He kissed me.
Not Mila from the Cockpit.
Not Mila in the wig.
MilaMila.
Plain, hired to be his maid and stay out of his way, Mila.
It was real. I’ve pinched myself multiple times and even bit my tongue accidentally while eating a sandwich on the way to the Cockpit just to be sure. It happened. I just can’t figure out why.
As far as I can tell, I’m nothing more than a pain in the butt to Dominic. His house has never been cleaner and his food has never been better, but I’m pretty sure my back-talk doesn’t help my cause. I’ve never been one to hold my tongue when I feel I’ve been treated unjustly. Besides, he’s the one who walks around acting like I’m not there unless his coffee isn’t ready or he wants the aftermath of one of his tantrums cleaned up. It makes all of this even more confusing.
After my makeup is done, and my hair is in place, I head behind the bar. I’m working second shift tonight, the closing shift, and we are slammed. It’s so busy that even Lainey is making drinks. Not that she can’t, but Lainey is usually only on the floor.
“Watch out for the guy at the end of the bar,” she says while loading a tray with domestic beer bottles. “He grabbed my ass the last two times I walked past him. I asked him what his problem was, and he said he’s just looking for a little sugar. I’d like to give him a little something else, but it ain’t gonna be sweet if you know what I’m saying,” she says with a small laugh as she pops off all the bottle caps.
“Right,” I say almost robotically as I grab the next drink ticket.
“Did you hear what I said?” she asks.
“He grabbed your ass,” I say. “Men are jerks.”
“What’s going on with you? You’ve been a thousand miles away since you got here,” she says.
“Hey sweetheart, the beer can’t drink itself!” a guy calls from one of the tables, and Lainey rolls her eyes.
“I’ll be back, and I expect answers,” she tells me before walking off. She turns to the guy at the end of the bar as she passes him. “Don’t even think about it, buddy,” she snaps.
It’s not that I don’t want to talk to Lainey about what happened. I just don’t know what to say. I don’t even know what to think. And knowing Lainey, she’s going to freak out.
After she delivers the drinks, she walks back behind the bar to make a bunch of mimosas for a bachelorette party. It looks like they’ve been barhopping. This must be a good four or five stops into their night because most of the time groups of girls don’tstop in here. At least different flavored mimosas will buy me more time.
“Alright, spill it,” she says as she lines the tray with glasses and reaches for a bottle of prosecco. “What’s got you so distracted today?”
“He kissed me,” I say as I pass off two whiskey sours to one of the waitresses.
“Who kissed you?” she asks.
I answer her by giving her a look, but Lainey isn’t following. She follows up by raising her eyebrows, and I mouth the word,Dominic.
“Who?”she mouths back.
“Dominic. Dom.”
“What?”
“My. Boss.”I enunciate the words, and finally it clicks.
“Oh!” she says loudly enough that the people sitting in front of her at the bar look up. “He kissed you?!”
No one seems to care what we are talking about, but I still don’t want it spread all over the bar just in case.
“Okay. Now you really do need to explain. When?” she asks.
“Today,” I answer, reaching for another ticket.
“Where?” she presses.
