Hired To Love

Chapter Three

Henley

"Hey, does the last name Calloway ring any bells for you?" I asked Ariana, exactly one week after the whole restaurant fiasco. We were currently at my other part-time job, a coffee shop aptly named Coffee House.

Ariana was, decidedly, my best friend. She may have filled that role solely because I didn't have any other friends and we worked together a good portion of the week, but I was more than content with her. She was cute and friendly and an all-around good girl. The type of person everyone needed in his or her life.

"If I answer that will you fishtail my hair for me?" she responded, pointing at her dark hair tied up in a messy bun on the top of her head. "I was already late for work and couldn't really do anything with it."

"Fine, fine, sit down."

Ariana cheerfully took a seat on one of the stools lining the countertop. Fortunately, the coffee shop was pretty dead, as it usually was in the afternoon, so I had plenty of time to fix her hair up. "I'm actually worried that you don't recognize the name," she said to me. "Although, you do live under a rock most of the time."

I tugged on her hair a little harder than I had to. "Is he an actor?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Uh, he kind of looks like one."

She whipped her head around to face me. I quickly let go of her hair so I wouldn't pull it. "You saw him?" she exclaimed.

"Careful, and yeah, he was that guy I told you about at Michelangelo's the other night. Who is he?"

"Think about his name carefully for a moment," she replied, looking forward again. She gestured for me to finish the braid. "You haven't seen it anywhere?"

I pursed my lips, rolling a hair tie off my wrist so I could lock the braid in place. "No. I can't remember. That's why I'm asking you."

"Remember your twenty-first birthday?"

As it was a night to remember, I nodded.

"Do you remember where we stayed?"

"That hotel near the casino," I answered.

She turned around to look at me again and nodded. "And what was that hotel called?"

"Calloway Express. But why..." The connection took a moment. My jaw nearly dropped. It explained so much. Me being supposed to know who he was, his attitude, the fanciness, the ten thousand dollar tip. "Oh man."

"Seems like you recognize it." She giggled.

"Ah geez, no wonder why he knew so much about average customer times," I mumbled. The restaurants at the Calloway hotels were a hell of a lot more extravagant than Michelangelo's. Bennett probably ran some of them too. But why had he been dining at Michelangelo's anyway? Surely he got free meals at his own restaurants. "It's going to be hard to track him down."

"You want to find him? Why?"

"Well, the thing is..." I pulled out the receipt from that night and handed it to her. I'd kept it because I knew Bennett had been way drunk when he wrote it and it didn't feel right just taking the money. It sat in my bank account, untouched. I wanted to return it.

Ariana's jaw dropped as she saw the tip amount. "Wow, he must've really liked you! What's with the random forty-three cents and that weird note? He wants you to be his girlfriend? You didn't say you two were flirty-flirty. What exactly happened again? You should definitely call him. And you should get me a job at your work."

I shook my head. "No way. I couldn't let someone like you work there. You'd be eaten alive."

"What's that supposed to mean?"