I felt my cheek split open and my skin began to sting. Shouting erupted around me. Piper ran forward, trying to make it to my side, but the cook held out his arm, clothes-lining her behind him. She slipped on something and fell backward onto her butt.
My hand shot out and grabbed the cook’s wrist and forced his hand down onto the griddle. He yelled in pain when his skin sizzled. I didn’t hold on to him long—I wasn’t trying to melt all his skin away, just some of it—and I let go to help Piper when I felt something heavy hit me over the head. I fell to the floor, and just before passing out, I noted that Piper was unharmed.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Stupid - men.” (Definition provided by Piper and many other women across the globe.)
Piper
Stupid.I was pretty sure if I were to look up the definition for the word it would say “men.” Why did everything always boil down to some sort of fist fight when they couldn’t agree on anything? Granted, I did secretly enjoy watching Emilio get punched in the face by Dex, but the rest of the drama, I could have done without.
You’d think the place would be loud and alive with people shouting and taking sides, but it was eerily quiet in here. A quick glance around showed me that the morning regulars were enjoying the show. They were all sipping their coffee and giving the unfolding scene their undivided attention.
Figures. Most of the customers were also men.
The smell of burnt flesh violated the air as Emilio’s hand was ruthlessly burned. Then the silence was shattered with his screeching in pain. And then Dex was falling to the floor, passing out from the hard hit Emilio delivered with a frying pan.
Despite his stupidity, I rushed to his side, calling his name, but he was out cold.
It was then that everyone decided to cause a commotion.
Mary, the other morning waitress, was standing there with wide eyes and when I glanced her way, she seemed to shake herself out of it. She looked at Emilio who was still wailing and said, “I’ll call for an ambulance.”
Emilio stopped long enough in between wails to yell, “I’m not getting in one of those things.”
“Well, then you can walk ‘cause no one here wants to drive you,” she snapped.
I would’ve laughed had I not been feeling for Dex’s pulse, which thankfully was strong. I shook his shoulder, but he still didn’t stir. I was considering dowsing him in water when Emilio rounded on me, cradling his injured hand at his chest.
“This is all your fault!” he growled.
“Mine?” I said incredulously.
“You and you’re better than everyone attitude, coming in here with your boyfriend and causing trouble.”
My boyfriend.My stomach flipped a little at his words. Dex wasn’t my boyfriend, but it was a little shocking to realize maybe I wouldn’t mind if he was.
But now wasn’t the time for those kind of thoughts.
“He’s not my boyfriend. And the only person with the attitude around here is you.” I snapped, glancing down at Dex. He was still out.
Apparently Emilio’s burned hand was momentarily forgotten because he launched himself at me. His eyes were wild and he reached out with his good hand and grabbed me around the arm, just beneath my elbow, and yanked. I planted my foot into the ground and tried to jerk my arm free, but he didn’t let go. So I kicked him. The heel of my boot caught him in the knee and finally he let go, howling.
Mary pushed him backwards and he fell onto his butt. There was a bucket nearby, half filled with ice, and she reached in and grabbed a handful and threw it on the downed cook. “Sit there and cool off until help arrives.”
My chest was heaving when he glared at me. I wanted to kick him again, but I didn’t. The customers in the diner had seen enough. I could only imagine what the owner was going to say. I prayed I didn’t get fired.
I leaned down beside Dex again and shook his shoulder, brushing the hair back from his forehead. He began to stir and then he was blinking open his eyes and looking up at me. His glasses were slightly askew and I reached out to adjust them.
“We keep meeting like this,” he said, his eyes still kind of unfocused.
Memories assaulted me of sitting in the street with snow falling all around. The chaos from that night suddenly mirrored the chaos of tonight. It was just him and I sitting in a bubble, the two of us a part of the room, yet somehow separate. Activity hummed around us, but the air that encircled us was still. Just him looking up at me.
Except this was Dex.
This wasn’t the man who died.
Right?
