Indelible by Jove Belle Page B

nice.”
    “You need to start confessing.” Tori left the “or else” off the end of her sentence, but Angie heard it loud and clear.
    Angie smiled at Tori and circled to the opposite end of the table as Tori gave her spiel welcoming the diners to The Cadillac. They bantered and played with the group of semi-reserved women, trying to draw them out. It was rare that a group of only women dined here, and Angie preferred to fend off grabby men than engage reticent women. She knew exactly where she stood with the louder of the two sexes. And they tipped better. With women, she was always unsure where her tip would land. If she was ever in doubt with men, she could undo another button on her shirt, but that simply didn’t work with women. Okay, not all women.
    “Do you like working here?” A young blonde looked over the top of her glasses at Angie. It seemed silly to Angie. Why wear the glasses if you didn’t need them?
    “It pays the bills.” Angie shrugged. “Do you like where you work?”
    The blonde ignored Angie’s question and asked another. “Even when men try to grab you like that?”
    Angie tried to remember someone trying to touch her in the last few minutes. She came up blank, but it happened often enough. Dodging hands was second nature for her now. “It’s not that big of a deal. Are you ready to order or should I come back in a few minutes?”
    “But do you like it?”
    Wow, she was a pushy woman. Angie seriously considered telling her to get fucked, but before the words could slip out, Tori came to her rescue.
    “She’s a lesbian, honey, what do you think?” Tori asked, and Angie was grateful for half a second until Tori kept speaking. “A lesbian who goes on dates with hot tattoo artists and then doesn’t tell her best friend how they went.”
    The table stopped talking and looked at Angie and Tori.
    “Could we not do this now?” Angie offered Tori a saccharine smile. “I’m sure these women are ready to order.”
    “No, this is interesting.” The blonde made a keep-going gesture. “We’ll wait until you’re done.”
    Christ, Angie did not want to have this conversation like this. “It was one date, not dates, with one tattoo artist. And I told you, it was nice.” She started to leave.
    “Nice? Well, that doesn’t say anything at all, does it?” another woman at the table speculated.
    “No, I didn’t think so either,” Tori said.
    “I will get you for this.” Angie chewed off each word. Tori was officially on her list.
    “I don’t doubt it.” Tori smiled a little too big and Angie shook her head. Her friend was truly irritating at times.
    “We had dinner at her place. She fixed lasagna.”
    Yet another woman chimed in. “Ooh, she cooked? I love it when they do that.”
    A fourth woman giggled. “Did she light candles? Candlelight has the strangest effect on my clothes. They just fall right off. It’s the damnedest thing.”
    “What about music?”
    Tori high-fived the two women who spoke up. “Good questions.” She crossed her arms and looked at Angie. “Well?”
    “Yes, there were candles. No, they didn’t make my clothes fall off. And we listened to Al Green.” She didn’t point out that she had selected the music. She wanted the inquisition to be over as quickly as possible. “Now, who wants to eat?”
    As the women ordered, Angie’s nerves calmed. She was still unsure how she felt about her date with Luna. She didn’t want to have an affair with no hope of real commitment, and even though Luna seemed to offer more, was she capable of keeping that kind of promise?
    They finished up, and as Angie made the rounds at her own tables she pondered the first woman’s question. Did she like working at The Cadillac? Angie did what she needed to take care of Oliver. Work was a means to an end. She needed money; this is how she earned it. In truth, she would like to do a hundred other things for work instead of wait tables, but until she finished her degree years