I can’t help it – I’m charmed immediately by her. God, Frankie was right, she deserves everything that Romano pays her. “What can I do for you?” she says sweetly, turning her head to the side as she smiles at me. “Um, Andre wanted me to check the reservations. It said sixteen? But he said that’s
Andre barks my name, breaking me from my thoughts, and I have to skitter across the bar to help him dismantle a couple of booths and set up a table for sixteen. “God,” I murmur, carrying one end of a heavy bistro table back into the service room, “I thought I was like…ornamental.” “We’re all orn
“Bottoms up, Bambi,” he murmurs, smirking at me. I smirk back and do as he does, lifting the drink to my lips and tossing it back. “You have no idea what you’re in for.” Andre was not kidding. Hours pass, all of it hard work. And I mean hours. The other patrons leave long, long before Romano and
Christian just waves his hand. “The girl is a nobody,” he says, his voice calm – even bored. “Just a stripper – that computer wiz, he had money for a minute. And expensive tastes, if you know what I mean.” A little chuckle goes around the table as I straighten and start to walk away, going slower
“Nobody did notice,” he growls, “they’ll think I’m going to the bathroom –“ “The bathrooms are in the other direction!” “Fine!” he snaps, grabbing a stack of napkins off a shelf. “That I came to get more of these! Who cares, Iris, everyone at that table is wasted – they won’t care!” “Put those
Andre gives me off lunch shift the next day since we were there until an insane hour, and when I meet Frankie in the kitchen yawning and seeking coffee, it’s far past lunch time. “I hate you,” Frankie murmurs, handing me my coffee as he rubs his eyes. “You’re throwing off my sleep schedule, Bambi.
“Oh,” I say, my eyebrows going up. I mean, it’s not that I’m surprised by my review – I know I’m doing well here, and I know Andre likes me. But – I didn’t know that Romano was checking up on me. “Thank you, sir.” “Come on,” he says, turning briskly away and moving towards the service area in the
“You see, Iris,” Romano says, subtly rolling his chair closer so that he’s looking up at me, so that it’s no big deal to take his other hand and wrap it around the back of my other leg, his fingers pressing into the soft skin of my left thigh. “I’m starting to grow fond of you. I’m wondering whether