Which was a direct quote of something I said all the time. Now I was going to have to strangle all of them.
Wasn’t I just bursting with love and adoration for these people? Hadn’t I just felt so unbelievably thankful for them and for their presence in my life?
Bastards. Every last one.
I had only one way to leave this conversation with my dignity intact. Bravado. Heaps and heaps and heaps of false bravado. “Aren’t you single, Miles? Why don’t you ask me out and find out for yourself.”
It was Jonah who choked on pizza this time.
Before Miles could close his hanging-open mouth and come up with a response, Charlie answered for him. “Nope. No. No, he’s not.”
Not the shocked gazes swiveling to Charlie. Who was less amused than the rest of us.
“What?” I asked, laughing nervously.
“Miles isn’t single,” he said gruffly. He glared at Miles, like this was his fault.
“Who are you dating?”
Miles’s face turned bright pink. “Nobody.”
Charlie glared at him.
“Uh, Ally, actually.” Miles cleared his throat and tugged on the collar of his T-shirt. “Well, we’ve been on one date.” He glared back at Charlie. “Thanks a lot, man.”
My brain was slower to understand. “Wait, Ally, the new server? You’re datingthatAlly?”
He looked so embarrassed, I was afraid he would be the one to throw himself out the window. “Well, I, uh, I took her home that one time.”
As if that explained everything.
“Oh.”
“I didn’t want to say anything because...”
“Because he knew you’d be pissed,” Case filled in for him.
“Because it’s new,” Miles bit out. “Because we’ve only been on one date, and I’m not even sure how it went. Uh, from her perspective or whatever.”
Well, this conversation had gotten wildly out of control. I didn’t want to know about Miles’s dating life. More than that, I didn’t want Miles to feel like he had to spill his guts in front of a room full of people, only half of whom he actually knew.
“It’s cool, Miles,” I said quickly. Because honestly, I didn’t care if Miles dated another server. That was Eliza’s department. I was just tired of our owners running all potential employees off. “She’s sweet. I hope it works out.”
He visibly relaxed. “Are you serious?”
Eliza echoed, “Are you serious?”
“What?”
Case was the one who stood up, though, clearly impassioned by my lack of fury. “You’re forever yelling about not dating new waitresses. You can’t honestly be sanctioning this.”
I wanted to say that I didn’t have a problem with Miles or even Case asking the servers out. I had a problem with Charlie dating everything that had legs and then blowing it up in the worst possible way. But I’d recently had a change of heart about Charlie, so I couldn’t say that.
Instead, I went with, “Don’t be an asshole. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Who are you, and what have you done with Ada Kelly?” Jonah demanded.
I pointed a finger at him. “Hey, I was your biggest fan, so you better watch it.”
