Billy chuckled, not the least bit worried about Levi. “Yeah, me and the whole damn town. If I don’t grab a piece first thing in the morning, I’ll never get one.”
“I’ll always save one for you,” I told him honestly. “You let me know if you want one and can’t make it in and I’ll set one aside, yeah?”
His eyes glazed over with adoration. “Thanks, darlin’.”
“Anytime.” I handed him his pie and took his money.
“Keep the change,” he told me.
I winked at him and watched him leave, a smile never leaving my face. As soon as the bells had finished jingling and Billy was safely beyond hearing range, I leaned in front of Levi and snapped. “Don’t you ever get in the way of one of my tips again.”
God, it felt good to have a reason to be angry with him. The whole trying to be friends and polite and nice and normal between us didn’t feel right. I’d been unbalanced all week because of it.
I knew how to fight with Levi. And I knew how to ignore him. I had no clue how to be friends with him. So, no matter how hard I tried to treat him like I treated everyone else, I could never fully settle into this new role.
To be honest though, on a self-respect level, I appreciated Levi’s righteous anger. I did not love having my ass ogled for hours on end. And I really didn’t love sucking up to old men that thought they had the right to undress me with their eyes just because I was their waitress and happened to be female.
But it came with the territory. More than I wanted these old men to respect me, I wanted them to pay me well for the job I worked hard at. I wanted to be able to afford groceries and gas and the other hundred things Max needed daily.
I wasn’t super proud of that set of beliefs, but I also knew my place in life. I was the girl from the trailer park. The girl from the wrong side of the tracks. I was the single mom barely surviving paycheck to paycheck. I didn’t get to stand up for myself at the expense of losing money.
“He was staring at your ass, Ruby. That’s not okay,” Levi shot back, not even an ounce repentant.
Leaning closer, I dropped my voice, so the rest of the itchy-eared customers couldn’t hear. “He always stares at my ass, Levi.” I opened the black booklet, holding his payment. Flashing the twenty-dollar bill at him, I said, “But he’s a hell of a good tipper. And he’s not doing any real harm. You on the other hand are messing with things you have no business messing with. Billy could squish you. Next time stay out of it.”
His jaw flexed, a muscle popping near his ear. “You really think that overweight old man could take me?”
I leveled him with an annoyed look. “He’d crush that pretty face of yours and then you’d have to rely on your brains to get you through life. And we both know that would end in tragedy.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, but he managed to keep a straight face. “You don’t have to take that. No matter what he tips. You’re worth so much more than a good tip.”
A lump that came out of nowhere lodged itself right in my throat and I struggled to swallow around it. Levi’s gaze was so intense, so sincere. His green eyes were ablaze with his conviction. He believed that. He truly believed I was better than sitting there, letting a man ogle my ass, just because he was going to give me a good tip.
Even saying it in my head shed light on how stupid it was. I knew I was better than that. Deep down. And it would be one thing if I didn’t know Billy was doing it. The man was free to let his eyes roam wherever they pleased.
But it wasn’t just the ogling. It was the occasional hand settled too low on my back when I refilled his coffee. And the disrespectful comments he’d offer as compliments. Billy and a dozen other men that came in regularly got away with a lot because nobody that worked here could afford to tell them to stop.
Me included.
Especially me.
Levi’s outrage felt good. And it also felt awful. Because I didn’t get the luxury of self-respect. All of humanity could cry out against how unfairly women were treated. But whistle blowing was an upper-class privilege. Speaking out was for people who could afford to lose their job, who didn’t have little mouths to feed. Standing up for what was right was for women with a safety net.
I was in the class of people that had to eat shit and smile.
“Thanks for your kind words, Levi.” I reached for a bussing rag and started scrubbing at nonexistent spots on the counter. “But my paychecks say differently.”
“Ruby—”
“Go find a seat, please. I’ll bring you some coffee in a minute.”
“Ruby—” he snapped more firmly.
I lifted my eyes and glared at him. “Levi, I am working. Please sit down and I will be over in a minute.”
His jaw moved back and forth, his teeth grinding together. For Christmas I was going to buy him a bite guard. His teeth were too perfect to crack.
As he gave me his back and stalked off to a corner booth, I had the strongest memory of him in middle school, a mouth full of braces and his arms and legs too long for his body.
