If I hadn’t already been sitting, I’d have fallen over when I saw Calvin walk through the door like it was a normal occurrence. Tony looked at him, then to me and back to Calvin. “Seriously?” he mouthed, before quickly excusing himself.
I felt like the walls of the office were closing in on me as Calvin stalked across the room. His brow was furrowed, the corners of his mouth drawn in. “Is there a reason you haven’t answered my messages this morning?”
“Yeah. I’ve been busy putting out fires since I walked in, and I could either spend time playing the dutiful sub or I could focus so that, just maybe, I wouldn’t have to come home tonight and tell you there’s no way I can take the weekend off,” I sniped.
I expected Calvin to come back with some threat to punish me for acting like an immature brat. That might’ve been easier than seeing the frustration in his features morph into concern. He stepped behind me and began massaging my neck. The pressure was just short of painful. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to feel each of his fingers digging into my tense muscles.
“When you’re having a bad day, I want you to tell me.” His words were quiet and carefully measured. “Holding it all in, thinking you have to carry your burdens alone is part of what leads you to make poor choices. Let me help you.”
“Unless you know how to tend bar, I’m not sure there’s anything you can do,” I told him. Tabatha’s absence was the one issue I still had no solution for. Tony was right that Freddie would take care of the problems in the kitchen, and I knew Tony had the dining room under control. But without a bartender for the private party, we were screwed. The family was well-connected, and I’d been relying on their party being a hit to kick start the turn around in business.
I opened my eyes when Calvin released his hold on my neck. Everything that’d been swirling around in my head seemed quieter. The throbbing pain in my head had eased.
“Hey…yeah, I know it’s early, but I need a favor.” I spun around to see Calvin on his phone. “You have a bartender you can spare tonight?” He pulled the phone away from his ear. “How long is the party, Frankie?”
“They have an open bar from six until nine,” I told him, flipping to the booking form to verify. Good thing, too, because when Mama booked the party, she let them have the room right up to close, which we never did. “Fuck. No, the bar goes until ten. Who are you talking to?”
“Eli,” he responded. I was tempted to argue that most of the bartenders at Club 83 weren’t quite what we looked for at Marino’s, but I was desperate. And apparently bitchy. Just because they also worked at a gay bar that was a bit on the rougher side didn’t mean they couldn’t put on a white shirt and dress pants to serve drinks to our customers.
Calvin started pacing behind me as he and Eli discussed who he might be able to spare for the night. “Yeah, no. I know you like him, but he relies too much on flirting for tips… He won’t work, either. If you tell him to tone down the glitter eyeshadow, he’ll flip.”
“What about Max?” I asked. If I was going to bring in a bartender for the night, I wanted it to be someone I trusted. And maybe I could sway him into working more of these parties, because he was just what we needed. Good looking, had a photographic memory, and a chameleon who could work any crowd. It pissed me off that I hadn’t thought of calling him on my own.
“Hey, I know it’s a big ask, but would you be cool if he asks Max to work here tonight?” Calvin pulled the phone away from his ear, and I could hear the string of expletives from Eli. “I get it, but you don’t get slammed until around eleven. If he’s up for it, that’d give him time to help Frankie out over here and still make it back before your rush… Thanks. I owe you.”
They ended the call and Calvin pulled me out of the chair. Once he sat down, he arranged me on his lap. I stiffened, worried someone would waltz into the office and catch us. He started rubbing my back, and I settled into his chest. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve someone who understood me so quickly, but I wasn’t about to push him away.
“Sometimes you need to think outside the box,” he told me. “If you’d told me what was going on sooner, I’d have done exactly what I just did but you wouldn’t have spent the morning stressing about it.”
“I’m sorry. But in my defense, I did warn you I’d be total shit at this,” I reminded him. If I had issues asking my brothers for help, it was unrealistic to expect me to unload on Calvin.
“You’ll get better,” he assured me. “And when you screw up, I’ll be here to remind you you’re not alone. Now, what else do you need to do before you leave for the weekend?”
The argument that I couldn’t take the weekend off knowing how it was starting was at the front of my mind, but I pushed it back. Calvin came down here because he was worried about me, helped me take care of the last crisis I was currently dealing with, and I’d given him my word that we would spend some quality time together this weekend. Before long, all his weekends would be spent traveling around the region to tournaments with Ryan, so our opportunities were somewhat limited.
“I have some paperwork I’d like to take care of. I have to make the deposit and get change,” I listed off. “Once that’s done, I’ll be free. You can head home; I know you have proposals to draw up and all that.”
Calvin cupped my face in his hands before kissing me. “But if you need me, all of that can wait.”
“No, I’ll be fine,” I promised him. I hopped off his lap and reached back for his hand. I was still paranoid about my family knowing he was here because we were sort of together, but I was reluctant to let him go. Just having him here with me settled my mind. Plus, he was great eye candy.
At the door of the office, I wrapped my hands around his middle. I knew he was self-conscious about the slight spare tire he was carrying around, but I liked it. I couldn’t imagine trying to cuddle with someone who was about as soft as a pile of rocks, and I was quickly learning there was nothing more relaxing that curling up on the couch with Calvin.
“Do you want me to bring home dinner tonight? I happen to have an in with the owner of the joint.”
Calvin placed a chaste kiss to my forehead. “I don’t want you to worry about a thing other than getting home. I’ll pick up something and take care of dinner.”
“But you have work to do, too.” One of my biggest fears was he’d eventually get tired of reminding me to do things most functional adults took for granted or helping me solve my problems and walk away. If his own business started suffering because of how much attention he was paying me, it would be a catalyst to his exit.
“Actually, I don’t. I sent off the last proposal this morning, which is why I decided to come down and check up on you since you weren’t reading any of my messages.” I felt bad about that now. I’d told him repeatedly that I wasn’t upset with his reminders, that they were actually helping me stay focused and relaxed, but he was still the one I’d gotten pissy with this morning. At least I’d stopped short of firing off a reply for him to leave me the hell alone. “You’re not upset that I came to your work, are you?”
“No. I’ll probably have to play twenty questions with Tony, but he won’t tell anyone else anything. If they ask who you are, he’ll play it off. He’s always been the master of deflection in our family.”
“Okay.” Calvin tightened his hold on me, pulling me close enough to rest my head against his chest. I closed my eyes and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart. He kissed the top of my head again. It was such a simple gesture, but from him, it meant everything. “I’ll head out so you can get back to work. Max is going to stop by mid-afternoon so he can find out what he needs to do.”
That was both a blessing and a curse. Max was the closest thing I had to a friend, which was pretty sad since we never did anything outside the bar and I hadn’t talked to him since the night Calvin caught me in the storage room. He was a good guy, but he’d no doubt wonder what the connection was between Eli and me. I wasn’t sure how much I was ready to tell him, but a niggling voice at the back of my head reminded me this was supposed to be time to take my life back. I could start that by making more of an effort to find friends I could trust. Obviously, I already trusted him, so maybe he was someone I could open up to.
I walked Calvin out to his car, carefully avoiding the kitchen so we wouldn’t run into Mama or Matteo. They were the busybodies of the family and the most likely to ask questions I wasn’t ready to answer yet. Lucky for me, Calvin had parked around the corner in one of three alley spots, so I was able to steal one last kiss from him. God, the man had an addictive mouth.
