I rubbed my hand on the back of my neck as I looked down at my phone. He couldn’t have done it to me. He may have wanted me back home, but he wouldn’t leave me out in the cold with nothing. I could outwait him. I wasn’t going to go back home, no matter what kind of tactics he tried to pull.

I’d been to the ATM so much that if I went any more, it would’ve taken my card from me. It was too late to call the bank to figure out what was going on. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know. Tim wanted me home. He’d asked every time I talked to him the past few days, so I stopped calling. He knew what he was asking was impossible, but still he asked. If he had a good enough reason. I shook my head. No reason was good enough unless he was dying. That might happen if he didn’t give back my money.

I couldn’t go back home. I had no home to go to. Tim said he understood. So much for being my brother. As far as I was concerned, he landed himself on the list of people who gave up on me. I didn’t need him anyway. What I needed was twenty bucks to pay for my meal. I’d figure out the rest on my own.

I’d never skipped out on anything before. The bar I trashed when I was wasted and high in my younger years was reimbursed for damages. I did the community service I was forced to do before I left from my latest run-in with the law. I paid my debts. I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for the one in front of me, though.

I thought back to what was in the truck that I could use to barter. The waitress who kept looking at me had no use for my dirty clothes or empty coffee cups. I was fucked.

“Can I get you something else?” The waitress knew I was struggling to come up with the money. She had to. She was old enough to have seen plenty of dine and dash customers before. She was right to watch me.

Her blonde hair was in a tight bun on top of her head, and there were two pencils sticking out of it. I’d watched her pull a pencil out at least a dozen times over the past hour, and that bun never budged. There wasn’t a hair out of place.

Her nametag was straight as ever and said her name was Beverly, but it should’ve said Take No Shit Beverly because it didn’t look as if she would. She looked tired, though. She’d take an extra breath or two before moving on when she thought people weren’t looking, but I was watching her. I needed to see if she had any weaknesses. I needed to find a way out of the mess my little brother put me in.

She got a little closer and placed her notepad on the counter. “Listen, you’re taking up space. If you want something else, I’d be glad to get it for you. If you don’t, I’m going to need you to pay up and move on, buddy. You don’t want trouble here.”

“I believe the term is we don’t want trouble here.”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, I meant you. I don’t care how big you are or how many times you flex those muscles as you sit there contemplating whatever it is you’re about to do. You need to be smart about this. Only you will suffer the consequences of your actions.”

I crossed my arms and leaned on the counter. “Is that so?”

“I’m sure you’re a good kid. Hell, if you weren’t, you would’ve already done whatever it is you got going through that mind of yours, but it won’t help you. What will help you is to pay up and take your six-foot plus ass out of here, or we can take it out for you. The choice is yours, but you’ve got business first.” She slid the bill closer to me.

The door behind me opened with a force and startled Beverly. Maybe she wasn’t as tough as she let on. I wasn’t going to hurt her or anyone else in there. I was trying to figure out how to pay. She didn’t know that. To her, I was a possible threat. I started to confess my situation when the powerhouse that burst through the door sat two stools away from me in a huff.

“Bev, I need a big coffee to go. Make it a coffeepot. I need a full coffeepot to go.”

Beverly slid the bill closer to me as she walked by to attend to her other customer. I looked to my right as the woman who ordered a pot of coffee to go took her hoodie off. Her ripped and toned arms flexed as she worked her head out of the opening. All I could see was her blonde hair sticking out of the top and her tits sticking out from the front. Women who were usually that toned didn’t have huge racks. Not the ones at my old gym. This lady had a great set.

She lowered her chest quickly and put her face in my line of view. “Eyes are up here, asshole.”

“I’m aware of the human anatomy. I know exactly where all the important body parts are.” I looked lower than her chest and back to her eyes while she scoffed and turned back to Beverly.

“You’ve got a weird one here tonight, huh.”

“Maggie, what are you going to do with a pot of coffee?”

I took the time to look Maggie over and didn’t make any effort to hide my doing so. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail and went down past her shoulders. What I wouldn’t give to fuck her from behind and hold on to that ponytail. I cocked my head to the side as I looked behind her. Her ass was sitting on the stool, so I couldn’t see much, but it did have a nice shape to it.

I coughed and sat up straight as I reached for my throat. The bitch punched me. I bent over and tried to pull air into my lungs. I’d never been hit that hard in the throat before. It was almost as if it closed up on me.

Beverly came around the counter and rubbed my back in an effort to calm me down. It was going to take more than that to calm me down. I’d choke the bitch for choking me, but I’d do it with my dick crammed down her throat.

“Maggie, I think you need to go before he catches his breath.”

“No.” She sat back down at the counter and waited for her order. “Look, I didn’t mean to hit you that hard, but you’re an asshole for looking at me like that.”

I coughed a few more times and turned toward the counter to lean on it. When Beverly was confident I could breathe again, she tended to a few customers but kept her eye on us.

I cleared my throat a few times before I tried to speak. I didn’t want it to come out weaker than I already looked. “You call that an apology?” I picked up the bill and put it in front of her. “That’s an apology.”

She puckered her lips and cocked them to the side as she nodded her head. She stood on the footrest on the stool and bent over the counter, looking for something. It was all I could do to not look at her ass as it was sticking up in the air.

She grabbed a pen, sat back down, and wrote on the bill before sliding it over in front of me. It said plus one pot of coffee. “There.” She moved back to her stool. “You can pick up my coffee as an apology to me. It’s really a great idea. Thanks.”

I looked at her and wondered who the hell she thought she was. No one had a body like she had and didn’t get used to men eyeing her. Any man would wish to wrap that ponytail around his hand as he fucked her from behind or controlled her head while she had those red lips wrapped around his cock.

I looked down to her tits again and shook my head. Such a waste of a great body. I picked up the bill and crumpled it up before throwing it in her face. “You do realize I could gut you and use your body as a backpack. You may have muscles and a nice rack—”

“Don’t forget my ass. I worked hard on those squats.”

I smirked. “I’m sure you’ve squatted over a few dicks in your time and you could’ve had the greatest fuck you’ve ever had in your life tonight, but you’re going to have to settle for mediocre masturbation while you think of me.”

“Mediocre?” She laughed. “How do you think I keep my arms toned? I can go all night, stud.”

“Maggie, go home.” Beverly looked around for the bill and looked back at me. “And you, just get out. I don’t care anymore. I can’t babysit you and miss out on real money from tips with other customers who can actually pay.”

I turned back to the counter, crossed my arms, and leaned forward as I looked at the empty plate. Nothing had changed. I still didn’t have the money to pay for my meal. I may have been six-foot-five and two hundred forty pounds, but I’d never felt as small as I had in that moment. I would kill my brother for making me feel that way.

Maggie bent down and picked up the wad of paper that made up my bill. She straightened it out and placed it back on the counter. At least she had the decency to keep her voice down. “You really can’t pay for this? Why come in here and take food from people if you know you can’t pay for it? There’s a shelter on the other side of town that will give you a meal and a bed if you need it. You don’t need to take it from Bev.”

“It isn’t any of your business, but I thought I had money when I came in here.”

“Well, I’m sure there’s a story there, but I don’t have the patience to listen to it tonight.” She put a twenty on the counter and turned to walk away, but I stopped her.

I squeezed her arm when I pulled her back. “I don’t want your money.”

“I’m not giving it to you. I’m giving it to Bev.” She wrenched her arm free from my grasp. “Don’t make me lay you out again.”

I stood and let her look at the entire picture. I towered over her by a foot, and my thigh was as big as her waist. She wasn’t going to get the best of me again. She didn’t back down as I thought she would. She had no reaction. If she was afraid, she did a good job of hiding it.

She placed one fist on her hip and looked up at me. “You can intimidate other women, but you won’t intimidate me. I’m with your kind every day, and you all have the same weak spots. Shall I demonstrate another?” She looked to my crotch.

Beverly stood between us and handed Maggie two large Styrofoam cups before turning her around and pushing her for the door. She turned back to me and pointed to the stool. “Sit.”

“You just told me to get out.”

“That was before she walked out. You’re going to sit here until I know she’s far enough away from you, and then you’ll get out.”

Beverly was probably old enough to be my mother, but I’d never had a mother I listened to before. My mom tried, but I was too messed up in my addiction to allow her to be my mom. It was another thing I’d fucked up in my life.

I had no intention of harming Maggie. I didn’t even know who she was, but to make Beverly feel more at ease, I sat and waited until she told me to go.