“In my defense,” he pauses and I glance in his direction. He’s grabbing one of the rags off the shelf closest to him and shoves it over his nose. “The door was supposed to be unlocked. I’m guessing my sister forgot to remind management.”
“Having bands here is still new. I’m sure it won’t be a problem once we get into a routine.” I pull open the top drawer of the desk. It’s not here. The next drawer provides nothing. There’s only one more drawer I can get into. The last one is locked, and I’ll have to ask Carlos for the key. Which means I’ll have to explain what happened.
Please for the love of all things holy be in this drawer. I slide the drawer open and a big white box labeled First Aid sits atop a stack of papers. I begin pulling it out of the drawer when his words stop me. “It was still worth it.”
Glancing up I expect him to be where he was, but he’s right in front of the desk. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. You better hope it’s not broken and I just busted it up.”
He shrugs. “Girls dig scars.”
“Not when they know how you got them,” I mutter under my breath. I set the kit on top of the desk and rummage through. There are cleaning wipes and a few small bandages. Pulling them out, I set them on the desk and point to one of the chairs in front of it. “Sit down so I can see the damage.”
He does as he’s told and waits for me to pull up a chair in front him. “I don’t remember you being so bossy before you left. I think I like it.”
“And I don’t remember you being so maddening.” I set the supplies in my lap and lean toward him. As gently as I can, I pull the rag away from his face. Plus side…it wasn’t gushing blood. He does have it streaked from his upper lip to his chin. I dap the rag over his nose trying to get off as much blood as possible. This would be much easier if the rag was wet.
“So, how does it look?” Devin asks. His gaze focused on me. “Will I need to go to the doctor?”
It’s the first time I’ve heard a hint of concern from him. Maybe all the flirting was a distraction so I wouldn’t know how much pain he’s in.
“I’m not sure.” I open up the wet wipes. “I can’t get a good look at it. Is it okay if I—" Holding up the wipe, I silently ask his permission.
He nods in answer. I take a corner of the towelette and wipe the top of his nose. He winces, and I immediately pull my hand away. Awful doesn’t begin to describe what I’m feeling right now. “It’s okay, Lisa.” He grabs my hand and lifts it up. “I’ll be fine.”
This is completely outside of my set of skills. How am I supposed to know if it’s broken or not? “Okay.” I brush the wipe against his nose and his jaw clenches. So much for being fine. But if I stop now, I won’t be able to finish. After a few moments I’ve got most of the blood cleared away.
“What’s the verdict?”
“There’s a cut, and it’s definitely swollen, but I can’t tell if it’s broken.” Maybe I should take some sort of first aid training. Or, I can get Del to call her boyfriend. He knows what to do in these instances.
“Damn,” he breathes. “Do you have anything I can take for the pain?”
“Yeah, there’s some ibuprofen in here. Why?”
“I need to get out there. I’m sure Cash and Trey are wondering where I’m at.” He stands and holds a hand out to help me up.
“Okay.” I let him pull me out of the chair. “Let me grab the medicine from the kit.” Moving back behind the desk, I rummage around for what he asked. I grab the packet and look up to hand it to him. “Um, you might have a bigger problem.”
“Like what? I already have a busted nose and need to clean my face.”
I point to the red splotches on his shirt. “You have some blood on your clothes.” Now I feel even worse. Not only did I hit him in the face, but I’ve ruined his clothes. I doubt he’ll ever be able to get that out.
“Shit,” he shakes his head. “At least it’s mostly dark over there. It shouldn’t be too noticeable.”
“Hold on,” I hand him the packet and a warm bottle of water I pull out of the package by the desk. “I think we have some employee shirts here somewhere. What’s your size?”
The shelf to my right is where the aprons are stored. I rummage through the various pieces of cloth until I find the stack of shirts. There aren’t many options, but we’ll have to make do.
“I wear a medium. But honestly, it’s not that big of a deal.” He glances at his shirt. “Nobody will be close enough to notice.”
Ignoring his protests, I flip through until I find a black shirt. They have the bar logo on it, but it’ll be fine. Turning around I start to toss the shirt to him, but he’s right in front of me and my hand meets his chest. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”
“And you should listen. It’ll be fine.” When he feels me push the shirt to him with force, he relents. “But I’ll wear this.”
He doesn’t grab it just yet. Instead…he pulls the shirt he’s wearing over his head, tossing it behind him. It’s like he’s trying to get under my skin. And he knows this is the best way to do it because it’s distracting as fuck. “Wh-what are you doing?”
“You told me to change so that’s what I’m doing,” he smirks. With blood on his face, and a busted nose, he shouldn’t look so hot. Shouldn’t be as enthralling as he is. “Unless that’s not what you want me to do.”
He moves toward me until my back hits the shelf. I could side step him, but I don’t know if I want to. “What are you doing?”
