Nic Tatano - The Empire State Cat’s Christmas Gift

“Socks seemed to really like being in the office instead of at home by herself during the day. And my law intern is keeping her company in the evening. She already sleeps at night. You sure I can bring her home on the weekends?”

“Of course. You can’t leave her in the office and she’ll love playing with Bumper again. And my cat will be thrilled. You sure you don’t want to leave her with me full time?”

“She’d miss me too much.”

Rory rolled her eyes. “Wait for it…”

“Fine,” said Tish. “And I’d miss her too much.”

A young brunette waitress arrived at the table with a water jug and filled their glasses. She pulled an order pad from her apron. “Good evening, ladies. Can I start you off with something from the bar?”

Tish nodded. “Big bottle of bourbon. No glass.”

The waitress laughed. “I’m sorry, but we don’t allow drinking right from the bottle. Though I could wrap it in a brown paper bag and you could go out back.”

“Then a nice chilled bottle of Pinot Grigio with four glasses please.”

“Sure.” She wrote down the order. “Let me tell you about our specials this evening. Tonight our chef has prepared—”

“Hey! Waitress!” The man at a table in the middle of the room interrupted her, waving frantically while looking angry. He pointed at her. “You! Right now!”

The waitress turned and her face dropped. “Excuse me a minute. We have a problem customer at one of my tables and I need to deal with him.”

Spencer and Ariel stopped eating as the portly middle-aged bald guy at the next table was making a scene chewing out the young waitress. The eating in the entire restaurant had stopped, as everyone was watching the man.

“I ordered the steak well done, and it was medium! Can’t you people get anything right?”

The waitress was shaking a bit. “Sir, if you’d told me that when I brought it to you, I could have sent it back to the chef—”

“You should have checked it before you brought it out, you stupid bitch!”

Spencer threw down his napkin. “Okay, that’s it.” He stood up and approached the guy. “Hey, buddy, that’s enough.”

The man turned to him. “Why don’t you mind your own business. It’s my problem.”

“You just made it everyone’s business with your big mouth and rude behavior.” He pointed to the man’s empty plate. “And if you had such an issue with your steak, why did you wait till you ate the whole thing before complaining?”

“What difference does it make? It tasted awful. She couldn’t even take a simple order!”

“Obviously you just want a free meal.”

“I want what I ordered!”

“That doesn’t give you an excuse to talk to the young lady like that. You owe her an apology.”

“Like hell.”

Spencer turned to the waitress who now had her arms wrapped around her waist. She was pale and trembling. “How much is his check?”

“Thirty-eight dollars.”

Spencer pulled out his wallet and handed her a one-hundred dollar bill. “Keep the change.” He turned back to the man. “Now, since you got your free dinner, why don’t you get the hell out and let the rest of us eat in peace? And do everyone a favor. Don’t come back. Next time go buy a hot dog at Coney Island.” He tossed two dollars at the man. “Here, it’s on me.”

The man got up and stormed out to a round of applause.

The waitress put her hand over her chest and exhaled as Spencer sat down. “Sir, thank you so much for sticking up for me. And picking up the check. That was incredibly nice of you.”

“Not a problem.”

“You sure you don’t want change?”

“I think you earned a big tip for dealing with that idiot.”

“Well, thank you again. If you need anything, let me know.”

Ariel reached over and patted his hand as the waitress headed back to work. “My partner, legal shark by day, Boy Scout by night.”

“Just doing the right thing. He had no right to talk to her that way.”

“I know, I was giving you a compliment. While every woman wants to be treated like an equal, every woman wants a man who will stand up for her. I’m proud to have an old fashioned guy like you as a partner. And a friend.”

Tish wore a dreamy look as she stared at the man who had rescued the waitress. “Damn, that was some old fashioned chivalry over there. And he’s awfully cute.”

Madison nodded as she sipped her water. “Yeah. Too bad he’s sitting with some babe.”

Rory turned back to the menu. “And now we know the reason some babe is sitting with him. White knights are hard to find.”

A.J. shook her head. “Yep. The good ones are always taken.”

Madison playfully slapped her arm. “Hey, Nick wasn’t taken when I snagged him.”

Tish patted her hand. “He snagged you, sweetie. You swallowed the hook and practically jumped into the boat.”

“Okay, no argument here. But come to think of it, we don’t know if that woman is his girlfriend.”

The waitress returned with their wine. “Sorry about that, everyone. Our manager says drinks are on the house tonight.”

“Hey, not your fault,” said Tish. “You okay?”

“Just shaken up a bit. I think I’m the one who needs the big bottle of bourbon. Thank goodness for Mr. Capshaw taking charge of the situation.”

Madison cocked her head at the man. “You know the guy?”

“He’s one of our regulars. Very nice guy and really good tipper. And of course he just saved me from a jerk and getting stuck with the check, which I really couldn’t afford.”

Rory looked at the pretty brunette sitting across from the man. “Do you happen to know if the woman sitting with him is his wife or girlfriend?”

The waitress shrugged. “No clue. But if she isn’t, take a number. What woman wouldn’t want a guy like that?”

*

After a supportive dinner with her friends, Tish had a spring in her step the next morning as she headed into the office, but it vanished when she saw the worried look on her assistant’s face. “What’s wrong? Oh my God, is Socks okay?”

“She’s fine. And I already fed her.”

“Then why do you look like you just ate the cat food?”

Shelley handed her a newspaper. “Because we just lost our biggest and nicest client.”

Tish’s eyes grew wide as she saw the headline. “Oh my God! His company went belly up?”

“Apparently some of his employees embezzled a ton of money while driving the company into the ground. Dammit, I hate that it happened to such a good guy.”

“I know. But that was part of his problem. He was too damn trusting.” Tish scanned the article. “I told him he couldn’t be such an absentee owner. But he said he had good people running things. What a shame.”

“Anything we can do?”