“Hurting that bad?” Mr. Cooper asked, concern lacing his face and words.
I gave him a grimace-like smile. “Little bit,” I lied. “I was going to eat something, take a couple more painkillers, and see if it helps any.” I almost brought up asking if I could leave early, but I didn’t want to set a bad example in front of the new guy, making him think he could just ask to leave early over a little boo-boo. I’d just do it in secret later.
“Come have lunch with us,” my boss suggested, still frowning at me, his eyes looking me over just like Miguel’s had done. “Let’s see how you feel after. What do you say?”
Did Iwantto eat my food? Not really. Would I? Of course I would. But I was still going to take up Mr. C on his offer. I would never say no to spending more time with him.
If the new employee was going to be there too, well, I wasn’t going to complain. I liked getting along with everyone I worked with—Jason being the exception.
“Sure,” I agreed, letting myself glance at the guy named Ashton for a split second again. “Give me a second to grab my purse.”
“You don’t need that thing,” my boss claimed.
Under normal circumstances, I would have grabbed it anyway, but I really didn’t feel like walking all the way down the hall to get it from my desk. And I felt zero guilt for letting Mr. Cooper pay for my food.
“In that case, I’m ready.”
Mr. Cooper put a hand on my shoulder and gestured in the direction of the exit for the shop. I led the way, smile-grimacing at the coworkers we passed by. We were halfway across the floor when I sensed Mr. Cooper stop, and definitely heard him say, “We’re going to lunch with Ashton. Would you like to come with us?”
I knew he was talking to Rip, the man who had bought me not just a twist donut that morning but a kolache too. I hadn’t even been hungry, but I’d eaten both things on the ride to work since he had driven with one hand, holding his own kolache in the other.
The same man who had helped me carry my things inside the shop and then turned around and walked right back out of my room, only throwing out over his shoulder, “Take it easy today.” If I had been harboring any more resentment toward him from two days before, those feelings would have disappeared after all that.
But at Mr. Cooper’s question, I braced for Rip to give him a rough response. At least yesterday, they hadn’t said a single word to each other. The tension in Mr. Cooper’s car after he’d picked us up had been uncomfortable, and that was saying something considering the arguments between them that I had broken up.
Instead, what Rip gave him was a “Let me wash up first.”
He was coming? With us? If I could have moved my neck, I would have, just to see if hell had frozen over.
Did he know Mr. Cooper was actually going or…?
The way Mr. Cooper said “Okay” meant I wasn’t the only one shocked he’d agreed. I mean, as far as I could remember, the older man took all of his new employees out to eat when he hired them. In my case, he’d done that and saved me from living in a crappy motel room, and then gotten stuck with me for years living under his roof.
I remembered when he hired Jason, I didn’t go—because I had been too busy—and neither had Rip, for whatever reason he could have had.
So....
Mr. Cooper’s muttered “huh” made me smile. “Let’s wait for Ripley then,” he stated, sounding different but not in a bad way. More… totally surprised. In a good way.
Not bothering to turn in a circle to face them, I just stood there until the Ashton guy spoke up and asked, “How long have you worked here, Luna?”
Then I did have to turn all the way around to face my boss and newest coworker. “Nine years.” Did I sound proud of myself or what?
“Luna here has been with us the longest now, isn’t that right?” Mr. Cooper asked.
I remembered not to move my head and said, “Yep” instead.
“If you need anything, this here’s your girl. She knows everything, and if she doesn’t, she figures it out,” the older man kept going, sounding like a proud dad. Man, I loved him.
“Ready to go?” came Rip’s deep voice from behind the other two men.
Mr. Cooper startled but nodded. “I was planning on driving, but if you want to…”
I could see Rip’s face as he replied, “You can drive.”
What was going on with him being so agreeable and nice? I took in how calm Rip’s face was but made sure not to let mine reflect the surprise there. I would have figured they would have argued even over that, but…
They didn’t even argue over going to eat burgers.
