Page 10 of The Shy Waitress and Her Boss

"Ignore him," Farica advised. "He's just not used to being the most beautiful man alive."

"I...see." But in truth, the other woman's words made even less sense, and seeing that Slade Wyndham was still eyeing her like shewassomething to devour, Kady decided to make herself scarce and retreated to the safety of the kitchen.

Seeing that Elizabeth and Arden didn't need much help with their work, Kady decided to resume working on her brewing skills for pour-overs.

Coffee bean grinding,done. Water temp check,done. Contact time between coffee and water,done.

And now it was time to wait,Kady thought as the filter slowly did its work and dark liquid began to drip into the Chemex coffeemaker.

With several minutes to spare, Kady couldn't help but think back to her boss' puzzling attitude. Even though she had been working at Redwood Cafe for a few days now, she still hadn't come any closer to understanding exactly what kind of man Slade Wyndham was.

She had sort of known a lot of good-looking guys her entire life, having been best friends with the one girl all of them had wanted to date. In her experience, handsome guys tended to be insensitive, cruel bullies, something that Kady was absolutely certain her extremely handsome boss, despite his penchant for teasing her, was not. The guys that had competed for Margaux's attention distinctly lacked the ability to laugh at themselves, whereas Slade even seemed to draw amusement from the insults Farica frequently hurled at him.

And most importantly of all, those guys had never paid any attention to Kady, whereas her boss...

Even Eric, she couldn't help thinking, had chosen Margaux over her in the end. There were even times when she had caught Eric staring at Margaux, but she had been such an idiot that she had told herself it was normal for her boyfriend to look at Margaux that way.

Margaux was beautiful, ergo men wouldn't be able to help themselves.

Obviously, she had been wrong, and it was why Eric and Margaux becoming an item had still been a huge and hurtful surprise to her. Slade Wyndham could be just like Eric, but Kady didn't think so. Slade was...different.

Too different really,that when Kady later found out Slade hadn't had the time to grab dinner, even she herself knew it wasnother place to worry about the man.

And yet...

She remembered his unsmiling expression, and her worry grew. Maybe something bad had really happened, and her boss was simply keeping it to himself because it was how macho men like him acted?

Arden and Elizabeth couldn't help exchanging looks of amusement as they watched Kady pace and fret in silence. It was just too cute, the way the girl worried about the man who happened to terrify her at the same time.

"It's past seven already," Kady mumbled, "and Mr. Wyndham hasn't eaten for hours."

Elizabeth counted the seconds, knowing it was only a matter of time before the girl's conscience overruled her common sense.

Three...two...

Kady started wringing her hands.

One.

"Do you think I should bring him something?"

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