She turned on some music and danced through her morning, then headed to work for the longest day ever. James had been right. No one showed. A few people trickled in for their morning coffees, but after that? Nada.
She cleaned the tables.
She stocked the counters.
She did her best to avoid Ben, but he was at least as bored as she was, so it was no easy feat. Finally, she gave in and let him yammer away while she watched the hour hand drag its lazy ass around the clock.
At half past one, she’d had all she could take. “Hey, Ben?” she asked, interrupting whatever he had been droning on about for the last twenty minutes. “I need to get ready for a date. Would you man the counter for me?”
Ben clamped down on the first bit of personal information Ellie had given him in days. The look on his face said he didn’t like the taste of it. “A date, huh?” He sniffed and narrowed his eyes. “Where you going?”
He looked like he’d just caught her cheating and it would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so annoying. “Shrimp Fest,” she said, heading back to the office to grab her bag. “With James Moore.”
Ben whistled. “No wonder I never had a chance with you. You like ‘em tall, dark, and rich as hell.”
The disdain in his voice was almost more than Ellie could bear. If he wasn’t an employee, she would have stepped him through all the other reasons he didn’t have a chance—and the list was significant.
But he was an employee, so she disappeared into the restroom before her mouth had any say in the matter. Twenty minutes later, she emerged to find that Ben had left early. The place was devoid of customers, so at least he didn’t leave her in a lurch, but damn. There she was worrying about treating an employee with proper respect only for that employee to turn around and walk out on the job.
What if a customer had come in? Oh hell! Just because no one was there now, didn't mean they hadn’t been there earlier and who knew when Ben actually left. Ellie checked the cash in the register and sighed in relief when it looked untouched, then scurried back to the office to make sure everything was okay in there, too. Which it was.
The kitchen though? That was another story. Ben had left a mess of epic proportions. Stacks of dishes tilted perilously near the sinks and food needed put away and she was going to need another weekend cook because Ben’s ass was fired.
Creepy bastard.
Ellie went to work, doing her best not to spill anything on her shirt, and was just coming out of the walk-in when she heard the front door open. “I’ll be right there,” she called out.
If she could get the perishable items into the walk-in, the rest of the mess could wait until later. She gathered several bins of condiments in her arms, each one stacked precariously on the next. Treading as carefully as any tightrope walker out there, Ellie turned just as James came around the corner.
“Shit!” she yelped, then stumbled, doing her best to keep a pan of mayo from spilling down her chest. For two wonderful seconds, it looked like she would make it, but then the pans clattered to the floor and Ellie lost all control of her body, lurching backwards to avoid stepping in the mess. There was a moment of oh shit I’m gonna fall followed by strong arms wrapped tightly around her and a powerful set of chest muscles squeezing against her shoulders.
“Whoa,” James said as he helped her to her feet. “I didn’t see that coming. Are you okay?” He released her but kept his hands on her shoulders, laughter crinkling the corners of his eyes.
Ellie looked down at her shirt and didn’t see so much as a drop of anything. Anywhere. She beamed, ignoring the fact that she wished he hadn’t let her go so fast. “I’m fine. Double fine since I didn’t spill anything on myself.”
James shifted his weight and gave her a serious once over, a smile playing on his lips as his eyes left simmering trails of hotness in their wake. How did he do that? How, with one lingering glance, did he reduce her to an erratic heartbeat, quivering breath, and a chemical response so intense she couldn’t function?
His gaze wandered back to her face. “It would have been a shame to ruin that shirt,” he said with a gleam of approval in his eyes. “You look amazing.”
Something akin to joy rushed through Ellie’s heart and rustled up a bunch of butterflies in her stomach. James liked the shirt. “Take that, Parasite Steve,” she muttered.
“What?” James crinkled his nose.
Embarrassment diffused the butterflies and pinked her cheeks. “There I go again,” she said, barely able to see through the flames of humiliation. “Saying dumb shit out loud that nobody needs to hear.” She shrugged and hoped he’d move on.
He didn’t. “Did you call me a parasite?”
“I wasn’t talking about you.” Ellie flexed her hands and rubbed them together. “My ex. Steve. He said I looked like a hooker in this shirt.”
“Parasite Steve.” Humor lit James’ eyes and he chuckled. “I take it he didn’t rate much on the provider scale?”
“Not unless that scale had negative numbers.”
James paused and looked thoughtful before his eyes
