Tangled: Contemporary Romance Trilogy

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “She’s a customer at the shop.” I don’t know why I said this. Like it was going to help! “I was just very startled to see her here. That’s all. I don’t know how that translates to being rude.”

  “A customer?” My father was suddenly all interested. “And she works up here at a restaurant? Why would she bring her car to a repair shop in Fenton?”

  I sighed. This was so convoluted. I really didn’t want to explain. Besides, I had brought my parents here for other reasons. Mostly because I needed to explain to them that I was behind on the taxes for the garage thanks to my massive outstanding accounts receivable. But it appeared that my mother and father were too distracted by thoughts of Tansy Economides to focus on anything else. I guess that made three of us.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tansy

  Breathe. I needed to breathe. Yep. That’s it. Just keep breathing and everything would be fine. Right?

  No! It would not be all right! First of all, I was just barely two hundred bucks short of the four hundred that I needed to pay this guy. I don’t know why, but today was finally the day that the stupid fates had decided to smile down upon Tansy Economides. But with only three waitresses and over forty tables in the restaurant it had been a little slice of hell trying to keep up with everything. I now fully remembered why there was absolutely no way that I wanted to make this my career.

  It is safe to say that I had never, and I mean never, had a day this good before in my life. Sure. On a Friday or Saturday if you worked a double you were almost guaranteed to pull in two or three hundred dollars. Our menu was pretty pricey. People came here because they wanted the Greek experience and they wanted Greek food. So if you gave them Greece, they would give you good money. Simple as pie. Plus, I had this place wired. I had grown up here. I knew how to get an order in fast and accurately.

  “Oh look,” Susan said snidely as I whipped past her to grab a huge tray of food out of the window. “It’s the new girl. You must have paid Shula off or something to get all of the good tables in one night. Bitch,” Susan muttered that last bit and then turned and walked toward the back door.

  I wondered if I should point out that taking smoke breaks every ten minutes was really hurting her ability to provide the kind of service people expected from our restaurant, but I didn’t figure she would be interested in listening.

  My cousin Costas stuck his head through the window and looked at me. “Did she just call you the new girl?”

  “Yeah. Don’t ask.”

  Costas was too busy laughing to ask. “That’s hilarious! Best joke I’ve heard all day.”

  The other waitress, Brianne, looked at me strangely. “You’re new. Right? I’ve been here like three months and I know we’ve never met.”

  “You ever notice that there are a lot of fill-ins around here?” I asked Brianne as I grabbed extra napkins and threw them atop the enormous tray I was positioning on my shoulder.

  “Yes. I think they’re Joe and Shula’s relatives.”

  “Exactly.”

  Brianne nodded. “Oh. I get it. You’re related to them.”

  Costas was laughing again. The ass. He was actually my fourth or fifth cousin. I could not even remember the relationship at this point. I had known him all my life. I gave him the finger before turning and walking out of the kitchen to deliver my food to its final destination.

  I was utterly aware of Valentino Alvarez staring at me every single time I was on the floor. It was nerve wracking. I tried to put it out of my mind. But maybe it helped. I don’t know. My tips were better that night than they had ever been before in my life. Maybe desperation just made you that much more willing to go the extra mile for people. I didn’t know. But I do know that I smiled bigger, laughed louder, and coaxed a little stronger. I got people to order bigger steaks, more dessert, and finally to end their meals with a shot of Ouzo. I was going to need to give Mariana a bigger tip too. The bartender had been a huge help.

  Why tonight of all nights was Valentino Alvarez here in my restaurant? But I didn’t really want to know. Not really. I just wanted him to get out of here so I could have the table for someone else. So I grabbed their food when it was still piping hot and hoofed it out to their table with the huge tray swinging on my shoulder.

  “Wow,” Valentino murmured. “You are not a tall woman and yet you muscle that tray around as though it were nothing but a paper plate!”

  “Thank you,” I told him drily. “I think I cut my teeth on these things. When I was young I would come in here and sit up at the bar or at the hostess stand. Sometimes I would pick where the people sat at the tables, but I always watched the waitresses with these huge trays just motoring their way in and around the kitchen and the tables and the other staff and I thought that I wanted so badly to be able to do that.”

  “And now you can!” his mother said excitedly. “Is so wonderful to see young people working in their family businesses.”

  “Oh, I help out here whenever I can or when my mother begs me,” I told Mrs. Alvarez. “But I’m a real estate agent most of the time and I really love my job.”

  “A real estate agent?” I could see the wheels turning in Mrs. Alvarez’s mind. I wondered if Valentino was going to be angry at me for revealing our twisted and tenuous connection. “Our future daughter-in-law is in real estate too! Maybe you’ve heard of her!”

  “Lena Schulte,” I told Mrs. Alvarez. I really could not hang around this table a minute longer. I needed to get back to the kitchen and grab my next order before that idiot waitress Susan did something stupid like put pepper on all of the food or something. “I know Lena very well. We used to work together before she moved to another realty office.”

  “Oh my!” Mrs. Alvarez gushed. She pointed to Valentino. “Did you hear that? She knows our Lena!”

  “Yes, mom,” Valentino did not sound thrilled. I wondered what was really going through his head. The guy is so handsome he makes your eyes hurt. But he’s also grouchy. I remembered everything I’d heard Thayla and Lena saying about him and I wondered if it was true. I was dying to ask, but that would have been inexcusable here in front of the poor guy’s parents. So I remained quiet.

  I patted Mrs. Alvarez on the shoulder. “You enjoy your salmon and your dinner with the family. I will be back in just a few minutes to see if you all need anything else.”

  I made a mental note for drink refills as I whizzed past everyone in my section. Fortunately for me I could see that Mariana was already anticipating that and setting a pitcher of tea and water out on the counter. I sped by and grabbed them calling a thank you over my shoulder.

  Then as I turned to go and fill up everyone’s glasses, I felt my foot catch on something. I stumbled once but managed to keep my feet. Then I stumbled again. And that’s when I saw Susan with her foot stuck out right in front of me to the right. She was actually attempting to trip me!

  I made a split-second decision. Susan was standing just inside the waitressing station where she and Brianne seemed to spend more than half their time. I didn’t use it. I used the bar. I always had because I started tending bar long before I started waiting tables. It was easier for me to do it like that. But it did leave Susan open for a nice chunk of retaliation.

  I went ahead and let myself stumble again. But this time I threw those two pitchers of beverages as hard as I could into the waitress station. Poor Brianne was at least behind Susan so she was partially protected from the wave of iced tea and water that sloshed onto the floor, the high chairs, and the drink station.

  There was a collective gasp of horror, but it was just far enough removed from the general vicinity of the customers that nobody could really tell what was going on. Well, nobody but Shula Economides. Within seconds of that happening my mother was glowering at all three of us.

  “What is going on here?”

  “Ask her,” I grunted, pointing to Susan. “She’s the one who decided to trip me twice as I walked by here. And be careful, it’s slippery back here,” I warned
Shula.

  “Are you really going to believe that?” Susan fumed. She jabbed her finger at me. “You’re going to take the word of a new girl who has been here all of five hours instead of an employee who has been here for three months?”

  Shula gave Susan a cold look. I did not envy Susan her place in the restaurant hierarchy right now. She might think she had some kind of weird seniority. But that’s not how we roll around here. Which is why I wasn’t surprised to hear my mother drag in a great breath before speaking. “Yes. You’ve been here for three months. Good for you. If your resume is anything to go by, that is a real accomplishment for you!”

  Now Susan wasn’t looking quite as certain as she had been before. “What do you mean? She’s the new girl.”

  “She is my daughter, you moron!” my mother hissed. “She has been working here since she was old enough to come and sit in my office!”

  “Oh.” Susan’s mouth was a round O of disaster.

  “Hey,” I interrupted. “As much fun as I’m sure we’re all having, can we get on with it because there is food in the window and I need to refill some drinks and you are all wasting my time!”

  “Right, Tansy,” my mother said quickly. “Go.”

  I hustled away and could not help but chuckle to myself as I did. Susan was the kind of woman I could not stand to be around, to work with, or well pretty much anything. She was obviously one of those people who had to feel like she was running the show. In my book, the faster your realized that nobody was running the show and that fate had a way of kicking you in the ass when you least expected it, the better off you were going to be.

  Food to table twelve, to table twenty, and then drinks all around. I was in the groove and I was moving! I had one goal. I needed my four hundred bucks. I wanted to pay off that bill and make myself feel better about this entire situation. And no. It had nothing to do with the fact that Valentino Alvarez was the best looking guy I’d seen in a good number of years. I really didn’t care about that. It wasn’t like I expected to show up at his engine shop and hand him the cash and then watch his eyes get all misty right before he took me in his arms and kissed me passionately…

  “Tansy!” Mariana said sharply. “Girl, you totally zoned out there for a second! You’ve been standing by that counter for like five minutes!”

  “What?” I glanced around the dining room. “Well shit! Thank you!” I called those last words over my shoulder as I whizzed off toward the next set of tables that needed their checks.

  I could not help but keep an eye on the Alvarez family as I made my rounds and delivered my food. I refilled their drinks and made sure the bread basket was full. And I would have done that anyway, but I’ll admit that I was partially motivated by a desire just to hear Valentino talking.

  He had such an earnest way about him. It was refreshing. I watched him talking with his hands, his long blunt-tipped fingers graceful as they seemed to help him describe each and every detail of what he was trying to convey to his parents.

  I’d had a pretty low opinion of the guy before tonight, but somehow I could not help but watch him with his folks and think that he couldn’t that bad if they seemed to love him so very much. And they were certainly nice people. Believe me, after this many years waiting tables I could pick the jerks out of the bunch almost every single time. Which was why it was so surprising that I might be wrong about Valentino. I wasn’t usually that wrong.

  “And here is your check for the evening,” I told the Alvarez family.

  I set the little plastic plate with the three butter mints just slightly between the two men at the table. It was always a bit tricky to do this quickly without offending anyone in the process. You’d be surprised how many restaurant guests make a huge freaking deal out of this process.

  I found that I wasn’t actually all that surprised by the fact that Valentino immediately scooped up the check. As I cleared away the dishes, I watched him fish out his wallet and start to pull bills from inside it. I thought about the fact that I owed him money. Maybe this was the perfect moment to cancel out some of that debt. I had a wad of cash in my pocket after all. Big tips from tonight. Not quite enough, but since Valentino was counting out a hundred dollars in twenties, it would go at least a quarter of the way toward paying my bill.

  Valentino put the bills on the little plastic tray. “Keep the change.”

  “Actually,” I told him. “You keep it all. You can take it out of what I owe you.”

  Time seemed to creak to a complete and total halt. I became aware of Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez staring at me with their mouths half hanging open. Valentino was glaring. His friendly smile had turned dark and sour when I said that. Why? It didn’t make sense.

  I nervously licked my lips and then looked at his parents. “His shop fixed my car, but I didn’t have the cash to pay my bill. That’s actually why I’m working tonight. I’m hoping to make enough money to come to the shop tomorrow and pay off my invoice.”

  Why did Mr. Alvarez look like he was about to choke? What had I said? It all seemed perfectly reasonable, right? But the two parents looked at me and they nodded. Then Mrs. Alvarez rose from her chair and patted me on the shoulder. “Bless you, sweetheart. You work so hard. You have a wonderful evening.”

  Mr. Alvarez nodded as well. “Have a nice evening, Tansy. Thank you so much for the recommendation on my dinner. It was perfect. Give my compliments to the cook.”

  “I’ll do that.” I forced myself to smile. I was missing something. I had to be. They seemed mad, but they sure didn’t sound it. Why?

  Valentino glared at me. Then he pushed the little plastic thing closer to me. “Keep it. I’m not taking it off your bill. I didn’t come here tonight because I thought you would be willing to give me a freebie.”

  “I know that.” I frowned. “What’s the big deal? It’s a hundred bucks off my debt. Right? I’ll have the rest for you by the weekend!”

  He didn’t say anything. He just stomped his way out the front doors of the Greek Maiden as though he could not bear to be inside one moment longer. I didn’t know what I had said or done, but it was pretty evident that it was the wrong thing. At this point I wasn’t too worried about having the situation between myself and Valentino Alvarez any worse. It seemed like I didn’t have to try. It just kept getting worse and worse every time the two of us ran into each other.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Valentino

  “Valentino, I am so disappointed in you!” My mother was sitting in the back seat of my roomy old Lincoln. She sounded as though she were lamenting some horrific occurrence of family shaming. “I thought that you invited us to dinner because you had missed us over the weekend. You wanted to see us. To talk about our vacation and to discuss your brother’s lovely upcoming wedding! Now I find out that you came here to shake this poor girl down for money?”

  “Mom. No! Are you kidding? Do you really think I’m that kind of man?” I tightened my hands on the steering wheel so fiercely that I felt the cover begin to move. Surely my parents didn’t really believe that I was that much of an ass.

  She threw up her hands and folded them over her chest. I could see her glowering at me in the rearview mirror. “I don’t know what to think!”

  “Mom, I didn’t know that Tansy would be there.”

  And honestly if I had known? Would I have picked a different restaurant? I wasn’t actually sure. My brain kept going back to the all of those moments when she had smiled and laughed. Not that it was any of my business. Or problem. Or whatever. I wasn’t even sure what to call it.

  “And you say she owes you money?” My father had been sitting quietly in the front passenger seat so far. I could actually feel him thinking this situation over. “How much does she owe you?”

  I swallowed. This was not the place I had wanted to have this conversation. I had intended to have it over dinner in a nice public place, but my mother had rattled endlessly about my brother, the bed and breakfast, his future bride, and how happy she was for
Damion. Funny. But I could distinctly recall a time in the not-so-distant past when they’d both been disappointed in Damion for not following in the family business. And the fact that he was a successful multimillionaire had nothing to do with it either.

  “Tansy only owes me four hundred and change,” I admitted to my father. “There are more accounts though. That was something I intended to talk about at dinner tonight. I, uh—I’m not going to be able to keep up with the quarterly taxes. I’m going to have to ask for an extension on this quarter.”

  “What?” My mother had gone from disgruntled to panicked. “What do you mean? How can you not pay?”

  “Because I’ve got nearly twenty thousand dollars in accounts receivable,” I admitted sheepishly.

  “What?” My mother started cursing in Spanish. She was talking so quickly that I had no earthly notion what she was actually saying. Maybe it was better that way. “There is no call for that! None at all! People pay half before we do the work. They pay half when the work is done! Why would you do anything for someone who didn’t at least pay you half?”

  “I didn’t realize that his check would bounce,” I told her quickly. “It was a big job. Six grand for a new transmission in a brand spanking new truck!”

  “Six thousand dollars? Mom whispered the words as though we were suddenly in church. “What costs that much money?” She leaned forward and grabbed my father’s jacket, yanking on him. “Antonio, what kind of work costs that much money?”

  “Mi Corazon, please just calm down.” My father put his hand on hers and gave her a pat. “The new trucks are very expensive to fix. But when you pay nearly a hundred thousand dollars for a vehicle, what can you expect?”

  “Exactly,” I agreed. “Which is why I need to get him to pay me. I didn’t release the vehicle. When I found out he had put a stop payment on the check, I locked the truck in my impound lot.”