I told her: you dare offer, I dare take.
That night, I brought her home. When I woke up, she was gone.
I thought about going after her. Even thought about crawling back to her, dignity and all.
In the end, I let it go.
Later I left the capital, assuming she was still there building her career. I never expected her to have come back to Brookhaven too.
“Mommy, Daisy wants shrimp.”
The porcelain-pretty little girl spoke up suddenly.
And—she was married?
Had she married Richard?
Richard said：“Come here, Daisy. Daddy'll get you some.”
He glanced at me first when he said it, a deliberate little provocation, then turned his gaze to Bridget and kept it there.
“Old classmate, it's been what, ten years?”
“I heard you got into an Ivy League school back in the day. How'd you end up a waiter after all these years?”
Richard set a piece of shrimp on the little girl's plate. When he looked back at me, his face was pure mockery：“Almost thirty and still waiting tables. You're supposed to be a man, Tony—aren't you embarrassed? At least work your way up to shift lead.”
The table erupted in laughter the second he finished.
Same as ten years ago, everyone at this table had the same reflex: kiss Richard Gilbert's ass on cue.
The logic was simple. Whoever Richard went after, they went after too. Show loyalty, earn favor.
Back in school, that favor might have been a pack of cigarettes tossed their way.
Now, maybe a decent job.
People did what they had to do to get by. Nothing shameful about that. I could understand it.
I smiled and set the bottle down, looking at Richard：“I'm just here to drop off a bottle. Enjoy your evening.”
I turned to leave.
The thought had crossed my mind, of course. Reveal who I actually was, slap this rich boy across the face with it.
But a mature businessman knows restraint. Something that childish and stupid, you just don't do.
As for Bridget, I didn't look at her. There was no point.
She was married with a child. What was there to dwell on? Nothing to hold onto.
“Hey, Tony—Richard didn't say you could go.”
Grayson Malone stood up from his seat near the door.
He'd always been Richard's number-one lapdog. Ten years ago, and clearly still now.
Otherwise he wouldn't be sitting by the door. That spot made it easy to run Richard's errands.
Richard rose too, both hands braced on the table：“Tony, it's been ten years. You stumbled into a class reunion. Might as well stay and catch up.”
“I need to get back to work.”
I gave a thin smile：“I'll put in the effort. Maybe make shift lead before thirty.”
The room roared again.
I didn't know what they were laughing at.
Was a shift lead at Obsidian Club really that funny? After taxes and deductions, the position still pulled twenty grand a month, a thirteenth-month bonus at year's end, plus benefits on top of that. What exactly was laughable?
I studied them more carefully. Sure, they were dressed well enough, but everything they wore was off-the-rack from the mall.
The car keys spread across the table were mostly budget or midrange.
And yet their eyes were full of satisfaction, like they'd made it.
Where did that sense of superiority come from?
A woman named Celeste Lambert seemed to notice me glancing at her keys and sneered：“Tony, don't tell me you don't even have a car. My Ford only cost, like, twenty grand, but at least it's got four wheels. What are you riding these days, an e-bike?”
“Nah, I grab a bike share.”
I told the truth.
My penthouse was close to the club. For the daily commute, I really did just ride a bike.
And again, the whole room howled.
Seemed like without me there, they wouldn't have had anyone to laugh at all night.
