Chapter 5
Josie
I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I wasn’t supposed to work tonight. I had nothing organised. I couldn’t find my boots. My jeans were still damp around the waist. Matilda was being fussy and wouldn’t eat. When they’d called I was about to say no, then the reminder that I needed the money surfaced and I found myself agreeing. Since that moment, I’d been like a cyclone darting about the house.
“Josie, just breathe for a second.” Mia laughed as she grabbed hold of my shoulders as I went to push past her. For a woman of her miniature size, she was definitely strong.
“I don’t know, Mia. Matilda is being really stubborn tonight. I can’t get her to eat anything. Maybe I should just call them back and say no.”
“Josie, she’ll be fine. Derek and I are home tonight and we would love to take care of her.”
“Who am I taking care of?” Derek asked as he strode into the room, wrapping Mia in a huge bear hug before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
In that moment I hated them. I was jealous. I wanted what they had. That easy going, relaxed relationship. Someone whose eyes lit up just because I was in the same room. My stomach turned over. I knew I’d never have it, never have the opportunity. But knowing it and accepting it were proving to be more than a few miles apart.
“Matilda. We’re babysitting tonight.” Mia smiled up at him, her eyes alive for the first time in days. Although we’d never finished our conversation thanks to a screaming Matilda—she’d ended up two days later at the hospital with a ferocious temperature thanks to an ear infection—Mia had remained tight-lipped. It seemed though that tonight the fog was starting to lift…something I was eternally grateful for. I didn’t need to know what caused the change, truthfully I didn’t care. If Mia was happy, then I was happy. It was that simple.
“Great!” Derek grinned as he unwound himself from around her and reached for the buckle on his holster. Dropping it in the drawer in the side table, the same place he always put it, he turned back towards me. “It’ll be fine, Josie. You know I can’t get enough of that little Munchkin anyway. Where you headed? Hot date?”
“I wish!” My reply came out snarky and shocked even me.
“Okay then.” Derek backed away. “Sorry I asked.”
Grabbing my hair, I pulled it back in a tight ponytail and tied it tightly with the elastic from my wrist. “Sorry, Derek. I didn’t mean to be a bitch…”
“It just comes naturally to her…” Mia giggled, poking her tongue out at me.
Brushing aside her teasing, I explained, “I just got called in to work. But if it’s a problem—”
“No, not at all! Go! I got this!” He winked at me and disappeared into his bedroom.
For a moment I stared at the doorway where’d he’d just vanished, lost in my own thoughts. I wondered if I’d ever have that. Someone to rely on. Someone to know what I needed before I did. Someone to make the thoughts in my head just a little quieter. I sincerely doubted it. It still didn’t stop me wishing, though.
A squawk brought me crashing back to reality and I turned to head in Matilda’s direction. Mia’s hand on my arm stopped me. “You go get ready for work, Josie. I’ll go.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.” She popped the ‘p’ as she basically skipped down the hall to the bedroom where I’d left Matilda on the floor surrounded by toys.
Shaking off the thoughts, I rushed to the front to find my boots.
Four hours later, not even the idea of my bank balance getting a much needed boost could make me feel better. It was one of those nights. I knew I should have said no, but when Jenna called with the flu, needing me to cover her shift, how could I refuse? After everything she’d done for me, I owed her this. Well, at least I thought I did. Right now though, if anyone asked I’d vehemently deny it. This just wasn’t worth it. Nothing was.
So far tonight, I been hit on half a dozen times, my ass groped at least twice, and it seemed that every order was served by my boobs. I mean, I knew I wasn’t a super model and it didn’t really bother me, but I was over guys staring at my chest like the rest of me didn’t exist. Between that and the lewd comments, I was more than ready to call it a night. This was not what I signed up for.
“Josie?” Cash called out from the kitchen as he dropped another plate of potato wedges heaped with sour cream and chilli sauce on the counter between us.
Stomping over, I grabbed the plate and yanked it quickly from the counter. Too quickly. Instead of carrying it across to the table in the corner, my roughness sent every single potato sliver to the ground at my feet. “Fuck!” I swore as I bent to pick them up. Burning my fingers, I continued to berate myself as I tossed them in the bin.
“I’ll organise another serve. Might want to send over another drink to him,” Cash suggested, gesturing in the direction of the lonely guy in the corner.
“Why?”
“Because, Pussy Cat, you just upended his dinner on the floor, and now he’s going to have to wait for another one.” With a wink, Cash vanished into the depths of the kitchen and I was left with my mouth gaping open.
I’d been working here for almost a month, and from the moment I’d met Cash, a balding middle-aged man with a waistline that seemed to have expanded a little more every time I saw him, he’d taken to calling me Pussy Cat. At first I despised it. Despised him. But it quickly grew on me. So did Cash. These days he was more like a surrogate father than a friend when I stopped to pick up my pay cheques,yep, we were still paid in actual written chequesand had Matilda with me, he scooped her up in his arms and entertained her like he was her grandfather. Spoiling her rotten and filling her up with sugar before returning the now devil child back to me.
I hated that he was always right. Tonight I didn’t need him to be. Tonight I needed him to be wrong. Desperately wrong. Asshat never was, though.
