“Dude, you are the grumpiest guy I’ve ever met,” Fuller cut in and the rest of the guys nodded along.
“Maybe that’s why she didn’t recognize him,” Alvarez said, nudging Jimenez. “Think he smiled more as a kid?”
“When I picture Kean as a kid, I picture that internet cat. What was he called?” Ricci asked.
“Grumpy Cat,” Fuller answered.
“Yes!” Ricci snapped and pointed to me. “That was Kean as a baby.”
“I’m notthatgrumpy,” I grumbled, leaning back in my seat and crossing my arms.
“Uh-huh,” Brooker mumbled, tapping on his phone before holding it up next to my face. “Yeah, you don’t look at him at all.”
I slapped his phone away.
“But seriously, Kean, how’re you going to improve youractualinteractions with her? Letting her do the socials is all well and good, the owners’ll be happy. But that doesn’t solve the issue of how you act around her.”
“Drinks!” the waitress chimed, announcing her presence to probably prevent another spill. We paused the conversation to help pass around drinks. But as soon as we were all settled, all eyes were back on me.
“I don’t know what y’all want me to say. I’ll just … get over it. Eventually.”
“Uh-huh. And how long do you think that’ll take?”
“Given how cute she is, I’d say —” Fuller started to say, stopping when I threw a straw at his head.
“So the stick up your ass is two pronged,” Gallagher joked. “She doesn’t remember him and he fancies her.”
“Did you like her as a kid, too?” Brooker asked and I shrugged, even as heat crept into my cheeks.
“Oh, he definitely did,” Sosa hollered.
“She just kissed my cheek. It was nothing.”
“Fuck, he did!”
“It was nothing,” I repeated.
“Damn, must sting to have your first kiss forget about you,” Alvarez mused.
“It was just on the cheek. That doesn’t count as my first kiss.”
“But I bet it did to you,” Brooker said.
“Two-pronged ass stick,” Gallagher murmured before taking a sip of his beer and smacking his lips with a wrinkled brow. If I was lucky, he’d change the topic to how much he hated Guinness.
I was not that lucky.
“So you’ve got … some type of feelings —”
“He’s got a crush.”
“He’s a bitter bitch.”
“— on your new PA, essentially your employee,” Christenson continued despite the others’ interruptions. “Based on today’s interaction, it’s probably safe to say she doesn’t feel the same.”
I wouldn’t exactly say that. She might not remember me, but she was definitely attracted to me. Or at least she was before I acted like a child.
But it didn’t matter. Like Christenson said, she was kinda my employee.
