Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
The bell dings.
“Order up!”
I take out the dish I’ve been waiting on, chewing on Erick’s words. Even though the dish is late, the young man who ordered it smiles at me, his eyes lingering a touch too long on mine as he thanks me.
The next table I serve, all I see are horny eyes as they give their orders. One man asks me six different questions about six different dishes, and I start to suspect he doesn’t give a flying scallop about the answers; he just wants to keep me by the table attending to him as long as humanly possible. His four friends reap the benefits as they pretend to listen, eating me up with their eyes.
I tap my fingers on a screen. I mistype the order and have to do it over again. The register pops open.
Money in, money out.
Life’s a lot easier when you’re pretty.
A couple hours later, I’m on my break, standing at the edge of the boardwalk with the chaos of the restaurant at my back and nothing but crashing waves and salty breeze ahead. My blood has started to boil as I try to shake those damned words out of my head.
I hate being seen through the same lens by everyone. I’m just a pretty boy. The dumb hunk with no brains. Like all I have to offer society is eye candy and one hot night.
Sometimes, I can’t stand this island.
“Bro, you’re overthinking it,” says my younger brother Kent when his shift ends and he joins me on the pier. We both work here on the Quicksilver Strand. He’s at the Blue Coral Bakery spinning funnel cakes all day. He happens to be my fraternal twin, but with half the muscle mass, twice the attitude, and a mess of bleach-tipped hair atop his head. His uniform consists of tight sailor pants and a striped shirt that clings to everything he’s got, completed with a cap which he’s taken off. The nautical theme on this side of the island is nauseating at times, but it brings in the tourists—and the money. “Erick’s just teasing you. Calm down.”
“I work hard for what I have, don’t I? I wasn’t handed my condo on the north pier. I earned it. And I’m not just handed all of my tips here at Thalassa. I work damn hard.”
“Actually, you kinda are handed them,” he mumbles.
I snap my eyes to his. “The hell you mean?”
“You think you’re tipped because of your ‘honest work and diligence’? C’mon, Adrian, even you’re not that naïve. Guys tip you because they want to get in your pants.”
Just when I thought I calmed down. “No, they don’t.”
“Yeah, they do.”
“Fuck you, Kent, no, they don’t.” When he rolls his eyes, I stiffen up. “When I take my guests’ orders, I always smile, no matter what. I tell them all of our specials. I show them the wine list and suggest good pairings. If someone has an issue, I make it right so it doesn’t go to the manager. I even check up on my guests multiple times, which is way more than the other servers do. I’m a hard-ass worker.”
“Or you just have a hard ass.”
“I swear, dude …”
“I know Erick doesn’t get tipped like you do, and he’s just as attentive to his guests as you are.”
“He can’t pronounce the names of half the wines!”
“Or Jon, who also does everything you do …”
“Jon with the eyes?? His stare is too intense! It scares away the customers!”
“You’ve got an excuse for everything, huh?”
“I am not handed my tips just because of my looks,” I snap, doubling down. “People come to Thalassa and ask to sit in my section because of my … my excellent service.”
Kent faces me. “Look, I’m not trying to start another one of our fights here …”
“Yeah, you are,” I fire back.
“… but I’m the one who grew up with you. Not Brett, who got away from here as fast as he could to marry some snob who hated getting sand between her toes. Not little Skipper, who was barely old enough to remember Dad leaving. I’m the one who watched all of our teachers favor you, no matter how bad your grades were. I watched you bring home a different boy every single weekend, hot boys whose attentions I couldn’t dream of capturing—boys whose hearts I knew would be broken by Monday. I love you, Adrian, but damn, you’ve got to have at least some perspective of what the world’s like for the rest of us.”
I stare at him in disbelief. “Really? This, coming from the guy who literally just found the love of his life?”
“And maybe someday far, far from now … that could be you, too.”
“You kidding?” His words nearly make me growl. “I’ve seen what love does. Look what it did to our parents. Mom and Dad couldn’t get farther away from each other. What it does to Finn, who’s driven crazy by his boyfriend every day. Of course I don’t believe in it. It’s just a stupid word used to sell anniversary cards and … and Valentines.”