Page 28 of The Barista's Beloved

“Like hell you are. No s—” Steve stopped abruptly, showing some sense for possibly the first time in his entire life, Maeve suspected. “Whatever.” He tried to shrug off Max’s hand and failed. “We’ll see who’s laughing in court. Your stupid restaurant serves crappy beer anyway. It’ll probably go out of business before the condos are even finished.”

Somebody cleared their throat, and Maeve turned to see Naomi standing directly underneath the plaque that held Max’s James Beard award certificate, tapping it with her fingernail. “Seems unlikely,” she drawled. “Can somebody get this moron out of here? I just got here and I’d really like some fresher air.”

Max muscled a mostly-silent Steve over to the door while everybody watched. When it slammed behind him, applause erupted from several corners of the restaurant. Max rolled his eyes and waved it off, heading back behind the bar and into the kitchen to check on the food that was being assembled on the large open counters that were visible to diners.

Then it felt like all eyes were on Maeve. She shriveled into herself as she felt the weight of her friends’ stares.

“You went on a date with the lawyer who was trying to close down Youth Mentors?” Angelica finally asked.

“I didn’t know that’s who he was,” she protested.

“You didn’t take five seconds to verify that he wasn’t a murderer? You didn’t Google him?” Naomi demanded.

“Pot, kettle,” Iain murmured from behind her. Maeve hadn’t seen her brother come in after Naomi, so focused had she been on her own misery.

“Our situation was different,” Naomi countered. “At least I knew what you did for a living, and vice versa.”

“You’re the one who told her to have sex with a stranger,” Noah pointed out.

“I didn’t mean some random jackass lawyer! I meant him!” Naomi pointed at Ben, whose ears turned red.

But not nearly as red as Maeve suspected her own face was. She opened her mouth, but Max had returned just in time to interrupt her. He cocked his thumb toward Ben and said, “To be fair, he’s also a random jackass lawyer.” The chef seemed to think the entire situation was hilarious, now that Steve was gone.

“Thanks a lot,” Ben said.

“Even if you didn’t know who he was, what I don’t understand is how you could agree to go out with a guy like that.” Sean scowled. “Grade-A dickwad.”

“He wasn’t exactly hiding his stripes,” Angelica agreed.

“He didn’t seem that bad at the deli.” Although now that she thought about it, he’d spent a lot of time looking at her boobs. And that whole liking the same sandwich thing seemed like a line. Nobody liked the same sandwiches she did. Not even Ben.

She glanced over at him, but he was scowling at the floor. Apparently he thought she was a colossal idiot, too. Her heart sank.

“I just wanted to go on a date,” she said quietly before turning to Angelica. “I thought I was taking your advice.”

Angelica sighed. “Just…be more careful next time, okay?”

Maeve hated it when her friends treated her like a child. They might be older than she was by a few years, but it wasn’t as though she wasn’t an adult. And Jess was the exact same age she was, yet everyone seemed to think she had it all together. Where was Jess, anyway?

The door burst open, and her best friend flew in, breathing hard. “I had to run here! No parking close by. Did I miss it? Are they—oh.” She caught sight of Maeve, surrounded by annoyed friends, drooping on a barstool. “Oh, honey, what happened?”

Even Jess pitied her now. Maeve was too overwhelmed by anger and humiliation to speak, but it didn’t matter. Sean was already giving Jess a brief overview of the situation.

“The same lawyer? Ouch.” Jess winced.

“Yes, let’s all keep talking about how stupid I was,” Maeve burst out. “Preferably without including me in the conversation. It’s great. Super great.”

There was dead silence. Finally, Max broke it. “Nobody thinks you’re stupid, Maeve.”

“Well, I do. You guys are right. I should never have gone out with him. I should have been able to tell what a jerk he was right away. I’m the idiot who went on a date with the person trying to shut down her own organization. Yay, Maeve.” She dropped her head onto her forearms on the bar and sighed as she listened to her friends whisper to one another.

They clearly had no idea what to do. Neither did she, honestly. She’d thought she’d reached her limit on humiliation, but apparently the universe and her own terrible taste in dates had other ideas. God. She’d willingly showed up to Frankie’s with the sort of man who thought organizations like Youth Mentors didn’t matter...thought a place like River Hill would actually benefit from some stupid trendy condos. And literally every single person she knew and loved, not to mention—she raised her head and looked around at the full tables and booths—practically half the town, had been here to witness Steve calling her a bitch. In that moment, it seemed like everyone was staring at her, pitying her, judging her.

She felt tears pricking the back of her eyes as she tried to take deep breaths. A hand landed on her shoulder, and the warmth sliding through her clued her in to whose it was. She raised her head and saw Ben angling his body to block other people’s view of her. “You okay?” he murmured.

“Not really.”

“I didn’t think so. Want to leave?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

“Okay. Come on, I’ll take you home.” Somehow, he managed to get her up and moving and past their friends with only the briefest of goodbyes.

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