Best Served Fake

twenty-eight // lena montez

"I don't know how to tell you this," said Madeleine, when I arrived at work on Sunday night.

Kai had dropped me off after we spent the day hanging out with Will and Isabelle, playing Mario Kart at his house and complaining when Izzy won every single game and proceeded to crow over her "general superiority". I was smiling when I'd walked into work, buoyant with the feeling of having friends and exacting revenge, but I felt the expression slip off my face in response to Madi's pinched frown.

"How to tell me what?"

Madi played with the hem of her skirt in an uncharacteristic display of nervousness. "There's a booking for tonight under Aster."

"Here?"

Madi nodded.

"Huh."

My ex-boyfriend was so butthurt that I kissed Kai Delaney and subjected him to deserved public humiliation that he was willing to take his new date out to the restaurant where I worked? I didn't always work Sundays; I wonder if Tommy knew I was supposed to work tonight, if he really wanted to flaunt his new relationship under my nose. It seemed counterproductive to his mission of winning me back, but perhaps that was just my opinion. I wouldn't have thought it was a hot take, though.

Madi was wincing. She seemed to be waiting for my response—whether it be screaming or crying or melting his face off with a vat of acid—with trepidation. "Valerie?"

"Huh," was all I said.

Madi grabbed my hand and squeezed it. "If you can't be here, I understand. I can cover you."

I looked sceptically at our surroundings. There were empty trays of dishes piled behind the bar—evidence of a busy lunch shift—and too many tables for Madi to wait on her own. It wasn't busy; Madi could easily wait the tables while I did the dishes, but to do the shift on her own would mean a late night. She'd be here until after midnight doing close.

She followed my look. "I can make it work. I could call Cole; he'd help out, probably. You don't have to be here."

"It's fine," I said, rounding her and dropping my stuff off behind the counter. "I'm here to work, and I'll work."

She looked reluctant, but acquiesced to my stubbornness.

I was buoyed by spending a day with people I liked; people who seemed to like me, even if I was only in their life by circumstance, and not because they'd picked me. And Tommy Aster seemed to matter a little bit less every day. It's not like this was unexpected; Cole told me that Tommy had accepted his proposition.

Madeleine, poised besides me, pulled a tray from the dishwasher with a ferocity that would've smashed the glasses, if I didn't place a warning hand on her arm. "Uh, Mads. Do you need to go home?"

She blinked at me. "But if I went home, I couldn't poke his eyeballs out."

"Which would save you from a lawsuit."

Madi pouted. "What's the point of having money if you don't use it to hire a really good lawyer after a well-deserved eyeball removal?" I levelled her with a meaningful stare, and she sighed. "Fine. I can exact revenge in other ways."

"That's what the whole Kai thing is for. That's what this date is for. Remember?"

"I want to get my own personal revenge," she sighed dreamily, looking at the wall with unfocused eyes and a vacant smile. "I can imagine the screams."

"I think you might need to use that money for therapy."

"I'm very well-adjusted."

"Sure, you are."