I turned toward the restaurant and started walking.
"About time you listened," Keith said, falling in beside me.
As I made the long trek across the parking lot, I took one final look over my shoulder. Lawton stood, leaning against the hood of his car, his arms crossed and his gaze on me. Nearby, Shaggy was scooping up remnants of his – correction, his girlfriend's – cell phone. Other than Shaggy's girlfriend, most of the gawkers were gone.
"When you get back," Keith said, "the next table's yours. Got it?"
"Oh, I've got it alright," I said. "But first, I'm checking my timecard."
"Why would you wanna do that?"
"Because," I said," "if I'm clocked out, you'd better believe I'm clocking back in."
He cleared his throat. "Well, if you are clocked out, just remember, it wasn't me who did it."
I gave him a sideways glance. "Uh-huh."
Besides, there was something else I needed to check.
My phone. Because I had a bad feeling it wasn't exactly the way I'd left it.
Chapter 16
I stood in the back room, staring down at my phone. For the third time, I frantically scrolled through its photos.
It was stupid, really. The phone was relatively new. I'd taken only a handful of shots, including several by accident.
The worst, or the best, depending on how you looked at it, had been an image of Lawton stark naked. That picture I'd finally deleted, but not before it caused me all kinds of grief by giving Lawton the worst impression of me and my intentions.
But right now, there was only one photo I was looking for – the one of Keith and Brittney in all their backseat glory. It was the very last photo I'd taken. It should've shown up first. Instead, it wasn't showing up at all.
I glanced again at my locker. I'd locked it myself, using my own combination lock. The lock was intact when I'd returned. Had I deleted the photo myself? Maybe by accident? It seemed unlikely.
Thank God I'd texted a copy to Erika. I scrolled through my outgoing texts, and there it was, along with her response, a simple "LOL."
Laugh out loud. Yeah, itwaspretty funny. But right now, I wasn't laughing. Someone had tampered with my phone. I just knew it. And if the missing photo wasn't confirmation enough, Keith's attitude told me all I needed to know.
He wasn't scared. He was an obnoxious asshat. Like he always was.
"Hey Chloe!" he called from somewhere out front. "You coming out here, or what?"
Speaking of asshats.
I tucked my phone back into my purse just in time to see Keith round the corner, carrying a yellow timecard. I slammed the locker shut and gave the lock a few spins – not that it would do any good, assuming my suspicions were correct.
Still, I felt myself smile as I considered the thing Keith didn't know, that I had another copy.
"What are you so happy about?" he said.
"Nothing." I looked to his hand. "Is that my timecard?"
"Yeah," he said, thrusting the thing in my face. "Initial here. Itdoesseem that someone clocked you out." He puffed out his chest. "But you'll be happy to know I did the adjustment personally."
I rolled my eyes and pulled a pen from my apron. Wordlessly, I added my initials to the adjusted entry and turned to leave the locker area.
"You're welcome!" he called to my receding back.
A minute later, I was out in the dining area, running my butt off with the other girls. I still owed Josie an explanation of what I'd seen outside. But between the packed dining room and Keith's new habit of popping in and out of the waitress station, talking to her was nearly impossible.
