The Waiter by Bradleigh Collins (bill gates books recommendations .txt) 📕

in the city. Dalton and I were on our way to Mercer Kitchen to meet everyone for dinner. We moved into a fully furnished apartment on East 74th Street on Wednesday. Dalton started his new assignment yesterday. I still had a week before my start date and was excited about having plenty of time to explore my new neighborhood.

I met Katie and Lucy out for drinks at Korova Milk Bar on Thursday and told them the whole story about The Waiter and how I’d ended up back with Dalton. They were shocked at both developments, but happy that I was finally in New York. They couldn’t wait to meet Dalton tonight so they could size him up. Josh wasn’t surprised at all that I was back with Dalton. What he couldn’t believe was that The Waiter had bailed on me.

We arrived at the restaurant around eight. I introduced Dalton to Katie, Lucy and Kyle. The eight of us descended down the staircase into a cavernous dining space with exposed brick walls and candlelight everywhere. We ordered a round of drinks at the bar while we waited for our table.

“Damn, girl,” Lucy said. “I can see why you keep taking him back. He’s fucking beautiful. And so tall.”

Katie was a little more cautious. “He’s obviously on his best behavior. But after everything you told me about him, I kind of just want to smack him. And you too, for taking him back.”

“I know. But so far, things have been great. I love our new apartment. It’s right around the corner from Scoop’s east side location.”

“Well,” Lucy stated, “since you’re not having to pay Manhattan rent, you’ll have a lot more disposable income to spend there.”

“Cheers to that,” I said.

“So,” Katie leaned in. “Have you heard from him since you’ve been here?” I knew she was referring to The Waiter.

“No. And I don’t want to. I’m avoiding the Upper West Side.”

“Girl,” Lucy said, “if you start limiting your neighborhoods because of bad dating experiences, you’ll be drinking and dining in Jersey.”

“I just don’t want to run into him. It still stings. And I certainly don’t want to run into him when I’m with Dalton.”

We were seated at the end of a long communal table right next to an open-style kitchen. I sat between Dalton and Josh. Lucy sat opposite me on the other side of the table between Kyle and Katie.

Our almost two-hour dinner was filled with hilarious Josh stories, toasts to my new status as a New Yorker, and several bottles of wine. I had smiled so much throughout the evening that my face was actually sore.

When we finished, Dalton picked up the tab for everyone. I was so proud of him. He’d made a great first impression on my friends, and I was really starting to feel like we had indeed started a new chapter.

Then Josh decided it was time for karaoke. “Let’s head up to The Parlour,” he announced. I quickly shot him a you know why I don’t want to go to the Upper West Side look and shook my head. “Oh, right,” he nodded. “We’ll go to K-town instead.”

“Wait,” Dalton said. “What was that about? Why don’t you want to go to The Parlour?”

“Um, Sam had a really bad food experience there,” Josh replied, in his best attempt to cover for me. Dalton wasn’t buying it.

“No, she’s afraid she’ll run into her boy-toy,” he said snidely.

Suddenly everyone at the table was uncomfortable. Josh looked at me apologetically. I could feel my face turning red. I needed to do something quickly to lighten the tone. I thought about Lucy’s advice on not limiting my neighborhoods. Why should I let what happened with The Waiter keep me from hanging out with my friends on the Upper West Side? I had way more good memories there with Josh than I did with The Waiter. Plus, Josh had become something of a celebrity at The Parlour. Why should he have to suffer because of my bruised ego?

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go to The Parlour. Dalton needs to witness your karaoke prowess in action, anyway.”

We made our way upstairs and out into the street to hail a cab.

“You guys take this one and Dalton and I will grab the next one,” I said as a cab stopped in front of us. I wanted a chance to be alone with Dalton and talk about what just happened.

“Okay,” Josh said. “See you guys up there.”

As they left, I turned around and looked at Dalton.

“Did you really have to do that?”

“Do what? Call you out on your little fling?”

“You didn’t have to make everyone uncomfortable. We’d just had such a perfect time.” I held my hand up to the approaching cab.

“I just wanna know why you’re trying so hard to avoid this guy. Sounds to me like you might still have a little thing for him. If that’s the case, we have a problem.”

The cab stopped. Dalton opened the door for me.

“Dalton, you’re being ridiculous.”

“Get in the fucking cab, Sam.”

“86th and Broadway,” I informed the driver.

“I just don’t want anything to ruin our new start, Dalton. That’s all.”

“Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you fucked somebody else.”

It was a long, silent ride uptown. The joy I’d felt throughout dinner had quickly dissipated. Now all I wanted to do was get to The Parlour and get drunk. Dalton and I had been back together for a little over a week, and up until now, everything had been blissful and passionate and exciting. But I was starting to realize that he had no intention of letting my little dalliance with The Waiter go unchecked. He was going to make me pay for it.

When we got to The Parlour, Josh was already queued up to be next for karaoke. Dalton and I went to the bar, and I quickly ordered a drink.

“This is for you cuz,” Josh said as he grabbed the microphone.

I had absolutely no idea what he was about to sing. When he