“David! I want you to meet my band,” Eve said with a big smile.
My guard went up because the last few times I’d seen Eve, she hadn’t even acknowledged my presence. This felt like she needed something from me.
I met all her bandmates. I was surprised that they were all in their thirties or early forties, a much different group than I’d met the last time I’d seen her. That group had been in their early twenties. These all seemed like nice guys and gals. They asked if they could invite their families, and I quickly arranged for them to be added to the list. I told them they might have to sit down by the dance floor because I thought we’d given out all the invitations for the upper-level tables.
After I arranged that, Eve grabbed my hand and took me to the other side of the dance floor so we might have a quiet word together.
“I see you changed bands.”
“Yeah. The old band and I had some issues. They expected if they couldn’t pick up someone that I should help them out. They were also a bad influence on me, buying me drinks. Angel found out and fired them all. That has turned out to be the best move for my career. These guys are all married and bring their wives with them. There’s never any drama, and I’m a lot happier,” she admitted.
I started to ask her if she had another record coming out, but she stopped me.
“I’ve been a terrible friend. When I left here, I never looked back; and when I was last here, I treated you poorly. I was ashamed of the breakup song. My mom told me what you said about being in the video for it, and I don’t blame you for not doing it. Recently, I wrote another song about you, and I want to share it with you before I release it,” she said in a rush.
She was clearly nervous.
“I’d love to hear it,” I said.
She pulled out her phone and played a slow ballad with a strong drum rhythm that sounded like a heartbeat. It talked about walking out and not looking back; that she’d gone to find her fame and fortune. Then she got to the chorus …
What does fame cost?
What does fortune cost?
I’ve been missing you
I may have lost you
It’s my fault, all my fault
I’ve been missing you
I may have lost you
What does it all cost?
“I decided that instead of a breakup song, I needed to do one about lost love. I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. It was the main reason I wanted to be the first band to play at your club. I wanted to show you that I realize what you did for me, and this was the only way I could come up with to repay you.”
“Eve, I understood what you were doing when you left. I’ve always only wanted you to have everything you ever dreamed of. I just couldn’t get behind the lie that song represented.”
“Let’s consider this the breakup song do-over,” she suggested.
Jan interrupted us.
“Granny wants you to be up front when people arrive.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” I said, and then turned back to Eve. “Good luck tonight. We’ll talk later.”
◊◊◊
I soon found out that Granny had a system for everything. My job was to greet everyone by name if I knew it. If not, I was to ask so that I could use their name in conversation. Downstairs was the staging area where people waited. Jan had a button to push to tell the person handling the front door when to send the next group up. They weren’t sent up until the server met whoever was talking to me and had taken them to their table. That way, there was no holdup once they were upstairs.
Granny explained it was part of their strategy to increase the size of tips the servers received and to make people feel special when they came here. She had coached the servers on several techniques to help them make more money.
Something she had our female servers do was to touch customers lightly on the shoulder, hand, or arm. Granny said that customers who female servers touched drank more alcohol than customers they didn’t touch. That increased the size of the check, and thus the size of the tip. Touch, when interpreted properly, produces a feeling of friendliness. It predisposes customers to tip more generously. But she warned that the act of touching might have a negative effect if it was perceived as flirtatious. That, in turn, could reduce the amount of the tip rather than increase it. Granny also warned that female servers should be careful when touching male customers who are in the company of romantically involved females. In that situation, touching might produce jealousy, and reduce the size of the tip.
She also had them introduce themselves to the table, and when the server gave them their check, she had them write a personalized thank-you note. Granny gave them the leeway to bring the table an appetizer to share. Tonight’s appetizer giveaway was potato skins. This reminded me of her giving me free cinnamon rolls. I knew for a fact that worked. She also made them repeat the order back before leaving the table. It assured the customer they had it right and that the server cared enough to verify that they’d gotten it right. Finally, she made them aware they needed to provide excellent service. To that end, Granny limited the number of tables a server had until they showed they could handle more.
My job was easy tonight because I knew almost everyone who we’d invited to our test run. The Michigan coaching staff all came at once.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever met a recruit who owned a restaurant,” Coach Haber said.
“It’s not solely mine. I wouldn’t know the first thing about running a restaurant. I have two partners who actually run the operation. My job is to look good and give them money,” I confessed.
“We’ll have to talk about your time management once you get on campus.”
“I have people who take care of that for me,” I said with a grin.
“I stand corrected. You’ll have to show me what you know.”
The next group up was my high school coaches.
“Where are Cassidy and Brad?” I asked Coach Hope.
“Brad is out with friends, and Cassidy’s coming with Brook and her family.”
“She didn’t invite me,” Alan said.
“And yet, here you are.”
“I’m not sure what to do with you two,” Coach Hope admitted.
“You should just let them fight and get it out of their system,” Moose suggested.
I liked his old-school approach.
“Maybe I’ll get Cassidy to be my champion,” Alan said with a smirk.
“Just remember, she didn’t invite you,” I said, which wiped the snarky look off his face.
“I want to see both of you in my office before practice tomorrow,” Coach Hope ordered.
I was glad when it was time to seat them.
Later, Ava, Ian, and Brook showed up with Cassidy.
“Welcome, welcome. I’ve taken the liberty of putting you with my parents if that’s okay,” I said.
“That would be perfect. It’s been almost a week since we’ve seen Rob and Carol,” Ava said.
“And you, young lady, let the power of handing out invitations go to your head,” I said to Cassidy.
She just gave me a dismissive look.
“She didn’t even invite me,” Brook complained.
“You’ll just make cow eyes at him all night. I wanted him to myself for once,” Cassidy said, and then blushed.
I don’t think she intended to admit that little fact in front of me. She was saved when their server came and got them.
Tonight turned out to be a lot more fun for me than the last time here because I didn’t have the awards to worry about. Everyone was either a friend or at least an acquaintance. Mike even remained civil. Damion must have had a talk with him.