The Waitress (GxG)

42

"What's the plus one? Why not a fifteen course meal?" I questioned.

"You." she said blankly, and I felt my face heat up.

But before I was able to counter her suddenly bold words my phone rang from inside my pocket. I looked at the caller ID before ultimately picking up, "Hello?" I said to Camilla on the other line.

"Are you busy right now?" she rushed out, and immediately I felt worry fill within me.

"No, why what's wrong?" I said, trying to suppress the worry threatening to fill my tone.

A slight muffled sound filled the phone for a few seconds. "Mr. Zho was injured, are you able to come down here maybe?" Ethan who was now on the phone said.

I sat up from the slightly wet grass almost immediately, "What happened?" I asked as Nova sat up from the grass next to me.

"He said it was some dudes in the back alley as he was taking out the trash." Ethan briefly explained.

"Okay i'll be there, bye." I rushed out, waiting for Ethan to reciprocate the goodbye before hanging up.

"What's wrong?" Nova said with her brows furrowed.

I stood up in the grass completely. "Ethan said Mr. Zho got hurt by some people in the alley behind the restaurant." I said wiping the back of my pants.

"Did they call the paramedics?" she questioned standing up along with me.

"I didn't ask, I need to get over there though." I explained, walking back down towards the estate.

"I'll take you there, come on." she said, and I was trying my best to keep my thoughts from racing.

Nova glided through the New York traffic avoiding any red light possible. The main thing on my mind was if Mr. Zho was okay, and what this possibly meant for the restaurant.

I mean once again, only four people work there including me, so having Ethan and Camilla run the restaurant as he takes time off can be a challenge.

We barely make enough money to stay open, now imagine if we were to close.

Soon enough Nova was parking the car and we walked into the restaurant which felt like I hadn't seen it in an eternity.

As soon as I walked into the restaurant I saw Ethan and Camilla in the front booth, along with Mr. Zho.

Camilla patted a towel across Mr. Zho's face. "Girl what took you foreve–" she asked, but cut herself off as she turned to face Nova and I.

"Don't tell me this is Nova the great." Ethan said, rising from the booth.

"Right, I'm in complete shock right now." Camilla agreed, keeping her attention on Nova.

She raised a brow, shooting me a questioning glance before replying, "I'm sorry...?" she trailed off.

Ethan held his hand out so Nova could shake it. "I'm your couple counselor, nice to finally meet you." he said.

I jokingly hit his shoulder, "Can we focus on what's important?" I asked, knowing that Mr. Zho was right in front of us.

"Sorry." Ethan apologized, moving out of the way letting me have a full view of Mr. Zho.

He had a small gash above his eyebrow which seemed to be the main source of any blood on his face, and it was obvious he had a black eye forming. "Hi Mariah, hi rent payer." he greeted me and Nova who I assume was the rent payer.

"Are you okay?" I questioned and he shook his head as Camilla continued patting his face down.

Ethan set a pack of frozen peas on the table, "We've been telling him he needs to go to the hospital, who knows what other injuries he has." he explained.

"Can you explain what happened?" Nova asked, analyzing his face.

"I went to take out the trash as usual in the back, and a group of three men showed up out of nowhere" He explained.

"Did they say anything to you?" I asked him wondering if this was random or had reasoning behind it.

"I couldn't tell but it sounded like french."

"What color were they wearing?" Nova asked almost immediately after, like she's been wondering from the start.

"Gray, why?"

And a short silence seemed to follow as the whole room had their attention plastered onto Nova. "I'm going to speak to my father, i'll be back." she said before taking her leave outside of the restaurant.

"What's that all about?" Camilla asked, and deep down I knew it was mafia related, just not in what sense.

"I'm not sure," I responded, "But Mr. Zho, you need to go to a hospital." I circled back to the original topic.

"Then I would have to close the restaurant until I'm back, our usual five customers would stop coming by while I'm on leave," he explained.

"Just put a note on the door saying you got beat up, they'll understand." Ethan suggested but he just shook his head.

"I can't risk it, and if we were to stay open then it would only be you two, what if the day I'm gone the restaurant happens to get two hundred customers and we get one star because the servers were slow." he gave his second reason.

And after hearing how most of his worries and reasons for not going to the hospital were due to the restaurant that led me to my reply. "I'll just stay here for the time being then." I said and everyone shot me a confused look.

Ethan shook his head, "You making the restaurant money at the palace you're staying in is more important than you working here," he admitted.

Camilla nodded at what he said. "I mean don't you have a week left before everything? this is really last minute, and we don't know how long he's going to be gone." She added.

"It's really no big deal, I could practice everything in the kitchen here, I also only really need the last three days to get everything set up, Mr. Zho should be good by then." I explained.

Camilla was right, this all really was last minute, but if it's something that I had to do then it's really no question.

"Okay." Mr. Zho sighed, and everyone let out a breath knowing he finally gave in.

"Will you finally go to the hospital now?" Ethan asked him.

"Unfortunately."