Page 19 of Hot Cross Buns

“Gia wanted to be closer to the boardwalk.” Helena scared the hell out of me when she piped up from a chair in the opposite corner of the room. “She met a boy.”

Kara covered her mouth and barked an exaggerated cough into her hand. “That’s no boy I’ve ever seen.”

“All right, all right. But there’s another reason,” Gia said carefully. “Our location’s been compromised.”

You’re telling me, I wanted to say. Compromised by a horny old biddy.

“Ugh, the vultures are circling for a new Gia scandal, are they?”

She nodded. “They can’t ruin our vacay though. We’ll just move. And bonus points, I’ll be closer to the rollercoaster and that cute, cute mechanic that runs it. Now, what’s got you all stressed out? I thought things were going great with Malachi when you didn’t come back to the suite last night.”

Kara cleared her throat. “Neither did you.” Gia tossed her a threatening look. Clearly, I’d missed something good. But I’d have to get to the bottom of it later.

“Where were you, Maisy?”

“We didn’t even get to witness your walk of shame,” Helena mused.

Walk of claim, I whispered silently in my own head. Out loud, I answered Gia.

“Oh, last night was magnificent. Better than great. It was the best night of non sex I’ve ever had. It’s today that sucks balls and I’ll tell you why.”

“Do we need to sit down for this?” Kara smirked as she asked.

“You’re already sitting down, shush it and listen.”

“Oh shit, this sounds juicy.” Gia took a seat on the couch next to Kara and even mild mannered Helena leaned forward in anticipation.

“So, here’s what happened…” I regaled them all with the story of my afternoon. How I witnessed Malachi’s pawing, the story of an attempted drugging, and the non confrontational way Malachi was handling the widow and her wandering, ass grabbing hands.

At some point during the story Helena got up and crossed the room, moving behind me, but I kept talking. I was still pissed and gaining momentum now that I had an audience. Someone was going to hear about how angry I was and my fellow Chub Clubbers were a rapt audience. I knew they’d get me.

“Hey, Maisy?” Helena interrupted, but I was too wound up to stop now.

“Did you know that biddy had the audacity to call mejust a customer? Like Malachi couldn’t possibly be interested in me if I didn’t pay to stay at the resort. Like he couldn’t possibly find me attractive because of my looks or my size.”

Both Kara and Gia gasped.

Making comments about a woman’s size was fighting words in the Chub Club. It went against our woman code. Helena tried interrupting again, but I talked over her, which was really easy to do when I was on a roll.

Poor Hel.

“And Malachi told me to leave so he could do his job. As if I was interfering with his control over the situation. Well, let me tell you something. He had about as much control over that woman as a seatbelt in a tornado. She was groping his ass, you guys. I wanted to break both her hands and hang them off her droopy earlobes.”

Gia snorted, but I kept going.

“So, here’s the thing. That bitch and her duffel bag of bullshit ruined my lunch date, where I was hoping to get another date so that later, I could get the rogering of a lifetime from the Adonis of my dreams. I mean, I’m wearing my good panties and everything. But if I’mjust a customer, that’s not what I want. Therefore, I’m moving resorts,” I announced triumphantly, pretending that they weren’t already packing. “I’m going to take being a customer right off the plate. If Malachi wants a piece ofthisginger snap, he can come find me. And apologize for letting me see some other woman’s hands on him. And beg my forgiveness for dismissing me. He needs to grovel. Then maybe I’ll forgive him. And if not…” I didn’t even want to think about that, so I forged ahead. “... if he doesn’t make the effort then it wasn’t meant to be. That will suck but I’ll admit defeat only then.”

“Maisy, shut up a second,” Helena snapped.

I almost fell right over. Helena never raised her voice. I turned to look at her, and my jaw dropped.

“Hel, why do you have my phone?”

Her face was already ten shades of red, a deep scarlet against the pale blonde of her hair. “It rang like six times. I tried to get your attention, but you weren’t listening.”

“Did you answer it?” I already knew from the pale light of the screen. Who was calling me? And why did she answer it instead of letting it go to voicemail?

“I thought… thought you’d want to take this call.” She stumbled over the words. What was the big deal?

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