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“Not a damn thing. She panicked and I calmed her down. End of story. Can we just drink the damn beer now?” I didn’t wait for his response before taking desperate gulp after desperate gulp.
“Whatever you say, dude.”
Chapter 18
Simone
“So the cooler is fixed,” Logan said, running his hand along the back of his neck and through his hair. Was he nervous?
I giggled, my own butterflies erupting in my stomach. “That’s what Auston said earlier.”
He chuckled. “Oh, yeah. I, uh… I forgot about that.”
My hands shook when I lifted the bottle to pour Rudy his usual shot of cinnamon whiskey. There was a slight taste of iron on my tongue from chewing on my lip. “He, uh… also asked me what happened.”
Logan’s head shot up from where he was restocking straws and napkins. “He asked me too.” I looked at him, remembering the story I’d given Auston about the cooler and knowing Logan had likely told him a different one. My eyes widened, and he put his hand up reassuringly. “I didn’t tell him about…”
“What did you tell him?” My voice felt smaller. Could he tell how nervous I was?
He looked like he had the same anxious lump in his throat I did when he swallowed dramatically. “I told him you freaked out and I comforted you.”
“Do you think he knows what really happened?” I pressed my legs together, remembering the way Logan had lifted me into his arms and made me scream against the racks holding the extra chilled beer.
Logan’s laugh filled the air, and I half relaxed. “Absolutely not.”
“He’s not stupid, Logan.” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, but we hate each other.”
Did we really? I tried to return to the feeling of loathing I’d felt towards the man since my first day in Pour Decisions. He hadn’t been nice or welcoming from day one, but something had changed in that cooler. Arguably, something had changed when he kissed me the first time.
“Something like that,” I mumbled. I swallowed the disappointment, turning away to blink away the look of hurt I was sure shown in my eyes. “I’m going to grab towels.”
Ignoring the already-full stacks of towels under the counters and the clean rag that had just been dropped into the bucket of sanitizer, I hurried away from the bar and to the storage closet down the hall. Logan called after me, saying something about how we already had plenty of towels, but I pretended not to hear him.
When I slammed the closet door shut, I was sure he and anyone else in the bar could hear the clap of the hollow wood against cold metal. I dropped my back against it. “Why do you even care, Simone?” I asked myself. “You don’t like him just as much as he hates you.”
I tried to convince myself I hadn’t been swimming in thoughts of his lips on mine. I closed my eyes and tried to force the image of his face when he came away from my mind. Neither worked, and I sighed.
The door I leaned against tried to open, bumping against my back. “Simone?”
I took a deep breath, stepping back and opening the door. “I was just grabbing towels,” I said quickly, desperate to cover the nerves that made my voice shake.
He tilted his head, stepping into the closet. I mirrored his step with one backwards. “We already have plenty of towels.” His voice was thick, full of concern mixed with slight arousal.
“Oh, I didn’t see any?” I didn’t sound confident. I sounded like I felt—like the butterflies in my stomach would burst through my throat and my skin was burning under his gaze.
Logan took another step, followed by another, until my back met the shelves holding the clean towels I’d claimed I was in there to grab. “What’s wrong?”
I lowered my gaze, staring at the ground. “Why does it matter? We hate each other.” The disdain in my voice was thick. Why did it bother me so much that he had said it?
“That’s what this is about?” He put his hands up on the shelves, framing me in.
I nodded. “Why do you hate me?” It came out as a whisper, and I felt the familiar twinge of self-consciousness and embarrassment.
“Simone, I don’t—” he started, finishing with a heavy sigh. “Fuck.”
He punctuated the sentence with his lips against mine. They were hungry and forceful, and he eagerly pushed his tongue into my mouth to wrestle with mine. Our breaths filled the room, mixing with the sound of wet lips smacking together and the small moans I couldn’t hold back.
