Page 43 of Fair Play
BILLIE: Well, I hope the tips are as generous as everyone says. I followed a waitress named Trixie tonight, and she said she made almost seven hundred last Saturday! I mean, that’s insane unless you’re a stripper.
ATHENA: LOL Well, there are a lot of factors. First, L.A. is so expensive, you’re almost never going to have a table that spends less than $150. Twenty percent is thirty bucks. Then there’s the quantity of tables because there’s always a wait. I mean, how many did she turn over tonight?
BILLIE: Quite a few. One group spent $600 and left her a hundred bucks. I’m sure that’s the exception but still. She made a fuck-ton of money. And it’s not even Saturday.
ATHENA: Did Nita tell you about her plan to unveil a high-end but casual Sunday brunch?
BILLIE: She mentioned it. If I can work Friday and Saturday nights, and then Sunday brunch, I could have the whole week free to study and go to class.
ATHENA: Don’t overdo it, girlfriend. Working hard is admirable, I’m the last person to say otherwise, but you need to take time for yourself too.
BILLIE: When I’m done with school, I’m going to party like it’s 1999.
ATHENA: Wow. A Prince reference—I didn’t think your generation was into Prince.
BILLIE: Every generation should be into Prince. That’s like saying there’s a generation that isn’t into Led Zeppelin.
ATHENA: Touche.
BILLIE: Okay, I need to do some reading before I crash.
ATHENA: You want to come to the house for brunch on Sunday?
BILLIE: I’m off until Wednesday. Nita’s starting me out slowly so I’m free.
ATHENA: Then come for brunch. I told Mom all about you.
I pause.
BILLIE: You didn’t tell her about me and Rome, did you?
ATHENA: Technically, I don’t KNOW anything.
BILLIE: I told you we went skating.
ATHENA: And?
BILLIE: There was a kiss.
ATHENA: A good kiss?
BILLIE: A very good kiss. But nothing else. We’re going slow.
ATHENA: That’s smart. So…you like him?
BILLIE: I do, but please be careful not to say anything. We’re keeping everything casual and on the down low until the season is over. There’s too much up in the air to risk Bodi getting wind of it and fucking things up. It could impact the team.
ATHENA: So… what does casual and on the down low mean? Are you dating? Like, dating-dating? Or just having sex?
BILLIE: We’ve gone on two dates. The first was me asking him to go with me to the diner to check it out. So it was like, dating-lite. The next day I asked him to go with me while I figured out if I remember how to skate. Neither one of those were date-dates.
ATHENA: I would call them date-dates. Of course, no one has ever taken me skating…
BILLIE: Maybe you’re dating the wrong guys.
ATHENA: Definitely. I keep hoping someone on the Phantoms will ask me out, but the only one who flirts with me is Connor Brooks. All twenty years old of him.
BILLIE: Come on, you can be a cougar.
