Royalty

Four

"Harry Styles! How are you, honey? Come here!" Filomena exclaimed as she saw me walk into the restaurant.

I smoothed my hair that was styled upwards as I walked towards the older Italian woman, "Hi, Mrs. di Lorenzo. It's good to see you."

"Sweetie, how many times do I need to tell you that you can call me Filomena? Now look at you! You're all dressed nicely. Did Isabella convince you to serve tonight?" she held onto my arms as she looked at me.

"Yes she did. But it's no problem. I enjoy it," I flashed her a reassuring smile and she grinned.

"You are so sweet, Harry. I wish you and Isabella stayed together." She lowered her voice into a whisper as she looked around, "And between you and me, I like you a lot better than the new guy she had dated."

If only she knew that Izzy and I were never a couple. We only said that we were so her dad would let me work here. I'm pretty sure if Vincent knew Izzy and I used to be "friends with benefits," sometimes fucking in the back room here, there is no way he would've given me a job. Even Ronnie tried telling him to not give me the job because he knew what was going on between Izzy and I. But of course, Izzy, being the daddy's girl that she is, got her way.

I looked at Filomena and whispered back, "I'll keep that secret for you."

She laughed as I gave her a wink before walking into the restaurant office. I walked to the back near the employees' room and grabbed one of the small waist aprons. I stuffed the pockets with a pen and notepad, and pinned Marco's nametag on my shirt. Because I didn't actually work as a waiter, I didn't have my own nametag. Some people who came here often would comment on my use of different tags and tell me they thought I was entertaining. I suppose that's a compliment.

Walking towards the dining area, Isabella spotted me from her seat at the hostess's table.

"Damn, Styles! You clean up well," she smirked as she bit her lip. "I would just love to f-"

"Isabella! This is a nice restaurant! Shut your mouth!" I half scolded, half laughed.

"Hey, I'll say what I want," she said with a hint of sass in her voice.

"Whatever. Which tables do I have?"

"Hmm," she looked over the layout of the dining area on her laminated sheet of paper. "You have tables six through ten. Left side."

"Got it. Thanks," I turned on my heel and headed into the dining room towards my section.

I got to the first few tables and started taking orders, bringing the orders to the kitchen, serving their food, and keeping them entertained with my "charm," as one diner put it. Sometimes I enjoyed this job because it was easy for me to converse with all of the people that came in. I would consider myself to be pretty charismatic, so I enjoyed talking with everyone who came in. The friendlier I was, the higher the tip people would leave. 

I walked in the back room for a quick break, grabbing a water bottle and sitting on the couch in the room. Before I was able to get remotely comfortable, Xander came waltzing in.

"What's up, bro?" he grinned as he sat down beside me.

"What are you doing back here?" I asked, watching him grab my water from me.

He shrugged his shoulders and took a sip, "I came to see Isabella, but she told me to come back here and see you."

"What? Weird."

"Yeah, whatever. Do you think I can get her to agree to come out with me tonight?" 

"That depends what you have planned, tiger."