“How come?” she asked.
“Because she ran a fever two days ago, but it’s been intermittent. There’s nothing wrong with her, she’s not ‘sick’. She doesn’t have a sore throat, runny nose, cough or other cold-like symptoms.” Kelly said as she sat the tub of dishes near the dishwasher. “Let me grab that table. Sarah just seated a customer in my section; I’ll take his drink order real fast.”
She headed toward the gentleman placed in her area. She couldn’t help but notice how handsome he was. His piercing green eyes stood out against his tanned skin. She approached the man smiling as she did with all of her customers.
“Good afternoon. What would you like to drink?” she asked as he looked over the menu.
His glance turned to her and returned a warm smile, “I’ll have a Dr. Pepper, please.”
“I’ll go grab that for you.”
Kelly headed into the kitchen as she motioned Heather over to her.
“Do you see that guy in my section?”
“Yeah! Talk about a hunk! You should so get his number!”
“No way! I don’t want another relationship. I don’t have time for that.” Kelly said, rolling her eyes.
“If you didn’t work so much, you’d have the opportunity! Think of little Emma, doesn’t she deserve a daddy?” Heather joked.
“No, she needs her momma.” She stated as she left the kitchen with his drink.
“Here you go, sir. Are you ready to order or would you like to look over the menu longer?”
“Yes, I’ll have a grilled chicken salad,” he remarked as he returned the menu.
“You got it, and my name’s Kelly. I’ll be your server today. Just call if you need anything else.”
As she served the gorgeous stranger his lunch, she and Heather spoke near the counter, where they couldn’t be heard.
“What are you going to do about Emma?” her coworker asked.
“I have no clue. I think that maybe she fell, but it’s hard to tell with her. She does the strangest things.”
“Yeah, she does.”
“When I go on break, I’ll call to schedule her a doctor’s appointment. It sucks because ever since we had to get healthcare coverage, my paychecks have been horrid.”
“Mine too,” Heather agreed.
“Well, after paying insurance on both of us, my last check was a whopping $18 after all of my deductions and taxes. It hurts we’ve been so slow.”
“Tell me about it!”
“Oh, be right back again. I think he needs another drink.”
Kelly walked over to the table. It was impossible take her eyes off of the man sitting in her section. He was so well dressed. She wondered why he was sitting alone. He had to have a girlfriend or wife—didn’t he?
“Hi sir, would you like a refill?”
“Yes, please. It’s been so hot outside, I was dying of thirst. Tell me your name again?” he inquired.
“Kelly,” she smiled at him. “And I’ll return with your soda. Dr. Pepper, right?”
He nodded his head. A few moments later, she returned with his beverage and headed to the counter to continue chatting with Heather.
“Okay, where were we?” Kelly asked as they rolled silverware inside of napkins.
“Oh, we were just bitching about how we work for peanuts.”
“Right. You better hope that kid of yours doesn’t pop out soon. He needs to stay put until business picks up!” Kelly teased her friend.
“Well, he’s still got eight more weeks,” Heather commented as she rubbed her belly. “I can’t wait to meet him. I hope he doesn’t have his dad’s big ears,” she laughed.
“Hold on again, he’s leaving. I need to clean that table real quick,” Kelly said, nodding her head toward the place where her customer was.
As she reached the area, she spotted a business card on top of cash. Curious what it was, she began to examine it. There was a $40 tip underneath it! She couldn’t believe that he was so generous after just ordering a salad. She stuffed the money into her pocket as she examined the card.
David Carr
President and Owner
D.C. Commercial Properties
(555) 555-7289
[email protected]
She noticed that there was an arrow drawn on the bottom of the card, indicating he’d written on the other side. She flipped it over to read what was on it.
Kelly,
I loved meeting you today. Please call or text me. I can’t wait to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Dave
Kelly’s heart skipped a beat when she saw his note. This wasn’t her typical kind of guy. Most of her exes were flakes; nothing like this man. She was lucky if most of her ex’s even held a job as a fry cook.
Once, she dated someone who worked at a hamburger joint—for six weeks. When he lost his job, he came up with a reason they should “take their relationship to the next level” and ended up living on her couch for three months after she broke up with him. Then there was Adam, who was Emma’s dad. He was a piece of work. The relationship between the two of them started out great until she discovered he had anger issues. The couple had been dating for about a month when he became angry with her for not being home when she said she’d be there. He kicked in and dented her screen door. After a few apologies and his excuse of having a bad day, she forgave him. A few months later, she wound up expecting—with Emma—and that’s when everything grew ugly.
Knowing that Kelly was pregnant, he could tell he had her on a hook and that she’d want him to stay; his true colors came out. Sometimes she would come home to her living room all smashed up and other times she’d find her dog beaten. She tried to work things out for Emma’s sake but decided that this was not the environment she wanted her daughter growing up in. Kelly mustered up the strength for a restraining order and kicked Adam to the curb. After the sheriff’s department removed him from the residence, she never saw him again.
Kelly didn’t bother filing for child support since Adam hardly worked. She also knew that he was the type that even if she applied, he’d likely quit his job to elude making payments. Additionally, Kelly worried that he might feel a sense of entitlement to their daughter if he paid and try to weasel his way back into their lives. She wanted no part of that. As a result, she worked full-time hours as a waitress and picked up extra shifts as much as she could.
Dawn, her life-long friend, helped her; they’d been best friends for almost 20 years since they were nine years old. Kelly was particular in who took care of Emma—she wouldn’t let just anybody watch her baby. Her daughter was her pride and joy; her whole world. Dawn, and her husband Derek would babysit any chance they could to help them out. They loved Emma and would do anything for them. The couple was superb to the little girl, treating her as if she was their own child. He even built a swing set in the backyard for Emma during the times she was there, which was practically every day.
Kelly took the card and showed it to her co-workers Heather and Sarah. “Check out what he left on the table!”
“Let me read that,” Sarah said, snatching it from Kelly’s hand.
“Oh my God! He wants you to call him!” Sarah squealed. “He was cute! I think you should.”
“I tried talking her into getting his number, but she wouldn’t do it.” She explained to Sarah before turning to her and saying, “But it looks like you got it anyway!”
“Quiet you guys. It’ll never happen.”
“What? Why not?” Sarah challenged.
“Because I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Why can’t you call him?”
“I’m busy.” She announced.
“Doing what?” Heather contested.
“Working and taking care of Emma.” She paused for a minute, “Oh wait. Hey, I’ll go make her a doctor appointment real quick since I have no tables at the moment. Will you keep an eye out for me?” she asked her friend.
Heather nodded that she would. Kelly dashe
d into the manager’s office to use the phone. As it rang, she wondered how she would even explain these symptoms. What would she say? My daughter has swollen knees and a fever that’s been coming and going for the last few days? Those hardly seemed like reasons to call, but being her child, it was every reason.
“Dr. Hinton’s office, Wendy speaking. How may I help you?” his assistant answered the phone.
“Hi Wendy, this is Kelly Hall. I was wondering if the doctor could examine my daughter Emma this week. She’s been complaining that her knees hurt, and she’s been running a low-grade fever the last few days.”
“Okay, um, let me check the schedule to check if I can fit you guys in. Do you have any idea why they might be swollen?” Wendy asked as she tried to shift around the appointments to make room for them.
“No, I thought maybe she fell, but she keeps complaining about them. The real reason I wanted to bring her in is because of the fever; that concerns me.”
“Well, sometimes children can catch a bug or a virus and run a low-grade fever as their body fights the infection. You guys are welcome to come in on Thursday at 4:30 in the afternoon. Does that work for you?”
“Thursday?” Kelly asked as she looked up at the schedule hanging on the wall. “Yes, that’ll be perfect. I might be a few minutes late getting her there because I don’t get off until four. Is that okay?”
“Sure thing, that’s no problem at all.”
She hung up the phone, relieved that they worked her in within the next couple of days. It was Tuesday, and she hoped that Emma would feel better before Thursday afternoon so the appointment wouldn’t be necessary. She hated to rush around after work, but if it meant helping her sick daughter, she’d do it in a heartbeat. As Kelly walked away from Brian’s office, she saw Heather was taking a drink order from a two-top table. She met her in the kitchen.
“So what’d they say?” her coworker asked as she made the customer’s beverages.
“They said they would squeeze her in Thursday at 4:30. I don’t get off until 30 minutes before her appointment, but we work together. Would you mind if I left a few minutes early?”
“No, girl. I wouldn’t care. You make sure she gets better.” She faced her and handed her the drinks, “Give the husband this diet soda and his wife asked for water.”
“Oh, thanks,” Kelly said, taking the glasses from her before heading out to serve her last table of the night.
She cashed out and counted her money when she was off work. This was an unusually slow summer; she only made $72 in tips—and that’s because Mr. Gorgeous left her a $40 tip! Without his generous gratuity, she would’ve brought home $32 in perks. With a crawling start to the season, it looked like bills would be tight. She couldn’t afford for her daughter to be sick. Her credit cards were almost full, but she could squeeze a small office visit on her Visa card. Although she hated her dead-end job, she continued to serve tables at the restaurant because it was close to home and was she able to work the hours she needed for Emma’s sake. A full-time day job was hard to find. Emma was going into the third grade when the next year started up in the fall so it was important to her that someone greeted her as she got off the bus.
At the end of her evening, Kelly grabbed two Styrofoam containers and made them dinner for the night. She was too tired to cook. Once she packed their dinners, she hopped into her 2006 green Honda Civic and headed to Dawn’s house to pick up her daughter. She couldn’t wait to lay eyes on her little girl, and Emma would be excited when her mom brought home food from her work. As she pulled into Dawn’s driveway, she spied her blonde sweetheart peeking out the window at her. She barely got out of her car before her pride and joy was running out the front door coming to greet her.
“Emma Buggy!” Kelly rejoiced, scooping up her child and hugging her tightly. Even though she was eight years old, she was tiny for her size.
“Hi, momma! I missed you today,” the girl attacked as she squeezed her arms around her mom’s neck. “I had so much fun while you were gone!”
“You did? What did you do?” Kelly asked as they made their way toward the living room to gather Emma’s things.
“Aunt Dawn bought us a bunch of new finger paints and she let me paint before we had lunch!”
“That was sweet of her,” her mom said as they walked through the front door.
“Hi,” she greeted her friend as she put down her purse.
“Hey, Kell! How’s it going?”
“Eh, not too bad. We’re still horribly slow at work,” She complained. “But I had a customer who generously gave me a $40 tip!”
“Forty dollars? Was it a big group?” she wondered as they sat down at her kitchen table.
“No, it wasn’t. It was a great looking man who was dressed nice and carried himself well,” Kelly bragged as she blushed. “And he left me his business card.”
“Oh boy, what does he sell?” she rolled her eyes as she inquired about this handsome stranger with a business card.
“Here, let me show it to you. I might be wrong, but I bet he owns a bunch of commercial properties or something.”
Her friend glanced at it, “So why did he leave you this?”
“Turn it over, didn’t you catch the arrow he drew at the bottom?”
Dawn turned it over and read it. “Hmmm. You always seem to attract the most undesirable men.”
“Heather and Sarah were trying to talk me into calling him. He looked handsome, but I don’t think I’m ready for a relationship right now.”
“I don’t blame you.” Her friend agreed as she got up to grab a glass of water. “Hey Kell, I wanted to ask you about something. Did anything happen to Emma’s knees? She was complaining about them so I checked them out and they’re pretty swollen.”
“I meant to tell you about it this morning when I dropped her off, but she had me running late so I forgot. We have no clue what happened. I called her pediatrician this afternoon and I take her in on Thursday at 4:30.”
“Oh, okay. Emma complained it hurts her to walk and anytime she bends her knees. I questioned whether she fell and she replied that she hadn’t.” Dawn explained.
“I know, I asked her the same thing. By chance, did she run a temperature at all today?”
“No, why?”
“She ran an intermittent fever on my days off work. Wendy, the doctor’s assistant, said not to worry too much about it, and explained that Emma may have caught a bug or virus.”
“Oh, no, she didn’t seem feverish or flushed. She acted and played just fine. I’ll keep an eye on her the next couple of days when I have her though. Would you guys like to stay for dinner tonight?”
“No, I grabbed us a bite to eat from work. She loves when I do that.”
“She always brags when you bring food home.” Her friend acknowledged.
“Well, I guess I better go collect my rambunctious daughter and her things. We’ll visit you tomorrow.” Kelly reported as she gathered Emma’s bag and called her to the front door.
“Okay. Hey!” Dawn stopped her. “You might want to watch her, she did something else weird today.”
“What?” she asked, concerned it had more to do with her daughter’s illness.
“It’s nothing bad, but she picked the scab off her arm and used the blood to create small red dots all over her body to pretend she had chicken pox,” Dawn said laughing.
“Oh. My. God. No, she didn’t! I swear, my child has an imagination!” Her daughter smirked at her and shook her head, agreeing with her mom.
“Momma, you brought us home dinner for tonight?” she asked as she opened the car door and spied the containers in the seat.
“Yep, I figured my Emma Buggy would love to have fancy food from my work.” She beamed in the rear view mirror as the child buckled herself.
That night after her daughter was ready for bed, she sat down on the couch to relax before she went to sleep. As she followed the television program, she thought about the man who gave her the generous tip that after
noon. It was a beautiful gesture, but for a salad? He must have motives; then she realized—he left the lavish amount of dough with his phone number. He was trying to impress her so she would call him. She was torn on what to do.
Kelly drifted off on the couch as the television continued to play. A loud scream that came from Emma’s room startled her from her slumber. She jumped up and ran to check on her. Emma was sitting up in her bed, tearful while holding her legs.
“What’s wrong Emma Buggy?” she asked, despite how sleepy she was as she tried to rub her eyes.
Addicted (A Billionaire Romance Novel) Page 12
