I turned my head to look where Adam had been looking behind
me and saw four people, two men and two women. The younger woman had brown hair
pulled into a very Barbie-esque pony tail and was wearing a light blue cocktail
dress with jewelry that looked incredibly expensive; she was young, early
twenties at the most. The older woman had red hair that was pulled into a
severe French twist. She was wearing a paisley wrap dress with long sleeves and
a look on her face as if she smelled something sour. The younger man looked
like an All-American kind of guy and was wearing a tux. The older man was also
wearing a tux and seemed to be in his mid-thirties but his very neatly trimmed brown
beard made it hard for me to really place his age. When I turned back around I
gave Adam a questioning look and it was like he was a different person. He was
wearing a fake smile and had stood up and buttoned his jacket stiffly.
“It’s SO good to see you! I can’t believe you’re here.” I
heard the younger of the two women say.
“Let’s get some tables together. You won’t mind, of course.”
The older woman said.
“Actually, we were-” Adam said.
“Don’t be absurd, it’s not a problem. Where’s the help?” The
younger woman waved Adam off.
While a team of wait staff moved two tables on either side
of ours, Adam shook the mens’ hands and then gave the two women hugs while
everyone seemed to talk at once which made it hard for me to hear what was
going on. It was like I wasn’t even there.
“Oh, that’s a nice shade.” The younger woman said wiping my
lip stain off of Adam’s lower lip that I hadn’t noticed was there, “Surely that
was given to you from this woman you’re with. It’s a classy shade.”
Her judgmental tone hung in the air. I gave Adam a wry look
and thought to myself: Maybe it would
have been better if I’d been ignored…
Adam scrambled to introduce me to everyone.