Moving behind the bar I grab a menu and fan myself with it.
“Everything okay?” the bartender asks.
I nod and go to give him the drink order but the words don’t come out. I clear my throat and try again, this time successfully.
“What’s gotten into you?” the bartender asks.
“Mr. Navy SEAL over there. That’s what,” Irunía, another waitress at our restaurant says.
I don’t acknowledge her but she continues anyway.
“I saw how you damn near hop, skipped, and jumped right over there into his lap. That’s my section by the way. I’ll be taking over that table from here on out,” she adds, announcing to Sam, the bartender.
“Your section is section five,” I correct her. “The bar is fair game, and in case you didn’t notice he’s with my dad, soI’llbe serving them.”
“You shouldn’t be serving your own family members.”
“Then why do your cousins have two tables pushed together in your section?”
I tap my foot, cock my head up to one side and raise my eyebrows waiting for an answer.
Irunía makes a huffing sound and rolls her eyes at me, flicking her hair back. “He’s too old for you,” she continues, despite the fact that I thought this conversation was over. Clearly, she doesn’t know when to quit. “Men like that don’t want some young naive virgin,” she says, giving me duck lips and sleepy eyes. “They want an experienced woman who knows what she’s doing. You need to pop that cherry with some boy your own age first, get some dick under your belt before you try to tangle with a man like Soren.”
“So eloquently put…your completely incorrect observation about my life and life in general.” I put on a brave face, but I don’t want to admit she’s right. I am inexperienced. Completely. And it’s something that could work against me, exactly as she said.
It’s just that I’ve been saving myself all these years for Soren and finally I’m so close I feel like I can taste it, like it’s going to happen.
Or am I just naive?
As soon as Sam finishes with the drinks, Irunía grabs them and quickly moves down the other side of the bar, popping out on the other side closer to where my dad and Soren are.
I hurry after her but it’s too late.
Standing next to Soren she places the drinks on the table, plasters on a fake smile, and runs her finger over his shoulder, looking past him at me as she does, smiling profusely like she’s getting the revenge she so desperately wanted.
I freeze, then realize I need to go after what I want. Quickly closing the distance between them I come up by her side and she hip-checks me.
Soren looks down at her finger and then up at her. “You need to take your hands off me, woman,” he growls at Irunía. “And you need to apologize for how you’re treating your co-worker.”
She stomps both feet and her big breasts bounce in her top, damn near spilling out. “Uh,” she says, like a frustrated child.
“Now,” Soren growls.
“I’m not apologizing for shit. Who do you think you are coming into my place of work and….”
Soren raises a finger and the manager, who usually is about as exciting to be around as watching paint dry comes scurrying over.
“Soren!” he says. “How you been? I thought you forgot about me.”
“Never, Steven,” he says, giving him a real, old-school handshake and then a manly embrace.
“What can I do for you?”
“I hate to ask you this after not seeing you for so long, but this employee is disrespecting my waitress.”
“Irunía?” he asks.
“Don’t know her name and I don’t care. But I do care that she apologizes to our waitress.”