How did they even meet in the first place? Con didn’t give me details about his date the night before my birthday, but it all seemed kind of sudden if you asked me. One night everything was normal and the next I was asking if he wanted to hang out and he was saying he couldn’t because he had a date. Actually, I think the entire conversation went something like:
“Want to hang out after dinner? I don’t think Paige and Sarah are going to be knockout company.”
“I can’t tonight,” he’d said. I remember waiting for more details, but none came.
With a snort I asked, “What? Got a hot date or something?”
With his own snort he said, “Yeah, sure.”
And that was that. Nothing else. No information about her. No story of how they met. Not even a name. And he definitely didn’t ask my advice on the matter, yet he was asking his sister’s? I mean yeah she was his sister, but I was supposed to be his best friend. Wasn’t I supposed to be the first one he told about this stuff? Shouldn’t I know?
Whatever. Bottom line was, Connor had a girlfriend. And for some reason it was irritating the hell out if me
Connor having a girl definitely wasn’t the most important of the two phenomena, but one did explain the other.
Since he wasapparentlyso busy with Daisy Doolittle or whatever her actual name was—I just bet she was sickeningly sweet and called him shit like‘Conny’and brought him lunch to work and doted on his every move—there was really no need for me to be hanging around so much. Right? I certainly shouldn’t be showing up out of the blue like I usually did. And since regardless of my week from hell, I still needed to at least try to figure my own shit out, I needed to work.
Over the weekend, I hoped to arrive at some sort of conclusion on what job to take, at least until I found something more permanent. But as my life was so determined to show me lately, I didn’t have a clue on where to start.
Which is probably how I ended up in the doorway of Paulo’s wine shop. Again.
When he saw me, he simply raised an eyebrow and said, “What? You haven’t had enough getting everything wrong?”
“Guess not,” I said from the threshold.
I fidgeted around with a loose string on my jean shorts as I waited for him to respond. I wanted to barrel right in and just start working, but something was holding me at the door. I messed a lot of things up last week. And like Paulo said, I wasn’t passionate about the wine or even the shop, I just needed a place to direct my feelings, and this seemed the most available.
Of everything I did last week, there was just something about Paulo’s shop that both grinded my gears but made me want. Want something of my own that made me feel the way Paulo looked around his wine.
“How much longer in that horrible restraint?” Pau asked, jerking his chin to my wrist.
“Another week, then I have physical therapy for another three.”
He wrinkled his nose but still nodded. “We open soon, do you think you can handle it? This is a very important time.”
I nodded.
“Can you control your attitude?” he asked
“Can you control yours?” I placed a hand on my hip.
He may have smiled at that, but I couldn’t see because he blocked it with his shoulder as he turned to busy himself with something behind the counter.
“What days can you come in?” he continued.
“Every day but Thursday.”
“And how much do you want to be paid?”
“Nothing,” his gaze popped up to find mine and I could tell he was going to protest, but I shook my head. “You would be helping me. Not the other way around.”
He was quiet as he looked at me for a few extra seconds. Then he turned around and leaned elbows against the front counter. “Alright then, Ant Girl. What are you still doing standing there? We have much to do. You’re just in time for more deliveries.”
I halted after stepping just one step inside, “No more fucking deliveries Paulo, I swear to—”
He surprised me by bursting out in buoyant laughter. A laugh I expected to hear from anyone else. I guess my torture just brought it out of him.
I grumbled as I continued into the store, shaking out of my jacket and coming around the counter to Paulo’s side. “Sure, laugh it up old man. Just keep lining my case file for employee abuse.”
