Page 10 of Watch Me
“Yeah, my friend’s stopping by to grab something from me.”
“The guy from last night?”
I wrinkled my eyebrows, confused, but then realized he must have noticed I left with Ethan. “Yeah, him.” I slid the beer in front of the customer and grabbed his money to ring himup.
“Thought you didn’t have a boyfriend?” Derrick asked, moving to stack empty glasses under the bartop.
I huffed. “I don’t.”
“But you left with him last night.” It wasn’t aquestion.
“Why do you care who I left with?”
“Just making small talk.”
I stopped pressing the buttons on the POS system and turned to face him. “We just met last night”—I waved my hand between him and me—“and I get that we’re going to work together, but I don’t need you questioning my personal life.”
He held up his hands. “Whoa, I’m just trying to make conversation and get to know you.”
“Getting to know me is asking me what my favorite color is. Or my favorite flower. Not grilling me about a guy I left with last night.” I wasn’t sure why I was so put off by his questioning, but I was a forty-one-year-old woman, and if I wanted to go home with a man, that was my decision. Granted, nothing had happened withEthan.
Derrick leaned a hip on the cabinets that held extra bottles of alcohol behind the bar and faced me. “Okay, what’s your favorite color?”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Purple.”
“And your favorite flower?”
I paused. Not because I didn’t know, but because I remembered the note Ethan had left me in the morning, and it gave me hope that he and I could become a ‘we’ again. A part of me felt as though we weren’t done. My teenage heart had thought I would hurt him more if I told him the truth all those years ago, so I’d set himfree.
“Buttercups.”
Derrick balked as though he wasn’t expecting that answer. “Buttercups? That’s a thing?”
I laughed and returned to the POS system, finishing the transaction and grabbing the customer’s change. “Yes, and specifically the Parisian ones.”
He lifted off the counter and turned to grab the overflowing garbage bag. “I’m going to have to Google them and see what they look like.”
“You do that.”
I hadn’t had time to check my phone after my dinner break for any missed calls from Ethan because it was Friday night and we were slammed.
Walking to my locker before I called it a night, I fished my phone from my back pocket and hoped he had sent a text.
He had:Caught a case. I’ll try to stop by before you get off at 12, but if not, keep thekey.
I texted him back as I leaned on the lockers with a grin on my face:Just getting off now. Should I wait?
I removed my purse from my locker as I waited for hisreply.
Ethan:Sorry, Buttercup. I’m at the station. Meet for lunch?
As I walked out the back door toward my parked car, I replied:Sure. Just tell me the place, and I’ll meet youthere.
“Have a good night, Reagan.”
I started slightly and turned to see Derrick leaning against the brick wall, smoking a cigarette. “Thanks, you too.”
“Oh, I will.”
