“Why don’t you stay?” For once in my life I feel like the frat boy instead of the geeky girl, the one who takes what they want and walks out afterwards.
“I need to get back upstairs” I sit up and hop off the side of the table. “After all, I am getting paid to work up there.” I give him half a grin, it’s all I can manage to lighten the mood but I can still see the disappointment on his face. Do I tell him he was the rebound fuck? Do I just get dressed and walk out?
“Oh, I didn’t realize” He must have thought I was part of the visiting party rather than the hosting party.
“Yeah…” I slip back behind the bar and struggle in to my dress somehow managing to zip myself most of the way up. Even bent behind the bar I can hear the disappointment pouring from those big brown eyes. Poor guy probably thought he’d got himself a female Gideon Lambert, his lucky break.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I get to the top of the basement stairs and listen for movement in the kitchen. When it sounds like its safe to slip out, I crack the door, slip out and shut it quietly behind me in time for the same middle aged woman who greeted me when I arrived to turn around and see me.
“Ah, I’ve been looking for you! Can you take this?” She hands me a tray loaded down with some kind of pastry puffs and I nod, taking it. “Good now…” she heads off in to the back of the kitchen talking to herself as she goes.
I can’t bring myself to head back out in to the main hall, out to Mrs. Dubois and her plans for her next big ‘function.’ As I’m about to set the tray back down on the long prep table one of the other wait-staff walks in and with a brief smile I hand the tray off to her.
“Umm, this is for you. Mrs. Ahhhhh…” I wave in the direction of the nameless middle aged woman, “she said to hand it off to you, I’m not feeling too well, I have to go home.” The girl takes the tray without question and turns on her heel heading back through the kitchen door.
Grabbing my purse I slip out of the backdoor and head around to the side of the house, making sure to head to the left to avoid walking past the bar side of the house.
“Sneaking out, huh?” one of the younger guys that I recognized from the wait-staff of previous Lambert functions sat on a stone wall, a cigarette in his hand.
“I just can’t do it anymore, ya know?” He nods without saying a word and takes a long drag on his cigarette. I linger for a moment before sitting on the wall next to him and pull out my cell to call Allison.
“Hey Allie, can you come get me? I got done early.” I hear the TV in the background.
“Yeah, give me a minute to get some clothes on, can’t show up to that fancy ass place with my pajamas on.” There’s a pause. “You okay?”
“Yeah, just ready to come home.”
“Okay, be there soon, meet you where I dropped you off okay?”
“Pull up to the left side of the house; I’ll be right here waiting. Bye.”
“Bye” I slip my phone back in my purse and look over at my smoking friend. “So…are you playing hooky too?”
“Just grabbing a smoke, but you know if you need company while you wait for your ride I can hang out for a bit.”
“Sure, that’d be nice.” He reaches in to his pocket and pulls out his pack of cigarettes offering me one. “No, thanks.”
“How long have you been working these things?” he gestures at the house with his head, a steady stream of smoke flowing from his lips.
“I’ve been doing the whole charity event thing for a while but I think I’ve only done like three here?” He nods taking another drag off his cigarette. “How about you?”
“About the same I think, maybe four for Lambert, can’t really remember.” We both sit for a few minutes in silence and stare off in to the dark woods at the far boundary of the grounds.
“Are you still in school?” He nods.
I breathe a sigh of relief when Allison finally pulls up, I am the queen of awkward conversations with strangers and I am fairly certain that my smoking companion has noticed by now.#p#分页标题#e#
“That’s my ride,” I jump off the wall as much as one can possibly jump wearing a sheath dress. “Thanks for waiting with me.” He nods and drags on his third cigarette before waving with his smoking hand.
“See ya next time” The smoke plumes from his lips as he shouts after me and I turn to wave at him before getting in to the car.