“Huh?” I called, waving at him and realizing I had been listening to Asher singing in the background of my consciousness. He always sang after hours during cleanup, which really should’ve clued me in to what had been going on around me.
“I’m taking off,” Mason told me, “but uh, there’s some lady outside, says she knows you.”
“Well, let her in.” I waved her forward, even though he hadn’t let her in yet and I couldn’t even see who he was talking about. “I’ll talk to some lady.”
He shrugged. “Okay, then.”
As he left, the unknown woman entered and hurried my way. She had kind of an angry stride, and at first, I had no idea who the hell she was. But then she marched closer, and I suddenly recognized her, even though I’d only seen her once before.
“Oh, heeeey! Hi.” I waved and sent her a huge smile. “You’re that ho-bag who slept with my boyfriend. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you at first, what with your clothes on, and you know, Cam’s penis not inside you.”
I laughed at my joke, but she didn’t seem to find it very funny. Hmm, guess Cam preferred the dryer type.
Stopping directly in front of my stool, she self-righteously fisted her hands to her hips and glared. “You were trying to have a baby with him?”
“Huh?” I cocked my head to the side, having no idea what she was talking about. “You should probably lay off the bad mushrooms, lady. You’re not making any sense.”
“Oh, so you deny it?” She whipped a box out of her purse and shoved it in my face. “Explain why this was in our bathroom trash then, bitch.”
I took issue with the bitch reference, but whatever she was sticking in my face smelled really raunchy, probably because she’d pulled it out of a wastebasket.
“Eww.” I shoved it back enough to focus on what it was until I realized it was the box from the first pregnancy test I’d taken days ago.
“Oh, right. That. No... Good God, no! I was totally not trying to have a baby with him, yuck. But my period was late, so I started to worry, and I took the test, but it’s all good, I’m not. And my period finally came today.” Evil karma-striking witch. “So, yeah...whew, huh?”
I grinned, but still, she didn’t grin back.
Tough crowd.
“Whatever,” she screeched, and screeching was so not a good sound for her. “You wanted to trick him into marriage and—”
“Marriage?” I laughed. “Yeah, right. With Cameron? Give me a frigging break.”
“I’m going to scratch your fucking eyes out, whore!”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Asher appeared at one side of me, lifting his hands to restore order, and I realized Ten was there too, suddenly at my other side. “I think you need to calm down, ma’am.”
When she sniffed at him, I blinked up his way and shook my head. “I don’t understand why she’s calling me the whore. She’s the one who couldn’t keep her legs together.”
But that only enraged her more. “I’m going to kill you, bitch.”
“Not tonight, you’re not.” Ten stepped in, hooked an arm around her waist to keep her from diving at me, which she actually tried to do, and he pulled her a safe distance away.
I just gaped at her, honestly confused.
“Seriously?” I threw my hands into the air. “The test was neg-a-tive! Why are you so butt hurt over this? I don’t want your disgusting boyfriend. You’re welcome
to his cheating ass. If I never see him again for as long as I live, it’ll be too soon. Good riddance to both of you!”
Leaping out of Ten’s arms, she whipped back her arm and slapped me. Hard. I think she whacked me sober. I’m not lying. The moment before her hand went flying, I felt all loopy and happy, still treating this entire conversation like some kind of joke...because it was freaking ridiculous. But now that my cheek was on fire...yeah. Dead sober.
Scowling at her, I covered my jaw with my hand. “That wasn’t very nice. What is your problem?”
“Don’t you dare talk about Cameron that way. He’s wonderful and—”
She gasped in pain as her head jerked backward. When she tripped away from me, I realized it was because someone had grabbed her hair and was using it as a leash to drag her.
My mouth fell open when I realized my defender was the new bartender. And he looked pissed. Like scary pissed. Like pissed enough to make you piss your pants if he ever looked that pissed at you.