Cliff’s arrival saved me just in time.
Stopped me from hissing out the words:“Me. You should be fucking worried about me.”
12
TATE
“Looking good, girl.”Ashley whistles as I walk in wearing my new uniform. “Although, the tip jar sure appreciated the shrunken one.”
“As if.” I snort, grabbing my apron and tying it around my waist.
Ashley raises a brow, watching me as I hum and get set up for opening. “Someone’s perky this morning. Did Mr. Billionaire give you a big fat bonus last night or something?”
“What? No.” I smile. “But guess what’s now in the basement of our building?”
“A naked guy with a big dick who’s chained up and exists only to perform cunnilingus?”
I laugh at her lit up face. “Why does he need a big dick if he only uses his tongue?”
She ponders my answer, tipping her head. “True. You’re a clever one, Miller.” She points at me. “So, what was it?”
I grin as I relay the sight my father rushed to tell me about as I walked in the door last night. “A whole row of brand new, top of the range washers and dryers.”
Ashley stares at me. “Not very sexy, but that’s great.” Agrin breaks over her face. “You’ve been needing those forever! But I thought your landlord was an asshole? You said he ignores any requests he gets.”
I shrug. “He did. But he’s sold the building to a new woman, and she wants to upgrade things. Get this, that leaky tap in our bathroom? Fixed as well.” I widen my eyes in excitement, still processing all the improvements that happened while I was out yesterday.
“Give me some of that good luck,” Ashley says, shimmying her back up and down against mine. “I need it. The machine’s playing up again, we’ll have to make do with just one until the engineer comes.”
“Really?” I blow out a breath as I look at the coffee machine. Ashley’s been having problems with it ever since it was moved for the decorators to freshen up the paintwork on the walls a couple of months ago. Handling the morning rush with just one is going to be a pain in the ass.
“Yeah. If you didn’t make such a damn good cup, I’d send you to the dumpster,” she says to the machine. “Someone’s coming by later this morning to take a look.”
After we clear the morning rush, she turns to me with a wide smile, lifting the tip jar and giving it a shake. “Coffee and charm, what did I tell you?” She dips her hand into the stuffed jar and removes the morning’s fresh business cards, sifting through them. “Come over here and rub that luck against me again. I need it, this morning’s offerings are wetter than a shift at Fulton Fish Market.” She tosses the cards into the drawer with a sigh.
The bell chimes and a guy in cargo pants carrying a toolkit strides in.
“Good morning,” he booms, a wide grin curving inside his dark brown beard. “I’m Huck. You called about your machine?”
“Hi. I’m Tate, this is Ashley,” I greet with a smile.
Ashley stares at him, her eyes dropping to his giant work boots as he wipes them on the entry mat. He walks straight to the counter, tipping his head toward the coffee machine behind it. “That the troublemaker?”
“Do you know what you’re doing? It’s our best machine. We can’t be doing without it,” Ashley says in horror as he walks around the counter and places his kit on the floor with a heavy thud.
“I picked up a thing or two over the years, Darlin’. Your baby’s safe with me, don’t you worry.”
He pulls a tool from his kit that has Ashley’s eyes widening as he taps the machine gently with it like he’s issuing an old friend a greeting. “The best model we do. You been happy with it?” He turns, looking between Ashley and I, and I nod and answer when it’s clear she’s stuck for words. “Good,” he replies, turning his attention to the machine.
“Tate,” Ashley whispers out the side of her mouth. “It’s your break. Go. I’ll keep an eye on…him.”
The way she stares at the engineer in alarm as he starts whistling to himself is priceless. I hope for his sake he does know how to fix it, or I have a feeling Ashley will find a new place to stuff his tool kit for him.
I head out of the store for my break, dropping in at the pharmacy, and grabbing a cute kids animal magazine I think Molly will like looking at with me. I don’t know when I’ll next see her, but I hope it’s soon. I love spending time with her.
Sullivan… not so much.
Molly’s always eager to learn and explore new things. And she’s such a happy little girl, despite being a mini version of Sullivan with her dark hair and blue eyes. She must take after her mother in personality. I wonder where she is. Sullivan’s never mentioned her, and there are no photographs around his place that could be her. There are barely any family photos at all. The Google search I did ofhim mentioned a past fiancée. But that was over two years ago.
