a chance came up for me to meet some investors, she was the best option to take with me as a date. Having her on my arm helped to get my foot in the door to places normally closed. I was young with no experience, money, or coveted last name to help me.”
He runs his thumb across his jaw once and leaves it on the side. “I’m not sure how it happened, but Mari became the easiest choice whenever I needed someone for a business event.”
The flippant way he sums up their history is a little disgusting and I even feel a sorry for Mari. I know Aspen doesn’t like her, but she hasn’t been horrible to me. If anything she should hate me for almost sleeping with her boyfriend.
I finish a bite of salad and sit the fork on the edge of the bowl. “So you’re using Mari for business contacts?
His eyes widen in the span of a blink. “No! Well, yes.”
I push back my chair and stand to leave done with this conversation.
“Wait, Simone. It’s not like that. Sit down. You promised you’d let me explain.”
“And I listened to your shitty explanation.” I continue to stand by the table but don’t walk away.
“Sit down, please.” His hand waves to the chair, but I don’t move. “Fine. Yes, in a way I used Mari, but she was in on the deal and used me too.”
His rigid posture is mismatched with the sincerity on his face, and against my better judgement I sit back in my chair. This time I cross my arms in front of me and don’t pick the fork back up.
“Mari’s family is old money, but the business is controlled by her grandfather and he has interesting beliefs.” He flicks his head to the side toward my salad and I reluctantly pick the fork back up.
After I’ve stabbed the poor grilled chicken and lettuce to his satisfaction, he relaxes. “Her grandfather owns a large plastics company. They operate in America and China. Mari is the person in line to inherit it all, but her grandfather thin
ks she needs to be married."
A piece of lettuce gets stuck in my throat and I choke on his words and my food. “You agreed to marry her?” My words sound small and defeated even though I’m screaming them in my head.
“No.” He leans back again and places a hand on the table. “Finn was right, you do think the worst of me. Every time Mari and I attended a party together, her grandfather saw her hanging on my arm, ready to take on the business world together. It brought her one step closer to her dream of running the company.
“She’s not the most well-liked person, even by me at times, but she has a cunning mind for business. She’s already the company Chief Financial Officer, but she's trying to convince her grandfather to give her full control of the company rather than a board if he steps down. I make her look better to him. That’s all it is.”
“I’m so confused.” I shake my head. “You were dating but not dating? Were you sleeping together, but not sleeping together too?” The question slips out, hostile tone and all.
Trey’s eyes fall to the table. “There was a time we were sleeping together semi-regularly.”
It sounds like he’s tried to work his answer in a way it almost sounds clinical so it won’t hurt so much, but Trey obviously doesn’t understand women. Those words suck regardless of how much sugar you put on them.
“There was a time?”
“Mari and I haven’t had… that part of our relationship in a while. Way before August,” he references the time we were on the beach together. “We’ve both dated other people in secret over the years.”
I flinch at her invading my special memories. “You get how ridiculous this sounds right? Did I fall into a San Francisco based soap opera? This is really the world you live in?” I want to believe him, but the whole explanation feels too crazy to be real. Even if he's serious, when has a friends with benefits situation ever worked out? Especially over a long period. The girl always gets attached.
He pushes my salad bowl closer as an annoying reminder to keep eating. “You’d be amazed at how prevalent marriages of convenience are in some circles, even today.”
And now we’re back to that M word. “And that’s what Mari wants? A marriage of convenience? With you?” I take another bite of salad and give Trey time to answer.
He leans back in his chair. “I don’t know what Mari wants. We haven’t talked about it, but she might feel it would be the last puzzle piece for her. She knows it won't happen between us.”
The last bite of salad goes down hard and I resort to using the ice tea to wash it down. More than half the salad is gone so I say screw it and start in on the cake. I’m not going to let good cake go to waste.
The first bite of smooth chocolatey goodness helps me forget for a second how horrible this conversation is. But then I swallow and remember it’s not done yet. “I don’t know what to say, Trey. Thanks for telling me, I guess.” I go back for a second bite ready to leave and put this whole day behind me. Maybe now that he’s gotten this off his chest I won’t have any more visits from him.
His back stiffens as he notices I’m ready to make my departure. Trey’s elbows rest on the table and he leans in while he talks. “Look, it makes me a shitty person, I get it. It was the easy answer and I didn’t think about it. A relationship with Mari was simple and didn’t cause problems at a point in my life when I didn’t have time to focus on me.
“It wasn’t the right choice. I see that now. I was young and at the time it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter until… well until I went to the Bahamas and then suddenly it did.”
I stop eating during his speech, too engrossed in the words and wondering if they’re true or not. There’s still so much wrong with what he’s said and questions fly around before I catch one to ask.
“Why? We didn’t plan to see each other again.”
“I know. Not getting your phone number was also stupid.” He laughs once. “I thought there wasn’t a chance with us, but all of a sudden you were here and there was this possibility of an actual relationship. It wasn’t something I’d considered in my past.”
“You’ve never considered a relationship before?” I continue to dodge around using any word of significance to reference what we’re talking about.
Trey laughs. “No. Men aren’t like women. We don’t start planning our weddings at eight.”
His words bring the first smile to my face since I sat down and I shake my head. “I hadn’t planned my wedding.”
The conversation between us stalls as Trey runs out of words and I still have too many questions to ask. The quiet of our table is overpowered by the noise in the diner, and I look around for the first time in a while to see the place filled with people.
We should leave and open the table up, but there’s one more question I need to ask before I’ll walk out the door. “If you had all those revelations, why were you with Mari at the autism benefit?”
Trey recognizes the conversation is over and pulls out his wallet, throwing some bills on the table as another tip for the new person since we’ve taken up a money making spot.
“Honestly? I’d forgotten about Mari.”
I cock my head to the side and give him a disbelieving look.
“It’s true. I was riding this high from this beautiful girl practically falling back into my life and put Mari out of my mind. She called me Thursday morning to remind me and I didn’t want to back out with such short notice. I was trying to do the right thing.”
I scoff at his attempt to play the hero. “And yesterday?”
“Well I was pissed for a few days, but I finally figured out you didn’t use me to gain an account. That’s when I started to text and call." Trey tilts his head at his mention of the times he tried to contact me and I deleted them before listening. In my defense, I had bigger problems to deal with. “Then I was pissed because you wouldn’t answer.”
“I told Mari the night of the benefit that it would be our last event together. I couldn’t keep up the façade. Apparently she didn’t believe me because she called last week. She wanted to set up our schedules for next year. Yesterday was my attempt to remind her she needed to find herself a new playmate.”
The line for the diner now stretches past the window beside us so I stand to give our table to the next person. The seven hours Trey’s occupied it today seems like enough. He follows behind me with a hand on my lower back, and for some reason, I don’t walk faster or force him to remove it.
We step out the door past the people and Trey leads me to the right. “Let me drive you home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I’m a moron. It’s the single explanation for why I’m even considering leaving the apartment on my Friday off.
“You’ve already agreed to go, so you’ll have to come out sometime.” Aspen slumps against the bathroom counter beside me.
“Why did I agree to it?”
She jumps up to sit on the counter and leans against the mirror while giving me the once over. “Tell me again what happened in his car.”
My face heats at the allegation in her question. “We walked four blocks so he could drive me home two.” I still can’t get over the fact he drives the little car around even with parking. “Then we talked.”
“Uh huh. You ‘talked.’” She air quotes talked. “Remember I was here when you tried to sneak in the door that night.”
I’ve already explained this twice, but I try once more to make Aspen believe me. “I’m not kidding. I told him about my mom and the job thing." I don’t mention I cried for most of that conversation and Trey sat quietly beside me and rubbed my back. It was sweet, which is concerning. I can’t afford to start considering Trey sweet. "Then he walked me to the door.”
“And the goodnight kiss?” Both her eyebrows raise at the question.
I sigh. “A quick one. One the forehead.”
Aspen leans forward. “Tongue?”
“No, there was no tongue on my forehead.” I laugh at her serious expression.
I follow her. “The jeans are okay?” I’m a little self-conscious about my wardrobe choice, but a simple sweater and dark wash jeans felt like a good answer for a date with Trey. A date that I’m not sure is a date considering neither of us used the word. Technically he texted and asked to take me to a quick dinner tonight. That’s a date right?
“Yes, I’m serious. You look good.”
I stop by the kitchen counter to tuck in a stool and straighten a stack of mail on the counter. With nothing else to clean up in the area, I grab the almost full bag of trash and walk to the door. “I’ll take this out and see if he's here yet.”
Aspen leans across the kitchen counter with a knowing grin. “Have fun on your date. Remember what Marissa would say and make him work for it.” She waves from her position, but I only smile and shake my head in return.
By the second floor I almost turn around and forget the whole thing, but I still have this bag of trash to throw away. Aspen’s apartment’s a fourth floor walkup since we can’t use the elevator in the penthouse for normal everyday things. All the steps give me too much time to think.
For example, why the hell I agreed to this in the first place. With show time here, I remember all the reasons it’s a horrible idea. I shouldn’t give Trey another minute of my time, but I cave when he flashes me a little vulnerability. For a man who plays at perfect so much, it was apparent admitting he made a mistake with Mari was hard. Then there were all those words about us and the beach. He got to me.
In between my crying jags over my mom’s death and the lost job, Trey talked about his own family. While he described Finn’s family as supportive and loving, he was less than kind toward his own. Lester, his father, wasn’t around much and his mom jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend for years. Twenty years divorced, but they still don’t have a nice thing to say about one another. The whole affair didn’t sound stable for a young child. While his words were meant to help me through my own grief, they made me miss my mom more. She would have loved Trey.
Lag (The Boys of RDA Book 2) Page 13