“Hey, Drew,” Sam greeted me, offering a smile as I nodded my head and walked on by.
“Usual?” Janette asked as I approached her, standing next to my usual booth in the corner.
“Always the same, please, darlin’.”
“Coming right up.”
I slid into place, pressing my shoulder against the window, slouching down and looking around to see where Ayda was. No doubt she would be in the back, cursing under her breath as Rusty grumbled and complained about everything everyone did wrong in this place. It was only when Janette arrived with my coffee ten minutes later that that whole theory went to shit.
“Ayda getting the workload doubled in the kitchen with Rusty today?” I asked, dragging my cup closer.
Janette frowned, but her smile never slipped. “Ayda isn’t in until two-thirty, Drew. Did she give you the wrong time?”
My scowl was immediate. “I must have heard her wrong. I thought she was in all morning.”
“No,” she said through a laugh, pulling her cloth from her shoulder and wiping the edge of the table where a drop of coffee had splashed over. “I know Rusty can be a dragon,Drew, but he isn’t a total slave driver. He wouldn’t expect her to work a double shift today.”
“My mistake,” I answered, my smile pressing flat as I gritted my teeth together and worked my jaw again.
“We all make ‘em, sugar,” she said without a care in the world before she turned on her heels and sashayed away.
The grip I had on the mug was dangerous, turning my knuckles white as I leaned forward over the table, pressed my free hand against my mouth and tried not to curse out loud.
I was just about to get up and leave when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sutton’s car driving into his usual parking space outside the diner.
With Ayda…
My Ayda…
Right. Fucking. Next to him.
Chapter Four
AYDA
Ifelt good. Really good. I couldn’t stop smiling as Sutton pulled up outside the diner. I pushed my things into the duffle I kept in my locker and smiled up at him broadly.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t. If Drew finds out about this, we’re both dead.”
I pulled the tie out of my hair and rearranged my ponytail before retying it. I chanced a glance at the man next to me and made a face, scrunching up my nose. “I know. It’s not a conversation I’m looking forward to having.”
“Well, when you have it, make sure he knows you’re the one that instigated it, and that I only agreed under duress. After weeks of nagging. And blackmail.”
“You are a drama queen. Just because you get along better with Drew now, it doesn’t mean you have to back down from confrontation. I actually think he enjoys your combative conversations.”
Sutton scowled at me and shook his head. “With anything else, I’d agree, but with you... the man is very black and white where you’re concerned. You need to tell him soon, Ayda. It’s only a matter of time before he figures it out.”
“I know.” I pulled on my work shoes and reached for thedoor. “Same time tomorrow?”
Sutton hesitated for a moment, rolled his eyes, which made him look too much like Sloane, and finally nodded in agreement before demanding I get out of his car. I did as he asked, pushing the door closed behind me before straightening my nametag on my uniform with a sigh. I hated lying to Drew about anything. Most days it would have been preferable to cut my own hand off than even utter a little white lie in his direction, but I knew if I told him what I was doing, he would stop me, and I didn’t want to be stopped.
I pushed into the bustle of the diner with a smile. The acrid smell of grease and burned coffee permeated the air in the building, but the smell was still one of those things that made memories rush into my brain and flash behind my eyelids. There was a time that the smell would have filled me with despair because arriving here meant it was the first of my three jobs for the day. Now… now I saw memories of Deeks in the booth teasing me mercilessly. I saw Tate and Kenny in the corner coming up with the evening’s festivities. Tate and Libby making out when they thought I wasn’t looking. Then there were those very new and treasured memories of Drew in his booth, legs stretched out, his long fingers wrapped around the coffee mug as he watched me.
Glancing over at the booth, I froze and blinked twice, unsure whether my memory was conjuring up an image that strong or if he was really there. Two more blinks and I realized that he was actually there and let my smile burst free. I practically skipped to his booth and kneeled on the bench next to him, only sampling the waves of something being off when I leaned in for a kiss.
I was so busted.
