+-She Don’t Care-+

“One Caesar Salad, bottled water, and one bacon burger without onions, anything else?” Regina asked, her order pad poised in her hand, looking at her customers.

“No, that’s it, thanks,” the older man said.

“Okay, I’ll get that out here as soon as possible.” Regina replied smiling and turning, the smile sliding off her face as quick as it had come. She was tired. She’d been on her feet taking and delivering orders for the past eight hours. It had been outrageously busy today and she hadn’t even gotten her break for dinner. She wanted to go home. But after she got home she could only go to bed and then get back up to come here again. She’d agreed to stay on an extra couple of hours because the boss had threatened her if she didn’t. She was only supposed to be on for seven hours that night, but low and behold, it always turned out she was there an upwards of nine or ten hours a night. She’d gotten on at five and it was now one AM, why it was always so busy she never understood.

“Carl! I need that order for table seven! Now!” Regina called into the kitchen, as she hooked a new order on the spinner.

“It’s fucking coming already! The god damn fryer is broken!” he called back angrily.

“Not again!” Regina groaned, scooting around the counter and ducking another waitress’s tray.

“Fucking piece of shit!” Carl roared kicking at the deep fryer.

“I’ll get it, I’ll get it,” Regina said gently putting a hand on Carl’s shoulder.

“Thanks Reggie,” Carl said smiling gratefully and hurrying back over to his grill. Regina fiddled with a few buttons and the fryer sizzled to life. She dumped a bag of fries into a basket and threw it in the fryer before going back out the kitchen.

“Reggie! Table four! Now!” her boss screamed. Regina rolled her eyes and grabbed her pen and pad out of her apron pocket as she walked towards table four.

“Hi, I’m Reggie, I’ll be your server, what can I get for you?” Regina said before looking up, writing down the table number on the top of the pad.

“Well look who it is, the white girl who can rap!” Fifty said laughing. Regina looked up to see the whole of D-12 along with Fifty and Eminem looking up at her.

“How you all doing guys?” she said smiling.

“You work here?” Proof asked.

“No, it’s a hobby. I’m really a rich heiress and doing this so I can find out what it’s like being one of the common folk,” Regina said and they all laughed.

“So, what can I get for you guys to drink?” she asked, but before they could answer her boss stalked over.

“Table seven is still waiting for their order! What the hell is going on around here, get going!” he said, getting in her face.

“You just told me to get table four, this is table four. And the deep fryer is on the fritz again, the fries are not done yet,” Regina said exasperated.

“Just get your ass in gear, it’s busy!” he yelled again before stalking off.

“Ass wipe,” Regina muttered before returning to the table.

“Why didn’t you just deck him?” Swifty asked.

“It’s nothing, anyways, what can I get for you tonight?” Regina asked putting on her fake waitress smile, noting how the guys just starred at her and saw right through it.

“All right, knock it off, that’s just the way he is. Come on, tell me what you want to drink so I can get table seven their food before the dick head comes back,” that lightened the moment slightly. She took their drink order and walked away with a real smile.

Eminem watched her walk away and felt annoyed at the way that jerk boss had treated her. He was surprised at his reaction to her. He’d never cared about the way someone talked to one of the women he’d slept with. But this was different, she could rap, she had rapped for him, she’d spent enough time to form an opinion about him and his music. She’d spent time studying his music and his lyrics. She had respect for him, respect for herself. She was different.

A minute later he saw Regina traipsing back across the room with a large tray of drinks held over her head with one hand. The room was packed with tables and he was surprised that she could move so easily between them without hitting anyone’s chairs.

Eminem watched her carefully and noticed a guy’s hand fly out and grab Regina’s ass. She was so startled that she jumped and dropped the entire tray of drinks all over herself and the man that had grabbed her. He jumped up and started screaming at her for dumping the drinks on him. The boss was back.

“What the hell is wrong with you! Can’t you do anything right! Apologize to the man!” he screamed. Eminem couldn’t deal with this anymore. He stood up quickly and walked over to the group.

“Well, apologize!” he screamed at Regina again. She just stood there, looking at the floor, trying to get herself under control before she lost her job.

“Don’t you think he should be apologizing to her?” Eminem asked her boss. Regina looked up at him, pleading with her eyes for him to go away.

“Excuse me, was I talking to you?” the boss asked turning his attention to Eminem.

“No, but I’m talking to you. He grabbed her, that’s why she dropped the drinks,” he replied coolly.

“I can take care of this, just go,” Regina pleaded quietly.

“Well maybe if she would have hustled a little bit faster, he wouldn’t have to grab her to get her attention! Now apologize to him!” he shouted in Regina’s face. Regina lowered her gaze to the floor and said quietly,

“I’m sorry sir, I’ll get you a towel.” The man grinned.

“It’s about time you get some girls that know how to carry a tray!” he said as Regina went to go to the kitchen.

“And it’s about time that you learned some respect for women,” Eminem said stepping forward. Regina saw what was going on and dove back at him.

“No! I said I would handle it!” she said harshly, pushing him back towards the table.

“Exactly, then get him a towel, clean up this mess and then his check is coming out of your paycheck!” her boss said as she walked over again, after depositing Eminem at his table. He fought the urge to dive at the man, he was still on probation from the last guy he’d beat the piss out of, he couldn’t afford to land in jail and lose Hailie, still, he didn’t like the way he was treating Regina.

“Yes,” she said nodding and bending to pick of the cups that had flew across the floor.

“Em, sit down man, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Swifty said grabbing his arm and pulling him back to his seat.

“Guy is fucking asshole,” Kuniva said angrily, ripping a sugar packet in two and watching it’s contents spill out on the table in front of him. Eminem’s eyes didn’t leave Regina’s crouching form as she picked up each of the seven plastic cups. He watched her shoulders stiffen each time she grabbed a cup and then she straightened up, stood and walked over to the counter. She asked for a towel from another waitress and was handed one from the blond behind the counter who took Regina’s hand for a moment. Eminem watched as she stilled and the blond said something to her.

“It’ll be okay,” she said before letting Regina go. Regina nodded and thanked her, keeping her face a mask and returning to the table to give the man the towel. He leered at her and snatched it out of her hand. She returned to their table and took out her pad to take their orders.

“You guys know what you want?” she asked, not looking at them, concentrating on the pad of paper in front of her.

“Don’t worry about us,” Bizarre said.

“Look, just give me your orders, I’ll put them in now and by the time I get that cleaned up they should be out, okay?” she said, completely exhausted.

“I ain’t hungry,” Kon said looking away.

“Do any of you want anything?” she asked looking at them.

“No, we’re good, really,” Bizarre said again.

“All right, I’ll get you your drinks in a minute while you think it over.” She dropped the pad and pen back into her pocket and went to get a mop. She cleaned up the mess and returned the mop to the kitchen before coming to their table again.

“Okay, now what can I get you?” she asked, trying her best to put on a smile, but no matter what, the guys wouldn’t see through it.

“I think we’re just gonna get going,” Fifty said stiffly.

“Oh come on guys, he’s harmless, really, now come on, if you really want to make up for him, you’ll stay, and leave me a big tip,” she replied. They laughed a little.

“Look, give me two minutes, I’ll get your drinks, and then you have to tell me what you want,” she said glancing at the group.

“All right,” Swifty replied giving her a smile.

“Good, I’ll be right back,” she smiled genuinely at them and went back to the order window and picked up two orders and delivered them with her waitress smile before returning to the counter and started to fill up the soda cups for the guys.

Eminem watched her and then noticed the guy that grabbed her get up from his table. His friend got up as well and they made their way over to the counter behind Regina.

“Hey, here’s your towel back girlie,” he said slinging it at her. Regina stiffened but didn’t turn around.

“And you do have a nice ass, just to let you know,” he reached out and smacked her hard, but she just gripped the counter and waited until he walked away. This was the last straw.

Eminem stood up but Kuniva grabbed his wrist.

“Man, your probation, remember,” he said. He waited till the guy was out the door and turned to look at Regina. She stood stock still, still holding the counter.

“I’m just gonna make sure she’s all right,” he replied yanking out of Kuniva’s grasp and walking up to Regina.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, fine,” she replied stiffly.

“You don’t have to do this, walk out of here Regina, right now, fuck your boss,” Eminem said trying to convince her.

“You don’t have to understand Eminem, so just walk away,” she said, her body shaking as she did so. She was still calling him Eminem.

“I want to, come on, just walk out of here, you deserve better than this,” he said trying to put a hand on her shaking arm. She whipped around before he could and said,

“Coming from somebody who was only interested in me because he could fuck me. Go to hell!” she said and pushed him away before dodging into the kitchen. He’d seen her water clouded eyes. She’d had to deal with this before. This wasn’t new for her, but it wasn’t easy either. That was the realization he’d seen in her eyes as well. He waited for her to come back out of the kitchen, and a minute later she did, carrying a tray with the drinks and marching right past him.

She handed out the drinks and straws, and stuck the tray under her arm so she could take their orders. He went back to the table and took a seat as Kon was giving his order.

“And for you?” she asked coldly as her eyes lighted on him.

“Uh, whatever Bizarre is having,” he replied looking carefully at her. She looked back at her pad, wrote something on it and walked away. “What happened?” Kuniva asked as soon as she was gone.

“Thinks the only reason I’m into her was because she was an easy lay.” Eminem replied.

“Well, isn’t it?” Fifty asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied quietly.

“That guy was still an ass,” Bizarre replied.

“You don’t take it unless it’s given,” Proof said.

“Since when are you all up on women’s rights Proof?” Eminem snapped.

“Since my little sister was raped fucker,” Proof shot back.

“When did that happen?” Kon asked quickly.

“Last month, my mom called and told me, she tried to kill herself too,” Proof said shredding his straw paper.

“Sorry man, do they know who did it?” Eminem asked.

“Do you think I’d still be sitting here talking to you if I did?” Proof asked seriously.

“Nope, fucker you’d be in jail for killing him,” Swifty said laughing slightly.

“Damn strait,” Proof replied.

“Man, you got to get that shit she did today and give it to Dre,” Kon said, trying to break out of the conversation.

“Yeah, can you imagine, having her up on stage with us, we’d get us another whole fan base,” Kuniva said excitedly.

“It’d really be something,” Bizarre said smiling. Eminem thought to himself. It would be incredible having Regina up there with them. He could just imagine the look on Dre’s face when he heard her spit. She’d be the next member of D-12, the next great woman rapper, the next great white rapper, and she’d be up there with him.

Regina returning with their food broke his concentration and he looked up at her as she laid each plate down in front of the respective person. When she got to him she put a large Philly Cheesstake sandwich in front of him.

“No onions, right?” she asked, with a tone that he couldn’t exactly pin point. He looked over at Bizarre and noticed his usual plate of sausage and peppers.

“Uh yeah.” He said stupidly.

“Anything else guys?” she asked. They all shook their heads no and she left without another word.