Page 60 of Bad Boy Crush
“Water, please.” She smiled prettily up at him.
“What about you, bartender? Are you self-taught?” William asked.
“MBA in computer science.”
William laughed, but no one joined him. “You’re not kidding? You have an MBA? What the hell are you doing behind a bar?”
“Oh, you know, serving beautiful women, friends of mine, and the random dickhead who tries to demean them.” Xavier’s face was stone. William’s smile faded fast.
“Look—” William didn’t get further than that before a waitress knocked over a glass of beer. A rush of amber-colored liquid spilled off the edge of the bar and onto May’s lap.
“Goddammit! This is a new shirt.” William held the sodden material away from his chest as he leaped out of his chair. He snapped his fingers at Xavier. “Give me a towel, will you?”
“Fuck off.” Xavier handed a stack of clean white bar towels to May. “You all right?”
“Y-yes. Just…wet.” May patted at her beer-doused arms while the waitress apologized. She touched the other woman’s arm. “Don’t worry about it, hon. I am not made of sugar. I will not dissolve.”
After another apology, the waitress bustled off with a fresh beer for her table. William became even less gracious.
“Towel,” he said to Xavier again.
“Bathroom.” Xavier gestured toward the men’s room with his bearded chin.
“You’re not the priority here.” Ant stood to his full height and addressed a grousing William. He’d had enough of this guy’s shit.
Lou dropped a towel on the floor to catch the beer that had dripped off the bar as William shouldered past him and stormed off toward the bathroom.
“Get me out of here.” May tossed a wet towel on the bar.
Xavier looked truly pained when he told her, “If I could leave Dana alone behind the bar, I would drive you home myself.”
“I don’t expect you to leave work.” May patted his arm. “But thank you.”
“I’ve got her.” Ant tossed a credit card on the bar. “Put all of it on me.”
“Ant—” Lou tried to protest.
“Lou.” The important thing was to get May the hell out of here, not squabble over a couple of bucks.
May gathered her purse. “I am so sorry.”
“You are not allowed to apologize for that asshole.” Ant palmed her shoulder.
“You’re right. I’ll let Lisa do that.” Her mouth quirked. “What was she thinking?”
“Not sure.” Ant scribbled in the tip, signed the receipt, and handed it to Xavier.
Before they left the bar, Xavier clasped May’s hand and gave it a light squeeze. “You can do a hell of a lot better.”
She seemed more inconvenienced than traumatized when she replied, “Well, I sure as hell can’t do worse.”
On the way home, Ant listened with half an ear as the women in his truck’s backseat chatted about May’s disastrous date. May had called Lisa on speakerphone. He hadn’t missed the shock in Lisa’s voice when she said, “I don’t understand. He’s always been so polite to me.”
May had followed up with, “Then you can go out with him.”
He would have chuckled if he wasn’t still on edge. William was a piece of work, but it was the conversation about education that had left him feeling…something. Prickly. Pained?
The tight feeling in his chest should have been long gone by the time he exited the bar. He was far past the age of harboring lingering feelings of existential dread. But even after dropping off May at home and Lou inviting him in, that coiled knot was still there.