1: 1
My best friend Leila James posted on social media, and she made sure to tag me.
[My bestie's place is my place. My brother-in-law's getting married over the holiday weekend, and Starmoon Diner's got it covered. Thirty-six tables, all free, everyone's invited!]
Thirty-six tables. At standard pricing, that came to eighty-six thousand dollars.
I gave a small laugh and didn't reply.
That night, I canceled every purchase order scheduled for the holiday weekend and shut the kitchen down completely.
Early the next morning, a notice went up on the door: [Equipment maintenance. Temporarily closed.] Then I grabbed my suitcase and headed for the airport.
When Leila found out, she called me straight away.
[Why is your place closed? I need to lock in the menu the day after tomorrow!]
I answered coldly.
[Bad timing. Equipment maintenance, you know. Or you could cook it yourself?]
1
At exactly noon, Leila posted again, this time with a group photo.
The caption read:
[My bestie's place is my place. My brother-in-law's getting married over the holiday weekend, and Starmoon Diner's got it covered. Thirty-six tables, all free, everyone's invited!]
Below it, nothing but likes and comments.
[So generous, Leila!]
[Now that's a friend worth having!]
I was still looking at the post, hadn't even had a chance to screenshot it, when my phone buzzed again.
Leila had added me to a group chat called [Wedding Planning].
There were forty-seven people in it. Not one of them was someone I knew.
Leila sent a voice message, ordering me around like the hired help.
[Vinnie, these are all my in-laws. Take a look at the menu. You've got to have the full spread of seafood dishes, don't embarrass me.]
Right after that, someone whose display name was [Nathaniel Whitney] jumped in. Leila's husband.
[Put out every signature dish. Top-shelf whiskey for the liquor, and premium cigarettes.]
Then someone named [Dana Whitney] popped up, and this had to be Leila's brother-in-law.
[Since it's your bestie's place, why not throw in the wedding decor too?]
[Backdrop, floral arch, emcee and sound system. All easy stuff.]
I stared at the screen and said nothing, and more people chimed in.
[Dana, you lucky guy, landing a sister-in-law like this.]
[A free wedding banquet, that's got to save at least a hundred grand, right?]
[Where's the owner? Say something! When can the menu be settled?]
Leila couldn't wait to tag me.
[Vinnie, where'd you go? My in-laws are all waiting.]
2: 2
2
I took a deep breath, opened Leila's profile, and scrolled back through every message the two of us had ever exchanged.
In the last six months alone, Leila had hosted people at my diner seventeen times.
Every time she finished, she'd wipe her mouth, drop her fork, and walk out.
Always the same line:
[We're basically family. Just put it on my tab.]
I'd run this place for four years and sunk more than half a million dollars into it.
Back when I opened, Leila had spent about ten dollars on two clearance flower baskets from a resale site.
And now that her brother-in-law was getting married, she wanted me to cater thirty-six tables for free, out of my own pocket, to repay her.
With premium bourbon, premium cigarettes, and full wedding decor too.
Before I left the group, I glanced at the newest message.
Someone calling herself the aunt on the Whitney side had sent a voice note:
[Leila, honey, is this friend of yours actually up to it? Free is fine, but don't let it come off cheap, or us Whitneys won't stand for it!]
Leila fired back instantly:
[Don't you worry, Aunt Abbott. Her diner is my diner. I promise we'll do it up right.]
The thirty-thousand-dollar monthly rent on that diner, I paid it myself.
The wages for the kitchen staff and the servers, I paid those too.
What was it Leila had said when she shoved those flower baskets at me?
[Consider this my stake in the place. When you hit it big someday, don't you forget about me.]
I didn't forget. So when she hosted people, I didn't charge her.
When she got married, I didn't charge her.
When her mother had her birthday party, I didn't charge her.
When her son's first month was celebrated, I didn't charge her.
And now, even her brother-in-law's wedding, she wanted me not to charge for that too.
The phone buzzed again. Nathaniel had sent a long voice message.
[Leila, have your friend prep the reception to this standard.]
[Eight cold dishes, sixteen hot dishes, four mains, two desserts.]
[One Australian lobster per person, and every Maine lobster tail over two pounds.]
[A whole roast suckling pig, done fresh. The sea cucumber has to be prime filet mignon grade, and I want jumbo scallops.]
[Party favors are up to you, one per guest, and don't make it look cheap.]
The corner of my mouth twitched. I was still wondering what other absurd demand he could come up with when the next message popped up.
[Oh, and have your friend arrange the wedding cars while she's at it. Five or six is plenty, nothing too fancy, Audi or Mercedes is fine.]
Reading that, I actually laughed out of sheer anger, opened the calculator, and ran the numbers.
Two hundred thousand dollars, minimum, just to start.
Then Leila tagged me in the group too.
[Vinnie, we're family, so I won't stand on ceremony with you.]
[Clear the diner two days ahead, no walk-ins, and prep properly.]
[My mom says if this reception goes off beautifully, all my family's future events will be booked at your place.]
[That's me bringing you business. I treat you pretty well, don't I?]
3: 3
3
Herbert Simmons, one of the servers, poked his head in from the back.
"Vinnie, you want to go over the prep list?"
I turned off my phone, walked to the register, and pulled open the bottom drawer.
"No rush."
I took out an old ledger and flipped to the first page.
Leila. Two large flower baskets.
The date was four years ago. I flipped further in.
Line after line, packed tight, all of it Leila's bills.
Dinners, birthdays, treating people, family meals.
Every entry ended with the same words: running a tab. Signed by Leila each time.
The last page was written last month. As of that month, Leila's tabs came to a running total of one hundred fifty-nine thousand three hundred dollars.
I closed the ledger and glanced at my phone again. More messages had piled up, everyone tossing in a request of their own.
"Leila's bestie, best to use fresh flowers for the setup. My wife's allergic to fake ones."
"Oh, and it's a family thing. Back home we're big on tradition. For the tea ceremony we need premium coffee brewed with spring water."
"You'll need to prepare the cash gift envelopes for the change-of-address ceremony too. The hand-embroidered kind."
Watching those lines pop up one after another, I actually laughed out of sheer anger.
Not one person in that group had asked if I was tired, not one had said thank you. Like the restaurant was theirs and I was just the hired help.
No, wrong. If it were their own place, they'd never spend this freely.
Leila tagged me again.
"Lavinia, don't just go quiet. There are a lot of people in here waiting on you."
"Can we lock the menu tonight? Nathaniel's Aunt Abbott is coming by tomorrow to look at the venue."
When I didn't reply, Leila switched to private messages and started blasting me.
"The restaurant's open either way, the ingredients are right there, the cooks are right there. It's no trouble at all."
I asked her:
"Thirty-six tables. Have you figured out what the ingredients alone cost?"
Leila went silent. I sent over the itemized bill.
The final total: two hundred fifty-eight thousand three hundred dollars.
"I can give you a discount."
Leila sent back a tongue-sticking-out emoji.
"Oh come on, you and me? When you opened this place, I invested. That makes me a shareholder. A shareholder throws a wedding, and you're counting every penny?"
Since she still wasn't getting it, I sent over her tab too.
Leila blew up instantly.
"What's that supposed to mean? Keeping records this detailed. What, are you guarding against thieves?"
Before I could get a word in, she fired off a whole string of messages.
"Lavinia Fox, if it weren't for my two flower baskets back then, would this place even have gotten off the ground? Business is good now, so suddenly you don't know me?"
Right. Two flower baskets, counted as a stake. Over four years I'd waived a hundred fifty thousand for her.
I'd meant to give Leila one last chance, but her greed had no bottom.
"Lavinia, didn't we agree? We were going to save up, buy a place, be independent women who don't lean on men."
"Getting this petty over money now, did you forget what we promised each other?"
