“He comes on strong like a bull through the streets of Pamplona,” I muttered to myself.
“—but I’ve had several perfectly reasonable conversations with him. Just the other day, a beer distributor was trying to make a delivery but this dude would have a hard time parallel parking on a football field and he blocked the espresso machine repair guy’s truck—along with everyone else in the damn lot. But before I could start directing traffic and move things along, the bossman was tearing a stripe off that boy’s ass. I heard him say he’d stop selling their beer if they couldn’t deliver without causing problems for the neighboring businesses.”
“We are the only neighboring business,” I said.
“Yes, I know, and it’s good that you’re catching on,” Muffy said. “When he was finished scaring the life out of the beer dude, he came over and apologized.”
“A man who apologizes and pays for things,” Meara said with a lusty sigh.
“I’m having trouble believing this,” I said.
“Well, it’s true,” Muffy said.
“He’s a very decent boss too,” Bethany added. “I’ve been watching him—among others—when I hang out at the bar.”
“That seems unlikely. He’s a yeller. He yells. He probably throws things. Like, oysters. I’m sure he wings oysters at his staff all the time,” I said.
Bethany stared at me for a moment. “I haven’t witnessed any oyster throwing—”
“Can you even see through those heart eyes you have for Mel?” I asked.
“—but he shucks a lot of them. I can’t believe how fast he can slide the knife in and bust those shells open. It’s rapid-fire shucking, one after the other, no stopping.”
“I do appreciate that sort of thing,” Meara said under her breath.
“Andweappreciate that sort of thing? We are talking aboutoysters. In the best of lights, they are briny, slurpy vaginas on a plate.”
“AndIenjoy that sort of thing,” Bethany said under her breath.
“AndIenjoy staying the fuck away from all that mess,” Muffy said. “The shellfish and the shucking, if you know what I mean.”
“I know that Beck is a pain in my ass though somehow I’m the only one who sees it,” I said.
Bethany bobbled her hands in front of her. “I don’t know, sunshine, he did fill in for a server who had to leave because her kid was sick. And last Friday he escorted a customer out after he got handsy with a busser. It was really hot. I could tell he wasthis closeto grabbing the guy and tossing him out on his ass.”
“Okay, so he meets the minimum criteria for being an acceptable person and boss. We are not required to throw a parade in his honor,” I said.
“I have it on good authority that he personally covered wages for the entire staff while they were shut down for those couple of days after all the FBI stuff,” Meara added. “And we ended up talking about college ball last week.”
“Wait,” Beth said, “do you know his brother? The baseball player?”
Meara shook her head. “I know I met some of the men’s team when U of A was at Vanderbilt for a tournament but I don’t remember Decker.”
“Six degrees of Division One college softball,” Muffy said.
“Something like that.” Meara glanced back at me. “He had legit opinions on some of the women’s teams and the match-ups he wanted to see this year. I was impressed.”
I didn’t want her to be impressed. I wanted her to see that Beckett was a tyrant who used money to get his way. Money and cold, serif stares. I glared at her. I’d counted on Meara to be on my side.
“I have nothing else to contribute other than to reiterate that he solves problems for you. It’s not the worst thing in the world, even if he is heavy-handed about it,” she went on. “You’re no doormat so it’s not like you’ll let him steamroll you.” She shrugged. “See what happens. You might discover that it’s not that bad to have an arrogant man around who takes it upon himself to help you.”
“And pay for it,” Muffy said.
“Don’t remind me,” I said.
“I don’t know why he’s doing any of this for you,” Bethany said, “and I don’t want to invent motivations for his behavior. But have you considered the possibility that y’all started off on the wrong foot and now you can’t stop pushing each other’s buttons?”
“That’s a good point,” Meara said. “We know he can be a functional human so why does Sunny send him over the edge?”
