Before Now (Sometimes Never 2)

“Looking at you like what?”

“Like you’re thinking about me naked,” she says, her voice quivering.

I stand up straight and shake my head. “This is why we can’t be friends.”

She raises her hands and let’s them fall, slapping her thighs. “Fine. I don’t know why I even bothered.”

I shrug. “I don’t know why you bothered either,” I say flatly and close the door in her face.

5

Lucy

I almost drop my tray of drinks when I see Park sitting in the corner booth of my section. It’s been over a week since he slammed the door in my face and my stomach tightens at the sight of him.

I don’t know what it is about him that draws me in. He’s an ass. He’s arrogant. He’s a slut. He’s also breathtakingly gorgeous and the way he looks at me makes my body react without permission or apology.

With a deep breath, I drop the drinks off and head for his booth. He has his arm draped over some girl’s shoulder. She looks up at me with bloodshot eyes and I realize she’s drunk. This is why I hate the midnight shift. Every drunk wants greasy diner food after the bars close. I usually get happy or talky drunks, but there’s the occasional overly emotional drunk, the handsy drunk, or the mean drunk. She doesn’t look happy or talkative.

I clear my throat. “Hey Park.” He looks up quickly and I see the surprise on his face.

“You work here?” His voice is full of annoyance and I grind my teeth. The stench of liquor is heavy in the air. I am not in the mood for this.

“Nope. I just decided to steal a uniform and walk around taking people’s orders.”

He smirks at me, his eyes piercing. I turn to the girl. She’s watching me now, a scowl marking her features. I press my lips together and turn to the opposite side to address the others.

Chase smiles. “Hey Lulu. How’s it going?”

I grin. “Hey Chase. It’s going. Can I get you a drink?”

“Yeah. I’ll have a Coke. And I actually know what I want.” He hands me his menu and I tuck it against my side. He opens his palms and shakes them a little. “I need a gigantic cheeseburger and crispy fries.”

I laugh quietly. “I can do that.” I turn my attention to the girl next to him. She pushes her long, blonde hair behind her shoulder and leans closer to her menu.

“I want a Sprite, but…do you have salads?”

Chase groans. “You drive me insane, Annie. Get a freaking burger `cause you know you want one.”

She leans back and looks sideways at him. “Fine,” she sighs. “I’ll have what he ordered.”

I nod and reluctantly face the girl next to Park. “Same,” she says curtly.

“Drink?” I keep my eyes on my notepad.

“Do you serve beer?”

“No.”

She sighs loudly, as if I’m responsible for what the diner serves. “A Diet Coke then.”

I finally raise my head to look at Park. He grins widely and his eyes rake over me from head to toe. It’s not like he hasn’t done that twenty times already, but accompanied by the shitty grin and leering eyes, it makes me feel dirty. I shift uncomfortably. “What do you want, Park?”

He lifts a brow and somehow manages to smile bigger. “What I want isn’t on the menu.”

I take a deep breath and meet his gaze with a glare. “So you’re not ordering?”

He shakes his head slowly. “What’s good here?”

I bite my lip and his eyes focus on my mouth. There’s a flutter in my stomach. I feel my cheeks warm and I look away. “The burgers are good. The chicken sandwich is all right. The buffalo strips are amazing. Or—”

“Amazing?”

“Yep.”

His voice drops and runs over me like a caress. “Are they hot?”

I close my eyes, but open them quickly and glance at him. “They’re spicy.”

That smirk is back and he holds out his menu without taking his eyes off me. “I like spicy.”

I clear my throat. “Do you want a drink?”

“Milk.”

I almost laugh. “Milk?”

“Milk. It does the body good.” He winks and the girl next to him paws his bicep.

“Hell yeah it does.” She scoots closer to him and I almost throw up in my mouth.

“I’ll get your orders in right away,” I say and turn to leave. Chase catches my wrist causing me to pause.

“Thanks, Lu,” he murmurs. He gives me a small smile.

“Sure. No problem,” I chirp.

I don’t know why I let Park get to me. I flirt all the time. Guys flirt back. The occasional girl, even. It’s all in fun. But he makes it—not fun. Either he has me wanting to abandon all my morals, or he has me cringing, feeling filthy and worthless. How he’s able to do that is beyond me. I don’t even know the man.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get. I wipe the counter a little more forcefully than I need to. He has a girl right beside him, yet he flirts with me. He’ll be buried deep inside that walking disease as soon as they leave here, but he still finds the need to mess with my head.

I take a cleansing breath and berate myself for assuming the worst about the girl with Park. She could be nice. I glance over and she glares at me before returning her attention back to whatever Park’s talking about.

Okay, maybe she’s a bitch.

It doesn’t matter what she is. I don’t know her and I’m pretty sure I’ll never see her again after tonight.

The drunk guys at table 4 wave and call to me. “Hey, goldie.” I blow out a breath. Got to love drunken frat boys. “Hey,” one calls again. “Come here.” He wiggles his finger and I toss the rag and cleanser on the bar.

“What do ya need?” I ask sweetly. College boys tip well if you’re sweet.

The two guys break out in obnoxious laughter, throwing each other a look. “Baby girl, I need to take you home.”

I smile sweetly. “Oh, sorry,” I say sweetly. “Can’t. I have to work.” I turn my head and roll my eyes. “Anything else I can help you with?”

They howl with laughter. “You can help me with this,” the other one says. He points at his lap and makes his eyebrows jump up and down.

I cock my head to the side and shake my head in apology. “I don’t know how to make it bigger.” I wish Bree was here. She would have these guys on the floor, licking her shoes.

The guy chuckles. His friend smacks the table top a few times. “What time do you get off? I’ll teach you how to make it bigger.”

I place my hand on his shoulder and lean into him. “Don’t look, but my boyfriend is sitting at that booth over in the corner.” I grip his shoulder tighter as he starts to turn his head. “Don’t look. He’s pretty big and he doesn’t like it when guys hit on me, as you can imagine. Don’t worry.” I let my hand slide down to his back and give him a pat. “He hasn’t noticed yet, and I won’t tell.” I stand back and grin. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

He raises his brows and shakes his head. “No. I’m good.”

“Great.” I beam at him as I drop the check on the table and bounce off.

I pick up the order for Park’s table. He doesn’t look at me as I set out everyone’s plates. I prop the tray on my hip and look at Chase.

“Can I ask a favor?”

He leans back against the seat, running his long fingers through his blue hair. “Sure.”

Hmm. That was easy. “If two guys come over here, pretend to be my boyfriend?” I glance quickly at the girl next to him. “If that’s all right.”

She chuckles. “Yeah, not a problem.”

“Thanks,” I sigh.

She sips her drink then adds, “Those dudes are dicks. We could hear them over here.”

Chase nods. “No problem, Lu. Do you want me to go talk to them?”

I wave him off. “No. It’s all good. They’re fine. I don’t think they’ll say anything else now that I have my big, strong boyfriend with the weird hair.” I wink dramatically and he grins.

“You sure? I don’t mind.” He makes a show of standing up and throwing his napkin on the table, making me laugh.

“Yeah. Thanks again, Chase.”

“Is it always like this?” he asks, sitting down and picking up his burger.

I shrug and lower the tray to my side. “This shift brings in all kinds.” I can’t help it, my eyes flick to Park who is watching me stoically.

“Anyway...” I look around their table. “Everything okay? Anybody need anything else?”

“It’s great,” the girl next to Chase says. She moans as she takes another bite. “This is so good.”

Chase smiles at her then turns to me. “I think we’re good.”

“I could use more napkins,” the girl next to Park barks.

I press my lips together and nod. She’s going to run me. I can tell. This is not going to be fun at all.

6

Park

I watch as the douche bags that were messing with Lucy pay their bill. They shove each other out the door and I shoot Chase a look. “I’ll be back,” I say, pushing my plate back as I stand.

“Where you going?” Taylor whines.

“To take a piss.” I brush her off and stalk after the guys. Chase gets up and falls into step beside me. We don’t say a word as we head outside. He moves to one side of their car as I go to the other. Both guys pull up short as soon as they see us coming.

I press my hip against the door and cross my arms. Recognition flashes in the guy’s eyes and I stare flatly. He adjusts his baseball cap and puts his hands up, palms out. “We were just playing. I didn’t know she had a boyfriend.”

I try not to recoil at his assumption. “Now you do,” I state simply.

Chase moves in on the other dude. “Show women respect.”

My lips twitch, fighting off a smirk, and I push off the car. Baseball Cap steps back. “You tip her?” I ask, my voice dropping low.

“Yeah, man.”

“How much?” Chase growls.

“Five bucks.”

I shake my head and hold my hand out. “You tipped her twenty for having to put up with your shit.”

He stares at me blankly and I kick his shoe, causing him to reach out for the side of the car to balance himself. He’s a pretty big dude, but I’m bigger. The gym and I have become good friends over the past couple years. He realizes this, too, as he sizes me up.

The other guy reaches into his wallet and shoves a twenty into Chase’s hand. “Here. Can we go now?”

Chase looks at me over the roof and I raise my brows. “Get the fuck out of here,” he spits. “You come back here, it better be with an apology.”

We stand on the curb, waiting for them to back out of the parking space. They flip us off as the car peels out, tires squealing. I chuckle and follow Chase back inside. He tucks the money into his pocket and I glare at him.

“What are you doing?”

He grins stupidly. “What?”

“Put it on the table.” He sighs, but places it between the salt and pepper shakers as we pass by.

Chase shakes his head and laughs.

“What?”

“You like her.”

“No I don’t,” I fire back. The denial comes out too quickly. I sound like a third grader. But he doesn’t call me on it. He just shrugs.

“I don’t know why not. She’s pretty cool.” He looks past me where Lucy’s bent over, clearing a table. “And she’s not bad to look at.”

I push him toward our booth and slide into my seat. I know she’s pretty. She’s more than pretty. She’s sexy as hell. But I’m not allowed to have her. If Jessie kicks me out, I have no place else to go. I can’t go back to the sublet I abandoned. Chase still lives in the dorms, so he’s not even an option. Hell, back home with my mom isn’t even doable—not with my poor-ass excuse of a father hanging around. And no matter how much I’d like to have Lucy, I’d like a roof over my head more.