Page 9 of My Jealous Boss

“She here with her boyfriend?”

“No, that’s her friend,” I tell him as I take the drinks from the bar top.

“He couldn’t take his eyes off of you,” Simon notes before I’m able to walk away.

“Oh,” I say, taken aback by the statement. It sounds like he’s jealous already, and Blaine hasn’t even flirted with me. “I didn’t notice.”

Simon grunts again. I hover for a second, waiting for him to say something else. When he doesn't, I walk the drinks back to Jenny and Blaine. As I set them down, I give Jenny a look.

“What just happened?” she asks, taking a straw from my apron before I can hand one to her.

“I think he’s already jealous,” I reply.

“Really?” Blaine says, a playful smirk on his face. “I haven’t even gotten started yet.”

“Oh my God,” Jenny says after taking a sip of her lemonade. “He’s looking over here right now.”

“Wait, really?” I ask, resisting the urge to turn around and confirm what she said.

“Yup,” Blaine replies, reaching out to touch my arm lightly. When I give him a curious look, he says, “I’m trying to play it up for our audience.”

I can’t help the giggle that comes out of my mouth. Then, as if to continue the show he’s putting on, Blaine rubs his fingertip down my arm before finally putting his hand back on the table. I think if it were Simon doing this, it’d make me melt, but since it’s Blaine, it just feels silly.

“Is he still watching?” I ask, glancing at Jenny, whose eyes are trained on the bar.

“Mhmm,” she hums, her lips wrapped around her straw.

“He looks pissed,” Blaine adds, leaning forward onto his elbows. “I think this ploy you girls came up with is working.”

“That I came up with,” Jenny corrects him. “Oh, he’s walking away.”

“What?” I say, unable to keep myself from turning to look.

I spot him weaving through servers holding trays loaded with food. His shoulders are held tight, and his hands are balled into fists at his sides. It looks like he’s upset; at what, I don’t know. I can only assume that he doesn’t like how Blaine’s touching me.

“Huh,” I murmur when he disappears through the double doors to the kitchen.

“Well, I think my work here is done,” Blaine says as he picks up his menu. “Jenny, you ready to order?”

“Yep,” she says, putting her drink on the table. “Get your notepad out, Miranda. I’ve got a lot of specifications.”

“Of course you do,” I say, shaking my head as I get my pen and paper ready.

I write down their order, taking special care to read Jenny’s heavily modified request back to her. As I’m punching it into the computer, I wonder why Simon stalked off the way he did. The last time he didn’t like one of my conversations with a customer, he confronted me. This time, he just walked away.

Worry eats at me. What if he’s done? It’s not like I did anything to stop Blaine. Maybe Simon thinks that I was enjoying it. Could he think the reason I wanted to “practice” giving a blow job was because I wanted to give one to someone else?

For the rest of the night, I’m distracted by my anxieties. The whole point of making him jealous was to confirm he was interested in me, not deter him from pursuing me. Our plan may have completely backfired. My thoughts only get darker when I don’t see him for the rest of dinner service.

By the time the floor is cut, Simon is still gone. He relays the message through the assistant manager. I’m dreading closing time when the two of us are alone. I don’t think I can take him ignoring me when it’s just the two of us. If I have to, I’ll force him to talk to me and come clean about the feelings I’ve been harboring for him.

Chapter 6

Simon

I had to get out of there. Seeing someone else blatantly flirting with Miranda, the woman I’ve already decided is mine, was too much for me – especially because she didn’t do anything to thwart his advances.

If I stayed in the dining room, I would have done something stupid. I wanted nothing more than to march over there and tear her away from that man. That would totally break the illusion of professionalism I’ve been trying to maintain around her.

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