Jem…Chapter 116 by Bailey Summers Copyright © 2013 Bailey Summers All Rights Reserved.

Jem…Chapter 116

Chapter 116

*Before…

People start moving and talking and someone actually calls out from one of the tables. “Can you play something for slow dancing? Can you stay?”

Some of the people stop going where ever and I look to Mr. Walker… “Can we sir?” He nods and there’s a smile there. Respect…he deserves it as far as I’m concerned and it’s a great thing to actually show to this kind of crowd base.

I smile out at them as I lean to the mic. “Give us ten minutes to put together a play list and you can all order another bottle for the table or something stronger and one of the absolutely amazing deserts here while we do….go ahead ladies a little slice of some cheese cake…chocolate mousse…cream brule…I knew we will be while we’re talking.”

………………I smile and sit as Raven passes me this amazing smelling coffee ground and coco nib and sugar topped crème brule.

“So…what are we going to play girls?”

*And Now…

I finish my dessert and take a drink of coffee and then go and move to the keyboard and talk into the mic. “Just give us a few more minutes to retune and we’ll finish the rest of this evening off really nice. Have another drink if you can or another bit of the naughty sweet stuff they have here…you all do know that they will do take out boxes right?”
We don’t actually spend a whole lot of time debating or tuning up and there are people doing the ordering things bit as we’re doing that and Mr. Walker gives me this nod and a smile. I think it’s almost a given that if you’re doing a show you should promote the place a little bit.

Hey if they believe in us enough to hire us to play than I believe in them too.

I settle behind the keyboards and start to play piano style and I get a good lead up built first. And then I lean over the keys to sing with my ees closed and I open up my heart and sing. *When You Love Someone.* By Bryan Adams.

When you love someone you'll do anything...
You'll do all the crazy things that you can't explain...
You'll shoot the moon, put out the sun
When you love someone…

You'll deny the truth, believe a lie
There'll be times that you'll believe that you could really fly
But your lonely nights have just begun
When you love someone

When you love someone you'll feel it deep inside
And nothing else could ever change your mind
When you want someone, when you need someone
When you love someone...

When you love someone you'll sacrifice
Giving everything you got and you won't think twice
You'd risk it all no matter what may come
When you love someone.

Yeah
You'll shoot the moon, put out the sun
When you love someone

I smile at everyone and at the girls and especially Raven as I start playing again as we slide into *I will be right here waiting for you.* By Richard Marx.

I love the look that I’ getting back from her…and then there’s people and couples moving to the dance floor that Dad and the guys are clearing and people are getting arm in arm and heads to shoulders and those just so perfect I love you slow dance hugs.

This makes me happy.

And since I’m still at the keyboard I take the opportunity to start us into… *Everything I do* By Bryan Adams. It’s good old hold me tight let me fall in love with you rock and it’s got such great riffs too as Brooklyn gets to step up and play some for the crowds and there’s some parts that lend to group voices and the soft sweetness as it trails off.

And that lets me get up while Raven hits her base and Kimmie the drums as I get ready and start singing one of my fave tunes. *If you don’t know me by now.* By Simply Red…a seriously great band that got nowhere near enough attention.

Then that has just the right tone for us to slide into doing *Everything* By Starlight Butterfly and I go right from that one into us doing *Carousel* By Starlight Butterfly and people are slow dancing and the staff are sort of busing tables that were moved away as things are going on with everyone in the main floor of the Café and it’s all a really sweet sort of sight to watch.

It actually makes me want to go someplace and to slow dance with Raine someplace.

And the crowd is older but not that older that it’d wouldn’t know everything we’re playing outside of our SLB tunes so when we’re done that we slide into *Drops of Jupiter* By Train which is a kind of romantic song really and everything.

Then *Time after Time* By Cyndi Lauper comes after that and we follow that up with us doing *Forever and Always* By Starlight Butterfly and Raven steps up as we switch of with the mic duties and she sings. *One and Only* By Adele and then she slips into *Billy Holiday* By Starlight Butterfly.

It’s getting late and we did quite the extended set really for the job and everything and I switch off with Raven with the mic again and I say. “Second to last one folks.” And there’s some claps and there some whistles but it stops as we start into a very old very beautiful classic tune.

*Unchained Melody* By The Righteous Brothers… I sing it softly in this sort of soft way but in this kinda of a way that Pink might have done if she had covered it….maybe a little K.D. Lang there too.

Seriously she could so rock a cover of this song.

It goes over really well to as it’s such a perfect song for lovers and slow dancing and kissing and just being awesome and it’s so cross generational too.

I let it fade out and then I’m ending the second set with *Thank you* By Dido it’s still just a perfect song for a Thanksgiving kind of setting and it’s like a sort of play on the situation and stuff too.

We finish and there’s applause and we do our bows and this time literally and we’re shaking hands and accepting thank you’s and the tip box is getting pretty prosperous which is good and I’m not sure exactly how or why but Raven and I and Mr. Walker were talking with people all the way to the doors and closing up.

Which had us looking at each other and smiling even Mr. Walker a bit too and he says. “Are you training to do some hostessing in the front of house now too ladies.”

I smile and blush. “Sorry it was just so sort of natural talking to people and everything it just seemed like it was mannerly to actually talk like that and walk them to the door.”

He nods. “I’m certainly not complaining it actually added to the experience I hope that not just the management but the entertainment hired is so in synch with each other and the customers that we all are friendly and care enough to do that.”

I’m blushing.

He walks both of us to the usual set up at the booths and stuff as we start to go through the whole process of packing up things and getting things together while the tips are pooled and the others help out with things to get all of us done and out of here together in a timely fashion.

I’m adding things up with Mr. Walker as the tips are being pooled and there was a lot of great tips tonight for the wait staff tonight with a slightly more well-heeled crowd in and them being extra generous with things in that way as well as there was a lot of tips passed to Raven and myself while talking to people and of course the tip box and I learn things like him buying the tips from the debit and credit slips from each of the wait staff’s accounts…apparently they have a PIN number for each staffer before the cash will open or the point of sales can be used.

I’m learning a lot like why he uses that to keep who did what straight and overages and shortages on tables but also the point of sales feeds into the inventory so all the sales track to all the things used in the café and there’s threshold numbers so when then numbers of that item or ingredients for the items get to a certain point they flag and message him and the head of the kitchen and they can click onto the link with that to order more of that thing.

He’s actually explaining all of that to me and answering my questions about all of those things too even if it doesn’t really relate to music and stuff it’s all interesting to me.

Mr. Walker also talks about the difference between tipping in cash and card tipping since card tipping or billing tipping is done in bigger cities and larger restaurants but it’s generally not done here.

He sips at his coffee. “It’s rude to assume a tip, it might be very well deserved but it’s rude to assume that it is deserved or and this is a very big thing especially here, some can’t afford to tip sometimes, sometimes it’s all that they can do to have that nice meal someplace that they have saved up for. Adding that to a bill automatically is rude and somewhat close to theft.”

“I would think that tipping would always be a good thing?”

He takes another sip of his coffee. “It’s good only as long as people can afford to do it.”

I nod. “I’ve sort of felt that way about performing too sometimes especially lately with busking it’s great to get tips and stuff but at the same time doing it too often it just feels wrong.”

He nods. “You can only do that for so long in a town of this size really.”

I take a drink of my coffee before it gets too cold. “I was thinking on just only occasionally doing it we’re doing a lot better now with things and will be likely getting better at all of this too.”

He smiles. “Though a few free shows in public wouldn’t hurt either sometimes.”

I smile back. “Definitely, I’d love to give back sometime, play something for an event or something for free.”

“I’ll look out for something like that.”

We get everything totaled for the tips and with everything added in and all of the staff included and divided up we come to a whopping seventy three dollars each and then there still the check that he’s writing each of us for playing here and he starts to write another check?

“Sir?”

“You played over the agreed time Angel.”

I take a sip of my coffee again and look at him. “How about we keep that as is and we call it a good partnership thing, you were good enough to hire us for this special gig and for our regular work so we just call this a thank you.”

He looks at me. “Are you sure?”

I nod. “Very sure sir, we all are very thankful for the opportunities.”

He nods and he gets up and offers me his hand and I take it and we shake hands in this really cool respectful way and he takes his things. “If you’ll excuse me I have tips to give out and the rest of this to get done too.”

“Of course I’ve pretty much the same thing too.” The handshake leads to a light kiss on the cheek between us and I blush and it’s sort of awkward but not…? I mean really I like to think that Mr. Walker and I have a growing but still very strong respect for each other and well we’re sort of close too.

He’s sort of my first mentor really.

He heads off to do the things that he needs to do and I wait until we’re pretty much packed and then I wait until everyone drifts over and I’m holding out the envelopes with the money in them and with seventy three in the combined tips and sixty for the gig we all made really decent money tonight and there’s a lot of grins and smiles and Molly has this dumbstruck look on her face again.

“But…but…I…I haven’t done your site yet and this…”

I hug her. “You’re still doing the work on our pages and helping with the videos and here with the recordings you’re a part of the band and a part of the show and you’re still hired to do the site. You can do two things at once right?”

She swallows. “Yeah right…I mean yeah definitely.”

I grin at her and we’re just about to hug when I hear Kimmie and Brooklyn squee and the cooks are bringing out our cheese cake.

It’s in a box and it’s beautiful looking with four of five inches with this layer of nuts and a brule like crust on the top of it and all these really cute looking decorative rosettes and stuff.

It’s so not cool but we’re all standing around it and we’re oohing and aaahing over it and Kimmie giggles and says “The Claw.”

That gets some of us laughing and Brooklyn carefully slips the lid back on the cake box and we head out and we give a bunch more hugs and handshakes and stuff to everyone as we head out and get into the cars and the van and we head home.

Well we head to a few other places first.

The bank is the first one where I get the checks deposited with the girls and we take twenty each out of the tips and we deposit that too into the bank machine despite the grumping by Kimmie and Brook well it’s mostly Kim but we still have stuff to pay for and credit to keep up now and bills to pay and I want there to be some cash in there for the girls too, something solid in case of whatever comes down the pipe.

Yeah I know I’m not being fun, I’m not being a teenager I’m being old and stuff but screw that…some people have to grow up fast and things can fly apart really fast and I want a cushion for us.

After that we poo our change and stop at Tim Horton’s and we buy a big tin of their coffee for the house. I want some really good coffee and stuff in the house when we have something like a really good cheese cake to go with it.

Then it’s to the house and we’re gone in and we’re all getting changed and out of all of the fancy stuff and the guys are being awesome and they’re unloading and stuff as we’re doing that.

And changing with Raine was pretty awesome…I mean it’s not like we got sexual with each other but we got inside of our room and she turns the lights off and she closes the door and she locks it and then she kisses me…

“I wanna dance with you Angel…everyone else was dancing and I just really, really want to dance with you.”

(Swallow…and Smile.) “Okay.”

She steps up all sexy and strong and she kisses me and we do that for a few sweet seconds before she leans me into the plastic flowers and lattice on the wall and I weave my fingers in and breathe a little hard and fast as she puts on some music and she comes over again in the perfect dimness and reaches out and takes my hand and pulls me close to dance with me to…

*Thinking about You* By Nora Jones…..soft and slow and sexy and smoky and just…just what I needed as I move with that slow sexy beat and we step out of our heels and just keep dancing and looking each other in the eyes.