“I’m ready for this week to be over,” I complained.
The guys and I had been putting in extra hours to keep orders, inventory, and my books straight since I’d fired Janice. If the ad in the local paper didn’t bring me a replacement soon, I was going to end up offering anyone off the street the position.
“I know.” Simon cracked his neck. “Between the tatts and extra work, I’m beat.”
“Here, here.” Lance raised his bottle. Simon and I followed suit, then downed the remnants of the cold liquid in one long pull.
“Has anyone come in looking for work?” Simon asked and I shook my head.
“What about Maya?” Lance added.
“What about her?”
“Maybe she would be willing to work a few hours here and there . . . part time?”
“I don’t know, she’s busy as it is. I’ve barely seen her since the Janice fiasco last week.”
“Ask her,” Simon pushed while the shop doors opened to reveal my torture, and his.
“Ask who what?” Esther quipped. The girls walked in carrying bags from a hole in the wall Mexican joint downtown. I swear they were perfect. A woman that feeds you was worth her weight in gold.
“Thank you, Bitty.” I puckered my lips and she bent down laughing. She laid a tiny kiss on my cheek and whispered “Slow” when I growled low in disapproval.
“We haven’t even gone on a single date yet. Don’t complain, especially since I’m feeding your pretty ass—again.”
I laughed, loud.
“Secrets don’t make friends,” Lance pointed out, but forgot all about his point when Esther shoved a container of food in his face. It went to show how easily the male mind could be distracted.
“Did I get it right?” she asked, sitting down next to me with a carnitas torta in her hands. Maya really was a sweet girl; she was always worried about my eating habits and how much rest I was getting.
I smiled. “Yeah, you did. Thanks, sweets.”
We all dug into our meals with gusto and I forgot what we were talking about before they arrived, until Esther brought it up again.
“What were you guys talking about? Ask who what?”
“That we need to hire someone soon.” Simon sighed. “We’re getting backed up. There is just no other way to explain except that we are swamp-fucked.”
“That’s a new one.” Bitty giggled. “I’ll have to use that one some time.”
“I wouldn’t laugh too hard if you ever want to go on that date you were complaining about a minute ago,” Lance said and she blushed.
“But…”
“You two aren’t as quiet as you think,” he added.
“Fuck,” Bitty whispered.
“Any time,” I answered, and the others groaned.
“Let’s get back on track,” Esther reiterated. “Have you put ads up in the paper, online jobsites . . . asked other parlors?”
“Yup,” I grumbled. “Nothing.”
“That just won’t do,” Esther mumbled and looked toward a pensive Bitty. The two stared each other down, nodded their heads, and then kept on eating as if nothing had happened.
One word: weird.
Two days later I was behind the counter when Maya walked in. My Bitty looked sweet as pie in her short, skirted denim overalls with a black tank underneath and her hair in pigtails. On her feet, she wore a pair of worn out, beat up black Chucks. A messenger bag that looked like it weighed more than her was hanging off her shoulder.
I wanted to bite her. Or fuck her.
Whichever she allowed would be fine with me. “What are you doing here, Bitty? I thought you were supposed to be cleaning and collecting samples down by the beach today.”
“I was, but—”
“Get out of my way, girly,” Esther bellowed, making a bee-line toward the back of my shop where her destination, Simon, was busy putting up and cataloging yesterday’s delivery.
“Hi,” Maya said while rolling her eyes at her friend.
“Bitty, not that I’m not happy to see you, but again, what are you doing here, sweets?
“I’m stealing Simon for lunch,” a happy Esther yelled while dragging my amused employee behind her and out the door.
I turned back to the sweet little number before me and raised an eyebrow.
“I’m here to work.” She grinned.
“No.”
“Why the hell not?” Bitty huffed indignantly.
“Babe, you have a full schedule as is, and I will not be the reason you fall behind.”
“First off . . .” She came around the counter and gave me a small peck on the lips. I dove in for more, but she shook her head and said, “Date first.”
“Just one,” I begged. Her lips felt so soft against my own, I needed another taste.
“No.” She smirked before giving me one more, tiny peck. “Now, like I was saying. My schedule is busy, but,” she held her hand up when I went to interrupt, “I have three days a week this could work into. Like today—”
“You are ditching today to help me. That, I can’t accept.”
“Will you hush and let me explain?” I nodded. “Our outings to the shores by the school were canceled. I’m free of all commitments this afternoon and tomorrow.”
“So go enjoy some downtime.”
She ignored me and kept going with her proposal. “I’ve looked over my class and lecture schedules and have the following available to work: Mondays and Tuesdays I can do three to eight in the evening, and on Thursdays I can do one to eight.”
“So you want me to be your boss?” I mused. This could definitely be fun.
“I expect to get paid on Fridays.” Maya ignored my dirty man leer and extended her right hand out to me. “Deal?” she hedged.
“Deal, now let’s celebrate.” She squealed when I pulled her to me by the hand, her tiny body coming to a stop between my parted thighs. One of my hands encircled her waist while the other pulled her face closer to mine.
“Welcome to Cox Tatts,” I whispered against her supple lips and then attacked them with my own. Her lips gave into my own with a sweet moan that made my cock stir, and my chest tightened. Maya felt way too fucking good in my arms.
“You taste of peaches,” I groaned into her mouth while her teeth nibbled on my bottom lip. “Addictive.”
“Lip-gloss . . . just bought today,” she mumbled in between sucking and biting.
“Buy more.”
“Yes, boss.” She moaned, and if it weren’t for the throat clearing to my right, I would’ve humped her then and there.
“I guess he agreed?” Simon grinned while his counterpart giggled into his shirt.
“He did,” Maya stated, all serious. “I start now.” She looked over my shoulder at the computer screen which held our appointments and smirked. “From what I can see on the monitor, you have a client in fifteen.” Simon nodded. “Say goodbye to Esther and go prep.” Maya ordered, all playfulness leaving her.
“But—”
“No ‘buts.’ Go.”
“I think this is the best decision I’ve made to date.” I laughed while the two annoyances before me scowled and pouted; Simon being the pouter.
“Is she always this demanding and bossy?” he asked Esther who was having a hard time controlling her own amusement at the look on his face.
“Yes, and it will only get worse if you don’t go and prep. I’ll catch you after work?”
“Yeah, after work . . . where the drill sergeant can’t block me from doing this.” Simon pulled Esther around the waist, dipped her back, and planted a kiss on her that made my Bitty blush and sigh.
“You okay there?” I jested.
“I’m fine, just enjoying the view of what young love looks like.”
Her response caught me off guard. Was she jealous of them? Maya didn’t give me a chance to ask any more questions because she put in her headphones, checked my computer screen once more, and then turned to head toward the back.
“I’m going to go ahead and begin organizing the back. I know you have a system, but it’s all fucked. I’ve seen it. By the time I leave tonight both the ordering and cataloging will be set up to automatically log in and deduct when someone takes a product.”
“How will you manage that?”
“Easy. Everyone will have access to a spreadsheet and the scanner I ordered for the shop last night. You take one, you minus it out of the counts before leaving the back room. We receive a shipment; we add what came in to the count in the back. Everything within the storage/supply room should be accounted for at all times.”
“So when I, or if you’re here, you, place an order, then it’s all there.”
“Exactly.”
“Impressive. What else you got cooking up in that head of yours?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” Maya smirked and sashayed her tight ass toward my stock room.
“You are so fucked, my friend.” Simon punched my shoulder. “That little firecracker has you by the balls.”
“Like Esther has you?”
He nodded and laughed before going to prep his station.
“Hey, Talan, what is Bitts doing in the backroom?” Lance questioned while coming toward me. “She’s back there yelling, cursing, and demanding we pay for the manicure she just ruined.”
“Bitts?” I raised my brow at him.
“You call her Bitty, Simon calls her Maya, so I wanted to throw out something different . . . my own name for the sprite.”
“No.” I laughed and shook my head at his logic.
“But—”
“No.”
“Fine,” he grumbled and flipped me the bird. Only I could call her something special outside of her name.
My curiosity got the best of me about an hour later. Maya hadn’t come out and I needed to see just what she was doing. Or maybe I was hoping I’d catch her bent over some of my supplies, giving me a good view of that ass I’d dreamt about marking lately.
“What the fuck?” I yelled into the organized, and now color coded, room. How the fuck had she managed to make sense of the mess the boys and I had created over the last week?
“You like?” Bitty looked at me with hopeful eyes.
“How?”
“Easy. I cleaned and organized.” She shrugged. Her brow was sweaty, her tank tighter, and her overalls rode up just a bit more on her thighs. There was smudge of dirt on her thigh where she’d wiped her hand.
I wanted to lick the dust off her body.
“You really outdid yourself, Maya. This is better than anything we had in place.”
“Good. I just wanted to help you clean up, and organize, your pride and joy.”
Bitty had no idea what those words meant to me. What her coming in to help meant.
The words left my lips before I could stop them, but she did that to me. Made me want and desire things I’d never thought of before. “I’m starting to think there’s room in my life for more than one prized possession.”