Page 5 of Falling Backwards
Emma nods too.“I mean, there probably are some careers that demand you look a certain way—like, if you work for the FBI or a school—”
“But if she wants to own her own business or do something that’s creative in any way—”
“Yeah, exactly.And it’s cool if the girl does dream of a fancy job and looking snazzy, but who says you can’t be snazzyandhave your hair dyed a fun color?Man, if she gets to be our age and decides she wants pink hair like the sweet employee at Charm Life Boutique….”Emma nudges Joy, who lifts her shoulders and smiles cutely.
I finish, “Then she should have that right.”
“Sure should.”
“Definitely should!”Joy agrees.
She tells us a bit more about her work shift.It should have ended at nine when the boutique closed, but it ran forty-five minutes late.
When she says, “All right, Maggie, complain aboutyourday now,” I’m able to sum up my own work shift pretty quickly.
I count the highlights off on my fingers.“One of the other hostesses booked three large reservations at overlapping times, which we aren’t supposed to do.Two of them were wedding engagement parties, so the guests got drunk, and our assistant manager didn’t do a good job of containing them.And Luke scared me one time when I was leaving the bathroom, which made me jump and stumble and bang my hand into the wall—that rustic wood wall, you know?”
Now I hold out my left hand and show where the wall scraped me…and, once again, I remember Luke laughing at me.
Joy’s interest in my injury keeps me from focusing on those aggravating moments.She leans forwards to inspect the reddened place, her brow furrowed with worry.
Emma says, “Ouch.And three big reservations overlapping?Jesus.Who let that happen?”
“We figure it was the new girl,” I answer.
“Oh.Yeah, probably.No one who knew better would’ve booked the place up like that.”
I nod.It’s a fair assumption.
Joy finally leans back from my scrape and unzips her purse.“Hey, I think I have a Band-Aid.”
I lift my drink for a sip while Emma says what I’m thinking again: “Big enough to cover that whole scrape?”She peers into Joy’s purse.
“I think so!I try to keep an assortment since you never know when you might need a big one or a little round one or—”
“Ahem!” comes with movement at my shoulder.
I jump in fright and my fingers let go of my glass.I gasp and cringe as ice-cold mojito surges down my front and soaks my lap.
Familiar deep laughter bursts out at me for the second time today.
Damn it!
“Luke!”I exclaim, fumbling my wet glass onto the table.“What the—?”
I snap my gaze up to where he’s standing beside me.One of his hands is covering his mouth, his shoulders are shaking with laughter, and his eyes are alive with amusement.
I also pick up on how a few other people around us are looking over here and grinning widely, having seen this happen.Embarrassed heat rushes straight to my face.
Turning a glare on still-laughing Luke, I demand in a hiss, “What the hell is your problem?”
He lowers his hand, lifts his eyebrows, and downgrades to chuckles.
“Excuse me?”he counters.“The hell isyourproblem?You’re the one who’s been clumsy today.By the way, how’s your hand?”
I don’t bother answering that last mocking question.“I’m not clumsy.You keep sneaking up on me.”
There’s less jarring movement in the corner of my eye, so I look over to find the girls waving some napkins at me.Face burning, I accept them with one hand and start collecting ice cubes with the other.
