Chapter Six

Blake

It had been five days since I’d sat at the table with Hadley. Five days since I’d looked her in the eyes and lied straight to her gorgeous face. I didn’t plan on being a dick to her, but when I saw her sitting there looking so damn beautiful, all rationality flew straight out the window and my ego stepped in. Why did she have to come back? Out of spite, I told her that night meant nothing to me, and now I was paying for it. Boy, was I paying for it.

It took me a few days to realize the damage I’d done. Partially because I was busy, but mostly because I kept my distance. This didn’t mean I wasn’t watching. I was definitely watching, and what I saw, I didn’t much like. Hadley was quiet—as in kept her head down and didn’t speak unless spoken to—quiet. She talked to Cat and Zane, but that was about it. She was shy by nature; something I found extremely alluring, but this wasn’t Hadley being shy. This was different. The sparkle in her eyes was gone and her sweet smile nonexistent. I told myself it was just nerves and that she’d settle after a few days. She didn’t settle, though. It was almost as if she didn’t want to, which bothered me more than I was willing to admit.

This wasn’t the only thing that bothered me. Wayne and his stupid antics bothered me. So what if he wanted someone else to get the job? They didn’t. Instead of acting like an adult and moving on, he was acting like a petulant child. He reminded me of a shark slowly circling its food before devouring it. The fact that Hadley didn’t react, only made him worse. Each time I heard him call her “mouse” or taunt her, which was way more than I was comfortable with, I would grit my teeth to keep from stepping in. When I mentioned it to Cat, she told me to let it play out. She had faith that Hadley would eventually get sick of Wayne’s bullshit and would put him in his place. This needed to happen sooner rather than later because I was seconds away from rearranging Wayne’s face.

If the shit with Wayne wasn’t bad enough, there was Belinda. Not only had she not shown up for staff meetings, but she was refusing to answer my calls. Hunter said she was trying to teach me a lesson. Well, lesson learned. I wanted nothing to do with the bitch. Avoiding me was one thing, but not showing up for work was something else. I didn’t want to get Zane involved, but if she didn’t get with the program, she was leaving me with no other choice.

On day six of ‘Blake no longer exists in Hadley’s world,’ I was beyond fed up. I woke in a foul mood, only to discover I was out of toothpaste and coffee. On the drive to work, after stopping by the grocery store and coffee shop, Hunter called. The moment I said, “Hello,” he started bitching about Lena not doing what he wanted. Lena wouldn’t listen to him. Blah...Blah...Blah. I knew all too well what the real issue was. Hunter wanted Lena but refused to admit it. They slept together and she’d moved on. Instead of moving on, he’d chosen to dwell on it and now it was like a festering sore. The fact that he had to work with her only made it worse.

“I’ve been thinking about it and I think we should switch places,” Hunter suggested. “I’ll work with Hadley and keep Belinda in line and you can work with Lena. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this earlier.” He acted as if this made all the sense in the world. Regardless of how much sense it made, it wasn’t going to happen.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” I sharply responded.

“Why the hell not?” he snapped. Because I don’t want you anywhere near Hadley, I thought.

“Zane wants me here and I’m already invested in the project. To pull me from it now makes no sense. Plus, it’s only for another month or so,” I pointed out. After a few curses and grumbles, he finally relented.

I’d barely hung up with Hunter, when my mother called.

Pressing the hands-free button on my steering wheel, I answered, “Hello, Mother.”

“You’ll never guess who I ran into?” Her overenthusiastic tone made me cringe.

“This should be interesting,” I muttered under my breath, before asking, “Who?” loud enough for her to hear.

“Lois Dinbat,” she announced.

Lois Dinbat was a girl I’d gone to high school with. She was also known as Dingbat, Dingleberry, or Dimwit. In other words, Lois was missing a few brain cells. She was also a massive slut. There were too many rumors about her to count, but the one that stuck was that Jerry Peterson did her in the ass and she crapped all over his sofa. His mom showed up right after it happened and he didn’t have time to clean it up, so he flipped the cushions. Benny Andrews said the room stunk so bad that Jerry was forced to tell her he had a stomach bug and couldn’t hold it. After that, she was known as Lois Dickshit. Of course, I didn’t tell my mother this.

“She’s gorgeous! Aaaaaand, she’s single,” Mom said in one long, very dramatic exhale.

“Not to point out the obvious, Mom, but I live in North Carolina.”

“I know that, silly, but it’s not like you can’t come home for a visit. I could invite Lois over for tea and the two of you could reconnect.” I considered telling her about Lois and Jerry, but wasn’t sure that would deter her, so decided to hit her with straight up honesty.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m a little old for tea, Mom. Even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be having it with Lois Dinbat.” In truth, I wouldn’t touch Lois Dinbat with Hunter’s dick, which was saying something.

“Don’t be rude,” she chided. “I’m very aware of how old you are. I’m also aware that the clock is ticking. By the time you get around to getting married and having children, I might not be here.”

“Shouldn’t you be discussing your health with your doctor?” I teased.

“I’m serious!” she wailed.

“I’m sorry, Mom. Where will you be?” I asked, knowing full well what she was referring to.

“Six feet under,” she tearfully replied.

“Mom, you’re not going to die.”

“You don’t know that. I could go at any moment and we wouldn’t be the wiser. I want grandbabies, Blakey.”

“And I’m sure that Cat and Zane are working daily to grant you your wish. I, however, am not,” I said, as I pulled into the parking garage.

“But I really feel that Lois could be the one.” Even if Lois was the most beautiful woman in the world, I wasn’t sure I could get past the fact that she’d crapped on Jerry’s sofa.

“Mom, I’m in the garage and about to lose you!” I called out. Before she got wound up about Lois again, I said, “I’ll call you later this week.” When her response came back garbled, I used that as an excuse to disconnect the call. I loved my mother, but the woman was a giant pain in my ass.

By the time I hit the bar, I was looking forward to some quiet time in my office. Hunter and Mom had me wound up and I needed to decompress. I also needed to figure out what to do about Belinda.

Right as I stepped through the door, I heard Hadley exclaim, “I love gay men! I just don’t like chicken liver pâté, that’s all I was saying.”

Wayne’s snide retort of, “It sounds to me like you have a problem with gay men,” was equivalent to pulling the pin on a grenade and pegging me in the face with it.

“What?” Hadley gasped.

“Wayne!” I snapped. At the sound of my voice, the little shit’s head jerked up. His eyes swept to me and widened in surprise...followed by guilt. Hadley, who had her back to me, stiffened her spine and slowly turned to face me. When I had both of their attention, I quietly said, “That’s enough.”

Neither of them said a word until I reached where they were standing. Then Hadley calmly stated, “Wayne and I were just having a friendly disagreement.” I couldn’t believe she was defending him.

“Really?” I asked, “Because it sounds to me like he was harassing you,” I turned my focus on Wayne, and continued, “as well as trying to tell you how to do your job.” Before either of them could reply, I continued to address Wayne. “I get it. You’ve been here a long time. You wanted your friend to get the chef position. It pisses you off that she didn’t and now you’re taking your anger out on Hadley. I’m going to have to ask you to stop.”

“Blake, I have this,” Hadley cut in.

“Clearly you don’t,” I stated, my eyes still focused on Wayne, whose face was now the color of a ripe plum.

“I don’t give two shits how long you’ve worked here. If I hear you insult Hadley or any other employee of mine ever again, I will fire your ass so fast, it will make your head swim. Do I make myself clear?”

“I wasn’t really insulting her,” he argued. “I was just telling her that chicken liver pâté would be a nice addition to the menu.”

“Do I make myself clear?” I slowly repeated.

After an eye roll and a few huffs, he finally managed to say, “Fine.” Zane would kick my ass if I actually fired Wayne, so his less than respectful reply would have to suffice.

“Good.” I turned to Hadley, and added, “And if you ever serve chicken liver pâté in this establishment, you’ll answer to me.” Her eyes bugged, before narrowing in anger. Anger looked good on her. It was a hell of a lot better than fear.

“Can we...uh...talk?” she asked.

Fighting back a smile, I said, “Sure,” and waited for her to lay into me.

“In private?” she clarified. Even better, I thought.

“How about I meet you in the office in five?” I suggested. I still wasn’t done with Wayne, but what I had to say needed to be said in private. As if sensing my intentions, her spine went ramrod straight and her nose flared.

“How about now?” she quickly countered. I thought about ordering her to the office but changed my mind. I could finish my business with Wayne later.

“Please, lead the way,” I responded. The moment her eyes dropped to my smiling lips and flashed in anger, my shit-ass morning took a turn for the better. With a loud huff, she spun around and flounced in the direction of the office. Today she was wearing tight black chef’s pants and a chef’s coat with black accents and buttons. The coat did nothing for me, but her ass looked damn fine in those pants.

I’d barely had time to close the door before she turned to face me. “I appreciate you sticking up for me, but I had it handled,” she declared.

“You probably did, but I’ve listened to his shit for five days now and am fresh out of patience. I walked in to my place of work this morning and heard him bullying you. What kind of manager would I be if I let that type of behavior stand?” I asked.

She sighed, as if all the air had been let out of her sails, before dejectedly responding, “I guess you have a point.” Now we were getting somewhere.

Instead of taking a seat behind the desk, which is what I would normally do when speaking with an employee, I leaned my back against the door and crossed my arms over my chest. Hadley wasn’t just any employee. She’d already proven that she was a runner. With me now blocking her exit, she had nowhere to go.

“You shouldn’t let him treat you that way, Hadley.”

She waved her hand through the air in dismissal. “To acknowledge his behavior will only make him worse. I choose to take the high road.”

“So you’ll just continue to allow him to push you around. That makes sense,” I dryly replied.

“He’ll eventually peter out.” She acted as if she’d had years of experience with this sort of thing. The thought of her being bullied infuriated me. She could ignore it all she wanted, but that didn’t mean I would.

“Wayne won’t bother you again,” I firmly stated. If he did, he would be answering to my fist. “Now, other than the Wayne issue, how are you doing?”

“I’m not okay with this,” she said.

“Well, you’re going to have to be because it’s over and I’m done talking about it. Now, how are you doing?” I repeated.

“You’re the bully,” she huffily muttered. This time, I did smile. I couldn’t help it, she was so damn cute. “I’m not kidding,” she said, when she saw my face.

“You think I’m a bully?” I asked, as I pushed off from the door and stepped in her direction.

“I do,” she shakily replied, as she took a step back.

“You didn’t think I was a bully when I was balls deep inside you. In fact, as I recall, you quite enjoyed it...all three times,” I reminded, as I further closed the distance between us.

“Blake.” It came out as a half-gasp, half-moan. Never had my name sounded so good. Her eyes widened and her breath hitched when she realized she was trapped with me at her front and the wall at her back.

“Hadley,” I whispered.

“Don’t,” she said, right as my lips grazed hers.

I paused long enough to ask, “Don’t what?”

“Don’t make me a cheater.” Of all the things I imagined her saying, this wasn’t it. The minute the words penetrated, I reared back. Don’t make her a cheater? What the fuck? I felt as if I’d been doused in ice water.

“Don’t make you a cheater?” I asked, hoping she would clarify.

“I’m not that kind of woman. I’m sorry. I just...can’t be.” The only way she would be a cheater was if there was someone for her to cheat on. Hadley was a beautiful woman. The thought that she was taken had never crossed my mind. Clearly it should have. I felt as if I’d been kicked square in the nuts. Add a shot of anger, embarrassment, and disappointment to the mix and call me done.

“We can be friends,” she added, as if that would make everything alright. Talk about kicking someone when they’re down. Without so much as a word, I stepped to the door and opened it.

“Blake?” she asked, her eyes begging for understanding. If she wanted absolution, she’d picked the wrong guy.

“I have plenty of friends, but thanks for offering. Let me know if Wayne bothers you again and I’ll take care of it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” I wasn’t trying to be a dick. I just wanted her gone. With her eyes to the floor, she walked past me and out the door, the smell of her perfume trailing after her. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Then I shut the door behind her.