Page 26 of Shattered Veil

Garrett mumbled an agreeing, casual, “I’m on it,” and turned on his heel to walk right back to the bar.

“You never order Jack,” Cassie argued. “Seriously?”

“I’m not opposed to it,” I returned in a curt tone.

Liam piped up happily, “Good interference, James.”

Oh, Jesus.

“What interference?” Cassie complained. “Cutting off the shortest conversation of all time by sending him away? Yeah,” she glanced at me, “good interference, then.”

“Don’t date the bartender,” Liam told her with purpose, leaning across the table slightly as he said it for further impact.

I shrugged. “Don’t date the bartender, Cas.” I said it as offhandedly as I could. Everyone in the group, with the exception of Cassie and Shawn, chuckled a bit, and I mumbled, “Bathroom, be back.”

I moved as rapidly as I could without causing any undue concern, rushing away from the conversation that had rendered me foolishly jealous. I skirted past the single table that Shawn had borrowed a chair from previously, through the narrow hallway beyond it, and followed it until I ran smack into the men’s room. The single, dimly lit stall was empty, and I was thankful that it gave me an immediate means of escape. I paced the room twice. I splashed water on my face and dried it with the brown paper towel roll hanging on the wall. I lightly smacked both of my cheeks as if to silently tell myself, ‘Wake up!’

None of it did any good, and I was just contemplating my next course of action when the door swung open from behind me. I hadn’t locked it, unfortunately…and I immediately knew who had entered. As usual, I could feel her before I could even see her. Her burning presence was lingering behind me, silent while I feigned going about my business at the urinal.

“This is the men’s,” I spoke. “The women’s is further down the hall. I thought you’d know that by now.”

“Turn the fuck around, Jay, I can tell you’re not peeing,” she countered. I did so, met her disbelieving eyes, and she exclaimed in a hushed tone, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

I blurted out, “Don’t flirt with Garrett.”

“I was not flirting with Garrett,” she responded. “I said all of one sentence to him.”

“Did ya short me?” I repeated the single sentence she had spoken in a girlish tone that, for reasons even I couldn’t decipher, contained an English accent.

Cassie snorted. “I’m British now, really? Is that what I sound like to you? A posh British girl?”

“I don’t fuckin’ know,” I griped, looking to my feet.

“You’re unbelievable,” she sneered. “First, all the shit at my work—which was bad enough, my God—”

The reminder of my behavior made me groan a miserable, “Cas.”

“And now,” she continued, “giving me shit over Garrett aside, you’re here with the goddamn guy you brought to my work. You told them that you went to a strip club? Fucking seriously, Jay? I told you that I didn’t want them to know!”

“Okay, wait.” I held up a hand. “They only knew about that because I told them before I went. Zoey and Liam brought it back up. I didn’t say a word, and neither will Brooks.”

“Goodie!” she trilled with wide eyes, bitingly sarcastic. “Thanks so much.”

I pressed my hands to my eyes. “Wait, wait…can—can we back up?”

“What, you want to talk?”

I exhaled heavily. “Yes.”

“About?”

“Me being an absolute ass to you.”

Cassie snorted. “Which time? When you embarrassed me after I did what you asked and started to give you a dance? When you yelled at me in the parking lot? Oh, or when you forcibly yanked me off of your friend and made a scene?”

“Fuck, first of all,” I began, “don’t call him my friend.”

“The guy that got handsy, then,” she attempted to correct.

---