Page 49 of You're All I Need

Adrienne

“How are you feeling?”

I look up and smile at Garreth, who was busy interviewing new hire candidates when I arrived at work this morning. “Fine.”

He checks me over, as if he’ll somehow see an injury or knows I’m anything but fine. “Really?”

“Yes, really. It was a silly fall. Ice dropped and I kicked it off the mat. I didn’t notice it had melted beside it until I was going ass over elbows and landing on my backside.”

He tsks. “If you’re having any pain or discomfort, we want you checked out, all right? Numbers needs an incident report from you. Jasper already filled one out, but we need your take on what happened to go with it.”

“No problem,” I tell him, sliding my bag under the counter.

“Go ahead and clock in and then have a seat. I’ll watch the bar while you fill it out,” he offers, even though we don’t open for another thirty minutes. Let’s hope the incident report doesn’t take more than thirty minutes to submit.

He hands me a tablet with the form brought up on the screen, so I take the device around the bar and have a seat on one of the stools. The form takes about fifteen minutes to complete, detailing what happened before and after the fall. Fortunately, I didn’t have to fill out the section on medical care, because that would have definitely taken another fifteen minutes, if not more.

I place the electronic device on the counter and stand up. “All finished?”

I spin around and find Isaac approaching. “Yep, done.”

He nods and reaches for the tablet, tapping away on the screen and submitting the form for his files. “Thank you. Sorry you had an accident, and I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

“It was my own fault,” I say, waving off his concern.

The door opens behind me, and on instinct, I turn to see who’s entered. I recognize BJ right away, with her year-old son, Ryker, on her hip. “Daddy!”

BJ sets the toddler on the floor, who takes off at a wobbly pace toward Isaac.

“There’s my little man,” he says, scooping him up and bringing him to his chest. Once he places a kiss on the boy’s forehead, he positions him on his hip and turns to his wife. “Hello, my love.”

“Hi.” The beautiful woman with blue-and-black hair leans forward and places a passionate kiss on her husband’s mouth.

I wave at Isaac’s wife and move to return behind the bar. I run through the pre-open checklist, setting out the ketchup bottles and making sure salt and pepper shakers and napkins are filled on the pub tables and booths.

“You have the most beautiful skin.”

The comment catches me off guard, and hesitantly, I turn to face BJ.

“That was weird, wasn’t it?” she asks with a laugh. “Your skin tone is gorgeous. The most alluring porcelain shade. Do you have any ink?” she asks, leaning against the bar.

“Actually, I do,” I confirm. “I have a butterfly on my lower back and a daisy wrapped around my ankle.”

She nods, her eyes brimming with excitement. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”

“Will do,” I reply. “Actually, Stevie and I’ve been talking about going together sometime.”

“Yes! I love group seshes. They’re so fun, especially if they get the same or similar tats. A few weeks ago, I did a mother anddaughter session, where the mom wrote ‘You are my sunshine’ and drew a sun, while the daughter wrote ‘My only sunshine’ and also drew a sun, and then I tattooed them onto the other’s forearms. They turned out so cool. Very personal, especially in the other’s handwriting.”

“Aww, I bet that turned out amazing,” I reply.

“It really did. Amanda featured it on our socials, and we got immediate calls for similar appointments.”

An idea hits me. “You do piercings, don’t you?”

“I do,” she replies, those brown eyes of hers sparkling.

“I used to have my belly button pierced, but let it close up a few years ago. I’ve been thinking of getting it done again.”

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