Page 45 of Freshmeet
“Jen. I came to grab you. It’s all hands on deck.”
Weird logic to leave Jen alone to drown in a sea of poor tippers, but sometimes I didn’t understand what Meg was doing. “Okay. Well, I was on my way back.” I started to move past her, but she snagged my wrist. I glanced down at her hold on me and raised an eyebrow.
“I wanted to ask you something.” She leaned into me, her hand landing on my chest.
“Uh, sure.” I inched back, trying to create some distance, but my back hit the wall.
Tilting her head, she went up on her toes to reach my ear. “Can you walk me home?”
Internally, I shouted a big, hell no. I wanted to find Sarah and see if we could squash whatever weird energy we had, hang out, and maybe get back to what we were doing the night we met before I left her high and dry. I glanced at the ladies’ room door, and as if my thoughts conjured her, it swung open, and Sarah marched out like a woman on a mission.
That is, until she noticed us.
Within seconds, her proud posture curled in. Her expression became unsure and then disappointed, and before I could act, she was gone, lost in the loud mob.
“Well?”
Right. Meg. I’d forgotten about her, which I’m sure she didn’t appreciate.
“I guess?” I strained to catch a glimpse of Sarah.
Meg let go of me and took a step back. The loss of her touch drew my attention back to her. Little lines formed between her eyebrows, and her plum lips pursed. She was pissed.
“Don’t do me any favors, Connor.”
“That’s not what?—”
She rolled her eyes and pushed past me. I didn’t chase after her. I didn’t want to give her the wrong idea. We were friends, but that’s where it ended. I was hung up on a girl so far out of my league that she knew it. I knew it. Hell, anyone who saw us together knew it.
Blowing out a breath, I ruffled my hair. I needed a drink. Too bad, I was only serving them. Muscling my way back to the bar and a prickly Meg, I smiled at Jen. “Where’s Sarah?”
Jen eyed me, then said, “She wasn’t feeling well, so she went home.”
Sure enough, Sarah and her friends were nowhere to be found. For the rest of my shift, all I could think about was how things had been different. Well, until she saw Meg all over me.
Fuck.
There was no way I could go back to her treating me like she did before, like I was invisible.
I hated it. I’d spent a lot of my life being invisible unless someone needed something, always put on the back burner because I was the one that no one had to worry about. Eventually, you competent yourself right out of existence.
“Last call!” Jen hollered, and we made a final push to serve the drunk masses.
As the last of the stragglers left, we cleaned up and got the bar stocked for the next day.
“Hey, Meg?”
“What?” She kept her attention on the glasses as she put them in the dishwasher.
“I can walk you home. Sorry if I made it sound like a problem.”
Closing the door, she sighed. “Thanks. That would be great.” She still hadn’t looked at me, which made me all kinds of anxious. Instead, she left me behind the bar to go ask John a question.
By the time we left work, I was a ball of nerves.
Meg faced forward as we walked down the block. “You know I like you, right?” she asked, jumping right to it.
I scratched the back of my neck. “I do.” Wow. Brilliant. There was no good way to handle this, but that sure as hell wasn’t it.
