“So, are you the same cousin who used to visit Sara over the summers?” she asks quietly.
“Yep, that’s me.”
What does this girl want? I’m not in the mood for this. She takes a step, leaning into me. I can feel her breath on my ear when she whispers, “I’m Abby.”
She smells like rotten coconut, and her breath isn’t any better. This is one fine example of a girl who could be pretty only on the inside. Apparently she’s a space case, too. I’ve been here long enough to know her name. She should clearly know mine now too. Since she’s still leaning into me, I whisper back.
“I know, and I’m Ethan, your boss.”
She backs off, but her smile doesn’t falter. “I know.”
“Then get back to work,” I say firmly because she isn’t figuring this out fast enough.
This time, her smile falls from her face before she turns to leave. I shake my head as I watch her round the bar, and that’s when I see Kelsey watching us. She has a blank expression on her face and it doesn’t change after I walk up to her. She looks down to her notepad before she says anything.
“You don’t have to be such a dick. You’re going to be here for a while and you already have someone who doesn’t like you,” she says. “It might be a good idea to make a few friends while you’re here.”
Did she just call me a dick? I’m pretty sure that’s violating some kind of rule.
“Employers shouldn’t make friends with their employees,” I defend myself, resting against the bar, keeping a straight face and looking her in the eyes. Unless Kelsey wants to be friends, and then I’ll make an exception. I just won’t tell her that.
“Yeah, well, good employees are the ones who enjoy working for someone they like. Someone they can get along with.”
She tucks her notepad into her apron and walks away. What? No way is she getting the last word. I come up behind her as she stops and almost run into her.
“We get along. We can set an example. Show everyone what the boundaries are between employer and employee,” I suggest. My voice sounds desperate. To spend more time with her or to prove a point, I’m not sure. Pull it together, man.
I need to prove a point.
She spins around, her mouth open like she is going to say something, but she stops. She takes a deep breath then looks me in the eye.
“No.”
No.
People don’t say no to me.
“What do you mean, no?” I growl at her.
Now she’s looking at me with pity. She gives me a half smile.
“Look, Ethan, with our history it would be a bad idea. We have never been able to play nice with each other. It happens.”
History? We don’t have a history. We kissed once and then she freaked out on me. Besides, she’s the one who can’t play nice. Not me. I’m a nice guy.
“Hey, I’m not the one who kicked myself in the face, hit myself with a car door, and then dumped hot coffee all over myself,” I say politely, refreshing her memory.
She scrunches up her face and then pulls her lips into a hard line as she tries not smile. She starts to clear the dirty dishes sitting on the table near us.
“I didn’t mean to do any of those things and you know it. I thought we were past that.” Her tone is light and playful. I smile as I approach.
“Well,” I begin and help her clear the table. “You did get me pretty good. How about if you lock yourself out again, you come get me and we can avoid the cops next time.”
For the first time since we started this conversation, I cause her to smile. If she liked what I said, I will absolutely find a way to get her to come to me. We walk the dishes to the bar, setting them on top so the closing bartender can wash them.
“Ok, I will,” she says and looks around. “But I don’t plan on locking myself out again, so I don’t think we will have to worry about that.”
I give her my biggest grin. Yeah…we’ll see about that.
Chapter Eight
Kelsey
It was a waste of time showing up to class today. I haven’t been able to focus in any of them. It’s been two days since I saw Abby flirting with Ethan. I didn’t like it and hope I don’t have to witness it again. I’ve never felt that way about any guy. Ever. Not even when she walked out of my bathroom that god-awful day I caught Tyler cheating on me.
And Ethan’s not your man, Kelsey.
The way she stormed away from Ethan, I knew he shut her down. It took everything I had not to smile at him when he caught me watching. How could I be interested in him again after just a couple days? This just goes to show how unstable my brain is when it comes to choosing someone of the opposite sex.
“Are you even paying attention?” Logan whispers.
I shake my head no.
“Then let’s skip out because I’m about to fall asleep.”
We quietly grab our bags and sneak out of class without drawing attention. This isn’t good. Ethan has distracted from the one course I give a rip about. In fact, the other night, I wanted to do nothing but write and Ethan got in the way of that too. This isn’t a good sign.
“What should we do?” Logan asks. “Maybe go grab a bite or something?”
Food doesn’t sound appealing in any way, but I have nothing else going on today and going home to hang out alone doesn’t sound fun. And sadly, once again, my mind is more focused on Ethan than plotting some points I could enter to that writing contest.
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
At my car, I’m a little surprised Logan’s making the kind gesture to open my door. He does this sort of thing for Sara all the time or when we’re together but never just me on my own. Logan really is a sweet guy. Ironically, just as I think it, all the kindness is gone when he hits me with the driver’s door. I stumble backward, my purse slipping off my arm, tossing every item in it across the ground.
“Oh, dude, I’m sorry.” Logan kneels down with me as I gather everything up.
“It’s alright,” I tell him, but he’s almost laughing. “It doesn’t look like you’re too upset about hitting me,” I joke back. It’s really not a big deal, but then he reaches his hand toward me and I realize why he is laughing. I grab the tampon out of his hand, stuff it deep into my purse, and close my door once I’m inside the car, praying he doesn’t see the blush I have no doubt my cheeks are displaying. This is probably why he’s never opened a door for me. Probably had some sixth sense that it would be awkward one way or another.
Hanging out with Logan for a while is fun. He asks about Sara a bunch, which doesn’t surprise me. Those two aren’t very good at hiding their feelings. I thought for sure they were going to finally put themselves out of their misery and make things official, but then she up and decided to leave for this trip and didn’t even tell Logan. He found out from Ethan. The way he’s been talking about her this afternoon only confirms everything I thought: Logan doesn’t want her to go.
I pull up to my parents’ house around five. I have a plan to accomplish a lot of homework tonight, but after a good fifteen minutes of searching through my purse, backpack, and car for their house key, I give up. I must have lost it when I dropped my purse.
I get out of the car, close the door, and lean against it. I should have made a spare key after the first night. I take a deep breath and glance across the street to Ethan’s house, where the front light is on. He did tell me I could come to him if this happened again. I push off my car and head for his house.
I knock once and the door opens. Ethan’s in a pair of blue jeans and a simple red t-shirt. His hair looks a little messy, like he’s been running his hands through it. At least, I hope it was him.