Page 9 of Brighter than the Boss
Sunny spun around, her nose wrinkling when she saw who was talking to her. Granted, that wasn't exactly a nice opening, making fun of her like that, but I'd never claimed to be a nice guy. I thoroughly enjoyed the wrinkled-nose look.
She pushed her hair back and wiped the surprise from her face, her eyes darting to just over my shoulder.
"Cain. Why don't you help pin the numbers on the backs of their shirts after they check in. Seems like a job you could handle." She turned her back to me and continued checking in the next teenage girl with a much friendlier tone than the one she'd used with me.
I shrugged and made my way over to the other end of the table where the stacks of numbered bibs and safety pins waited for me. Sunny wasn't all sunshine and roses apparently. “A job I could handle.” Snark from the girl who was looking for her keys in a potted plant just a few days ago? C'mon.
Focusing all my efforts on ignoring Sunny as thoroughly as she was ignoring me, I jumped into my number-pinning job with as much gusto as I could stand. These would be the best numbered beach volleyball jerseys in all of HB.
"Here you go, beautiful. Let me help you." I spun the teen at the front of the line around and pinned her bib on the back of her t-shirt. She giggled and ran off with her friends when I was done. See? At least they liked me.
Pretty soon I had a cluster of girls around me, all needing help with their bibs and loving my jokes. The day was looking brighter already. A sharp jab on my shoulder had me lifting my head and spying Sunny's angry face behind me. Ah, the wrinkled nose was back.
"What's wrong, Sunshine?"
Her hands went to her hips and I could have sworn there was fire in her eyes. "It's Sunny."
"I know your name, Sunshine. What's with the bruise on my shoulder?"
A sigh. "Can I speak with you, please?"
"Sure. Speak." I finished pinning a bib on a girl, patting her shoulder to let her know I was done.
"Privately." She hooked a thumb over her shoulder, like speaking a few yards away on the open beach was somehow private.
"Sure, Sunshine, whatever you want." I turned to the girls. "I'll be back, ladies. Why don't you start pinning them on your friends, huh?" I got a few groans, but a wink was all it took for them to start pinning.
Sunny grabbed my arm, then promptly let me go and rubbed her hand on her shorts like I was infected or something. I followed her, if for no other reason than to find out what she so desperately needed to tell me. In “private.”
She finally spun around, put those hands back on her hips and lit into me. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"
I scratched the back of my neck. "Um...pinning bibs on the girls?"
"If that's all you were doing, it would be fine. But you know as well as I do that you're being inappropriate." Her cheeks were pink and I took it as a personal challenge to see how pissed she could get.
"Inappropriate? Like ‘pretending to be someone else and kissing your boss’ inappropriate?"
She gasped, then flapped her pretty mouth, but no words escaped.
"Lost your words, along with your keys?" I was smirking now, thoroughly enjoying how irate she was becoming. This was fun. Maybe ignoring her all week hadn't been the right move.
"Wh-what? Are you kidding me right now? Pretending to be someone?" Her face was full-on red, her hands fluttering in the air between us.
I lifted an eyebrow.
She threw her arms down and stepped closer. "Let's get a few things straight, buddy. I didn't pretend to be anyone. You're the one who came in that locker room and approached me. I didn't want that to happen, trust me. If anyone was being inappropriate, it was you. And...you're doing it again. But this time, with underage girls."
"Whoa, there. We can argue all you want about what happened in the locker room, but don't go throwing out accusations about underage girls. I wasn't doing anything wrong. I was doing exactly what you told me to do. You just don't like the fact that people like me." I stepped closer, using my height to get in her face a bit.
"And why they like you is beyond me. You're so smug and rude." She shook her head and took a deep breath. "But that's not the point. The point is, you're saying and implying things to those girls that's not appropriate."
"What are you talking about?" I was really and truly confused. I hadn't said anything wrong to them.
Another sigh. "Let me put it like this: there's a difference between a genuine compliment versus flirting. Giving a compliment when one is warranted is a nice thing. Giving gratuitous compliments when they aren't warranted is flirting. You," she poked me in the chest, "were flirting with those girls. Stop it."
I screwed up my face and shook my head. "Wait, wait. I was simply telling those girls they looked nice or telling them they were beautiful. How is that wrong? Aren't we here at this outreach to boost their confidence?"
Sunny nodded slowly. "I see why you would think that, but let's walk through this, shall we? You tell a girl she looks beautiful, but then tomorrow she wakes up with a huge zit on her nose. That must mean she's no longer beautiful, so all the 'confidence' that she had gleaned from your compliment is lost. Or, let's say tomorrow, you tell her she isn't beautiful. Does that mean all her confidence is now gone? The point is, true confidence doesn't come from someone else's opinion. It comes from within. Giving those girls flippant compliments is just your opinion. It does nothing to build true confidence."
