Page 11 of Lucky Mother Pucker

“Damn, really?” Travis says. I nod.

“You should go apologize to her,” Nick says.

“Yeah, that was kind of a dick move,” Travis says.

I tug a hand through my hair. “You really think it’s a good idea for me to go over there and talk to her?”

They all nod.

“We have to walk by her to leave, and she looks like she wants to kill you,” Nick says. “Can you make nice with her so she doesn’t kill us too for being with you?”

I let out a heavy breath. “Yeah, okay.”

I make my way over to her right as the server she’s talking to hands her a sheet of paper and walks off.

“Hey.”

Her glare sharpens. “What do you want?”

I lean back at the hardness in her tone. For someone as small as she is, she’s got a hell of a bite. She barely comes up to my shoulder, but she’s got the feisty energy of a caged animal.

My instinct is to walk away, but I make myself stay. I need to tell her I’m sorry.

“I just wanna say that I’m sorry about this morning. I didn’t mean for you to get yelled at.”

She crosses her arms as she stares up at me. That hard, angry expression doesn’t buzz.

“Your sorry doesn’t mean shit.”

I lean back again, shocked at the bluntness of her words. “Excuse me?”

She leans forward. “Your sorry doesn’t mean shit,” she repeats. Except she says it much slower this time. Like I’m an idiot.

“What’s your problem?” I ask, confused and a little annoyed.

Her lips purse like she’s tasting something bitter. “Unbelievable,” she mutters. She folds up the piece of paper and slips it into the big leather bag hanging over her shoulder.

“Look, I was just trying to be polite,” I say. “I really didn’t mean to get you into trouble this morning.”

She looks up at me. “Well, you did. So good job. You must be so proud of yourself,” she says sarcastically before flashing an equally sarcastic thumbs-up.

“Hang on, you think I like that you got yelled at by your boss?”

She pins me with that hard stare once more. Damn. Her eyes are really blue. Like sapphires. I notice they’re a little puffy and red. Was she crying?

“I think you don’t really care what happened to me,” she says. “I think you just wanted to feel big and important, and that’s why you complained about your drink.”

“No, that’s not…Look, you’re the one who put rotten milk in my coffee. Do you really think I wouldn’t complain about that?”

She rolls her eyes.

“And when he started to yell at you, I told him to stop.”

“He didn’t stop,” she snaps. “He kept yelling at me. But you left, so you wouldn’t know.”

“Shit, I didn’t realize…I’m sorry.”

She lets out a bitter laugh and shakes her head. “Quit with the ‘I’m sorries,’ okay? They don’t mean shit. Especially now that I don’t have a job anymore.”