Page 50 of Praised
“You used to,” Dalton said. “Before Grayson collared you.”
Rob flipped him the bird, and Archie smirked.
“Why do you care if he likes your things?” Rob asked me, one inquisitive brow raised right into his hairline.
Before I had to admit the truth, Rose was back with drinks for the four assholes I called my best friends. He threw a quick, indecipherable look down at me, dropping a straw for my water on top of the stacked menus.
“You five don’t strike me as the eating type,” he said, looking back at my friends.
I swallowed, feeling the heat and the judgement radiating off of him. I knew I was a lot on my own—he’d told me as much and he hadn’t been the first. Rose was going throughsomething,though, something that it felt important for him and I to discuss, but as long as he was at work and as long as my friends were at this corner table in his section, I didn’t think I’d get the chance.
That just wouldn’t do.
I pushed my chair back and stood, towering over him as I always did. He shivered and turned his attention to me.
“Where’s your restroom?” I asked.
“In the back,” he said softly. “By the kitchen.”
Archie let out a catcall kind of whistle, and I shot him a warning look and a middle finger for good measure. Rob ruffled Archie’s hair, and the two of them lapsed into a conversation, quickly taking Dalton and Barclay’s attention as well.
Rose took a step away from the table and I followed after him.
“Can we please talk?” I asked.
He didn’t stop walking, heading toward the kitchen. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Whatever was bothering you when I called,” I said.
His supervisor, boss, whoever she was, the woman who had chastised him for letting my friends dehydrate upon arrival, gave him a terse look. I had half a mind to reach into my pocket, pull out my wallet, and gag her with a hundred dollar bill or five. Though, I knew Rose wouldn’t appreciate the gesture…or the potential job loss.
“I didn’t ask you to come down here,” he said.
“I know. I came because…” I trailed off, words catching in my throat.
I came because he’d sounded upset and I didn’t want him to sound that way anymore. I didn’t want him to feel that way. Because if I was going to be serious about someone, about him, I was going to mean it. It wasn’t like I had any experience to pull from, but I was a smart man. I could figure it out, but had I gotten this one wrong?
“I’ll finish serving you and your friends tonight,” he said, squaring his shoulders and staring up at me through the golden fan of his lashes. “But one of you better order some food because the tip on four glasses of whiskey isn’t even worth my time, and this shift has already sucked enough.”
“Is that why you’re upset?”
“I’m upset because I’m broke. Upset because I need this job.”
“I heard that!” Ashley called from around the corner. She didn’t sound angry, but Rose grabbed my arm and shoved me toward the back door.
I turned the knob before my face slammed into the metal, and both of us stumbled down the steps and onto the gravel. Rose huffed, cheeks red, then he turned to face me with his hands braced against his hips.
“I’m upset because I need this job and you don’t need a job at all,” he said.
I scoffed, in absolute disbelief that Rose assumed I didn’t need to work. Just because I did different kind of work than he did, just because I wasn’t chained to a desk forty hours a week, didn’t mean I didn’t work. I had done that for years. I’d slaved through years of schooling and hours of evening and weekend overtime to get to the money and the status I had now.
“I very much need a job, Rose.”
“Do you ever go to it?” he snapped.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tapped the home button. My screen illuminated and I shoved it into his chest.
“I’m always at work,” I said, gesturing for him to scroll through my alerts. “Even when I had you pinned against a wall at Rapture, even when you were in a thousand dollar a night hotel suite with your cock up my ass, I was working.”
