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Her Male Bestie Ate Free Three Months; Reconciling Stunned Us
NovelShort
Completed
After learning my family owned a star-rated restaurant downtown, my girlfriend's male best friend started showing up every single day. But he only ate, never paid. Meals that ran three thousand a head, and he ate through three months of them without paying a cent. For my girlfriend's sake, and because she kept putting in good words and sending me gifts, I held back and let it slide. Then on Thanksgiving, my girlfriend's male best friend called me up and laid into me the second I picked up.
Chapters (4)
第1章
After finding out my family owned an upscale restaurant downtown, my girlfriend's male best friend started coming by to eat every single day.
But he only ate; he never paid. For three straight months he ordered meals that ran three thousand a head, and he never paid a single cent.
For the sake of my girlfriend's pride, and because she kept smoothing things over and giving me little gifts, I held my tongue.
But on Thanksgiving Day, my girlfriend's male best friend called me and launched straight into a stream of accusations.
"Robin Henson, your family's food is really high-class. Today's Thanksgiving family dinner cost me forty-three thousand eight hundred. I didn't like the sound of that number and wanted to round it off, but you wouldn't even let me do that."
"And after I've been supporting your business every day. If you don't want my business, you should just say so."
Hearing that, the veins on my forehead stood out.
For the past three months, he hadn't settled the bill for a single meal.
A full three hundred thousand in meal charges was still sitting on my books, and he had the nerve to say he was supporting my business.
I was so furious I pulled up the bill and sent it to him, then recorded a voice message with a cold laugh and asked, "Is supporting my business your way of saying you dine and dash every single meal?"
After a long silence on his end, he pulled up his own payment records and sent them to me.
Three months of meal charges, plus the forty-three thousand eight hundred for this Thanksgiving family dinner, all paid, down to the last cent.
"Mr. Henson, you'd better look into this carefully. When did I ever fail to pay for a meal? What's the point of slandering me with nothing to back it up?"
I stood there frozen, my fingernails nearly digging into my palms, and I didn't even feel it.
If he'd paid, then why hadn't my restaurant account received a single one of those payments?
...
The first time I met Georgette Harding's male best friend, Merlin, was when he'd just gotten back from studying abroad and set up a group dinner.
My first impression of him was actually pretty good, especially after he heard the dinner was at my family's restaurant.
Merlin couldn't stop praising the food and the atmosphere, and he even said he'd come by to eat there every day from then on.
That night I flat-out refused to let him pay the bill, and in the end everyone pulled me aside and talked me out of it.
"That's just how Merlin is. If you won't let him pay, he'll get upset with you."
Even my girlfriend Georgette urged me, "Merlin hates owing people. Just give him a discount next time he comes."
So I stopped trying to stop him.
After he'd paid, he came back grinning and said, "The prices are reasonable and the food's great. I'm definitely going to come eat at your place every day."
I just thought he was good-looking and easygoing, nothing like the demonized male best friend you read about online.
I made a point of telling my staff that from then on, Merlin would only be charged the cost price for his meals.
But that same night the restaurant's system ran its monthly reconciliation, and once the report came through to me,
I froze. Merlin's charge was the one thing missing.
A full fifty thousand in meal charges was showing as a deficit on my restaurant's books.
I called the manager to verify it, and he was just as baffled.
"That bill really wasn't paid. I saw you with them and figured it was going on your tab."
I stood there stiffly for a long time before I could push down the wave of disgust in my chest.
It wasn't that I couldn't afford a fifty-thousand meal, but I couldn't stand someone playing the generous saint while doing the opposite.
To think Merlin clearly hadn't paid, yet put on that magnanimous act in front of me, claiming he had.
And everyone that night simply assumed Merlin was the one treating.
Now, after the books were reconciled, it turned out he hadn't paid at all. He got the good name, using my money.
Right then, I was furious enough to call Georgette.
"What is Merlin playing at?"
Georgette's voice still had the nasal grogginess of someone just out of bed. "What's the matter, baby?"
I sent her the bill, keeping my tone as calm as I could. "Didn't Merlin say he paid? Why didn't I receive it?"
Georgette read it and let out a low laugh. "I thought it was something serious. It's only fifty thousand. Just do it for me, as a favor."
I was so disbelieving I couldn't get a word out, then snapped, "Do you think this is about the money?"
Georgette's tone took on a note of impatience. "It's only fifty thousand, it's not like you can't afford it. Can you please stop making a scene?"
That one line was enough to make me laugh coldly. "Fine. Fifty thousand's no big deal. Then I'll go get it back myself."
With that, I posted the bill straight to the group chat. Just as I was about to tag Merlin, the group admin, Georgette, deleted my message.
Then she kicked me out of the group chat.
I felt the blood rush to my head, my temples throbbing with anger.
Georgette called right back, and this time she softened her tone.
"Robin, I was out of line just now. That's on me. But you can't just post the bill in the group like that. There could be some misunderstanding, right?"
Not a single thing Georgette said was anything I wanted to hear.
I laughed coldly right then, my voice edged with anger. "So I just deserve to eat this loss and keep quiet?"
Georgette kept coaxing and reassuring me. "Hang on, I'll go get an explanation."
And with that, she hung up.
Barely ten minutes later, she sent me a voice message and, along with it, sent a small $52 gift, which didn't even cover the loose change on that meal.
"Merlin's family really hasn't been doing so well financially these past few years, and you know men, they care about pride, that's why he did it. Baby, just take the hit for me. This fifty-two is my way of making it up to you."
Looking at that $52 transfer, I felt not a trace of warmth or happiness.
I wanted to ask how this was fair. Merlin took over fifty thousand of my meal money and turned it into his own goodwill, and I got fobbed off with fifty-two.
But since Georgette and I were about to get engaged, I didn't want to make things too awkward within her social circle.
So I only gave Georgette a warning, telling her to pass a message to Merlin that this was the one and only time.
I thought that was the end of it. But when the next month's restaurant reconciliation came through to me, I froze.
第2章
The bill glared at me in bright red—well over a hundred thousand dollars still unpaid.
I drove straight to the restaurant and called in the manager and staff to verify it.
I could barely keep a lid on my anger, and it bled into my tone as I asked, "Why is there over a hundred thousand dollars in unpaid bills on the books?"
The manager looked uncomfortable. He stammered for a long while before he finally worked up the nerve to say, "Well... the last few times, it was Miss Harding who brought Mr. Simmons in. She made a point of telling us that you'd given orders for all of Mr. Simmons's meals to be comped from then on."
I was so angry I actually laughed. "Does what she says count as my decision? Since when does anyone get to overrule me and comp somebody else's meals?"
The manager's smile was worse than tears.
"It's just, I figured Miss Harding and you would be family sooner or later, so I—"
The manager was nearly crying. "But Mr. Simmons kept coming so often that it didn't sit right with me, so I did tell someone to make Mr. Simmons settle the bill."
As he spoke, he pushed a slim, good-looking waiter forward. "Why didn't you get Mr. Simmons to pay?"
The waiter, holding the card reader, had red rims around his eyes. "I... I didn't dare. Miss Harding gave orders."
I felt my migraine threatening to flare up again, but I didn't want to give my own employees a hard time.
I rubbed my temples and was about to say a few words when Georgette came bouncing in.
She was carrying a gift box with a watch in it. "What's going on? The mood in here is so tense."
The sight of her killed whatever good temper I had left.
I threw the bill down in front of her. "Who gave you permission to overrule me and comp Merlin's meals?"
Georgette's smile stiffened for only an instant before she beamed even wider. "Is that all? What's the big deal?"
Just as I was about to blow up, she set the watch down in front of me.
"I only said that for the sake of appearances, but not talking it over with you first was truly my fault. Let me give you a watch to cool off, okay?"
The watch ran somewhere over three hundred thousand dollars—more than enough to cover the meals.
But there was still this odd feeling in me, like a thorn lodged in my heart.
Looking at Georgette, her eyes full of affection, I understood her even less. What was she after?
Still, what she and I had was no longer simple feelings; the marriage was also a strategic play between our two families' companies.
For every reason, personal and practical, I couldn't afford to sour things too badly with her social circle. I took the watch and went along with it. "Georgette, I hope you understand that even though we're a couple, you still need to keep some sense of boundaries."
Georgette immediately gave an apologetic smile. "Of course, of course. It won't happen again."
She apologized profusely and said all kinds of things to smooth me over, and then, offhandedly, she added, "You've got so many businesses under you. No need to keep such a close eye on one restaurant, is there?"
But I was still turning over why Georgette had done all this, and didn't catch what she said.
Before long it was Merlin's birthday. I hadn't gotten an invitation, but he'd booked a table at our restaurant.
Still, I was only Georgette's boyfriend, not part of her circle, so it was reasonable enough that no separate invitation came for me.
So I went ahead and prepared a birthday gift, thinking I'd also set things straight with him in person.
I could give a discount, but I couldn't keep comping everything.
What I didn't expect was for Georgette to see me carrying the gift bag and look so troubled.
"Robin, you don't need to go today."
That one line left me frozen where I stood. "What do you mean?"
Georgette looked pained. "No one sent you an invitation, and everyone going is from our circle, so there's no need for you to go mooch that meal, right?"
I flared up on the spot and demanded sharply, "What do you mean? What do you mean, 'mooch that meal'? Am I short on a meal?"
"No, it's just—they didn't send you an invitation, did they? I figured it would only be awkward for you to show up."
I asked, sour with anger, "So when your other friends had birthdays, didn't I attend as your partner without getting a separate invitation then either?"
But then Georgette pulled out her phone and held it up for me to see.
Once I made out what was on the screen, my eyes went wide with shock.
第3章
Using a selfie of Merlin as the profile picture, the account sent Georgette a message.
"Today's a girls' get-together, so don't bring your boyfriend along and ruin the fun!"
"I don't like hanging out with the guys anyway; they're too much trouble."
Reading those two lines, my vision went dark, then darker.
But the strange feeling I couldn't shake grew even stronger. Merlin didn't seem like the kind of person who'd say things like this.
Yet the account in front of me was clearly his.
While I stood there wavering, Georgette turned off her phone screen and snatched the gift bag out of my hand.
"It's the thought that counts, so cool off. I'll say something to him for you later."
And with that, Georgette ran off.
It only made me feel more resentful.
A nameless fury burned through me until every organ ached. I grabbed my car keys and drove straight to the restaurant.
I told the manager to let me know once they'd finished eating.
Sure enough, once everyone was done, their whole table came laughing and chattering out of the restaurant.
I checked the tab, and just as I'd expected, it was still in the red, unsettled.
And it wasn't just today's tab, either. I felt a rage start to burn in my chest, and no matter what I did, I couldn't push it down.
I gritted my teeth and forced out a smile, then walked up to them.
Once everyone saw it was me, their faces took on an inexplicable hostility.
I frowned. Georgette's friends and I weren't especially close before, but whenever we met we'd always been courteous with each other.
This was the first time any of them had looked at me with such displeasure.
Before I could even speak, Merlin caught hold of me, a smile on his face. "Why didn't you come today? I was just telling them how high the standards at your restaurant are, and how good the service is. I'll bring more of my friends here in the future."
I stared at him, amazed that anyone's nerve could run so thick.
He talked like he'd actually paid the bill. I couldn't help firing back with a sarcastic edge. "Bring more? I think we can pass on that!"
The moment I finished, Merlin's face changed, going wounded and bewildered.
And just as I was about to speak, one of Georgette's friends jumped in first.
"Only Merlin's got any class. Sweetie—no offense, but your restaurant's gotten so much business from us. You charge us cleaning fees and service fees just to set up for a birthday, and corkage fees when we bring our own wine, and you won't even knock off the loose change. Your restaurant is really something, so classy..."
Merlin, looking embarrassed, scolded her and then quickly explained that she'd had too much to drink.
But the two of them playing off each other had me boiling.
My grip on the bill tightened and tightened, my grievance and anger nearly ripping apart the last shred of reason I had left.
I was about to throw the bill in their faces and demand to know which charge had ever been settled.
But just as I started to raise my hand, Georgette, who'd just come out of the restroom, spotted me and instantly clamped down hard on my wrist.
She forced my hand back down, and I stared at her in disbelief.
"Let it go, let it go. It's Merlin's birthday today."
She leaned close and whispered in my ear.
I let out a cold laugh and was about to speak when Georgette glared at me in warning, her displeasure practically spilling over.
Her grip on my wrist grew tighter and tighter, almost crushing the bone.
In just that little while, Merlin and his group had already walked far off.
I couldn't hold my temper any longer, and I shouted at Georgette.
"What's that supposed to mean? I deserve to be the sucker, using my own money to buy Merlin some pride? And in the end I don't even get a single kind word?"
Just thinking about the attitude of Georgette's friend made the acid churn in my stomach.
"Georgette, you're using my money and my resources as your favors to hand out? You're really something."
Georgette's face went livid. After a deep breath, she said, "Go calm yourself down!"
And with that, she left.
I was so angry I called the manager to pull up the surveillance footage. I wanted to see exactly which day Merlin had ever paid.
But when I brought the footage up, I was stunned.
第4章
From the day Merlin Simmons first came to eat at my restaurant, every surveillance camera in the place had gone dead.
A coincidence like that was obviously somebody's deliberate handiwork.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and called the manager over to arrange for someone to get the cameras working again.
At the same time, I told him that after he closed out the books next month, he should also pull the footage of Merlin's visits and send it to me.
No need to remind him specially about the money—this time I wanted not just the bills Merlin never paid, but also the videos showing he never paid.
I was going to post it all in Georgette Harding's social circle. I'd like to see what they could say to that.
What did she mean, you couldn't even round off the small change? It was laughable—Merlin hadn't paid a single cent, plain and simple.
As for my relationship with Georgette, I lowered my lashes.
She and I had truly loved each other, but the moment Merlin appeared, she made me swallow my pride again and again for the sake of her male best friend.
In the past, she'd been afraid I'd lose out on anything, so she'd set a rule for my sake: anyone who came to a business under my name had to pay.
Not one cent short of what I was owed.
Back then she'd held my hand and said solemnly, "Without rules, nothing holds together."
And now she was breaking that rule herself, with her own hands, for Merlin.
The thought made my eyes go red, my heart aching and sour, as if someone had struck it with a blunt object.
Ten years of love had become a joke in this moment, and all the effort the elders had poured into the partnership between our two families was about to wash away too.
But the Henson family wasn't so poor that I had to force down this half-cooked meal. Strategies could change, relationships could be broken off.
Choose the wrong person, though, and that was a lifetime of suffering.
I did my best to press down the bitterness in my chest, but my resolve only hardened—I was going to get to the bottom of this.
On the night of Thanksgiving, the manager sent over the bills and the surveillance footage.
Without exception, every bill tied to Merlin was in the red.
After I went through every clip carefully, I actually laughed out of sheer anger.
Merlin had come in more than twenty days out of the month, and every single time he finished eating, he wiped his mouth and walked straight out.
Absurdity and fury filled my head. I was just about to organize the videos and bills and send them one by one to Georgette's friends—
when a call from an unknown number cut me off.
I answered on instinct, and Merlin's voice came through from the other end.
"Robin Henson, your family's food is really high-class. Tonight's Thanksgiving family dinner cost me forty-three thousand eight hundred, and I didn't like the sound of that number, so I wanted to round off the change—and you wouldn't even allow that."
In both of my encounters with Merlin, he had never spoken so urgently.
Now it was obvious—he really had been badly angered.
A forty-three-thousand-eight-hundred Thanksgiving dinner with no rounding off was indeed unlucky, and insulting on top of it.
But that was assuming he'd paid. I immediately added his phone number to my contacts and sent him the bills and the videos.
"If this is what you mean by supporting my family's business, then don't bother coming again."
There was a long silence on the other end—long enough that I assumed he'd gone quiet out of guilt.
Then he sent over a string of his own payment records, every recipient bearing the name of my restaurant.
I froze. Checking them one by one, I discovered he hadn't skimped a single cent, not even on tonight's dinner.
"But in the footage, you clearly left the moment you finished eating."
Hearing that, Merlin got even angrier, and then he said something that left me completely stunned.
