“Hey, El! Can you get the order at six? Super hottie just came in alone and is looking around like he landed on another planet.”
“Sure, Tracey,” I hollered to my friend. She swung by me with a huge tray laden with appetizers. She must have had the X section, or as we called it, the XXX section, AKA private parties. Tonight it looked to be a bachelor’s party, which sometimes could be fun, and other times could be your worst nightmare.
I finished tying my black apron and grabbed my cash tray from the office. I headed right to table six in Tracey’s section to deal with her rookie customer.
“Can I get a drink to start off with?” I asked him as I shoved a dance card in his direction.
Customers didn’t notice me, and I wasn’t too into noticing them either for that matter.
But when he turned around, his green eyes hit me and took my breath away. I stammered for just a second while I regained my composure, and my anger.
“Calvin, what the heck are you doing here?”
Sure, I’d estimated, give or take a few months, when his release date would be. But my heart held no false hopes only because Calvin himself had extinguished those flames years ago. And any embers that remained had gone out with the flood of tears from my broken heart.
I was done. Finished. I’d moved on and become my own person.
“What am I doing here? What the fuck are you doing here, Ellison?” Calvin gestured around my job like it was the deepest pits of hell. His eyes widened at the bachelor’s table that had so many naked girls around it, you couldn’t even see the guy who was supposed to be getting married.
“I work here, waiting tables. Now would you like a drink while you sit here on your high horse, or should I let you starve?”
“Oh fuck no,” Calvin said. His eyes took on fire and his chest seemed to heave with his breath. “I’m getting you the fuck out of here, El. You’re not working in a place like this.”
Calvin grabbed my arm and started marching toward the door. I fought him the best I could trying to hold fast to my cash tray.
“What the hell are you doing? I have a shift to finish, you dummy!”
Tracey looked up and saw Calvin dragging me and she excused herself from her customers.
“Ellison, I’m calling security!” she said as she ran over toward us.
That’s when Calvin picked me up and my tray fell to the floor, sending change and money rolling and flying. I kicked and pounded his back as he hoisted me over his shoulder like a lumberjack and walked me out the front door and down the steps.
“Oh my God, Calvin, are you insane? What the hell?” I asked him. He finally set me down when he arrived at his bike. Scratch that, Monty’s bike. Calvin was a mess and my heart was doing so many summersaults, I felt like I might lose my rushed dinner of nachos I crammed down in the school cafeteria.
This was not how I’d imagined our reunion happening. And imagine it, I had many, many times in the last ten years.
“When did you get out?” I asked him. I was twisting my apron back to the correct position.
He didn’t answer, just stared at me like he was having some sort of religious experience, either that or a nervous breakdown.
“I will not have you selling your body in a place like that, El. I’d kill every single one of them. I cannot believe Fox let this happen, I can’t even wrap my head around it!” he raged at me.
“Oh wait.” I put a hand up in the air. “Hold up, reverse there for a second.” I made the tape reverse screech sound as I schooled him. “I am my own person, Calvin Montgomery. You made that very clear, that you wanted nothing to do with me. So I took care of myself and I get to choose how to do that. Not you, not Fox, certainly not any Montgomery is going to tell me how to support myself!” I was livid now. I turned on a dime and started marching back to work, swinging my arms.
Calvin strode after me and grabbed me again like a ragdoll. I fought even harder as he returned us to the bike. This time, over his shoulder, I could see security coming. I was about to scream for their help when I noticed one of them was holding a gun.
Calvin forced me onto the bike and I’d given up fighting. I didn’t want anyone getting shot and it dawned on me that I’d probably already lost my job just from Calvin showing up. Cavelli didn’t like drama, especially not in his upscale club, and getting in a screaming match with your ex-con ex-boyfriend definitely counted as drama.