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I ignored her, took a seat on Bastian’s chair, and tried but failed to push aside the memories that invaded me as soon as my ass made contact with the buttery leather.
The phantom image of Bastian feeding me annexed my mind like an unwelcome apparition.
She watched as I grabbed my Kindle out of my bag and began to read as if she wasn’t still lingering by the door.
After all, I had—I checked my watch—nine minutes and forty-nine seconds before my training shift began.
I hadn’t even gotten through a page before Tessie came in, barreled past Dana without sparing her a glance, and climbed onto my lap.
Dana wavered in the center of the room as Tessie shifted in my lap until she was comfortable (and I wasn’t).
She grabbed my Kindle from me. “What are you reading?”
I covered her eyes and snatched it back from her. “Nothing appropriate for an eight-year-old girl.”
Still, Dana hovered, uncertainty plain and clear on her face. “You guys know each other?”
Tessie looked up at Dana and squinted. “Who are you?”
“Dana.” She fidgeted. “We’ve met. I-I dated your brother.”
Speak of the Devil.
Bastian entered the room, his presence as demanding as a heart attack.
His eyes narrowed on Tessie’s lanky body covering ninety percent of me before he turned his powerful gaze to Dana. “What are you doing here?”
If I were being honest, I was relieved that it wasn’t just me he acted callously toward.
Dana gestured weakly in my direction. “She’s late.”
“No, she’s not. Her shift starts in six minutes. Yours, on the other hand, started twenty-four minutes ago.”
Silence hung in the air, sifting through the tension like an Olympic skier weaving through an obstacle course.
Gold. This was pure gold.
I mean, I could be mature about it and not enjoy Dana’s suffering, but part of me still believed people got what they deserved and enjoyed when it happened.
“But… She…” Dana raised a futile gesture in my direction. “I—”
Bastian lifted an impatient brow.
“You...?” He crossed his arms, and his face was cold as he leaned against the doorframe, his movements almost too casual. “I hope you don’t talk to our customers like that. I wouldn’t want them to think I hire illiterate staff members.”
Jesus.
I was glad that, for once, I wasn’t on the receiving end of his wrath.
A red flush spread across her cheeks. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
Her head lowered, marking her defeat, and she left the room in haste, taking with her half of the eleven precious minutes I’d had before my shift was scheduled to start.
I sighed, placed my Kindle back into my bag, ignored Bastian—because fuck him—and stared at Tessie.
I kept my voice gentle and soft, so her brother couldn’t hear me speak. “What was that?”
Tessie and I had gotten along during the past week, sure, but she didn’t strike me as the type of kid to just clamber onto my lap out of the blue.
