Page 54 of Love Unavoidable
Chapter 14
ethan
The server sets the bill down on the table a few moments after Sadie leaves to use the restroom. I slip my credit card in the folio without looking at the bill. “I’ll be right back,” I tell the server. I’m worried because Sadie has been in the restroom for over five minutes.
I get to the women’s restroom entrance right as someone else is coming out. “Is there anyone else in there?” I ask her. She shakes her head, no. I push open the door gently.
“Sadie?”
Nothing.
“Sadie, you in here?”
Nothing.
I peek under the stalls, no feet. Not that there would be a lot of places to hide, there are only two stalls and a sink area.
Maybe I passed her on my way back here.
I pass the server as I’m heading back to the table. I can already see that Sadie is not there.
“Hey,” I ask her. “Did you happen to see where my friend went?”
“She left.”
“Left?”
“Yes. Drove away. Left.”
“Huh, okay.”
“And, I’m sorry, but your card didn’t go through, maybe you have another one that I can try?”
“What?” I ask. “My card didn’t go through for a couple beers and some wine?” I take the folio from her and open it. Scanning the bill as I read toward the total.
Five hundred thirty-one dollars and sixty-five cents.
“There must be some mistake. We just got beer and wine. The other guy paid for the meals.”
“No mistake, sir, if you look here.” She points out the two separate line items. “This is just for the beer and wine.”
Beer: fifteen dollars plus tax.
Wine: four hundred seventy-five dollars plus tax.
Wine that was opened and Sadie poured into two glasses, then ditched me with the bill for. And, apparently, I don’t have five hundred dollars available credit on my card.
I am going to kill her.
“Uh, shit, okay. Sorry about that. Here try this one.” I hand her another card, now thoroughly embarrassed. I hate playing the credit card Russian roulette game to see which one goes through. Now the server knows she stood me up and that I’m broke. I sit heavily at the table and laugh, bitterly. It’s really all I can do at this point. How I have managed to mess up my life so epically in the last month is beyond me.
The server returns with the credit card slip for me to sign. Thank god this one went through. And thank god payday is coming up. I sign the slip and leave without even tasting the wine.
* * *
Not wanting to go home without knowing if Sadie is there, I call Brad and stop by his and Kat’s house instead.
“So, let me get this straight,” Kat says laughing. She horned her way in on our conversation and refused to leave without hearing the story. “You didn’t get either girl, you didn’t get laid, and you got stuck with the bill for the hella expensive wine no one drank.”
