Page 20 of Tempting Max

I smile at the bubbly blonde who’s three drinks in with what I think are her sisters. If she could feel the sweat and the dry shampoo in there, I think she would say otherwise. But I promised myself I would learn how to take compliments. “Thank you.”

She sticks out her hand, “Hi, I’m Calla,” she motions toward the two women she’s with. “And these are my sisters Briar, and Clover.”

Recognition dawns on me immediately. “You must be the Winnett sisters.”

“Nee Winnett,” Calla says happily, finishing off her shandy. “I’m Mowry now.”

“I’ve heard so much about you,” I look at Briar, the tallest and most intense of the three women. “My great aunt is Sally Carper.”

Her eyes light up. “Oh my gosh, you must be Gus, Jake says he hears nothing but wonderful things about you all day. I’ve been meaning to drop in here and introduce myself.” She holds out her hand and I take it.

“If you ever want a girls night,” Calla says, pointing to the three of them. I can tell already she’s the party girl of the bunch. “We’re your girls. Okay? It’s nice to have a local female around here that isn’t above the age of sixty.”

I laugh. “That actually sounds wonderful, I’ll take you up on that.”

“Deal. Now we gotta get out of here, we left the boys with my baby niece and Clover’s getting antsy.”

Clover gives me an apologetic smile. “It’s my first time out solo since I had her.”

“Congratulations,” I gush, “That must be equal parts liberating and terrifying.”

She chuckles. “Exactly.”

“Well, I’ll cash out your tab and you can get home to your little one.”

In a few minutes, the sisters are out the door, but not without a thousand promises from Calla that we’re going out together soon.

I kinda hope we do. They felt like a breath of fresh air. I haven’t had close friends in… I don’t even want to think about it. Ethan did everything in his power to keep me isolated. Any friends I had before him eventually gave up trying to make time with me. I’m not mad at them, they’re the ones that tried. I’m the one that put every bit of myself into a man that didn’t deserve me.

My thoughts are immediately drawn away by a new set of customers. Definitely not locals, and by the looks of their expensive clothes and entitled air, I’d say they are a group of mid-twenties trust fund bros with exotic cars that make them feel better about their inevitable micro-penises.

I bite back a groan because men like them spend all their time trying to impress people with money they didn’t earn and then think their phone number on their bill is tantamount to a tip when what I’d like to do is tip them right off those stools.

“Good evening,” I greet them with my customary cheeriness because I am a goddamn professional.

The cringiest of them all gives me the chin nod and skates his oily gaze over my body. “Hey beautiful. How’s your night going?”

“Excellent,” I respond lightly, even though his very obvious perusal of my body gives me an entire truckload of heebie jeebies. I don’t believe in most conspiracy theories, but he makes me believe there are reptilians living among us. Pretty sure he’d snatch my clothes off with his tongue if no one was watching. “What can I get for you guys?”

“Your phone number would be nice,” he says, his cronies laughing.

My smile tightens because I’ve already had enough, and I have a feeling they’ll be camping here for a while. “I’m so sorry, we don’t serve that here. Is there a beer I can get you?”

His friends laugh and his reptile eyes flash with anger. It’s my first warning to tread carefully. I’ve met plenty of these men in my life because they were all friends of Ethan. Should have been my first clue that he was a douche canoe. No, not a canoe, a douche aircraft carrier with a cargo hold full of red flags.

“I think I’ll have it by the end of the night,” he tells me, making my skin crawl. “But for now, I’ll try the IPA.”

Of course, he would. I’m pretty good at guessing what each person might like in our line-up. The IPA is delicious, but the least interesting thing we serve. It’s fitting. Especially when his friends indicate the same thing.

I pour three pints of IPA, gritting my teeth because I know my ample ass is right there for them to ogle and there’s nothing I can do about it. When I turn back around, their eyes snap up to my face and I feel like I need a shower. “Here you are,” I tell them, my customer service voice starts to slip but they don’t seem to notice. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

Reptilian boy flips his black credit card onto the table. “Start a tab, we’ll be here for a while.”

He watches me take it as if he expects me to ooh and aah and thank him for his patronage. Instead, I give him a wan smile and swipe it into the system.

The first drink of the bro squad is fairly harmless. They let me be for a while as I serve others, but I feel their eyes on me wherever I go and once they finish their third beer with no signs of stopping, they become flat-out obnoxious.

“You know you could just quit this shitty job and leave with me.” Reptilian says. “Come home with me and you’ll never have to work another day. I could take real good care of you.”

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