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Not that she was ever put off her lunch. Just look at her. God, she’d eaten almost all of the cookie dough pint. All by herself.
There was no fucking point trying to fight it. She was useless. She couldn’t do anything right.
That horse she’d tried to help tonight would die.
She reached over and shoved another spoonful of chocolate into her mouth. Useless. Ugly. Fat. An embarrassment.
Failure.
Failure.
FAILURE.
She dropped the ice cream and ran to the side of the sink that had a garbage disposal. She leaned over, finger ready to go down her throat.
“Shit!”
She jerked her hand back at the last second as big, fat tears burst out of her eyes.
No. She was better than this, goddammit. She was—
“Fine, I’ll get it this time, you fuckers, but next time’s on you.”
Isobel stood up straight at the voice behind her and swiped at her eyes. Oh God, the last thing she needed right now was one of them to see her like this.
She stood up straight and was ready to make her excuses when a low voice said from behind her, “You doing all right, beautiful?”
She pasted a bright smile on her face and turned around, surprised when she saw it was Mack standing there. No wonder she hadn’t recognized the voice right off. The big, tattooed man rarely had much to say. He seemed to prefer glaring as his main form of communication. She never took offense since he glared at everyone equally and seemed perpetually pissed off with the world.
“I’m fine. I’m just putting these away and then I’ll—”
“You’ve been crying.”
She froze. Didn’t he know it was rude to blurt things like that out? But he just stood there, staring at her and frowning.
“Is there someone’s face I need to go bash in?”
That made her crack a a real smile. She shook her head. She looked past him at the ice cream and felt her face heat with shame. They were all probably melting like crazy. She needed to get them back in the freezer but she didn’t want to do it in front of Mack. Surely he had to wonder why she had so many containers open all at once. It was a freak thing to do. She was a freak.
But before she could decide what to do, he walked over to the containers. “You finished or do you want me to scoop you a bowl?”
Her cheeks were on fire. “I’m done,” she managed to squeak. Then she ran over and tried to push him out of the way with her shoulder. “But I’ll get these. You just go on with whatever it was you came in here for. I didn’t mean to—”
“A couple of us were thinking of going out to Bubba’s. You’re gonna come out with us.” He said it as a statement.
She looked up at him—he was over a foot taller than her. She paused where she was putting the lid on the cookies and cream.
“I am, am I?”
He nodded, his dark eyes alight. Wow, she didn’t know he had an expression other than the glare, but there it was. He seemed amused by her. All he said was, “You are.”
She felt like cocking a hand on her hip but instead she just went back to the ice cream. “And why would I do that?” She grabbed several containers and opened the freezer to put them back.
“Because you need to do something other than work. It’s important. Socializing and shit.”
She laughed again, closing the freezer door and looking at him. Did he realize the irony of him telling her she should be socializing? “Socializing and shit?”
He gave a decisive nod. “It’ll be good for you.” He took the last big bucket of ice cream and slid past her, his hand brushing hers as he opened the freezer.
