One day, a couple weeks later, Logan was just finishing up his work when he was approached by Emily Gilmore.
"Logan." she called to him.
Logan stood up, brushing some of the dirt off his pants.
"Would you like some extra work tomorrow night?" She asked. There wasn't any trace of hostility in her voice.
"Sure. What work?" Logan asked. He was always on the lookout to make some extra money, especially now that they were expecting a baby.
"Richard and I are having some friends over tomorrow and could use another server. You've been to enough of these things and you know how they work, so I'm sure you could do well."
Logan tried to read her, to see if this was yet another plan to humiliate him. But it didn't seem to be. In the weeks that he had worked here he had seen a couple small parties of Richard's business partners and had no reason to believe that this would be any different.
"What time do you want me?" he asked.
"When you finish up outside you can come in here to shower and change." Emily suggested.
Logan nodded. "Thanks."
"Say hi to Rory for me." Emily said as she turned and walked away.
The next night Logan took a quick shower in the Gilmore house and changed into an outfit that matched what the other servers would be wearing. He got a quick tutorial from one of the other servers on exactly what to do, when to bring out each dish, how to speak to people.
Logan was excited to get the extra cash, and Rory hadn't heard anything about it so the gathering would probably consist of people that Logan didn't even know. If it was Yale people surely Rory would have been invited.
He looked in the mirror, satisfied with how he looked. He gave his reflection a quick, confident smirk. If he could prove himself here maybe he could get advancement opportunities from gardening to something else. At least it could go on his resume.
He slipped downstairs into the kitchen and stood with the others, waiting for the guests to arrive. He chatted briefly with the other servers, reflecting that formerly these were people he never even would have spoken to, and now they were his colleagues.
Finally Emily came into the kitchen to give final instructions and let them know that the guests were starting to arrive. Logan grabbed his tray to begin circling as instructed. He balanced the tray perfectly and waited as the other servers walked out. He watched the clock until his turn came to leave the kitchen. And he walked out into a crowd of Yale alumni and their children. Sons mostly.
Logan stared bewildered at seeing a crowd of people who used to be his friends. He prayed that his confusion wouldn't show but knew that his cheeks were burning. He winced to himself to see the people staring at him, and heard a quiet murmur of laughter travel through the crowd. He spotted Robert, Colin and Finn, Rosemary, Juliet and a couple of girls he had dated.
He knew Emily had done this on purpose, and he had actually thought that she was reaching out to him, trying to be nice to him! He felt stupid, used and ashamed. How could he spend the evening serving these people? He knew they would be talking about him, probably already were, and laughing at him.
But Logan didn't turn around and retreat to the kitchen. He ignored his friends, held his head high and walked past them with his tray.
Colin bumped his shoulder a little, purposely.
"Excuse me sir, my friends and I are just dying for a drink." he said, mocking in his voice.
Logan gritted his teeth as he let them get a drink from the tray.
"Say, don't I know you from somewhere?" Finn piped in.
"Oh, a game, lets guess!" Juliet laughed.
"Were you by chance ever a janitor at Yale?" Colin asked.
Logan saw Emily looking at him, just waiting for him to snap back at them, waiting for an excuse to fire him altogether.
"No, sorry, I wasn't." He said, trying his hardest to be polite but secretly vowing to give him a swift kick after the party.
They continued to joke with him. Logan was hurt but hadn't expected much better. They had been his friends once but now he was in a different world. And apparently their egos depended on demeaning those in a lower station in life. He finally managed to get past them and move to another group with his tray. As he was leaving Robert took a parting shot.
"Hey Logan I love the outfit." he called.
Logan shook his head but managed with difficulty to stay polite. As soon as his tray was empty and he could escape to the kitchen for a refill he called Rory.
He didn't want to whine to her, but he did tell her what happened. "That grandmother of yours is something else." he remarked. "I give her points for persistence and invention. I didn't see that one coming."
"I hate that they treat you like that." Rory said. "I wish I was there."
"I wouldn't want you here. And it might not even help. If they say something to you I don't know if I'll be able to hold myself back." Logan said.
"Oh don't worry about that, I can take care of myself." said Rory.
"I would hate for you to see me like this."
"Hey you should be proud of yourself Logan. I'm not at all embarrassed by what you do for a living. Let them say what they want."
"I gotta go. I have to get back out there." Logan said, seeing his tray full and waiting.
"Okay, I'll see you in a few hours."
Logan hung up the phone, took a deep breath, picked up the tray and went back out there knowing that it was going to be a very long night.