She went down the hall to the locker room, threw her big shoulder bag into her locker, locked it, and then headed up front to the welcome desk.
“We’re busy tonight,” said Raymond, the restaurant’s manager.
“I see that. We’re almost full already.”
“I just seated some fat cats. Which means fat tips. They’re in section E, table 12. I’m giving them to you.”
Jayda smiled. Her first smile of the day. “Thanks, Raymond.” He was the only man she knew who saw her hustle and appreciated it. He was also one of those beautiful, dark-skinned black men that many of the ladies on staff were so enamored with that they would do anything to get his attention. But Jayda kept it professional. That was why, she felt, he still respected her.
“Don’t let me down girl,” he said to her. “Put on that charm you’re more than capable of putting on, although you rarely put it on, but I need you to do it tonight. I want those guys back. They smell of money, you hear me? Pulled up in a limousine no less.”
“For real?”
“For real though.”
“But why would they come to our humble abode?”
“They wanna be around the regular folks, who knows. Who cares? I’ll have customers that can elevate our restaurant, and you’ll take home some much needed extra cash.”
“Much, much needed,” said Jayda as Raymond wrote down her name and what section was her responsibility.
“Did you put in their drink orders already?” Jayda asked him.
“Yes I have. Go to the bar to pick them up.”
She was about to walk away, but he stopped her. “And Jayda?”
“Sir?”
“I heard you and Kenny broke up. Sorry about that.”
How could he have heard about that already? Did he know Kenny?
“You okay?” he asked her.
Jayda nodded her head. “I will be. It’s just the financial part I’m worried about. We split the rent and he already told me he wasn’t putting up his share next month. It’ll all be on me.”
“I hear you, sister.”
“I would ask for more hours, but I know I’m working until closing as it is. And I have my delivery job. Just not enough hours in the day, I guess,” she said, tried to smile again but failed, and then hurried to the bar.
But as she waited for all of table 12’s drinks to come up, Makela, who was also moonlighting by bartending at night to be able to pay her high rent too, gave a customer a drink and then walked over to Jayda. “Hey girl.”
Jayda wasn’t trying to hear her bull crap tonight, but she wasn’t going to waste any energy on it either. “I didn’t know you was bartending tonight.”
“Friday night? The way these fools tip on a Friday night? You better believe I’m gonna get them coins.” Then she hesitated, as if she was trying to decide the best way to bring it up. Then she decided to just bring it up. “Kenny said something about you two breaking up. That true?”
Jayda looked at her. “When did you see Kenny?”
“When? Oh. I don’t even remember. But I’m glad to hear it. Girl, you can do way better than him.”
“But when did he tell you we broke up?”
Makela tried desperately to come up with a response, but she couldn’t. She smiled instead. “What difference does it make? The point is you got rid of that zero. You can do better than him. For real.”
Jayda looked away from her. “He doesn’t think so.”
“But do you?”
