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Everyone fell silent for a time; it was obvious that the only reason Carl Kastenmeier stopped by was to see Tasia. He was too preoccupied with whether or not she would be coming out of the kitchen to be very sociable. The waitress brought his food to him, but he didn’t eat much; he didn’t seem hungry at all.
No one was more surprised than Carl to see Tasia walk over to the table after one tortuous hour of waiting. Their waitress had probably been badgering her about that five-hundred-dollar tip, and so to stay in her coworker’s good graces, she emerged from the kitchen frayed from the hard work but as beautiful as ever. Carl stood up as she came near, and his suave, chivalrous moves left Zach staring up at them both with a dumb expression on his face. Zach soon decided that it was best to follow suit and stand up as well before somebody noticed his tarnished social amenities.
“Tasia, you’ve been missed!”
“Hello, Carl,” she said, sounding unusually warm toward him. It was as if the time she’d spent away from him had done her a world of good. “How’ve you been?”
Carl leaned against the table with a sigh, putting a hand on his stomach as if he didn’t feel well. “Just terrible,” he said. “I want you to come back to the house. I’ll double your previous salary.”
She glanced at Chloe for a moment. “Well, that’s awful tempting, but I think I’ll pass. I like it here.”
“I’ll triple your salary,” he said, and Tasia looked at him as if he were joking. When she realized he was serious, she shook her head with a smile.
“You can’t have me earning more than the president of the United States!” she said. “I’m only a cook and not a very experienced one at that.”
“You’re more than a cook to me,” he said, and looked at her with the most despondent eyes Elaine had ever seen. He seemed sincere, so much so that it was easy to see how a woman as vulnerable as Tasia was could fall for his lines.
Tasia’s smile faded as she showed compassion for his situation. “You know, there are lots of women who’d jump at the chance to be a favorite of yours.”
Glancing around the table, he acted as if the conversation was starting to embarrass him. He impressed Elaine as being the kind of man who never had to beg for anything, but there he was begging her to come home.
“I know Lois would love to have you back,” she said.
“I never wanted Lois. Never.”
Tasia raised her hands, asking him to stop right there. “We had some fun times, but it’s over. Please don’t come back here. I’ve got a new life now, and I like it.”
Carl held his hands up as if to taunt her, then rested one starched and neatly pressed cuff against his hip. He seemed excited, like a kid with a handful of candy. “I spoke to your boss last week.”
“Carl, you didn’t!”
Nodding, he tried to look as innocent as he could. “Yes, I did. I had to tell him how unhappy it makes me to see you working here.” Her tenseness made his excitement grow. “I bought this building, Tasia. Your boss rents from me now. Currently he’s able to make the payments, but who knows what the future might bring? Right now he considers you an asset, but he might be convinced otherwise.”
“And you’d see to that, right?”
“You can only grill so many steaks a day, honey. And one man can only handle so many rent hikes.”
“Is that what you’re planning to do if I don’t come back? Increase Mr. Dalmasio’s rent so much that he won’t be able to afford to stay in business anymore?”
“I’m promising you that there will be trouble if you don’t set things right between us. What do I care if that dago bastard loses his shirt?”
Tasia snatched herself around and stormed back into the kitchen. Zach sat down again, looking miffed but having the good sense not to say anything. Everyone had long since stopped eating; they were looking at one another as if making bets on who would be the next to make a run for it.
Carl was still standing, so it was easy for him to summon a waitress passing by. “Excuse me, miss,” he said. “I’d like the check, please. I’m paying for everyone.” The waitress acknowledged him by raising her hand; she finished what she’d been doing and then left to accommodate him.
“You don’t have to pay for us, Mr. Kastenmeier,” Zach said. “I can cover it.”
Glowering at Zach after sitting down, Carl used his hands to straighten his suit jacket and tie. “I thought you were all going dutch,” he concluded, cutting his eyes away from Zach and addressing the women. “A bum like you surely doesn’t have much money.”
“I have money,” Zach said.
“Tasia really thinks you’re something,” Carl continued. “But she’s young and is unable to recognize a loser when she sees one. And that’s exactly what you are.”
Against all good sense, Zach couldn’t seem to resist taking a bite of his own. “You know, a formfitting shirt, a custom-made suit, and a pair of seven hundred dollar shoes doesn’t leave one exempt from flaws,” Zach concluded, pausing to take a sip of wine. “A loser’s still a loser no matter how much money he has.”
“Is that so?” Carl said. “Well, I admit that looks can be deceiving. One day things look like this, and the next they look like that.” Carl used his index finger swaying to-and-fro to emphasize the differences, and then glanced at Zach with a shrug. “One day a guy like you can have a job, and the next day he doesn’t. And guess what? Today you don’t.”
“Are you firing me?”
“That’s right. I’d wanted to speak slow enough for a moron like you to follow me.” He have Zach a toothy smile. “I guess I accomplished that.”
“Oh, I followed you just fine,” Zach said. “Asshole.” Zach didn’t seem to appreciate a conversation like that in front of his friends, but he should’ve seen it coming.
Carl raised his eyebrows. “At least I’m an asshole with a job.” He smirked at Zach. “And in time, I’ll be the asshole who has your woman, too. Now, how do you like that?”
The waitress brought the check, and Carl handed her a credit card to pay for it. “When you bring that back, I’ll write in an extra five hundred dollars just for you, honey,” he told the girl, and that revelation put a big smile on her face.
“Thank you, sir!” she said.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” he said as he watched her walk away.