Page 74 of Get Undressed With Me

“No fucking shit.” Robbie took a step forward into Gus’s space, a move that was threatening and male and everything Brittany hated about men. Gus stood his ground, letting his brother get closer.

“If you need to hit me, go ahead and hit me.”

“I need you to stop fucking my ex, Gus.”

“That’s not up to you anymore, Robbie.”

Robbie really didn’t like that, and Brittany wasn’t interested in having some stupid fight ruin her post-orgasm euphoria, so she slid closer, standing near Gus.

“Don’t be a dick, Robbie.”

“You’re one to talk. Hopping from brother to brother. Guess I should’ve known when I first took you home. Couldn’t take your eyes off of him, from what I recall.”

Brittany’s memory of meeting Gus for the first time was Robbie introducing them and then ditching her to stream for hours. Gus chatted with her at the time, served her some lemonade, and seemed more like he pitied her than anything else.

Brittany really should’ve seen the red flags then.

Gus maneuvered himself between her and Robbie.

“You don’t talk to her like that,” he said.

“Or what? You’re going to hit me?”

“Or I’m going to teach you the lesson in manners you should’ve learned a really long time ago, Robbie.”

Brittany grabbed Gus’s arm just as movement behind Robbie caught her eye. There was a small, Latinx woman in a chef’s jacket, her hair pulled up into a dark bun, holding a kitchen knife and looking pissed as hell.

“Look, dickwads,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but if you don’t get your asses the fuck out of this restaurant and deal with whatever male machismo bullshit thisis far away from here, I’m going to call the cops and then show you why I got high marks in knife skills in culinary school.”

Brittany gaped at her, instantly falling in love with her energy. And then Theo appeared, looming behind her from the hall.

“You heard her,” he said, his voice devoid of his usual exasperating playfulness. “Your food is in boxes. Take it elsewhere, and don’t come back until you sort this shit out.”

For a moment, it looked like Robbie and Gus weren’t listening, hadn’t heard anything for the last minute or so. But then Gus very deliberately turned his head to where Brittany was standing behind him and held out his hand to her. She took it on instinct, and he pulled her out of the bathroom, down the hall toward the exit. As they were passing Robbie, he couldn’t take his eyes off Gus.

“This really how you want to do this?”

“It’s the only way you’ve left me, Robbie.”

Keeping a firm grip on her hand, Gus pulled Brittany with him out of the bathroom hall, stopping to say something to Theo that Brittany didn’t hear. When they reached the dining room, Gus headed for the door, but Brittany tugged his hand until he glanced back.

“Min.”

Gus nodded to the front of the restaurant, where Min was standing holding a couple to-go boxes and Brittany’s bag. Brittany allowed him to pull her closer to the door, where Min smirked at her, her eyes sliding down to where Gus still had a grip on Brittany’s hand.

“You were gone for a while. Everything okay?”

“There may have been a bit of a scene.”

“In a good way or a bad way.”

“Both.” She and Gus said the word at the same time and then stared at each other. Min snorted.

“Well, let’s go before Theo starts throwing bread around. He doesn’t like people ruining the vibe of his restaurant.”

They stepped outside, and Brittany let the sun hit her, feeling warm and luscious after such a weird, tense encounter.

“Didn’t he once have a shouting match with a food blogger who gave him a bad review while sitting in the dining room?”

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