Page 77 of Just For Her

Kayla put both hands on her hips. She didn’t care if her boss saw her. At least the other waitress in the area glanced at them and probably assumed that a guest was hitting on her. It happened often enough – never with anyone who looked good for gold-digging.

Except Kayla knew a thing or two about Oskar by now, huh?Yeah, I know he’s a creep.She still couldn’t believe she let this fraud “examine” her a few months ago.

“Say I was interested?” she finally muttered.

Oskar flashed her a perfect smile. “When do you get off work?”

“Two more hours.”

“Come find me at Clive’s.” Oskar stood up without ordering. “They got the good stuff.”

Kayla chewed on her cheek when he walked off. Eventually, she grabbed the glass of water and prepared for the next rush of customers that carried her through to the end of her shift.

Chapter 22

Clive’swasthediviestbar in the neighborhood. The kind of place that Kayla passed by all the time without giving it much thought, because she never visited dive bars that appealed to the local blue-collar worker without good reason.

She still wasn’t sure if Oskar Fredriksson was a good reason.

“What will you have?” He motioned her to his end of the dimly lit bar, where a gruff bartender with a beard prepared to receive her. Above them, a baseball game played on the TV. Nobody in the bar seemed to care. Everyone else was deep in boisterous conversation or playing pool in the corner. Every step toward Oskar was sticky – Kayla didn’t even want to think about the last time this floor was mopped. Unlike the brewery, which was cleaned up at the start of every day.Customers don’t like sticky floors.

Kayla sat on a stool and zipped up her jacket. “What makes you think I want anything?”

“Come on. I’m buying. Besides, I heard about you and Tove.”

“Did she tell you?”

Oskar shook the ice in his liquor. “I should say I figured it out. She’s been a bitch lately. Won’t go into her office. Stays home.” He sniffed. “I called her up with a tax question and she told me to fuck off. Occam’s Razor told me you two suffered the big split. I’m not sure if anyone else knows. So, what happened?”

Kayla narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure I want to talk about it.”

“Fair enough. Can’t blame a man for being curious, though. She was soooo smitten with you, even though Tom and I told her she was rushing into things.”

“At least you didn’t call me a gold digger.”

“Oh, actually, we did. I was just trying to be polite.”

Kayla’s sigh summoned the bartender. She got a Jack and Coke, which Oskar praised with another shake of his glass.Of course. He’s drinking whiskey on the rocks.She should have gotten rum. “I feel awful about it. It was a big misunderstanding.” She left it at that, doubting that Oskar cared to be pedantic about who hurt who the most.

“Hmph, she ain’t talking to anyone. Quite the opposite of me when I got divorced.”

“I forget you were married.”

“Yeah? It was a long while ago. I doubt most talk about it.”

“Let me guess… she didn’t care for you being such a flirt.”

“We had our issues, but the main thing was me losing my license. She didn’t like that.”

“Did you really kill a guy?”

Such a rueful grin should have warned Kayla that a deal was afoot. “If I tell you, you have to answer one ofmyquestions.”

“Sure.”

Kayla’s drink arrived. She sniffed it while Oskar spoke. “It was an accident, of course, but technically a patient died on my watch. Gave a kid antibiotics because I thought she had strep throat. Turns out it was mono. Believe it or not, they can sometimes be indistinguishable if mono starts presenting in the throat first. And sometimes, when you have mono, antibiotics can make your body go nuts. We’re talking hives, lesions, the works. Happened overnight. By the time she was brought back in, this high school basketball star was halfway into a coma. She died the next day. Happened so fast I could barely blink, and the next thing I know, I’m being sued by the parents for malpractice.” Oskar had a long drink. “So it’s not something gruesome like I fucked up an operation. Misdiagnosed the wrong disease in the wrong teen and gave her the wrong meds. Maybe I could have ordered more tests, but her insurance wasn’t paying for that unless she had other symptoms of mono. It’s a cruel system. I took the fall.” Oskar shrugged. “Happens.”

“Sheesh. That poor family.” Kayla glanced at Oskar before sipping her drink through a tiny straw. “Sucks for you, too.”

---