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

“Who’s Molly?” he asked as he greeted Kyle and then sat down beside Lucy.

“Oh, you’re about to find out,” Lucy replied.

“I think they’re just coming to the party,” Josh said. The waitress came around and took our drink orders.

“You guys all moved in?” Kyle asked Dana and Simon.

“Yep,” Dana replied. “We have a few more things being delivered this week, but we’re in for the most part.”

“Wait until you guys see the view from their balcony,” I said.

“When’s the housewarming party?” Katie asked.

“I don’t know,” Dana replied. “How about next weekend?”

“Yes! Yes!” I screamed. “Dominic will be here!”

“Speaking of Dominic,” Lucy said. “Are you going to tell him about Dalton?”

“I have to. Eventually, we’re gonna run into him. Dalton’s probably plotting to make that happen right now.”

“Dominic’s not going to be happy about that,” Dana said.

“No, he isn’t. I wish this fell into the don’t ask, don’t tell category.”

“Yeah,” Katie said. “It doesn’t.”

“Speaking of don’t ask, don’t tell,” Dana said, “Sam is convinced that Dominic is already seeing other people.”

“What?” Katie was shocked. “Why?”

“The more important question,” Lucy said, “is why wouldn’t he be? And why aren’t you? Wasn’t that your agreement?”

“Yeah, I know. But still.”

“What makes you think he’s seeing someone?” Katie asked.

“Intuition. And you guys know, my intuition is spot on.”

“Sam, baby,” Lucy said, “you knew this was going to happen. Hell, you planned for this to happen.”

“I know. But I thought by agreeing to see other people, I wouldn’t obsess about him cheating on me. Now I’m obsessing about him seeing other people. I’m fucked.”

“Well,” Lucy replied, “you could unfuck yourself by seeing other people too.”

“I agree,” Dana said. “You need to do it soon. And you know why.” I knew she was talking about Dalton.

“There is not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening again.”

“That man is like a heat-seeking missile when you’re vulnerable. And you know it.”

“Don’t you get lonely sometimes?” Katie asked.

“How could I get lonely? I have you guys!”

The three of them looked at me.

“Of course I do. But I just want Dominic. And I definitely don’t want Dalton.”

“Well, somewhere between Dominic and Dalton is where you need to get to,” Dana said. “For your own sanity.”

“And ours,” Lucy added. The four of us laughed.

“What are you bitches laughing at?”

Molly and Darryl had arrived with a bang. She made her way around the entire table, hugging everyone like we were long-lost family, including Simon, who had a pained look on his face that caused me to immediately snap a photo with my digital camera. Molly was friendly. Maybe a bit too friendly at times. But she was funny, and like Darryl, she had a tendency to grow on you. She was just so loud! And she wreaked of cigarettes.

“Have we done birthday shots yet?” she yelled out. I felt sorry for the people around us.

“Not yet,” I replied. “We were going to wait until the party.”

“Hell no!” She flagged the waitress down. “Buttery Nipples for the whole table!”

I avoided making eye contact with Lucy while Dana grabbed my hand under the table. I quickly realized the best way to keep Molly from causing more of a scene was to engage her in conversation, which I did throughout dinner. Turns out she, just like me, had moved to the city to pursue her dream. She wanted to open a cleaning services company. Currently, she was a part-time kindergarten teacher, and the rest of the time she cleaned apartments. And made incredible money doing so.

“I figured, there are just so many rich folks here in this damn city,” she said. “And rich folks don’t like to clean. I actually like to clean.”

“I like to clean too,” I said, finding a little common ground.

“You should come work with me,” she replied immediately.

“I already have a job. But thank you.”

“What do you do?”

“I’m the Editor-in-Chief for e-Styled. It’s a fashion startup.”

“I knew you had to be involved in fashion! You’re always so fancy. So put-together.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you like it? Your job?”

“Yeah,” I smiled at her. “I absolutely love it.”

After dinner, we all went upstairs for the big party. Katie had done an excellent job planning it and we all split the costs. The DJ she’d hired as the karaoke host had timed Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” song perfectly for Josh’s entrance. He followed that up with “Boogie on Reggae Woman,” which had Darryl and Molly already on the dance floor, doing their thing.

“I just love reggae music!” Molly shouted, causing Dana and I to look at each other and shake our heads. Molly was definitely entertaining. You had to give her that.

The upstairs space was small and cozy and filled with birthday balloons. There was a long bar along the back wall and a VIP area by the stairs. It was filled with cushy banquettes and a table where we placed all of Josh’s gifts next to a gigantic birthday cake. We were all VIPs tonight because we’d reserved the entire space. We even had our own waitress. And the biggest VIP of all was about to sing his first song.

The karaoke stage was set up over in the left corner by the bar. There was a large glass fishbowl with small slips of paper and pens beside it. We were all instructed to write down our requests and place them in the fishbowl. Next to the fishbowl was one of those bells you ring at a front desk. We all grabbed slips of paper and pens and sat down at the VIP table and began writing down songs, trying to think of the funniest and most obscure tunes for Josh to sing.

“Okay, while you guys are doing that,” Josh spoke into the microphone, “I’m gonna get this party started with the song that started it all. This one’s for Katie.”

He proceeded to sing “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It took me right back to the first night he sang it at The Parlour. He was just about to meet Katie. I was just about to