14. Megyn
CHAPTER 14
MEGYN
T he next day, Suzie and I shared the same shift. I gave a mental groan at seeing her in the schedule book. After the conversation we’d had before, I fully expected things to get worse between us. A woman like her would regret ever having confided in someone like me and would take it out on me, and then that would come back to negatively affect her, because I would refuse to make the apron. For that, she’d get angry, and the proper balance of things would resume.
But that wasn’t what happened.
Suzie was almost cordial, though in a cool way that made quite clear we weren’t friends or even on friendly terms. We had another girl, Hailee, with us for a few short hours and then she went to a doctor’s appointment and then to home after that, leaving me on the register and Suzie with drinks. For the most part, anyway.
Halfway through the day, we hit a slow patch that was even slower than was typical. No one even walked past the shop for half an hour.
I took the opportunity to do some tidying, cleaning equipment ahead of time to make the closing easier.
Suzie came over to me. I automatically stepped aside to get out of her way and she followed. “Yes?” I asked, looking up.
Suzie had her phone out, which usually wasn’t permitted. I was suddenly nervous that, at any moment, June or a customer would walk in and think us to be slackers.
“My apron,” she prompted.
I checked the sidewalk in front of Effervesce. Still no one, thank goodness. “Can’t we talk about this later?”
“If you think I’m going to wait around in this place when I don’t have to, you’re crazy.” Suzie tossed her long blonde hair and curled her lip. “Let’s just do it now. I’ll take the blame if we get caught, scaredy-cat.”
I really can’t risk losing this job.
If Suzie liked her apron, she might tell others about me, or want me to make something else for her.
The temptation was more than I could resist. “Okay,” I agreed.
Suzie tilted her phone to me. “This is me wearing the apron as a kid.”
I took a peek. A chubby-cheeked, simply adorable little girl stood in front of a plastic kitchen set, spatula in one hand and a train conductor’s hat on her head, in lieu of a chef’s hat, I assumed. I had seen Suzie’s apron before and it was indeed an exact duplicate, layered ruffle-y flowers on a field of powder blue.
Suzie zoomed in on the image. “This part is important. See the strap?”
The ties on the back of the apron ended in little hearts—or butts, if you wanted to look at it like that.
I studied the image for a long minute.
“Well?” she demanded. “Can you do it?”
“I can,” I said, smiling. “Could you send me that picture?”
“Why?”
“So next time you make fun of me, I can look at this baby picture and remember how tiny and chunky you used to be.”
Suzie’s cheeks turned red. “I wouldn’t make fun of you if you weren’t such an easy target!”
“And so I can reference the apron,” I finished.
Suzie glared at me with her face still pink. “Fine. What’s your number?”
I told her. She tapped it into her phone and then finally pocketed it, which reminded me that we shouldn’t have been looking at it in the first place. I checked to make sure we were still alone, unwatched, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“When do I pay you?” Suzie asked.
I hesitated. “Just at the end. When you get it.”
“What were you going to say?”
She’s sharp.
Maybe there was more to this annoying girl than I had initially assumed.
“Well, sometimes you make half the payment up front as insurance. But that’s okay,” I said quickly.
“You said $50, right?”
I didn’t respond. She must have taken it as confirmation.
Suzie reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet.
I dragged my hands over my face, my stomach tight with dread. “You’re going to get us both fired!”
Fiddling around with money just a few feet away from a cash register, with no security camera in here? This was beyond asking for trouble. It was begging.
“Relax.” Suzie dug around in her wallet and produced a crisp $20 and five $1s. She folded the wad and tucked it into my jeans pocket, poking it down inside with her fingers. “There’s your down payment.”
I touched my pocket, about to pull the money out and give it back. I thought of the groceries I needed, the burned-out lightbulb in what passed as a living room in my house.
I pulled my hand away and reached out to her.
Suzie blinked at my hand. “What?”
“Shake. Never mind.” I dropped my hand.
Suzie snatched it and shook way too vigorously.
The door to the café opened.
I jerked away from her and whirled, a greeting already on my lips. The words died as Carter came strolling up, smiling, his eyes glued to mine. I couldn’t move, staring deep into them.
Suzie let out a startled sound. “Oh, Carter!”
Carter looked right past her, straight at me. “Hi, Megyn,” he said. “Hi… Susan.”
He knows that’s not her name. That’s a deliberate slight.
I looked to Suzie to see how she’d react when her idol messed up her name. She had gone from my side, hurrying around the counter to the bathroom, already fiddling with her hair as she went.
I did my best not to look annoyed. I should have known Suzie wouldn’t be any help. She was too concerned about her appearance to get any work done.
“What was that about?” Carter asked, coming up to the counter and leaning his elbows on it.
“I don’t know,” I lied. “Can I get you something, sir?”
“You know my name is Carter,” he said, voice low and husky. “Enough with the ‘sir’ stuff, please. I’m no more or less important than you.”
The customer was always right. I agreed. “Okay, Carter. What can I get for you? The usual?”
“I don’t want any coffee.”
“Okay, so are you interested in one of our pastries? Maybe a sandwich? The croissant—”
Water ran in the bathroom sink. I swore internally, cursing Suzie.
Carter strummed his fingers on the counter. “What I want is to have dinner with you.”
I licked my lips, nervous, though I couldn’t tell if they were good nerves or bad ones. “I can’t really leave work. And I don’t know you.”
“Don’t you?” he murmured. “Because I’m pretty sure I know you, Megyn.”
I gulped as with that one sentence he shattered my hopes of anonymity. He had figured it out, despite my best efforts.
Carter tipped his head and looked up into my eyes, his expression so solemn and serious I almost couldn’t stand it. “I just want to talk, that’s all. I promise. I’m so used to having meetings at restaurants. They make me talkative.”
That might be a good thing, because I can’t foresee myself talking much at all.
“What do you say?” Carter encouraged.
Logically, I should have turned him down, nudged him Suzie’s way with a declaration of, “She’s not that bad.”
But the logical part of my brain seemed to be napping, because I found myself thinking of a lot more reasons I should accept the invitation. For one, I actually didn’t have any plans tomorrow; I wouldn’t even be working. I hadn’t been to a real restaurant in a long while and I didn’t know when the next opportunity would be.
Plus, there was Carter himself. He was so attractive, with his dark brown hair, like coal, shimmering with auburn undertones whenever the light hit just right. His green eyes brought to mind a cool, shaded forest, foliage dappled by the sun. The flashes of silver in his beard gave him a dignified edge. He managed to be both slim and fit, a rare combination that would get any straight woman’s loins throbbing.
I had felt that throb when we danced, the warmth, and he must have felt the same way from how he held me so close. A person couldn’t fake that sort of desire, the deep and subconscious kind.
I took a deep breath and clenched my hands into fists. “Okay. Okay, yes. I’ll have dinner with you, Carter.”
His serious eyes widened, his face brightening, smoothing the beginnings of wrinkles from the corners of his eyes. “You will? Wonderful! I’ll pick you up. Where do you live? Or I can meet you somewhere, if that’s more comfortable for you,” he amended.
I tried to slow my heartbeat, hoping he was simply polite and that I hadn’t looked as horrified as I thought I did. I couldn’t let this wealthy man see where I lived. I didn’t even want him aware of the neighborhood.
“Why not here?” I said, with only a hint of a stammer.
Carter smiled and touched one of my clenched hands. He worked his finger through mine and unfolded them, laying them flat on the countertop. “It’s a date,” he said, “not an execution. And it is a date. I’ll gladly meet you here. Is six fine?”
Six was not fine. Six was too long to wait. It was not long enough.
“Perfect,” I said.
“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Carter winked at me. “Can you give me an empty cup to hold in case Suzie comes out?”
I laughed and handed over an empty cup, straw included.
“Thanks, Megyn. See you then.”
Carter walked away, straw between his lips as he sipped on his pretend drink. I giggled. It was a pretty good pantomime, I had to admit.
Suzie came dashing out of the bathroom. She had completely redone her makeup and somehow wrangled her hair into perfect curls. “Carter?” she gasped.
I pointed out the window, at his receding back. “You missed him.”
“Shit! And that’s his car. I can’t catch up to him.” Suzie flopped over the counter, knocking into a bottle, which teetered sideways and bumped into another, which also fell. A chain reaction began and soon bottles lay in clusters all over the countertop and floor.
June came dashing in, chest heaving. One hand still on the door, she demanded, “What in the world?”
Suzie looked at her without getting up. “Now you show up?”
June gaped at her, clearly astonished at being talked to in such a manner by one of her own employees.
I stepped over a bottle and tapped June on the shoulder. “Carter Bryant came in again.”
June turned her attention to me. “I don’t know who that is, and I don’t care if it was Jesus, Tupac, and Elvis who came through that door. Clean up that mess.”
I looked at Suzie. Suzie looked back at me. And then we both laughed about the ridiculousness of it all.