Scandalous Scotsman - M.J. Fields Page 0,15
walks out and looks right at me.
“A moment, Ms. Bloom?”
“Is everything okay with your food?”
“Of course.” I reach for her elbow, and she steps back. “Ms. Bloom.”
She hobbles past me and out the front door, and like an idiot, I follow her outside and around the corner where she turns in place, hands on her hips, and immediately starts in.
“Do you know how I pay my bills, Dr. Stewart?”
“Do ye ken ye shouldn’t even be working yet, Ms. Bloom?”
“Not that it’s any of your business—”
“Ye’re my patient —”
“And I’m perfectly capable of working and handling comments from drunk men flirting—”
“Drunk men who ye shouldn’t be serving if ye ken they’re drunk and driving.”
“All of whom are adults and, like me”— she pokes herself in the chest like she’s dotting an exclamation mark— “are capable of making decisions. All who are monthly guests at The Oasis and who take cabs or Uber their grown asses home.”
Well, shit.
“You, Dr. Stewart, are clearly new to this monthly gathering, so maybe you should sit back and observe how it’s done.” She steps around me. “And for the love of wine and Ben and Jerry’s, pull the stick out of your ass before you cause me to walk out of here with a shitty tip.”
Almost Saturday
Lizzie
Sitting next to Shirley as she cashes me out at the end of my shifts, I lean back and set my leg on the empty chair beside me.
“You ran your butt off today and tonight. I hope it’s worth it. You’re going to be sore tomorrow,” she says as she clicks away on the calculator.
“I made more in my first shift than I have in years, with the added gratuity from the docs’ tip. I’m sure it’s well worth it,” I say, stretching my neck.
She laughs. “They also left a whole pile of cash.”
I jerk forward and look at her. “What?”
“The sexy new Scot left a cash tip, and when that frustrating ass told him it was included, he threw another twenty on the table. I’m assuming it was just to spite him.”
Another twenty, I think as I calculate my earnings for today and realize now I can call the cable company and tell them to turn the internet back on instead of waiting until my first paycheck.
“No more streaming Jamie from my phone to my TV!” I throw a fist in the air.
Shirley laughs. “Lizzie, you need to find another fictional boyfriend. I’ve given you dozens of recommendations since I introduced you to Jamie Fraser.”
“Reading that series was amazing but watching him in action is a whole other experience. And it is, every time.”
She laughs as she counts the cash then separates it into two piles … again.
“If I wasn’t exhausted, I’d go home and turn him on straight away.”
“Unbelievable,” she whispers as she counts the pile again.
“Please, for the love of wine and all things internet, don’t tell me I’m short.”
She shakes her head and counts one last time. “Not short, Lizzie, and I knew when I cleared the table that each man at that table had followed the Scot’s lead, but …”
“But what?” I ask, eyeing the pile.
“You made over five hundred dollars in cash tips this evening.”
“I— what?” I yell, then take it down a notch. “Don’t toy with me, Shirley.”
“Do I look like a woman who would mess with another’s money, wine, internet, or fictional obsessions?”
She doesn’t.
But she keeps trying to replace poor Jamie.
“And another two hundred in the already added gratuity.”
“Split that between the bussers, and we split the rest of it,” I tell her.
She shakes her head. “Their cut is already figured in, and I’m salary.”
I nod. “And you went above and beyond helping me today.”
“That’s because out of the thirty employees I have to deal with on a daily basis, no one brings the magic like you do.”
“Adrenaline is amazing.” I laugh as I remove the boot and see how swollen my ankle is. “Nine hours and nine hundred dollars.” I laugh again as I take off the rest of my clothes and then sink into a full, steaming hot bath, carefully lifting my leg to rest it on the lip of the tub.
Reaching down to grab the glass of wine that I set on the floor from the new bottle, not box, I’d grabbed at the grocery store when I stopped after work, feeling like a hundred-aire after the magical money that I made tonight to buy a bath bomb— another splurge— so I could soak in a full, hot bath.