"Alston, what's up? Are the ladies not coming?" Taylor asked impatiently, his feet drumming the floor at a fast pace.
James stared at the impatient man lazily and said. "Are you sure Lisa's coming? You're so into this girl, you barely met her."
Taylor rolled his eyes. "I can't help it."
Norman, from the other end, chuckled. "It seems to me that the ladies only want to delay to stimulate us men, am I right."
James shook his head.
"I'm not stimulated."
Travis butted in. "We know, you're an egghead."
The others laughed but James wasn't amused at all instead he was bored. The bar was boring, nothing fun was being displayed and James felt the need to leave.
"This is incredibly boring. Why is the bar so empty? There are no dancing ladies or men. I want to make fun of someone."
James sounded like a typical high school kid who derived joy in making fun of everything. But still, it felt as if it wasn't something he'd waste his precious time doing.
Finally the line connected.
"Linda, what's keeping you and the girls?" Alston shouted there was a slight crack from the network servers and a feminine voice spoke.
"The bar is closed. We thought you'd left the place."
Alston seemed to have a huge headache. He remembered that he was the one who ordered the manager to reserve this place privately for them so the sign, CLOSED, is supposed to stop anyone from entering the bar. But it had unfortunately stopped their girls from entering.
Alston slowly massaged his temples and said. "Are you girls close by?"
"Yes."
Alston sighed in relief. "Just walk into the bar, no matter the sign you see. We kinda reversed it privately so the sign should be very obvious. No one should come in, there are two celebrities with us."
Linda was amused. "Oh."
Two minutes later. Three beautiful ladies walked in. Linda, Beatrice and Yvette.
Taylor's expression fell. This was a realization that Lisa's not with them.
The ladies gathered the six men, occupying the spaces on their lap— Alston, Norman and Jeff.
James, Taylor and Travis were not interested. Actually it is just Travis and James. Taylor himself is disappointed that Lisa didn't show up as promised.
Yvette looked around. "Uh… where's the waiter?"
That's when Martin bolted out of the other room with the menu behind him. Martin had a beautiful smile on his face— just like he always does when attending to his customers.
The moment James saw this kid, his expression changed, not badly but— strangely.
He seemed to stare even longer than he was supposed to.
Martin stopped in front of their table and gently brought out the menu.
He had like three menu booklets and he gave one to Yvette, another to Beatrice and the last one—
He froze when James lazily snatched the menu booklet from his hands.
For a moment, Martin frowned but that was only a split second and he smiled warmly.
James stared at the booklet some more causing the two girls to drop their menu.
Martin would have asked why they didn't choose anything, but Yvette beat him to it.
"We'll drink whatever he wants."
When she meant "he", she was talking about James who fumbled with the menu booklet as he tried to decide.
"We'll have a beer."
Martin forced a smile and stopped himself from saying: "if it's just beer you'd root for, why waste so much time?"
Martin is not the type to watch movies, so he did not even know who the celebrity actor was amongst the male here.
Martin, as usual, remained kind as he smiled at Jame's request. He disappeared into the room.
James turned towards Alston with a smug smile and Alston couldn't help but ask.
"I hope you're not trying to make the poor waiter's life miserable. I can see the mischief in your eyes."
James smiled and said two words. "You'll see."
This "you'll see", strangely sent chills down their spines telling them that they'd have to support him.
Finally, Martin stepped into the pub, placing the beer bottles on the table. And just as Martin was letting the last bottle on the table, James suddenly whined.
"I don't want beer anymore."
Martin froze, but he recovered instantly. "What are your orders sir?"
James smiled at Martin's forced smile, his hidden frustration and his 'fake' politeness.
Then, James frowned.
"I need soup!"
It was as if a lightening had struck down making Martin completely frozen.
"Yes, I'm craving some soup, maybe a few kebabs. Add a bit of lentils, you should know how to."
The more James spoke, the more Martin's face turned ash.
After a long silence that seemed to have stretched out for eternity, Martin dropped the bombshell.
"Actually sir, we do not sell soup. We only sell drinks and meat."
James scoffed. "So what, can't you sacrifice for a customer? Go outside and get me soup!!"
Martin trembled.
'Kevin, you'd get an earful for making me go through this hell.'
Martin politely smiled and reluctantly dragged his feet out of the bar. The moment he left, James chuckled.
"See that, isn't it fun?"
Alston laughed.
"I guess you're having fun." Norman said. No one was going to say a word about James bullying the little waiter.
"So Paxton, when are you going to have your next movie shoot?"
James stared at Beatrice who had asked the question and lazily leaned over his chair.
"We're shooting in three days."
"I haven't watched the BUS advertisement of your movie. I might have missed that one." Travis said and James shrugged.
"You should see him commanding zombies with his mind. These movie edits are so dope." Taylor said that James had to chip in almost immediately.
"It's just a movie. It's not like something like this can happen in real life or can it?"
Everyone was silent and then they heard the door being pushed open.
Martin came to view with a hot piping bowl of soup. He slowly delivered the soup on the table and James smiled proudly.
He unwrapped the foil and took a small sip of the soup and his face squeezed.
"I don't like it, get me another."
Martin suddenly felt blood rush to his face in an instant. He stopped himself from cursing out loud. When Martin picked up the bowl, Alston had to intervene.
"Alright James, that's enough. You can leave the soup and the beer, I'll tip you for your services."
He dipped his hands into his pocket and brought a bunch of dollar notes only to tear out a few from it.
Martin was grateful he took the money and simply disappeared into the other room. And as he left, Martin did not miss Jame's gaze following him.
The moment he closed the door behind him, he could not stop himself from cursing out loud.
"What an ass."
Forgetting that Kevin was in the same room with him. The man was stunned as he raised his head from the computer screen.
"You're cursing?" Kevin blinked.
"You said you'd assist me. You said you'd help me out and yet you did not. Now I had to endure the torture from those rich celebrities. The worst part is that I had to endure and be nice to him."
Kevin massaged his temples as he heard Martin complain. "I'm sorry. I have a lot of work now. If you can help me oversee the account and its databases, then I'd gladly assist you."
For some reason, Kevin seemed to be serious and Martin chuckled. "No thank you."
Databases?
To hell with that. He wasn't an accountant. He did not even go to college so he did not know anything about overseeing databases.