Free Blackbird by Jessica MacIntyre Page A

His father had liked to recite the tired old line, the buck stops here. Robert always cringed a bit when he said it, thinking it so cliché. Time and perspective had changed his opinion on that of late.
                  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he said, rising to give her a kiss. “Let’s get out of here. I’m beat.”
                  “Aren’t we going to dinner?”
                  Dinner was the last thing he wanted to do, he wanted to go home and collapse after everything that had happened in the last few days, but he didn’t want to displease Billie. He didn’t need her more prickly than she already was, and besides, he needed to talk to her. The conversation was going to be uncomfortable enough and perhaps if they were in a public place she’d be more inclined to see reason.
                  “Dinner, yes of course.”
     
     
     
    ***
                  Robert sat across from Billie as she chattered away about her girl’s night out the night before and pushed her salad around on her plate without really taking a bite. He only half listened as he thought about everything else. He thought of his mother, his brothers, he even made a mental note of everything that was wrong with the restaurant they were eating in, and everything that was right for that matter. It never hurt to keep an eye on your competition. All of these things flitted through his mind, but for some unknown reason, he mostly thought of Chelle.
                  “Robert, are you hearing me?”
                  He was caught. “Sorry,” he said, not even attempting to lie. He was too drained. “Rough day. I was thinking of my mom.”
                  “Oh.” Billie stopped chattering for the first time since they’d sat down and for a moment Robert thought she was going to say something kind. Offer him a word of comfort or ask him how he was dealing with it. “She’s probably asleep by now. They put people to bed early in places like that, don’t they?”
                  The idea of his mother being ‘put to bed’ like a child made him angry. “Yes,” he said, knowing he couldn’t even hope to have a conversation about this with her. There were obviously going to be some things he’d have to carry alone. As the wedding inched closer he had a feeling there were going to be a lot of things he carried alone in this marriage. “I suppose they do.”
                  “Anyway, I think the new uniforms are working out well. I think the girls get bigger tips this way, you know, show a little skin, it’s good for business.”
                  “I got rid of them,” he said cutting straight to the chase.
                  Billie’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped open in horror like he’d just told her she had some deadly disease from which she’d never recover. “Excuse me?”
                  “I got rid of them, Billie. I want people to come to Cole’s because they enjoy the food and the drinks, not to gawk at my female staff. I think it makes them uncomfortable, and there are enough weirdoes out there walking around, I don’t want to attract them to the place.”
                  Billie took a deep breath and began very slowly, as if having to explain something to someone that was beneath her. “Now, Robert. I’m a woman, I picked them out. The girls like them. All except for Chelle. You talk about these shirts like they make the place a strip club. It’s just a little back. If you undermine me now nobody will take me seriously down the road. We have to be a united front. It sets a tone.”
                  Robert squared his shoulders and leaned forward. She was right about setting a tone and he decided he was going to do that right here and now. “Billie, I don’t want those uniforms, so that means they’re gone.”