I turned to face him. “I’d rate it a five.”
He looked surprised. “Really?”
“I can’t be hypocritical about it. I did the same thing to you yesterday.”
“That’s right. You did. So now both our mothers think we’re in a relationship.”
It was too ridiculous to not laugh. “Is your mom going to murder me?”
“Don’t worry. I have complete confidence that you can take her, remember? Now, buckle up. We’re really going to the store.”
“Okay, but first, give me your hand.”
His eyebrows scrunched together, but he held his hand out to me. I turned it palm-side up and slapped the cold, soapy sponge into it. “This is yours.”
He stared at it, then burst out laughing. After rolling the window down and tossing it out onto the driveway, he put the truck in reverse. “Let’s go, girlfriend.”
I narrowed my eyes, letting him know exactly what I thought about that joke. Then I put his hoodie on because I was shivering. It swallowed me whole, but the warmth was certainly blissful. As I buckled up, I looked across at him and caught the smirk on his face, even though he was looking straight ahead.
Luckily, the nearest grocery store was just a few streets away, so Damien didn’t seem to mind my absolute silence as he drove. As he parked, I realized I didn’t have my wallet, so I opened my shopping app for the store to see if I could pay from my phone. When I opened the door to get out, Damien pulled the door open at the same time. I clenched my hand around the handle in surprise and nearly got yanked out onto my head.
“Whoa, there,” he said, bracing me by the hips.
I caught hold of his shoulder and stepped down, then pushed away from him. “I’m starting to think nothing but trouble comes from being around you.”
“That’s fair. But, hey. Trouble is fun, right?”
I raised an eyebrow and headed into the store. I grabbed a basket from the stack near the shopping carts and turned to smile at him. “Meet me back here in a bit?”
“What? You’re going to run off on your own and pretend you don’t know me? After I gave you a ride and everything?”
“You mean after you forced me into your truck and made me come? Yes. That’s what I’m going to do.”
“When we get back home, you’re going to have to explain to me exactly what you find so repulsive about me,” he said, pulling out a cart. He paused beside me. “Cuz other girls don’t.” And then he winked and strolled away, his swagger not one bit diminished by the fact that he was pushing a shopping cart.
Just to be safe, I headed off in the opposite direction. If he was going to the produce section, I was going to canned goods.
One of my biggest challenges in life had always been consuming enough calories. No matter how much I ate, I could never put enough weight on to get rid of my sharp angles and grow some curves. Worst of all, it was a problem that I tried really hard to hide because I’d long ago learned that eating rich, fatty food in front of other girls or talking about my struggle to put weight on was the quickest way to make enemies.
No matter how much I would sympathize over their dieting rants or compliment them on how they looked, I’d sooner eat toenails than share my own body-weight issues. But in the safety of my hermit-like privacy, I forced myself to eat as much peanut butter, full-fat dairy, and pasta as I could afford. Which wasn’t much. But a small jar of peanut butter would last a week. With some parmesan cheese, heavy whipping cream, and cheese tortellini, I figured I’d have enough to eat for a few days at least. I decided to splurge a tub of salted caramel gelato and then headed for the health and beauty aid section.
Another thing I had learned the hard way was that as horrible as my periods were, as soon as I was done with it, I didn’t think about it again until the next one came around. Too many times, I’d forgotten to restock on supplies and had to run out in the middle of the night. I definitely needed to grab some today, while I was thinking about it. Hopefully, I’d manage to avoid seeing Damien until I’d safely checked out.
I stood looking over the options, always hunting for the pads that would actually manage to keep up with my heaviest days. Long. Super-long. Regular. Heavy. Thin. Extra thin. With wings. Without wings. Without perfumes or dyes. Wait, so did that mean the ones I usually used did have perfumes and dyes? Why wasn’t there an extra thin, super-long for heavy days without perfumes and dyes? The only one that had all of those options had wings, which were helpful until they got stuck to all the wrong things in the middle of the night.
“You’ve been staring at the shelves for five minutes now,” a deep voice behind me said.
I screamed in horror, clapped my hands over my mouth, and stared at Damien. He leaned over the handle of the cart with one foot propped up on the bottom rail, watching me.
“What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I was done and came looking for you.”
There was no way I’d be able to pick out what I needed now. “I’m done,” I said, moving past him.
He grabbed my arm. “Are you embarrassed right now? Look. Get what you need. I grew up sharing a bathroom with three sisters. It’s not even remotely weird for me.”
And he was right. Why was this weird? The whole reason periods were so taboo was because nobody treated them like the perfectly normal function of the female body that they were. If he wasn’t embarrassed, why should I be?
With that firmly in mind, I turned around and grabbed the ones I usually got. However, I did my best to block Damien from seeing any details on the package. I also grabbed a purple box of tampons that I loved because they came with a variety assortment and left the aisle, not quite making eye contact with Damien as I passed him.
I headed for the self-checkout section. There were several open registers, so I chose one and started scanning my few items. Damien took the one next to me. I glanced over at the stuff in his cart, expecting to see tons of junk food and soda. Instead, I saw so many fresh fruits and veggies that I blinked. There were also way too many eggs for one person and several packages of fresh meat. Huh. Was he on a paleo diet or something?
Once I’d run all my items over the scanner and hit the button to pay, I got my phone out and opened up the store app. Unfortunately, it was asking for my passcode, which I couldn’t remember since I rarely used it. Finally, I had to have it send a security question to my email. I felt impatient and cranky that Damien had brought me here without letting me grab my wallet, but at least there was no one waiting in line behind me.
“Got a problem?” Damien asked, rolling up next to me with his bagged groceries.
“No. Just trying to log into my app to pay.”
Damien stepped toward the register. As soon as it dawned on me what he was doing, I yelped and grabbed at his hand. But I was too slow to stop him before he’d inserted his card. I stared in shock at the spinning icon that showed the machine was processing the payment. My hand clenched around his, but I forced myself to let go. “What are you doing?”
“I was in a hurry.”
“Since when?” I asked, not believing him. “Now I’m going to have to pay you back for this too.”
He pulled his card out and slotted it back into his wallet. “Nah. I got this. It was nothing.”
“Look, I know you’re trying to be helpful, but I have no idea why—”
“Because we’re friends,” he said, busily moving my groceries into the same cart as his.
I closed my eyes and groaned. “I know a lot has happened the last few days, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.”
Not at all hurt by this, he just grinned. “I’m pretty sure that buying your tampons makes me your friend. Now, come on. I really do need to get going. If I don’t get over to my mom’s house soon, she might murder me instead of just yell at me.”
Chapter Eight
It only took about thirty minutes for me to wish I was anywhere but at work that Tuesday night. Because we weren’t busy at the beginning of the eve
ning, Patrick came out of his office with his manager smirk firmly in place and schmoozed his way through the dining room to greet guests, then came out to the front to make sure I was keeping myself busy. Which is how I ended up cleaning and filling salt and pepper shakers between guests, which worked great until we got a sudden rush. For a while, things became a blur of moving people to their tables, trying to manage the thin, weeknight waitstaff, and getting the shakers back on the tables before someone needed to salt and pepper their potatoes.
When I finally got to catch my breath for two seconds, I thought about the lady who gave me her number on Friday night. Maybe I should call her. I’d miss having my daytime hours free to work on my art, but having a second income was probably more important right now
Although, when I saw hipster Bryce coming toward me with a scowl on his face, I wondered if the other job might pay enough for me to quit this one. That would be amazing. And incredibly unlikely.
“Hey, tampon eater,” Bryce said, his tone thick with scorn. “How am I supposed to take care of five tables at once?”
I met his eyes without a single flinch. “Someone had to take five. Can’t you handle it?”
“I can handle it, but not when the kitchen is as slow as—”
“They’re understaffed for a rush like this too,” I said, cutting him off before he could drop a curse word in the foyer. Not interested in talking to him any more than I had to, I went back to easing a stream of pepper into the cut-glass shaker I was working on without getting too close to it. I’d already had one sneezing fit already—not exactly what you want in a restaurant.
“Just don’t give me another until I can clear one out. Got it?”
His aggressive tone did nothing to improve my mood, so I just cast him another level glance and went back to work. After hanging out in front of my counter a few seconds longer, as if waiting for me to react with annoyance, he stormed away again and made room for the group coming in the door.
When I’d finally finished filling the shakers and taken them back to the waitstaff to distribute, I ducked back into the kitchen to check on how backed up things were in there. Even though we had tables free, I’d need to start spacing them out so the kitchen could catchup. Generally, people were more patient waiting to be seated than waiting for their food to arrive
“How’s it going back here, Charlotte?”
She looked up but didn’t manage her usual smile. “Crazy, but we’ll make it unless this keeps up all night.”
The person on dishes that night had a huge stack to get through, and the sous chef was so busy he didn’t even look up. “I’ll try to slow it down a bit for you.”
“Thanks,” she said, letting out a huff of air in relief.
“No worries. I’ve got you.”
“I’ll save you a piece of cheesecake. Come see me after close.”
“Hey, you know I can’t resist.”
I didn’t even realize Bryce had come in until I heard him complain. “You’re giving her cheesecake when I’m the one busting my tail out there? She’s just going to go puke it up anyway.”
I turned slowly around to face him, sure I hadn’t heard what I just thought I had. “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” he said. Then he stuck his finger into his mouth and pretended to gag himself. “Why else would you be so skinny?”
“Bryce!” Charlotte sounded as angry as I did. “Don’t be a jerk.”
Every instinct in me screamed to throw something at his smirking face. Instead, I just stared him down with shards of ice in my gaze. I knew that anything I said or did in retaliation would add to his enjoyment in bullying me. Before I could force myself to turn away from him, however, Julie peeked in through the doorway behind Bryce. I’d asked her to watch the hostess station for me, so she caught my attention.
“Krista, a couple came in who wants to sit a particular table, but you have it reserved. I guess it’s the anniversary of the night he proposed to her or something, so…”
She let her voice trail off, but she didn’t need to say any more. Clearly, I was needed out front, so I flashed one more lingering glare at Bryce and followed her out.
After greeting the hopeful couple waiting at the hostess station, I quickly looked through my records and saw that there was no reason I couldn’t move the reservation to another table. In no time, we had it cleared up and I took them in to be seated.
When I came back, a woman stood waiting with a slight smile. It was the woman who’d given me her number and offered me a job. Even though I’d thought in a joking way about calling her earlier, I definitely hadn’t expected her to show up at the restaurant. Still, I couldn’t assume that was why she was here.
“Welcome to The Loft. Do you have a reservation?”
“Actually, I came to talk to you.” She looked around, and when she saw we were alone, she continued. “A position came open at my company that I need to fill quickly, and my gut tells me you’ll be perfect for it.”
Okay, so maybe I have a wild imagination, but I’d never had a job thrown at me like this, so some pretty wild ideas of what it might be flew through my mind. Still, she looked like a professional, reasonably normal person, and after the night I’d just had, I’d even be willing to entertain something crazy if it meant getting out of here. “What kind of position?”
“Executive assistant. I know you can’t talk openly here, but I’d like to discuss it further with you. Will you be going on break soon, by any chance?”
“I can take one soon. But this is a little…strange. What makes you think I’d be good at it? You’ve only ever seen me once before.”
“You strike me as the kind of woman who knows how to manage difficult people and keep things organized. And if I’m being real, you’re completely intimidating, which is exactly what I need right now.”
My eyebrows rose. The intimidating part was no surprise. I even leaned into the natural severity of my resting expression here at the restaurant. But how did she guess the rest of it from our brief interactions? “Who would I need to intimidate?”
“A bunch of man-crazy women flocking around a very attractive male business consultant. Which makes me wonder…do you by chance have a boyfriend?”
Why did Damien pop into my head when she asked that? Surely it was just because our mothers thought we were dating and not because I wished we really were.
“No. I’m single.”
She frowned, obviously disappointed about that. “Do you think you could spend all day around a charming, intelligent, beautiful man and not fall for him?”
The irony of how much I was struggling with exactly that situation made me smile. But I hadn’t crumbled at Damien’s feet yet, and I doubted any man would give me as much trouble with it as he did. “Well, I have plenty of experience in that department. No problem there.”
Her head tilted sideways as she watched me with blatant curiosity. “I’ll wait outside in my car till you can come talk to me. How does that sound?”
The door opened behind her as another couple came in. I’d need to greet them. “Fine. Luckily we aren’t that busy on Tuesday nights.” Well, we were busy for a Tuesday night, but it was nothing compared to a weekend.
“What’s your name, by the way?” she asked.
It amused me that she’d offered me a job without even asking that. “Krista Bennett.”
She nodded and stepped away so that I could go back to work. But since I was massively intrigued, as soon as I got that couple settled, I grabbed Julie again and asked her to take over for me while I took a break. With the thought of such a good job waiting, I had to find out more. Like, now.
I guess the woman was watching for me because almost as soon as I walked out the front door, she popped out of her car. She smiled and let out a big breath which fogged up in the freezing cold air. I’d completely forgotten to get my coat.
“Come get in and stay warm while we chat.”
Yes, it was dark, and yes, she was practically a st
ranger. This was also, quite possibly, the strangest thing that had ever happened to me. But this woman just seemed to radiate sincerity, and it was impossible not to trust her. So I got into her car.
I turned to her and frowned. “I know you wrote your name down for me when you gave me your number, but I don’t remember it.”
“Tessa Young. I’m the Human Resources Director for a specialty lingerie and swimwear company called Booms and Nibbles.”
“Wow. That’s quite a name.”
She chuckled. “I know. I’ll tell you the whole story behind it if you agree to come on board with us. I think you’ll love our company’s philosophy on providing functional, beautiful products for women who aren’t able to find their sizes or much selection in other brands. It’s truly a great place to work.”
And then she reached to the back seat to grab a purple folder and took a piece of paper out of it. “Here is our pay offer, along with a full description of our benefits, vacation days, holidays, and personal days.”
I glanced at it and was unable to repress a soft gasp. It was three times what I made as a waitress. “This looks…” Words failed me for a moment. “Good. But I have to admit that I’m not sure I’m qualified for this level of a position.”
Tessa laughed. “You could have negotiated more. I’m that desperate. But if it will make you feel better, let’s discuss your skill set. Do you have basic computer skills?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“If there are any programs we use that you don’t know, we can train you no problem. At Booms and Nibbles, we’re more concerned about ability rather than education level for many positions.”
“I have a degree. I was an art major, but I took several business classes as well because I figured they would come in handy as an independent artist.”
Tessa’s brows rose in pleased surprise. “That’s great. See? You’re obviously motivated, disciplined, and creative with good critical thinking skills. I’ve seen firsthand that you have exactly the persona I’m looking for, and I’m sure that you’ve had to be organized in your current job as well. You’ve convinced me. We’ll be sure to give you an early raise after six months if you perform as well as I expect.”
Oh, Keep Your Shirt On: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (Shaped By Love Book 2) Page 5
