Get Even

by Amanda Heath

  Max on the other hand was more my style. Always wearing a band t-shirt with dirty jeans with holes. The kind that appear naturally, not the ones that are made that way. The wallet with the chain that clicks every time he moves. Dark expressive brown eyes and lots and lots of tattoos.

  What drew me the most were the lyrics he has tattooed on his forearm. Wash away the pain and beg me for more. Dirty Deeds lyrics, which happens to be my favorite band.

  They came in on a Friday night when the place was packed. It’s loud and a bit smoky even though you can’t smoke in the restaurant. I was having a bad night so I wasn’t in the best of moods. I took one look at them and felt my blood boil. Preppy boys and rocker dudes never tip well.

  I walked up to their table and whipped out my notepad. “Hey guys. My name is Farah and I’ll be your server tonight.” I looked up and met each of their eyes for a second. “Do you know what you want to drink?” I tried to keep my voice neutral but it was hard.

  Max scratched the back of his head and looked at Tate. He was biting his lip, which I didn’t understand. “Uh I’ll have sweet tea,” he finally said.

  Tate on the other hand leaned back in his seat and gave me a smirk. “Keystone.”

  I wrote those both down and smiled. I hated asking for ID so I was trying to keep a pleasant smile on my face. “I’ll need to see your ID.”

  He nodded and leaned up to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. While he was doing that I was sneaking a peek at Max’s tattoos. He noticed and said, “You like what you see?”

  That immediately irked my nerves. I gave him a tight smile and took the ID from Tate. I looked at the birthdate, 9-5-1985, and handed it back to him. “I’ll get these right out to you.” Then I turned on my heel and left.

  I know, I know, it was so boring. Don’t worry it got more interesting as the night went on.

  I went by the bar and ordered Tate’s beer. By this time I knew his name was Tatum since I gave his ID a good lookover. Marie, who was the bartender, said she’d get it sent over to their table. I could take the order; I just couldn’t touch the actual alcohol.

  I went into the back and made up Max’s drink. Donna, one of the other waitresses knocked into me, probably on purpose, and the drink landed on the floor. I closed my eyes and I counted to ten. Then I cleaned up the mess and made him another one.

  I seriously hated Donna.

  By this point it had been ten minutes since Max ordered his drink. “I’m so sorry that took so long,” I apologized when I got to the table.

  “No problem,” Max said and winked. I’m not gonna lie, I got a little tingly.

  I gave him a genuine smile and asked what they wanted to eat. I took their food orders and headed into the kitchen to place them. I looked after my other tables, ran orders for them and then went back into the back. My friend Ginger was waiting at the service table when I went in to pick up Tate and Max’s food. At this point I didn’t know Max’s name. It’s just easier to refer to him by name during this flashback.

  “Oh my God!” she exclaimed and did a little dance.

  I looked at her blankly until she calmed down enough to talk to me. “Okay, so I was waiting on the table right next to those two hot guys you have.” She swiped her brown hair over her shoulder and bounced a little. “The rocker one was talking about how he was going to ask for your number!”

  I let that sink in and I even got a little excited. But not too much, considering I wasn’t really looking towards dating anyone. Or having sex, considering sex was never that fun for me to begin with.

  I grabbed their plates and put them on a tray. “If he does I’ll give it to him. If he doesn’t then oh well,” I told her while shrugging.

  Ginger just rolled her eyes and went on about her business. I took the tray out to their table. I lied to Ginger. There was no way I was going to give Max my number. His little comment about liking what I saw turned me off. He had vain asshole written all over him.

  I set their food down in front of them. “Here we go boys. Enjoy,” I said with fake cheer. I didn’t wait for them to say anything, I just left. I wasn’t getting a good tip, so I wasn’t laying it on thick with either of them.

  When it came time for their check, I ran it over to their table with a tray of drinks in my hand for a party of five in my section. Yes, I had done that on purpose. Thank the lord they weren’t there when I went to pick up the check.

  This is when I felt like complete shit. They left me a twenty for a forty-dollar ticket. I about cried when I saw that clean crisp bill sitting on the table. They paid with a credit card and they left the guest copy with something written on the bottom.

  I can tell you’re having a bad night. Enjoy a few drinks on us.

  That was the first time I had ever smiled because of Tate. I think that’s why I’ll always remember that night. Nothing special happened. Lusty looks weren’t exchanged and neither of us fell at the other’s feet. It was the start of something though. I didn’t know it. I doubt he knew it.

  Three weeks later they came back in. This time Tate had a girl with him. I didn’t think anything of it, considering I wasn’t into Tate. Thankfully, Max didn’t flirt with me this time and I guess I got the nerve up to say something about his tattoo.

  “I’ll bring you to your knees and cherish every second of fate.”

  Max looked genuinely surprised because the song isn’t a popular one by Dirty Deeds. It was just one I found on their first album that called to me. Obviously it called to him too.

  “You’re a DD fan?”

  I rolled my eyes. That’s the thing about Max, captain obvious and all that shit. “Yes. My favorite band.” I turned around and lifted up my ponytail so he could see the tattoo on the back of my neck. The black diamond encrusted skull and cross bones. Dirty Deeds’ symbol.

  “You are the most awesome waitress I have ever met,” Max stated with a gleam in his eyes.

  I shrugged when I turned back around. “I try.” Then I looked around at all three of them. “Can I get y’all anything else?”

  Tate’s date snickered and I lifted a brow. “No, sweetie. We’re good.”

  “Okay, guys.” Then I turned around to leave. I made my way to the back to put in their food order, which I had gotten before Max and I talked about DD.

  After I gave them the check I went off to the bathroom to check my phone. Sarah had had a date that night and I wanted to know how it was going. When I was coming out, Tate was waiting for me. This had surprised me.

  “I wanted to apologize for Macy back there.” He bit his lip and looked slightly uncomfortable. I hadn’t known it at the time but he is a quiet guy. He isn’t used to apologizing for anyone, but even then something about me held his attention. It wasn’t lust or love but a connection. We wouldn’t figure it out until later.

  I raised both my eyebrows and stuck my hands in my apron, a nervous habit I had at the time. “You feel the need to say sorry for all your dates?”

  He looked down and sighed. Then he looked back at me from under his lashes. “She’s not my date. She’s actually my cousin. She has a thing for Max.”

  “Max being the other guy?” I asked, trying hard not to look into his eyes. This conversation was strange to be having with a person I didn’t know from Adam.

  He nodded. “He’s my younger brother.”

  That had surprised me, considering the differences in the two. “Isn’t that a little incestuous?”

  That made him grin. “She’s my cousin not his. Max and I don’t have the same mother.”

  “Oh. Well then.” I moved out of the way for another woman heading for the bathrooms. “No offense taken. Since I’m a southern girl and it feels strange to say ‘you all’ she can suck it.”

  He snorted then. “Okay then. I’ll see you later.”

  Later, when I went to pick up the check, there was another message waiting for me along with another twenty. I just felt you needed the extra tip for dealing with Macy.

  After
that I saw the two brothers a few more times spread out over six months. I didn’t think about them until they were at the restaurant. And some of those times they didn’t even sit in my section. I just waved those times or nodded. That’s the thing with working at the Roadhouse, you saw people all the time that ate there every week. It’s a great place to eat.

  But things changed after those six months. You see, Sarah didn’t always have the best taste in men. Max has his issues but he loves my sister with all his heart. He’d never do anything to hurt her or me.

  David was tall, dark and handsome. He said all the right things and had all the right moves. Sarah fell for him hard. She called me one night, it was a Wednesday night and we were busy with the after-church crowd. She was hysterical and I couldn’t really get anything out of her. Other than she was hurt and she didn’t know what to do. So I left work and headed over to her apartment, one she shared with David. At that point they had been together for nine months and while I didn’t like the way he treated her, he hadn’t done anything for me to make her leave him.

  That night though, she left him without a second thought.

  I found her with a bloody nose in the bathroom. He only hit her in the face once while they were having a fight. I told her we were going to get all her shit and get out of there before he came back. We were halfway done when David came home. He took one look at what we were doing and lost it.

  Sarah walked away with a bloody nose and dislocated shoulder. I wasn’t so lucky. I got between them and he beat the shit out of me for it. He broke my nose, which blacked both my eyes. My lip was split, my wrist was broken and two of my ribs were cracked. It hurt her soul to leave me but she had to get help. I distracted him while Sarah went and called the police. They got there just in time too. He was arrested and after it was all said and done, spent one year in prison. I think he got out on good behavior or some other stupid reason. He never contacted Sarah, which was a godsend. I think he wanted to forget, just like the two of us.

  I couldn’t afford to miss too much work, so as soon as I was healed enough to work, I was there. I had a cast on my wrist but most of the time I had a guy take out the heavy trays. My left wrist was broken, so I could still write with my right hand.

  My first night back, Max and Tate were one of my tables. I didn’t really think anything of it; I didn’t know either of them well. They were just a couple of regulars. But they took what happened to me hard.

  They weren’t looking up as I approached, so at first I didn’t see a reaction. “Hey boys, sweet tea and keystone? Right?”

  They both looked up with grins but they quickly turned to frowns. I could see why, considering my black eyes were still fading and my wrist was in a cast. “What the fuck happened, Farah?” Max asked, getting out of his seat and towering over me. His hand gently landed on my shoulder and I flinched. I had a problem with touching at that moment, especially after what happened to me.

  “Car accident. Nothing too serious, boys,” I told them, laughing it off.

  “Bullshit,” came Tate’s voice. It was always a shock to hear his voice. Most of the time Max was the only one who ever talked to me. Though Tate always left me a message on his receipt.

  This made me scowl at him. “I would know, I was there.”

  He gave me a hard look. “That split lip speaks for itself.”

  I glared at him, then hated that he figured it out so fast, though I wasn’t going to explain shit to either of them. They weren’t my family or my friends. Just some guys I served food to every once in a while. “Drinks? Sweet tea and Keystone?”

  “Who did this to you?” Max asked softly, bending down to see into my eyes.

  I looked back steadily. “No one. Either you sit back down and I get y’all some drinks or you can have another server,” I spit out through gritted teeth.

  Max didn’t move an inch and Tate inched closer to the end of his seat. “I’m not fucking around Farah. Who. Did. This?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t. Okay? It’s none of your goddamn business.”

  Max squinted his eyes at me and I shrugged his hand off my shoulder. This was the first time he and I bumped heads. And it wouldn’t be the last. “You’re right, it isn’t any of our business,” Tate said. This was the first time he ever played mediator between the two of us. It wasn’t the last time either. Max and I are both stubborn to our cores.

  Max gave him a dirty look. “Tate, seriously?”

  “Yes, seriously. Let’s eat dinner.”

  Max looked back at me and then back at Tate. Then he sighed and sat down.

  I didn’t look at either of them when I turned and left. I sent someone else to take care of them for the rest of their dinner. I thought that would be the end of it. That’s the thing with Tate though; he doesn’t let things lie for long.

  When I got off that night I found him outside, waiting for me. Sarah was due any second to pick me up and I remember my blood pounding in my veins because I had no idea what the hell he was doing out there.

  I felt a little freaked out that he was even there. I didn’t know him, as I’ve pointed out several times.

  He slowly approached me, his hands laying by his hips loosely. “My mother was with a man, a long time ago,” he started, looking down at the pavement. “This man beat her a few times. Max and I were unfortunate enough to have witnessed one of those times.” He sighed and then looked up at me from under his lashes. “You, looking like that, it hit somewhere close to home. Max, though, had the wrong idea.”

  I gave him a confused look and bounced on my feet a little, getting more and more nervous. “Why did he have the wrong idea?”

  “He thought you had a man, and that he did that to you.” He didn’t say anything else and I felt my eyes tighten in confusion.

  “I don’t understand. That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to think.” I lifted my hand up and scratched at my throat. I’m a ball of energy on a good day; add in the nervousness and I’d soon be out there picking at my skin.

  Tate shook his head and took one step closer to me. “He doesn’t read people the way I do. He couldn’t possibly have seen what I have.”

  I took one step closer to him, curious as to what he thought about me. It was probably a bad idea, but I didn’t really care. “What is it you think you know about me?”

  He took another step and we were inches apart. I had to crane my neck up to look at him. “The first time you served us, Max made a comment about liking what you saw. Up until that moment, you were interested in him. That comment changed your mind.”

  I lifted a brow at that. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  Tate chuckled but I didn’t see anything funny about this. “You wouldn’t date a man who would do that to a woman, let alone date a man like Max, who’s too cocky for his own good.”

  I lifted my hand up to my mouth and nibbled on the end of my thumbnail, thinking that over. It was a moment before I answered and Tate let me think about it all I wanted. That’s another thing about Tate, he has all the patience in the world. “What else made you think that? You can’t pick all that up from one instance.”

  “You work hard even when those around you slack off. You think before you speak and you calculate any situation before you enter it.” His hand lifted up and touched my chin. “You are way too smart to fall for someone who would beat a woman. In fact, I think your wounds are from protecting someone you love.”

  Chills raced up and down my body from his words. It was like someone dumped a bucket of cold water over my head. He was right with every single thing he said. His hand fell back down to his side as I gathered the thoughts running around in my head.

  If he was really watching, I guess he could have seen all that from me simply doing my job. This chick, Haley, she used to sit in the back and flirt with one of the cooks, forgetting about all her tables. I would bring her tables refills and ask if they were okay, even though I wouldn’t get the tip and I had my own tables. Luckily, Haley
got fired pretty quickly. There is always a pause before I speak, so that does indicate that I think before I talk. Once, there was a table of drunken college boys and I really didn’t want to get involved with that because I’ve never had my butt grabbed, and I didn’t want to start then. So I had one of the boy servers finish up with them.

  Every single one of those times, Max and Tate were in the restaurant, not necessarily in my section.

  Then I thought about Barry. He was this awful manger we had a few months back and he was giving Ginger a verbal beat down when she didn’t deserve it. Like it was her fault this couple couldn’t make up their minds about what they wanted and kept sending their food back. I stepped in and put that asshole in his place.

  Tate was sitting three tables away.

  “You realize that’s kind of creepy?” I whispered.

  He nodded. “Never said it wasn’t.” Then he let out a breath of air and took a step back. “There is just something about you. Before I even heard you speak, I knew you would mean something to us.”

  I opened my mouth to say something to that but Sarah pulled around the restaurant at that second. She pulled up right behind me and rolled down the window. “You still need a ride home?” She lifted her eyebrows and I closed my eyes in embarrassment.

  “Yeah I do. It’s kind of hard to get any action looking like this.” I only meant it as sarcasm but she flinched anyway. I immediately felt bad. “Shit. Let’s just go.”

  I looked back at Tate but he had a shocked expression on his face. “There are two of you?” he said and it seemed like he hadn’t meant to say that.

  I nodded. “Identical since the day we were born.” I bite my lip, which hurt, and held my hand out to him. “Thanks for this weird ass talk. I’ll see ya later.”

  He looked down at my hand and grinned. “Until next time.” He didn’t shake my hand though. He turned around and walked away, getting into a Silverado pickup parked a few spaces over.