Page 59 of The Breakup

Know your worth.

Which was why I was able to get a job that very afternoon. It took me going in and out of every shop and restaurant in town, but I got a job waitressing.

Unfortunately, it was at Christian’s bar.

He was going to have to get over it.

Bella Rose Bigelow was done being polite.

—

“You hired Bella?” I said to my boss, Thomas. “Why? Why the actual hell would you do that?” I was in shock. I had walked into work Sunday and there she had been, wearing tight jeans and an even tighter tank top, her hair twisted up on her head. She had on a handwritten name badge and was very studiously following around one of our waitresses observing and helping.

“What do you mean?” Thomas frowned as he loaded racks of clean glasses behind the bar. “She needed a job and I had to fire Rebecca last week for no-showing two days in a row.”

“This is not a girl who needs a job,” I told him. “She’s filthy rich.”

Thomas just shrugged. “She said she needs a job. So she must need a job.”

Sometimes the attitude of locals was really annoying. That matter-of-fact approach was exactly how I was. I knew that. But coming from someone else it was really fucking irritating. “She and I have hooked up.” I wasn’t sure how else to make it clear this was a bad idea.

He paused and laughed. Thomas was in his forties, brawny, tattooed. He was married with six kids. “Jordan, you think I don’t know that? It’s all my wife and her book club can talk about. Everyone in town knows you picked up the runaway bride and hid her somewhere for a couple of days until her dad sniffed you out.”

“He didn’t sniff us out.” That sounded so fucking dramatic and made me seem like I was afraid of that little prick. “Bella went back to her parents. That’s not exactly scandalous.”

“Then why do you care if she works here?”

Shit. He had trapped me. “I just don’t want anyone to feel awkward.”

“Because that concerned you before you had sex with Jodi? Or Sara? Or that tourist girl who spent the next five days sitting here at the bar for six hours a night pining for your dumb ass?”

He had a point. “Maybe I’m trying to learn from my mistakes.” That might be a stretch. Mainly I didn’t want Bella there because she was like pure, sweet temptation and I wasn’t sure I could be rational around her. I had already proven I sucked at it.

“Listen, kid, I know someday you want to buy this place from me when I retire. So just see this as an opportunity to prove to me you can handle awkward.” He gave me a long look. “And maybe keep your dick in your pants for a change.”

I glared at him. “Dude, you have six kids. I could say the same to you.”

That made Thomas laugh. “Fair enough.”

Bella also laughed from somewhere to the right of me. I knew it was her. I would recognize her voice anywhere. I watched her bending over to fill the water glass of a customer and I felt my dick harden. Her ass was a thing of beauty in those pants. It had been a week since I had seen her, and every night I had spent in bed thinking about how she had felt coming apart beneath me, my cock buried deep inside her. It made for some restless sweaty nights. I had thought about calling or texting her, but what the hell was there to say?

She had come in here tonight and given me a breezy, “Hi,” before going about her business.

I was pissed off. This was my place. Not hers. She had already ruined the cabin for me. I’d never be able to go there again without remembering holding her in my arms. And the caboose was done. I’d never set foot in there again because it reeked of Bella to me. Now she was ruining my workplace too, and that was bullshit.

When she came up to the bar to fill a drink order, I was kind of a dick. “There really wasn’t any other bar in town for you to work at?” I asked. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you missed me.”

Her nose wrinkled. “Your ego continues to amaze me. This was seriously the only place hiring. It’s the height of the summer season. Everyone already has staff. Trust me, I don’t want to hang out with you either.”

“That’s a little insulting.” I shoved a beer bottle and two iced teas toward her.

She started putting the drinks on her tray. “What does that even mean? Look, can we just be friends? I’m going to be here until the fall at least, so we need to be civil.”

“I can be civil. But I’m not sure I can be friends.” It was a dickhead thing to say, but it was true. Talking to my mother had opened me up to thinking about my behavior and what I wanted moving forward. I wanted more from Bella. It was as clear as the nose on my fucking face. I wanted to date her.

Also, I hadn’t expected to see Bella anytime soon.

But she was here, in front of me, beautiful and waitressing in my bar, and I hated it for the simple fact that I wanted to be with her.

---