Page 18 of All the Ugly Things
“Does he now?” She drawled the words, venom spitting with every consonant. “Has it occurred to you, or him, that I don’t want or need help? Or that all this attention makes me uncomfortable?”
I honestly hadn’t considered that, and with the way she was looking at me, meaning every word, I felt like shit. Dad’s goal wasn’t to make her mad, or uncomfortable at all. He just knew she needed help, and more, he believed she deserved it.
“I think that came out wrong. He saw you, met you, came back because there was something in him he couldn’t let go—and no, it’s not nefarious, I swear it. He’s got a big heart, likes to help people and wants to help you. Why does it have to be more difficult than that?”
“Because some of us not born with golden spoons don’t get offers for help.”
It was a lie that rolled too smoothly off her tongue. My spoon might have been silver. Hers was golden. At least in all the ways that didn’t matter when life came to an end.
The guys at the table grew louder, interrupting us, and she stepped back, shaking out her arms. “I need to check on them.”
I leaned back in my chair and faced the table. The two guys who could see me smirked as she neared. One blinked first and then put that smirk on Lilly.
He said something I couldn’t hear, probably intentional, and then before I could warn her, lifted his glass, still filled with icy water, and tossed it at her chest.
Her nipples immediately pebbled through and I was on my feet like a shot as she brushed it off her uniform. She was soaked.
They were laughing.
A loud boom came from the side, doors slamming open. I barely paused to see a bear-sized black man with a bald head and fire in his eyes stomping their way.
“Get the fuck out before I rip off your head.”
Holy shit. Where’d he come from?
The cook. It made sense. But I hadn’t seen him at all the entire time I’d been here. How’d he know?
He shoved Lilly toward the counter, closer to me, in a gesture far too tender for his hugeness and fury.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She swiped more water droplets off her dress. “Not the first time, won’t be the last.”
She scurried to the back and I waited until the assholes at the table cleared out, the cook standing over them to ensure they paid their billsandleft a tip.
“I’m gonna get trouble from you?” He growled at me when they were gone. I was still standing there. Proud of him. Happy she at least had this guy in her corner on nights she worked.
“Nope. None.” I went back to my stool, drained my water and grabbed a pitcher nearby to give myself a refill.
Lilly came out minutes later, cheeks flushed, makeup smeared in an attempt to wipe it off, and a dry uniform clinging to those beautiful curves.
She strolled right up to me, anger etched in every pore.
“I’ll save you the time and the effort since I highly doubt you want to be here any more than I want you here. I won’t fill out an application for any job your dad might want to hire me for, and you wouldn’t hire me if you knew why. So tell your dad, again… thanks, but no thanks. And please, stop coming in.”
“You’d rather stay here? Dealing with that shit?” Was she serious?
“That shit is what girls like me deal with on a daily basis and it’s none of your damn business.”
Girls like me… it ran through my head like a gong and my lip curled.
I knew girls like her. I’d grown up with them. Even if she wasn’t from some white, upper-class family she still didn’t deserve that shit. No woman did…likeheror not.
She was alone. She was the most alone person on the planet. A family who turned their back on her. No friends. Here we were, offering her an easy way out and she was refusing.
Seemed stupid to me. What happened to beggars couldn’t be choosers? I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why in the hell it pissed me off she kept turning us down when I didn’t want her around anyway.
She made me feel shit I hadn’t felt since Melissa and my chest burned.
