Page 14 of Trick or Tease

“There’s a place within walking distance,” Garrett said.

The restaurant Garrett led us to was exactly the kind of place that made me want to crawl under a rock and hide. Not black-tie fancy, but fancy enough that I felt like every waiter was judging my flannel shirt and worn jeans. The kind of place where they probably charged twenty dollars for a side salad and five bucks for a glass of tap water.

The other diners spoke in hushed, cultured tones, their clothes probably worth more than my monthly rent. I tugged at the hem of my shirt, wishing I’d at least thrown on something that hadn’t been washed a hundred times.

Meanwhile, Garrett looked like he’d been born to sit in places like this. He moved through the restaurant with easy confidence, nodding at the hostess who looked like she had seen him naked or wanted to. His expensive suit fit him perfectly. And yeah, he looked like he fit in, but he wasn’t the guy he presented to the world.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t really him. Or maybe it was, and the boy I’d known was the fake version. The Garrett I remembered would have been just as uncomfortable as me in a place like this. He would have cracked jokes about the pretentious menu descriptions and probably would have asked if they had any normal food.

This Garrett? He studied the wine list like he actually knew the difference between a Merlot and Chianti. They were red. That’s all I knew and I only knew that because of the heading.

Billy and Lucy were having the time of their lives, like this whole thing was some grand adventure instead of an increasingly uncomfortable situation. While I sat there feeling like an idiot in my farm clothes, they were treating the fancy restaurant like their personal playground. They had no shame. They didn’t care that they were dressed just as casually as I was.

Billy reached for the bread and tore off a chunk, slathering it with butter before holding it out to Lucy’s mouth. “Try this, babe. It’s probably artisanal or some shit.”

She bit into it and let out an exaggerated moan that made the couple at the next table turn and stare. “Oh my God, that’s incredible. What do they put in their butter?”

“Probably costs more than our weekly grocery budget.” Billy grinned, feeding her another bite.

I watched them with a mixture of affection and envy. They made everything look so easy, so natural. Even here, surrounded by people that were judging them, they were just themselves.

Meanwhile, I was trying not to touch anything for fear I’d break it and have to do dishes in the back for a month.

“Okay, what the hell is ‘escargot foam’?” Lucy asked, squinting at her menu. “Is that like snail bubbles?”

Billy made a face like he’d just smelled something rotten. “Sounds like someone sneezed on a snail.”

“And venison tartare,” Lucy continued, her voice getting louder with each ridiculous menu item. “That’s just raw deer, right? Like, they’re not even cooking it? Is that healthy? Can’t that give you worms?”

“Maybe they’re too fancy to use fire,” Billy suggested, earning another burst of giggles from Lucy.

I glanced over at Garrett and saw his jaw tighten. His fingers drummed against the white tablecloth. It was a sure sign he was getting annoyed.

“It’s a very well-regarded restaurant,” he said stiffly. “The chef trained in France.”

Billy looked up from the menu, eyebrows raised. “Did he forget to learn how to cook the meat while he was there?”

Lucy snorted, covering her mouth with her napkin to muffle her laughter.

Garrett’s expression grew even more pinched. He reminded me of Hollow Hank with a stick up his ass, minus the straw. I could practically see him calculating how much this dinner was going to damage his reputation with the staff. God forbid his country bumpkin family embarrass him in front of the people he was trying so hard to impress.

The waiter came by, a thin man with the kind of condescending smile that made me want to accidentally spill something on his pristine white shirt, and I panicked. All those fancy French words and pretentious descriptions swam together on the page. This menu can escargot fuck itself.

“I’ll just have the house salad,” I said quickly, handing back the menu before I had to admit I didn’t know what most of the dishes were.

Everyone else ordered and the waiter quickly walked away. Lucy tried talking to Garrett, searching for that easy back and forth we all used to have. The conversation was stilted and uncomfortable, though. No one would believe the four of us were once the closest of friends.

We all seemed determined to talk about anything except the elephant in the room. Billy seemed hesitant to bring up the retirement party he had driven five hours to convince Garrett to attend.

Thankfully, the service in the restaurant was excellent and our food was delivered quickly, giving us something less awkward to focus on.

“So, I just closed the biggest deal of my career,” Garrett said after a few minutes. “One-point-two-five billion dollars.”

Billy looked up from his steak. “Billion? With a B?”

Garrett’s face lit with genuine excitement, and my heart somersaulted in my rib cage. He looked so much like the boy I’d fallen for back when I was still figuring out what love was.

“I know, right?” he said to his little brother. “Fucking crazy, isn’t it?”