I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met David. I remember that day so well. It was a Saturday, and I had picked up an afternoon shift. Usually, I work nights on Saturdays, but I had switched with a girl who needed that day shift off. Here comes a group of people grabbing a table on the outside patio. I remember one of the other waitresses I was working with that day looked over and said, “I don’t want to wait on them.” They were friends with the owner, and I guess every time they came in, the owner would comp their bill. I was like, “I’ll take them,” and she said, “Good.” She said they get drunk and forget to tip usually, probably because their bill gets comped. You could tell they were guys in a band—just something about them. Some were with girls and some without. I walked over and said, “Hi, what can I get you all to drink?” That’s when our eyes locked immediately. I had never felt that kind of chemistry before. I was like, “What is going on right now?” He was with a girl sitting right next to him, and it was very apparent they came in together. She could even feel the chemistry going on between us. He was not afraid to stare. I took all their drink orders, walked inside to the register to ring up the drinks, and I was thinking to myself, “Who is this guy?” I started to input the drinks into the computer, and I felt him staring at me through the window. I liked it; I loved it. I grabbed the drinks and brought them to the table, and one of his friends asked what my friends and I were doing that night. I said, “Nothing, we are free with no plans.” He said, “David here is having a party, and you should come.” I said, “Sure, maybe we will.” He wrote his address down on a napkin and handed it to me. The rest of the afternoon, they all stayed, and I waited on them. At one point, I saw the girl reach over and kiss David, and I just thought to myself, “Leave it alone.” I was already getting over another relationship, and that relationship was another classic case of a girl chasing a boy who was just not that into her. I’ll leave it at that. They left, and yes, they left me a tip. After work, I called two of my girlfriends and asked if they wanted to go to a house party. They said sure. So we got ready and headed over there. While getting ready, I was thinking about all the eye contact and flirting going on earlier with David and wondering, “Why am I even heading to his house? What am I expecting? Or do I just want to go out and meet some new people?” I didn’t want to be that girl who’s flirting with someone’s boyfriend. Or do I? Well, I’m just going to go see what happens. We walked into this small apartment. There were probably 20 people there with music blasting. We went straight to the kitchen where the drinks were, and I was looking around, but I didn’t see David anywhere. His friend came over to us, the one who invited me to his house, and said, “I’m glad you girls came.” He started introducing us to the rest of the people there, and out of the corner of my eye, here comes David out of what seems to be his bedroom with the girl from earlier. At that moment, I was like, “Okay, I need to leave this situation alone.” He came over to us holding her hand, and I introduced my friends to him. We all stood around drinking, talking, and laughing. We stayed late, and then we left. I thought nothing else the rest of the night. I never felt the stare from him that evening. We all were pretty drunk. I went to bed, woke up, and got ready for my usual Sunday morning shift. As I was at the end of my shift, here comes David and his friends. They sat down at table 66. I walked over to them and said hi. I didn’t see the girl he was with the day before. He said hi, grabbed my hand, pulled me down to him, and kissed me. I kissed him back, no problem. I looked at him and said, “Where’s the girl?” and he said, “I asked her to leave. I’ve met my dream girl.”
Tag: writing
Here I go!
I started to run my fingers down the pages and pages of the reservation book. It was incredible that every table was booked all night long. I turned to the next day, and that day was booked as well. I was excited and nervous, knowing all these people were coming to try out the new hot spot in town. We had 30 minutes before the doors opened, and we would seat our first guests. The GM called all staff to the bar area for a pep talk. I looked over and thought to myself, ‘Look what we have accomplished in a year.’ A fully remodeled restaurant, all maroon walls with gold and platinum albums everywhere, jellyfish tanks behind the bars, black tufted booths, and three teppan tables ready to serve up the fun. I looked over at the pep talk that was taking place, seeing all the staff in black shirts that had our logo on it. I smiled, thinking, ‘This is really going to happen. Tonight, it’s going to happen tonight!’
I walked over to the sound system behind the bar and played a custom CD that was made for opening night. It had all the great hits on it. I hit play and turned it up. The doors opened, and people flooded in. Some went to their seats, while others hit the bar excited to look at the jellyfish tanks and soak in the ambiance while ordering a martini from our long list of martinis. As the night went on, it got busier and louder, with a wait 2 hours long, and no one seemed to care because they wanted to be part of the fun. I walked around the restaurant, helping out the staff, clearing tables to seat the next reservations, making sure everything was perfect for the next guest.
My GM walked over to me and said, “You know you have staff for that, and the more you help out, the less they will do.” I couldn’t help it. I had been in the hospitality business for so long that I wanted to help, to be part of it all. I wanted to help the hostess, the expo, bring out drinks to tables, and talk with the patrons. I never felt that I was above the staff because I was an owner. I wanted to feel like part of the staff.
As I walked through the dining room area, I felt a hand grab mine and a tug at my arm. There I was, sitting on my husband’s lap. He had been sitting at a four-top with some friends, enjoying the evening and success. He looked at me, smiled, looked around, then back at me, and said, “We did this. Aren’t you excited? All this hard work from the last year has paid off.” It was really hard to look at him and be excited with him. All the work over the last year was not only putting this restaurant together, but also trying to save my marriage and raise two babies while pretending I’m strong and can handle it all. And I’m not allowed to raise any questions on what he did because those were the rules to have him back.
It was two weeks before Thanksgiving. I ended up sick over the weekend, and David was out with his friends downtown. The kids were playing in their rooms; it was a Sunday afternoon. I was ready for him to come home. I was actually irritated that he was even out while I was in bed sick. He’s always gone on tour, “writing music” in LA. Why couldn’t he just be home with me? Why didn’t he want to be home with me? So I called him and asked him to please come home and help me. I never wanted to be the nagging wife. I always wanted him to live out his dream and do the cool things rock stars do, except for the cheating. I never wanted that. So I called, and he came home. That was the day that would forever change everything. He came home, sat at the foot of the bed on this leopard bench we had. He leaned in, looking at me, and said, “I want a divorce.” Not “How are you feeling?” or “Can I get you anything?” Just, “I want a divorce.” My heart sank because I knew he was not kidding. He said he had been thinking about it for some time and that he even went to therapy about it. And it wasn’t me; it was him. He realized he was young when we got married and that he had a great career right now, and he wanted to take full advantage of being a rock star. Yes, he said those exact words. He wanted to date movie stars, the models. He wanted to live his life with no regrets. You see, I had pushed all the things he’d done to me to the very back of my mind. Did I know for sure that he was not cheating on me? No. But there were plenty of signs, and I just never wanted to believe them. I truly thought he would never cheat on me. He couldn’t. Maybe he thought about it, maybe got close, but he wouldn’t actually do it.
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