Chapter 72
Until things settled down, Lawton insisted on driving me back and forth to work. Just as well, given the sorry state of my car, which now had its own place in Lawton's massive garage.
He offered to buy me a new car, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the offer was tempting. But I still didn't want to be that girl, bought and paid for, no matter how crazy in love I was, or him with me.
As for Chucky, he was my dog now, and no one was going to tell me differently. Somehow, Lawton had magically acquired papers to prove it, even if he wouldn't say exactly how he'd made that possible.
Chucky loved hanging out at Lawton's place, and Lawton seemed to love having him there. So that's where we were staying, except of course, for when I was visiting Grandma and Josh or waitressing.
Work was getting crazier every day. The flu had passed, and we were once again fully staffed. For me, this meant shorter shifts on the worst nights. Shaggy was there practically every night, standing there with his stupid cell phone as if waiting to catch me and Lawton getting naked in a corner booth.
When I confronted him about that story he told me – about producing that infamous sex tape – he said, "I didn't lie. You just assumed."
"Yeah, I notice you didn't correct me," I said.
He shrugged. "You can't blame a guy for trying."
Oh yes I could. But still, he haunted my shifts like some kind of paparazzi poltergeist. After a while, I sort of got used to him, mostly because he irked the snot out of Keith, who hated to be filmed while pretending to work.
Exactly ten days after Thanksgiving, I was nearing the end of a six-hour shift when I saw Amber near the waitress stand. Looking around, she was busily tapping her foot like she'd been kept waiting a lot longer than necessary.
As usual, she looked like a million bucks. Her long blonde hair was loose and sleek over her shoulders, and she wore an expensive-looking silvery cocktail dress that fell in stylish folds just above her matching silver pumps. All in all, she looked way overdressed for dinner just about anywhere that didn't offer valet parking.
I kept my head down and rushed past her, eager to avoid whatever it was that brought her here.
"Chloe!" she called. "There you are!"
I stopped in my tracks. Slowly, I turned to face her. "Amber," I said. "There you are too. What a coincidence."
She smiled. "Yeah, I know, right?"
Well, at least she was being friendly. The least I could do was try to be the same, if for no other reason than to make this interaction as short as possible. "So," I said, "you're here to see Brittney?"
"No way," Amber said. "I'm here to see you."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you're gonna need a bridesmaid, right?" She held up her arms. "Ta-da! Here I am! I'm thinking of this as my audition."
I stared at her. "What?"
"Yeah, I mean it's only a matter of time, right? With you and Lawton getting so serious, I'm totally hearing wedding bells, and I want to throw my name into the hat before all the slots are filled."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Actually, it's little premature, don't you think?"
"I am not," she said. "I'm totally mature. And besides, I throw a seriously wicked party. You've got to pick me. I mean, c'mon, you don't have any sisters, right?"
"No. but I do have a best friend."
"Fine. She can stand too. I don't care."
"Wow," I said in a deadpan voice, "that's really nice of you."
She flashed me a grin. "Thanks. And just so you know, when I marry Bishop, I'll let you be a bridesmaid too."
My jaw dropped. "You're dating Bishop?"
"Well no. Not yet. But c'mon. After you and Lawton get married, I figure it's only a matter of time, right? Especially with us being such good friends."
"Who?"
"You and me."
I decided to let that one pass. "But seriously," I said, "I'm not even engaged."
In spite of Lawton's innuendos in the hospital, it hadn't come up, which I told myself was just fine with me. Sure, he was my dream guy. And sure, I never wanted to let him go. But that was another girl I didn't want to be – the one who moved too fast when the guy wasn't quite ready.
"So what?" Amber said. "You totally will be." She looked around and lowered her voice. "My parents are friends with this jeweler, and I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but somebody we know – meaning this totally hot guy, not that I'm supposed to notice now that he's off the market – anyway, he just paid gobs of money for the biggest rock this jeweler had ever seen."
I stared, speechless. What was I supposed to say to something like that?
Fortunately, I was spared the trouble of saying anything, because suddenly I heard a shrill female voice call out from the other side of the restaurant. "You!"
I turned around to see Brittney tottering toward us on those obscenely high heels of hers. Co-workers or not, we never spoke to each other, except when absolutely necessary. And the times we did speak, most of our words weren't exactly fit for public consumption, as Keith had warned me countless times.
Brittney elbowed her way between me and Amber. She gave Amber a long, scathing look and said, "What are you doing here?"
Amber tossed a long strand of blonde hair over her bare shoulder. "I'm here to see Chloe, not that it's any of your business."
Brittney's eyes narrowed to slits. She whirled to face me. "This is all your fault."
"My fault?" I said.
"Yes, your fault. First you steal my boyfriend, then you steal my best friend!"
I glanced at Amber. "Hey, I hardly know her!"
"You do too!" Amber said. "By the way, I look good in aquamarine in case you haven't picked your colors yet."
"See!" Brittney told me. "And I know you've been stealing my customers too. That Bolger guy, he won't even let me wait on him anymore."
"Yeah," I said. "Because you keep calling him fat."
Amber reached out and tapped Brittney on the shoulder.
Brittney whirled to face her. "What?"
"Do you know what the specials are?" Amber said.
Brittney glared at her. "What specials?"
"Duh," Amber said. "We're in a restaurant. You're the waitress. Seems like an easy question."
Brittney's jaw tightened and her nostrils flared. "How's this for special?" she said, reaching out to shove Amber with both hands.
Amber stumbled backward, and caught herself against the waitress stand. Her eyes narrowed, and she barreled into Brittney, knocking her back into the small crowd that had gathered to see what the commotion was.
The crowd shifted, and Brittney lost her balance, tumbling backward onto a table filled with dirty dishes. Her long blonde hair flopped into the remnants of what looked like blueberry pancakes topped with blueberry syrup.
With a string of profanity, Brittney toppled off the table and hit the floor. A split-second later, she dove, hard, for Amber's legs. Squealing, Amber toppled over, clutching at the necktie of the man standing nearest to her.
He lost his balance and toppled over too, landing halfway between Amber and Brittney, who dove for each other with the ferocity of rabid squirrels fighting over the last nut.
By now, the crowd was going nuts, with the woman watching in wide-eyed horror, and the guys cheering them on, except for the guy with the necktie, who took a heel to the gut, thanks to Brittney's flailing legs.
Frantically, I glanced around, looking for Keith, a phone, something. But what I found was Shaggy, standing there with his cell phone in his hand and a giant grin spread across his face.
"Sweeet!" he said.
"Oh for cripe's sake," I said, continuing to scan the restaurant.
I caught sight of Lawton, strolling in the front door. He stopped short at the sight of Brittney and Amber rolling around on the floor. I followed his gaze.
When a sticky blue stand of Brittney's hair whacked Amber in the face, Amber grabbed a fallen squirt-bottle of ketchup and aimed it at Brittney's face. Brittney shoved Amber aside just in time, and a geyser of ketchup streamed upward, raining down on both of them and pelting the nearest spectators with tiny red splatters.
By this time, both of the girls were covered in food-goo from the tops of their formerly blonde heads to the tips of their decidedly non-sensible shoes.
I heard a male voice off to my left say, "Somehow, I thought this would be sexier."
"Got that right," another male voice said.
And then, I heard a third male voice. It was Keith, who bellowed out, "What the hell is going on here?"
He waded in, separating the two girls amid a chorus of booing from the male spectators. I felt a hand on my elbow, and looked to see Lawton standing next to me, an amused smile playing across his face.
"So," he said in a low, amused voice. "How was your day, honey?"
I glanced at Brittney and Amber, who'd been hustled to opposite sides of a long booth for eight. "Eh, same ol', same ol'," I said.
Amber's eyes lit up. "Lawton!" she called. "Yoohoo! Over here!"
Slowly, he turned to look.
"Have you heard?" she said. "I'm gonna be a bridesmaid!"
Lawton's face lost all its expression. He glanced at me. I didn't know what to say. He turned back to Amber, and his gaze narrowed.
"Oh c'mon," she said. "It's not like it's a big secret or anything."
Lawton looked down toward the floor. He gave a slow shake of his head. And then, he turned to face me. He reached out, taking both of my hands in his. Slowly, he sank to his knees.
I was having a hard time catching my breath. All around us, the restaurant had grown utterly silent.
"Chloe," he said, gazing up at me. "This isn't exactly the way I had it planned, but it doesn't change the way I feel. I love you more than life itself."
"Lawton, noooo!" Brittney yelled.
"Chloe," Lawton said. "Will you marry me?"