City Vibes - Complete Series (BWWM Interracial Billionaire Romance) (9 page)

Chapter 20

Reese yanked at the heavy wooden doors of Per Se and groaned when, with a thump, they refused to open. She sighed to herself and knocked on the door, cupping her hand over her eyes and pressing it against the glass. To her annoyance, her manager, Frank took his time, reluctantly putting his calculator and pen down, lifting himself from the chair behind the hostess stand and slugging his way to the door. Reese glowered at him as he opened the door.

“Oh, it's you. What a surprise.” he groaned as he held the door open. He shut it behind her as soon as she had crossed the threshold.

Reese rolled her eyes as she followed him to the hostess stand. She ran her fingers through her thick hair, which was rapidly frizzing up due to the long day she had already had, then leaned over the counter. “It's only been like a week.”

Frank feigned nonchalance. “1 week is a long time for a waitress.”

She glowered at him. It annoyed her that people were always forgetting that she wasn't
just
a waitress. “I'll be fine.”

He held what looked like a sales report up to the light like it was a dollar bill he was investigating for fraud, then shifted his gaze back to her. “It was a particularly good week. Maria made $600.”

Reese pursed her lips. “If you're trying to make me remorseful by telling me what Maria made, it's not going to work.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Because you don't need the money?”

Her stomach churned with agitation. She loved Frank to death, but the last thing she needed was him judging her over the time that she took off from work. It would have been different if he were willing to fire her for taking a week off from work, but he clearly wasn't. So this conversation was nothing more than an annoying waste of time. “Because the stock market could crash again and Maria would still make $600 a week.” Reese argued.

Frank let out a dry laugh that echoed throughout the empty restaurant. “I don't understand why you're getting so mad at me. I was just asking a question.”

Reese cocked her head to one side. “Oh were you? Because I have yet to hear the actual question behind your unfair assumptions.”

Frank dropped his pen, leaned back in his chair and stared up at her; his arms crossed and a blank look in his eye. “I don't know what kind of day you've had, but I am not about to become your punching bag.” His voice came out sharp as knife.

Reese flinched at this, her face instantly flushing as she had suddenly become the deer in headlights. She opened her mouth twice with half a response prepared, but, in the end, couldn't bring herself to say anything. So she just glowered at him, frustrated at all the thoughts that she knew were going through his head about her.

Everywhere she looked, there were people standing around with a million thoughts about her going through their minds. No doubt, he knew about her and Daniel, and, no doubt he thought that her absence in the last week had to do with him. However, she couldn't just go around defending herself from accusations that hadn't actually been verbally expressed yet. She would look neurotic. And, what's more, this was her boss. He could think whatever he wanted to think about her and she couldn't do a thing about it. She tried in vain to swallow the lump in her throat. “I'm gonna go do my side work.” she muttered.

“Yeah, you do that.” Frank replied as he uncrossed his arms and returned to whatever he had been working on before she had arrived.

She snatched up her apron and waitress book and scurried down the back hall and into the harshly lit kitchen. She was pleased to find that standing at the end of the line was Maria, who had just drastically cut her hair, reducing it to a length that just barely reached her chin, and colored it a vibrant red color.

Reese practically skipped over to her. “New hair?” She asked as she ran her fingers through it.

A shrill laugh escaped from Maria's lips as she ducked theatrically out of the way. She then sifted her fingers through Reese's hair in much the same fashion.

Reese scoffed. “Can you not?” She took three big steps back away from her and raised both of her hands to her head, trying her best to undo whatever disaster Maria had just caused.

“Can you not?” she replied.

Reese smirked. “You got new hair. That's practically a free pass.”

“Not in my world honey.” She returned her attention to the lemons she was slicing. “Come help me with this. There are like ten thousand lemons here.”

“What made you chop it all off anyways?” Reese asked as she tied her apron, slipped on two gloves and dug in to the whole lemon-slicing event.

Maria shrugged. “I don't know, girl.”

Reese giggled. “What do you mean, you don't know.”

“I mean, I just felt like I needed some kind of change, you know?” She shot her an earnest stare.

Reese shook her head, “No, Maria. Honestly, I don't know. You used to have the longest, thickest hair I had ever seen on a human before.”

“Well, 'long, thick,' hair hasn't helped me find a man.”

Reese stopped cutting and turned towards her. She took in her clear skin, her huge, almond-shaped eyes, her perfect frame and shook her head. “There's more to you than your hair.”

Maria scoffed.

“No. I'm serious.” Reese pressed. “There's your eyes and your skin and your body... oh and your personality too. Can't forget that one.” She continued, her voice dry and sarcastic.

“You make it sound like men should just be flocking to me.” Maria mumbled.

“Well, they should. You're an amazing person.” Reese replied.

Marie shook her head. “I just, don't know how you did it.”

“Did what?”

Maria dropped her knife and turned a sharp, piercing gaze at Reese. “Got Daniel? Or anyone like him, for that matter. It's like he just fell into your lap.”

Reese raised an eyebrow. True, Daniel had fallen into her lap, but so had his problems and his world and the confusing situation of being stuck between the haves and have nots. True, she never could have seen Daniel coming, but, at the same time, he had made her doubt herself in ways she hadn't even realized were possible. “Yeah, well be careful what you wish for.” She muttered dryly.

“Right because wearing a 32-karot gold necklace is such a burden to you. Oh Reese, I pity you for having to carry around all of that worth all the time.” Maria retorted.

Reese's jaw dropped at the mention of Daniel's Christmas present, which she had worn to work one time, and taken off as soon as Frank said something about it. In fact, there were a lot of things; rings, earrings, necklaces... and more subtle things like Broadway tickets and stories of upper east-side parties, that she found herself having to hide from the people she was never ashamed to be completely honest around, like Frank and Maria. “Maria!” she cried.

“I don't know why it was you! Of all the people, of all the waitresses, of all the girls....
it was you
.” Maria's voice came out harsh and broken.

Reese stared wide-eyed at the sunken face of her friend, who usually had so much confidence, so much life in her. “Maria, what's wrong with you?”

Maria snatched her gaze away from Reese and returned it to the lemons. Without a word in response to Reese's very forthright question, she resumed the slicing, her cheeks trembling with the rigid motions of her knife. “Nothing. I just-” She stopped.

Reese ducked, taking a step closer to Maria so that she could hear her better. “Just?” She egged her on, trying her best to sound as welcoming and non-judgmental as possible.

Maria released a long and painful sigh as she continued with, “I've been on tinder and-”

Reese gasped. “What?” the reaction had flown out of her lips before she could stop herself.

Maria glowered at her right as she sliced the last lemon. She then disappeared around the corner with the bin of lemon slices in order to stow them away in the fridge. While she was gone, Reese took that time to refill the ice bin and clean the spouts on the soda machine. She mentally cursed herself for reacting so harshly to Maria's confession.

It was just that the prospect of online dating scared her. She just thought that any given person comes in contact with at least fifty other people a day. That alone should be enough of a pool to chose from. She found internet connections to be artificial, and
tinder
? Wasn't that like the hook-up app or something? Maria wasn't a “hook-up” type of person. She was like the Wedding Planner type; the one whose dream mate would literally come flying from the sky when she least expected it, but needed it the most.

“Look, Maria, I'm really sorry, please continue.” She said, as Maria reappeared around the corner.

She pursed her lips and vigorously shook her head. “Nope. I knew you would judge me.”

“I'm not judging you!” Reese cried. “I swear, there's nothing wrong with tinder. It just surprised me that you were on it, that's all. I have a lot of friends on it.”

Maria shot her a blank stare with her shoulders square and her head hanging slightly to the right. Her eyes were glossed over with a thick layer of pure disbelief.

“Please just tell me what happened.” Reese dropped the spout she was working on in the sink and approached her, putting her hands on each of her shoulders.

“So, you're sure you're not going to judge?” She asked.

Reese laughed once. “Yes, I swear! I just want to know where the Maria I know is and how I can get her back.”

Maria's lips stretched into a smile at this in spite of herself. “Okay. Brace yourself, because you're about to deal with a tidal wave of my embarrassment.”

Reese rolled her eyes, scoffing at this. “Please. That's impossible.”

“I got stood up by an undergrad that I met on tinder.”

Reese's eyes went wide, but she bit her tongue to prevent any involuntary reactions from coming out. “What is an undergrad on tinder doing standing you up?”

Maria laughed at this. “Oh God.” She murmured as she rested her head on Reese's shoulder. “I was just standing on that corner-”

“You were standing on a corner?” Reese interrupted, hoping the light-hearted joke would lift her mood.

“Oh my God. Stop.” Maria scolded. “This is not a joking matter.” She added, as she fought her smile.

“Right, of course.” Reese muttered. “So, you were just standing on that corner...”

Maria nodded. “Yes, I was just standing on that corner thinking of how much of a complete failure I was at this. I mean, if getting stood up by a college kid isn't rock bottom, I don't know what is.”

“Well, he's stupid for not realizing how big of a mistake he was making doing that to you.”

“Thanks.”

“But,” Reese added, “You're kinda dumb too for expecting anything better from him”

“Ugh, I know!” Maria replied, stepping away from her and putting her hands on her head. “I just wanted something to happen for me, you know? I mean, look at everything that Daniel's done for you! You're so lucky.”

Reese narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean? Everything that Daniel's done for me.”

Maria grimaced, an action that suggested she thought the answer was obvious. “Well, I mean you're obviously different.”

Reese furrowed her brow. “What? No, I'm not at all! Is this because of that necklace, because I honestly just forgot I had it on. I didn't mean anything by it.”

Maria chuckled. “First of all, one does not simply forget that they are carrying around pure gold on their neck, and second of all, no, it isn't the necklace. I can tell just by looking at you, you think you're better than the rest of us.”

Reese's jaw dropped. “Where is this even coming from?” She demanded.

Maria threw her arms up. “You just disappeared
for a week
.”

Reese groaned. She was not willing to have the same conversation with Maria that she had just had with Frank. “I was focusing on my research project! I just finished a new draft of the proposal and sent it out. It was an important week for me and it had nothing to do with Daniel.”

“Nothing to do with Daniel
?” Maria sneered.

“Yes. My work is still my work.”

“You didn't take a week off because you were too busy with research to work, you took a week because you had the resources to stop working.”

“I still don't understand what you're getting at.”

“You don't have a rent to pay. You don't to worry about what will happen to you if you don't make enough in tips tonight to pay your phone bill tomorrow. And that's because of him. You take advantage of the fact that you're dating a billionaire by disappearing from your job and then you have audacity to get upset when we want to know where you've been and why? Reese, that's not you, that's him.”

Reese set her jaw, but in the pit of her stomach was a wave of malaise at the words flying out of Maria's mouth. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but Maria was right. She had completely forgotten about the fact that jobs are money and money is necessary for survival for normal people. What scared her even more than that revelation, was the fact that she hadn't even realized it until Maria pointed it out.