Page 17 of Achievement Unlocked

I balled up my fist again at the disdain in his voice. “And you’re the guy dining with a woman who looks like she got in a fight with a hedge trimmer, while you look fine.”

“Can you stop? Both of you?” Megan sounded distressed, and her voice had dropped in volume. “Please?”

“What’s going on here?” Gary, my boss, interrupted.

Megan gave him a sweet smile. “Nothing. Misunderstanding.”

That was one way to put it.

“Redding.” Gary snapped at me. “You just hit a customer. I’m so sorry, sir,” he said to Megan’s companion. “He’s fired, effective immediately. Lunch is on the house, of course. Can I get you anything?”

Nigel had straightened up finally, seeming to recover from the gut punch. “Don’t fire him. It truly was a misunderstanding.”

“I can’t have that kind of behavior, Redding.” Gary’s tone was hard, and I suspected he was only being polite for the customers’ sake. “Get your stuff, and get the fuck out.”

“Fine. Fuck you.” I untied my apron and shoved it at Gary, barely resisting the urge to put as much force behind the hand-off as I’d used with my punch. I stormed out the front door, stopped in the middle of the parking lot, and screamedfuuuuuuuckat the top of my lungs.

I was so done with today.

7

nigel

Ionly had so much roll-over-and-play-nice in me. Between Megan’s shitty day and being punched in the gut by the guy she slept with at her bachelorette party… In this instance, they really just slept in the same bed. I believed that about the story. But I’d left home at sixteen to get away from being hit like that, and to be thrown back into it today felt like insult on top of injury.

Landon didn’t deserve to be fired, though. I shrugged my jacket back on, tossed a twenty on the table for the waiter—none of this was his fault—and offered Megan my arm. “Let’s go.”

She slipped her hand around the crook of my elbow, and we headed out.

When we stepped into the parking lot, we were greeted with Landon’s drawn-out yell. I nodded in his direction. “See? I bet it helped.”

“Landon,” Megan called. “Did the screaming help?”

He looked at us, startled. “Not really? I’m still fired.”

She glanced at me. “See?”

“It would’ve helped me,” I said.

Landon approached us. “I’m sorry about inside. But you understand.”

“Yeah.” I’d like to say I didn’t, but I’d have done the same or worse in his shoes. Especially for Megan.

“Landon.” He extended his hand.

I shook it. “I know. Nigel.”

“I know.” He cracked a smile. He was attractive—blond hair, the kind of body that could wreck a person—I could see why Megan had been drawn to him. Hell, I could picture him popping every single button that ran down the back of her dress as he ripped it open. Pinning her to the wall. Proving to her that screaming could be enjoyable--

“How have you been?” Megan asked Landon, as if the polite conversation were the most natural thing in the world despiteeverything.

“Eh, you know. Lost my job today, but I’d do it again. You?”

Her laugh was strained. “I’m not sure if you remember, but I was supposed to get married.” She gestured at her dress. “But I left my finance at the alter after I found him fucking the wedding planner.”

Landon sucked in a sharp breath. “Your day qualifies as worse than mine.”

“But it’s not really a contest,” Megan said. “We can all have sucky days.”

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