Wouldn't it have been cool if the book had actually spun from this scene? Like, waiter fawns all over them, then when Micah or Nathaniel gets up to go to the bathroom Jacob grabs him and drives off with him. Then the waiter comes back over and pretends to still be normally talking with them but is actually in on it and is saying "Act normal or your boyfriend gets it. As soon as I leave the table you all need to head to the back door and go with my cohort, who you will know because he only has one eye." And he could end by winking and being all flirty like he was still into them and it would be extra creepy.

I don't know, this is right off the top of my head, but, you know...this is right off the top of my head with the prompt of "LKH's restaurant story which then goes dark" and I still think it's better than what she ended up with (or has the potential to be better, anyway). And at least it actually builds from the story instead of just making the word "flirt" be repeated way too many times for no reason.