Another catering night with Angie

This one was at a graduation party. It was just Angie and me this time. Way less people.

Somebody was so impressed with the food at Angie's cousin's and their son just graduated from college and the parents hire Angie to cater a party for their son.

The family that hired Angie was a pretty rich and really conservative family. You could just tell by the house. Well, I could tell anyhow. I recognized books on shelves. And what magazines were on coffee tables.

These people were clearly the family values voters. Poor people are lazy, women are better off staying home and raising children, AIDS is a problem that's going to solve itself, etc. White people excel because of hard work and thriftiness. There's no such thing as exploitation.

If you grew up in the southern conservative Bible belt, you've heard this trash loud and clear your whole life.

I wondered what would Angie do if they said, "hey don't bring any gay waiters to work our party."

What would she do? Would she comply? She'd lose Jake and McCall. They're so good together. There's others, but it would feel weird.

I honestly think Angie would either drop the customer or just lie to their face. I could see Angie saying she doesn't trust gay people to tell the truth so she doesn't work with them. And then charging the client double.

Is lying the same as complying? I don't know. Sometimes you gotta balance what you believe is right to do with doing what you need to do to survive.

I can imagine somebody judging her. Somebody that's comfortable.

I can hear somebody posturing for the crowd and saying that when she does anything except the bravest, most noble, most dangerous thing, she's complicit.

Anyhow, I don't even know if this situation came up. Just my active imagination.

It's funny, when I look back on when I first met Angie, I remember how she was crazy intimidating. She seems to know about everything cool and knows everybody everywhere.

I realized right away there was no point -- absolutely no point -- in trying to impress her with my worldly knowledge. I'd always feel like a stupid kid around her.

For whatever reason, I decided just to embrace it. Like, give myself permission to not know everything when I'm around her. After I did that, I didn't get intimidated. I didn't need to try to act cool.

It's nice to know now that I can always ask her what the hell a particular sauce is, or how to present champagne again, or whatever.

And it was all in my head too. It wasn't like she challenged me. She is totally approachable and unassuming.

At the same time, Angie is so relatable to me and to most anybody else.

But her other persona can be pretty scary.

I saw it one busy night when she was bartending. A pushy customer was acting like a real ass, trying to get her attention, despite the fact that the bar was crowded shoulder to shoulder.

I was there at the bar punching in orders from my tables and watched it all play out.

The guy didn't seem to realize he needed to wait his turn. He kept shouting his order. Other diners were even giving him dirty looks.

After a minute, she turned to him, asked him to repeat his order. Some wine. And then she said, loudly enough for his date and quite a few other nearby strangers to hear, "Oh, do you mean..." and she made it clear he wasn't pronouncing the name correctly.

It was savage to see how fast his face fell. He cowered like a scared puppy. His date stepped away and pulled her hand off his back.

And then in an instant, Angie smiled really sweetly at the dude, erasing the malice from a moment before, and she turned to get his drink.

I watched this interaction from the side, and in the mirror I could see his face, while I could also directly see Angie's face.

I don't know how I would have handled the situation if I were bartending that night. Probably just done my best to get to him when I could.

I've been doing this for a while too, and I know actually I have my own style for dealing with unhappy diners too, and maybe, in some cases, my approach is better. Like tonight, Angie maybe belittled that guy, but I don't know if he would be very generous after that experience.

So, she got in the cutting remark, but if I were working there, I would have just grit my teeth. I would have my fist around the towel on my apron and gotten through it.

Her way makes for a better story. My way earns more money. And really, I can take the stress. Sure, it sucks in the moment, but an hour or two later, I've forgotten about the asshole.

That's what it takes for me to survive at this job: blanking out my memory. Or in more positive terms, not getting hung up the unpleasant stuff. Minimize the amount of attention it gets.

I wonder though. Am I really forgetting about it all? Or is something secretly, silently growing inside me? Maybe.

Probably.

It turned out that the graduate is the youngest brother in the family.

One of the older brothers got interested in Angie, and wouldn't leave her alone.

Angie was caught. Normally she would scold somebody. But in this context, because she's trying to build up her catering biz, she has to put up with it, and it isn't in her nature.

Did this asshole feel entitled to harass her because his parents had hired Angie to cater the party?

The first thing I noticed was him talking to her and drinking one beer after another while she was in the kitchen.

He leered at her while she leaned over to put a tray of into an oven. Sure, Angie is cute, but she's not here for that.

And it got worse from there. I saw him with his arm around her waist later while she plated up main courses.

He knew she had to put up with him because his family was paying for her to be there.

There was a moment after dessert when I saw the guy watch Angie move around the dining room picking up plates. Once she went into the kitchen, he went after her.

I looked around the dining room. I reminded myself that tonight is just me and Angie. There wasn't another waiter I could tell I was stepping out for a moment to cover for me.

I don't know why I said it, but I walked to the host and said, "pardon me sir, Angie and I will right back" and I walked past him and straight into the kitchen.

When I was in the dining room I worried that something bad might happen.

Once I got into the kitchen I saw Angie leaning against the wall and the guy is close to her and had his hands on the wall around her.

I couldn't understand Angie's face. She wasn't smiling at him.

It happened so fast. I kept walking toward them. I owed her that. Everything about the situation felt wrong.

I couldn't understand what he was saying to her.

I got closer. I said "Hey, man, it's not happening." It was the first thing I thought to say. It came out clumsy. Not macho at all.

I looked at Angie's face. Was she scared? Did I break something up? She wasn't smiling at me.

But he heard me. He turned and walked toward me. I was already standing still. I had my hands out and low and turned palms toward him.

And the guy looked really red and got really angry. I figure now it was because he knew what I thought of him.

He got closer to me. It was unnerving. He stared in my face. He was a strong looking guy. I wondered what he would do.

Angie was standing right here. If he attacked me, I'd call the police and he'd go to jail.

Just a minute ago, he was staring at Angie looking like he wanted to push her into a bathroom maybe.

So I stepped in. Now I wondered if I had just ruined Angie's business out of some misguided desire to help my friend.

In a neighborhood like this, the parents would be mortified if police showed up. This guy knows all this too. For a moment, I had the advantage.

At first when he got up close to me, I realized I was staring back at him, and that would make him more angry. I looked over his shoulder.

A thought flashed through my mind. I can take a punch from this guy. I can take a few.

I looked down to the floor. I said, "We have work to do." I realized I was almost whispering.

I probably sounded scared. That must have been what he hoped for. I was woozy.

He stepped closer. I looked up at his face again. He stared. But I could tell he didn't know what to do either. This wasn't a frat party where there was a script for him to follow.

I looked away again. This was going to end. He wasn't going to bother Angie any more. I got done what I wanted to do. Anything that happens next doesn't matter.

Then I said, "excuse me sir, but we need to get back to work." Again almost whispering. I could hear my shaky voice while I said it.

But really, while I was physically trembling, I felt kinda cold inside my body.

In a minute, he turned and walked away. He walked out of the back door. I think he might have left. We didn't see him again anyway.

On the drive home, I felt like I had made a mess. I felt like I ruined her whole business. Even though in the moment I really thought I was doing the right thing.

I kept replaying the night in my mind. Should I have stayed out of it? Should I have done something else?

If I were physically dominating, this situation would have never happened. The guy would never have even moved in on Angie.

Maybe there was a way I could have handled it without the guy getting angry.

Angie hadn't said much for the rest of the night. She mostly stayed in the kitchen after that while I served the rest of the food. She had everything cleaned and packed up.

Then as we got off the freeway, and got back to our neighborhood, she said, "You OK?"

I said, "Me? Yeah, I'm fine. You worried about me?"

She didn't answer. Then after a few ugly silent moments, I said, "Did I imagine it? He seemed like he was getting more aggressive as the night went on and I didn't like it."

Angie said, "I worried about you getting hurt! You didn't have to get involved."

I glanced at her. Streetlights and other headlights shined different colors and shades on her face, making her makeup appear and disappear.

Then I looked back out on the road. I said, "I just started getting a really bad feeling when that guy followed you out of the dining room. What came out of my mouth was stupid."

Maybe I misread the situation.

On the other hand I remember earlier in the night.

I wanted to know what I should have done. If I should have let her handle it. Or I should have stepped in.

She said, "I'd been avoiding that guy all night. I kept hoping that he'd lose interest. Or somebody in his family would do something.

"But they never did. I figured I'd just get through the night and then get the fuck out of there."

We drove more without talking.

Then she said, "Glad you were there."

I said I felt like an asshole. Maybe I busted up something.

Angie said in a wistful voice, "no, he really wasn't my type."

The rest of the ride back was quiet.

Reader Feedback

When I went back and read it, I found that the beginning takes too long to get to the point.

Ksenia said in dialog, people rarely say exactly what they mean and more hint about it.

She said I should read a book called Dialogue by Robert McKee. I added it to my hold list.

She read a scene from a Cormack McCarthy book, The Road, where a boy asks his father what he will do if he dies.

Her point was that instead of the waiter saying, "It's not going to happen" he might say something else. Something more indirect perhaps.

She said dialog needs to involve a back and forth.

Then I read the story again in the story luck group. Dan and Carolyn were there. They both said the plot was confusing. The ending was unsatisfying as well.

Still, I feel happy with the first draft.