“You’re too young to be so jaded,” Amy said jokingly. I rolled my eyes at her. She didn’t get her ass touched by sweaty, beer-bellied old man every fucking day. Bruno had rolled out of bed and was trying to get her attention. He was using his charm on her, and like usually it worked. She patted his head and whispered words of adoration. And, honestly, who could resist that face? But he ignored me like he always did when Amy was around. She was his flavor of the month. Well, more like flavor of the year.
“Sometimes I worry that I’ll be stuck waiting tables all my life. I’m not sure I can survive another two years listening to stinky guys call me puppet or babe. Who came up with that name anyway? Do I look like a pig?” I couldn’t believe I’d been working at Jack’s for that long already. For the first year of my life in New York I’d worked in the kitchen of a small restaurant, washing dishes, but when they’d closed, Jack’s was the only place where I could find a new job.
Tea shot out of Amy’s nose as she succumbed to a fit of giggles. I handed her a napkin, stifling my own laughter. “That was so lady like. I bet Jared would have ravished you if he’d seen it.”
“Oh shut up,” she gasped out between bursts of laughter while wiping her chin and the table with the napkin. Eventually she turned serious. “Maybe I can ask Fiona if she needs someone else,” Amy said.
I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. You don’t have to do that. You know I’m not vegan. Don’t you have a vegans-only policy?”
“Yeah, but I’ll ask anyway. You don’t eat meat, I’m sure that counts for something.”
I didn’t mention that I would have given anything for a few scallops in that moment. By now my skin had dried and my hair was a knotted clot atop my head. “Maybe if I’m lucky I can sell a few short stories this year.”
“I’m sure you’ll snatch up a publisher with your new book.”
She was one of the few people I’d told about my writing, and she never made fun of me or didn’t take it seriously. That was what I loved about Amy. Everything was possible in her mind. She dreamed of opening her own vegan restaurant one day and she never doubted that it would happen.
I’d mentioned my love for writing to my parents once but that hadn’t gone over well. My mom had said my time would be better spent looking for a suitable husband and my dad wanted me to work a proper job, preferably take over his vet practice at some point.
“Does Jared have the early shift again?” I asked, remembering Amy’s comment about Jared taking care of Bruno. Jared was doing his residency in a hospital two blocks from here and had been gone most evenings and nights in the last few weeks.
“Yeah, he left around five.” She and Jared were high school sweethearts. I didn’t think there still existed couples like them. She always got me back on my find-true-love wagon. They'd been together for six years and were nauseatingly happy. If I didn’t like her so much, I’d probably hate her for having the perfect boyfriend. Though at this point in my life, I’d probably even take the asshat boyfriend.
Maybe she knew the blond man. I could ask her. I bit my lip anxiously and wondered how I could broach the subject without being too obvious. I could hardly tell her that I'd watched him having sex. Though, again, Amy probably wouldn’t find fault in that.
“Uhh...Amy...” Wow. Wasn't I the epitome of eloquence?
She smiled at me, her expression curious.
“I saw a man yesterday...and he lost his...umm...”
Think of something!
“I-pod. I want to give it back to him. Do you know who he is?” I watched her hopefully.
She started giggling and I felt heat rise up into my cheeks. “You haven't even described him to me. My Spidey sense isn’t that good.”
I grinned sheepishly. “Well, he was quite tall and he...”
...had a mouthwatering chest.
“...had blond hair, almost golden, good looking, maybe in his late twenties and he seems to live in the building across from ours.” I nodded toward my window. I decided not to give her the detailed description of his bedroom. That would have made me sound like a creep.
Amy gave me a knowing smile.
Was I being that transparent? I wasn't a good liar, I knew that, but apparently it was even worse than I'd thought.
“Golden hair and good looking? Well, that might be Adrian Black. Jared and he go to the same fitness center,” she said thoughtfully. Maybe I should start working out.
She was watching me searchingly for a moment. “Be careful, he's a womanizer.”
“I'm not interested in him.” I stared down at my cup, avoiding Amy’s eyes, and shrugged. “I just thought I should give him his i-Pod back.”