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“I have to get back to work,” I said to Lucy, as I stood and wiped the loose sand from my shorts.
“Bye,” Lucy said with a bright smile.
“Bye, sweetie.”
“Penny.” Theo hardly acknowledged me as I stood there saying goodbye to his daughter.
“Goodbye, Theo.” I walked away without a second glance to him.
I felt his gaze on me the entire way back to the bar. It’s funny how you know when someone’s staring at your ass as you walk, and right now I didn’t care. Let him stare. He would never touch it again. Or any other part of me.
Dex was the one I should want touching me. I tried to conjure images of his blue irises and dark, short hair. Nothing. The fact he was being so distant since he left town didn’t sit well with me, and we needed to talk soon. I wouldn’t put up with this shit from him. I must focus on my goals and not a boyfriend who didn’t call and certainly not Theo Sullivan.
When I returned to work, I decided to take action into my own hands and stop letting the men in my life dismiss me.
I sat down in Theo’s office and wrote him a note he would see tomorrow when I’d be off work.
I told him I wanted to set up a meeting for early Monday morning and would like to discuss all of the ideas I had for the Bearded Goat.
Maybe if I could get him alone, and he could see how serious I was, it would change his mind about promoting me.
I left him my number to text me if he agreed to meet with me.
Late Sunday evening, I received a text stating Monday morning was a go. Now I needed to woo him with my brilliance.
***
I was a nervous wreck for my meeting with Theo on Monday morning.
As I drove to work, my stomach a bundle of nerves, I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.
I pulled along Ocean Drive and found a spot near the bar. It was early, the sun barely creeping up from the horizon, and only a few people were out and about. A few seagulls circled in the bright blue sky.
Even the vendors with their jewelry and t-shirt stands weren’t fully set up.
A warm breeze blew off the ocean and swirled my hair around my face. Taking a deep breath, trying my hardest to gain confidence, I entered the bar.
Theo held his clipboard in his strong hands standing behind the bar when I stepped inside. He stopped, stared, and then returned his attention back to what he was doing.
“Hello,” I said, nervously.
“Penny,” he said, not looking up from the clipboard.
It felt eerily strange being in the bar alone with him.
I stood frozen as he laid the clipboard down along the bar and rested his arm over top of it.
His attention all on me, almost as if a fire was lit in his eyes, made me weak in the knees.
Moving wasn’t happening, forget about breathing properly.
I cleared my throat and tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come.
“Are we going to start? Or are you going to stand there all day?”
Why was he only ever mean to me?
“No, we can begin,” I said as I took a seat on a barstool with the wide oak bar between us.
