Page 74 of The Playboy

And he was right about everything he’d said. What I’d seen clearly bothered me. I should have just spoken to him about it. But in handling it the way I had, I’d not only proven that I was interested in him, but I’d also told him I’d come to the hotel to speak to him. Something I wouldn’t have done unless I cared.

His lips pursed. “You’ve got nothing to say now?”

“Macon—” On the verge of saying something extremely sassy in response, my voice was cut off as the waitress appeared with our milkshakes, setting them down in front of us.

“Your appetizer should be out in a few minutes,” she said and left us again.

I was grateful for the interruption and reached for mine, chugging a few sips’ worth. I was just swallowing when I heard the beep of my phone.

I’d forgotten that I’d brought my bag inside the diner, and I slipped my hand inside and grabbed my cell—something I hadn’t looked at since I had gone into the club much earlier this evening.

The beep was a text from Clem, asking if I wanted her to bring home any food from the bar since her shift was about to end.

My reply let her know I wasn’t home, and as I was slipping the phone back into my bag, a notification on the screen caught my attention. This one was from my professor. The one who had been on vacation when I missed my deadline due to the broken laptop cord.

“Everything all right?” Macon asked.

I finished skimming the professor’s email and put the phone away, sighing. “Yeah. Just a text from my sister and an email from my professor.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

I held the straw, but didn’t take a drink. “Two sisters.”

“Are they on Kauai or The Big Island?”

“Here. I live with them.”

“You live with them,” he emphasized. “That must make things interesting.”

“Always.” I took a drink, groaning at how good it tasted, and I immediately took another gulp. “Not that I don’t want to live with them, but once I graduate, I’m hoping to make enough where I can get my own place. I just need space and quietness.”

“Are you the youngest?”

I nodded.

“I am too,” he told me. “I have two older brothers, and as much as I love their asses, I couldn’t live with them again.”

“Most days, it’s fine. It’s just a tiny place, and we’realwaysin each other’s way. Someone isalwaysin the bathroom. Someone isalwaysusing my computer—and even breaking it, like the other day.” My heart ached from my professor’s email. Enough so that I found myself saying, “I turned in a paper late, all due to a little mishap that had been an accident, but it still shouldn’t have happened. My sister feels awful about it. Anyway, my professor just got back to me. Even though the tardiness earned me a failing grade, he still read it and told me it was the best written paper in the whole class.”

“Fuck.”

I nodded again. “I know.”

“What did you write it on?”

I stirred the thick shake, lifting the straw out and licking across the bottom of it. “My job.” I’d answered too quickly. I hadn’t really thought about the consequences of my response when I should have considered that Macon would only ask more questions. “It was for one of my business classes, so I took a long, hard look at my department. In my opinion, they run it all wrong. There are so many things I would change that would save the company money, time. Far less labor. Six Sigma kind of stuff—which I plan to get certified in once I graduate.”

Within a month of taking the job at the hotel, I could see the changes that needed to be made within the department. While I had researched ways to present this information to my boss, I had come across Six Sigma—a type of management practices and methodologies that were used within businesses to increase efficiency and lower the chance of waste. That was what sparked my interest and why I’d be pursuing a certification the moment I graduated.

“You don’t say …” At some point, he’d pushed back, but now, he was leaning across the table again. “Tell me more. I want to hear everything.”

I laughed nervously. “I feel like I’m on an interview.”

“You might be. Keep going.”

“Well, I’m a business major. I try to look at things from a business and owner perspective and what’s best for everyone involved. Without happy employees, things aren’t going to run the way you want them to or the way you need them to regardless of how much cost you’re trying to cut.”

“Give me an example of how you’d use Six Sigma at your job.”

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