Chapter Thirty
Paige
Despite Michael picking up food for us and driving me to work, I was still about ten minutes late when I walked into The Shift. I grimaced, feeling guilty about it. Erica had already been so good to me that week, giving me a couple extra tasks to make up for the time I'd missed going off with Michael. Even though I didn't need the money anymore to make rent, she was helping me out and helping my life feel a little more normal. I appreciated that, and this was no way to show it.
“Hey Erica, sorry I'm a little late,” I told her as soon as I saw her, right after clocking in for the evening. “I just woke up about an hour ago.”
Erica frowned at me. “Really?” she asked. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” I said. “I just haven't been sleeping well lately, I guess.”
“Because of the pregnancy?” she asked sympathetically, keeping her voice low so that no one would overhear her.
“Probably,” I admitted. “I'm still not sure how I feel about all of this.”
Erica's eyes flicked over towards Michael, who had seated himself at the far end of the bar and was currently being served by one of our coworkers, Jessica. “You guys had a good talk about it last night, though?” Erica asked.
I blushed and ducked my head. “We didn't do much in the way of talking,” I admitted. “At least we agreed that we're both cool with continuing to hook up, though. I'm not sure how much longer that will last, because I know he sleeps with the hottest chicks and I'm sure my pregnant body is not going to be interesting to him, but we'll see.”
Erica looked unimpressed. “If the two of you don't sit down and have a long talk soon, I swear I'm going to have to beat some sense into both of you,” she said.
I laughed, even though I knew she wasn't joking. “I know,” I told her. “We need to talk. But I'm just not sure what I want to say. I don't think he is, either.”
“Well, you'd better figure it out soon, because now that you're pregnant, you're on a timer,” Erica reminded me.
I nodded at her, but before I could say anything else, someone behind me called my name.
I frowned, turning around, for some reason expecting it to be Michael behind me, even though it hadn't sounded like his voice, and even though I knew he was sitting at the far end of the bar. But instead of Michael, it was the creepy guy from the other night.
I didn't know what his problem was, and I didn't know why security kept letting him in. But as I looked toward security, I remembered we had different guys in there for the weekend shifts, when things were busier. Dan and Jimmy, the guys who had been in there on Wednesday night, were both broad-shouldered and competent, but the guys that we had in there on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, our busiest nights, were even more intimidating. Of course, they wouldn't recognize this guy, so he was still getting let in.
“I never got your number the other night,” the sleaze-bag said to me.
“Like I told you the other night, I have a fiancé,” I snapped, hands clenching into fists. Normally, this kind of attention didn't make me so angry, but I had had it up to here with this dude. I had enough on my plate without having to worry about asshole guys who thought they could get into my pants.
“Let me buy you a drink,” the guy suggested. “Like I told you the other night, I'm not opposed to having a threesome with you and your fiancé.”
“I'm not interested,” I gritted out.
“Is this guy bothering you?” Michael asked smoothly, coming up to the bar next to him. Without waiting for a response, he pushed the other guy. “Look, buddy, I don't know what your problem is, but I think it's pretty clear that she's not interested in you. So I suggest you find someone else.”
“Look, buddy, I don't see where any of this is any of your business,” the creep retorted, pushing Michael right back.
I gestured frantically for security, sensing where this was headed, but the guys at the door didn't see me in time.
Michael neatly decked the guy, who staggered back, grabbing his mouth. His hand came away with blood on it, and that only seemed to make him even more enraged. He lunged at Michael, throwing punches of his own. Michael managed to duck a couple of them, but it wasn't long before one caught him on the cheekbone.
He roared with animalistic fury and lunged at the other guy, toppling him to the floor. By this point, there was a crowd gathering around the two of them, some of them cheering and others just watching. Fights broke out at The Shift somewhat regularly, given the type of people we had in there, and the bouncers knew how to break them up quickly. But that didn't mean people didn't enjoy them while they lasted.
I didn't want to feel this sense of relief at the fact that Michael was brawling with this dude. I didn't want to feel proud of him for holding his own in the fight. I didn't want to feel turned on by the fact that Michael wanted to protect me. I was angry. But as with my feelings for Michael in general, and for the baby, that anger seemed to be tied up in a bunch of other feelings, some of which I couldn't even sort out.
A couple of the bouncers moved in, parting the crowd and grabbing the two combatants. I could see them talking sharply with the two men, but I couldn't hear what they were saying over the noise of the last cheers and jeers. Whatever was said, the two guys were escorted to the door, and I had a feeling they were being told they weren't allowed back inside.
I wasn't sure how to feel about that. I already missed Michael's presence there at the end of the bar. But I was also hopping mad at him for butting into my personal affairs like that.
I glanced back at Erica, who was looking on with tight-lipped fury. “Remember when I said that you being mopey around here was bad for business?” she said. “I think we've found something that's even worse.” I swallowed hard, wondering if she was going to fire me. But instead, she just pushed me toward the door. “Go on, go talk to him,” she urged.
I scowled. “I don't want to talk to him after that,” I told her. My anger towards Michael spiked as I realized that he could have just cost me my job. And put a strain on one of my best friendships. Not that Erica was the kind of person to hold a grudge, but still.
It was all so confusing.
“Well, then you'd better go tell him you don't want to talk to him after that because I don't want him coming around the bar and making a scene in another couple nights when he hasn't heard from you!” Erica snapped. It was the first time I'd ever seen her this angry, and that, in turn, made me even more angry with Michael for causing the scene.
I stalked out the front door of The Shift and found Michael and the creep still standing there, with one of the bouncers in between them. “What the hell was that?” I snarled, totally ignoring the other dude. “Michael, you can't just fight for my honor, or whatever it is you think you were doing in there!”
Michael stared incredulously at me, his eyebrows rising towards his hairline. “Excuse me?” he asked. “You're mad at me? I saw this fucker wouldn't leave you alone, and for whatever reason, you didn't want to call security. I just wanted to make sure you were safe. That both of you were safe.”
I could feel blood surge towards my skin, a combination of my anger and his public announcement that I was pregnant. It didn't really matter who knew, but at the same time, I wasn't ready to start telling people yet. “Get away from me,” I told him. “I don't want to see you around here anymore. This whole thing was a bad idea.”
Michael looked stricken, but when he reached for me, I took a step back, shaking my head. What, did he think that he could just pull me into his arms, sweep me off my feet, and suddenly everything was going to be okay?
“I work here,” I reminded him. “You can't start fights like that. It reflects badly on me, and that reflects poorly on The Shift.”
“People start fights in here all the time,” Michael protested, but when he realized that wasn't going to get him anywhere, he looked suddenly, miserably contrite. “I'm sorry,” he said.
“Whatever,” I snapped, done with the whole thing. I realized there were people still watching us out there, on the street. This wasn't fixing the situation. In fact, it might be making things worse. It would be better for me to just get myself back inside, get away from him. At least until we'd both cooled off. At least until we could talk about things someplace more private.
I turned on my heel and stalked back inside, missing Michael's helpless expression. I didn't know if he tried to follow me, but with the bouncer still out there watching him, he couldn't get back inside. I hated feeling triumphant about that, but I felt as though I had bought myself a little time to think.
Erica pulled me into the back room, looking concernedly at my face. She seemed sorry for her anger from before. “Are you all right?” she asked quietly, and I nodded, forcing a smile on my face.
“I'm really sorry about that,” I told her. “It won't happen again.”
“I know it won't,” Erica said. She continued to stare at me for a moment and then shook her head. “Well, we'd better get back out there before Jessica has a mental breakdown over the strain,” she said.
I nodded mutely and followed her back out. I spent the rest of the night pretending that everything was okay, even though honestly, I felt as though I was drowning beneath the force of my feelings.