“Excuse me.”
Bailey and I looked at the desk, and a tiny blond woman in a floral swimsuit cover was waiting with a scowl on her face. She seemed ready to Karen the shit out of us, and I stifled a sigh.
“Oh. Hi.” Bailey went to the counter and said, “Can I help you?”
I could tell just by looking at the woman that she was about to walk all over Bay.
“Yes,” she said, clearing her throat. “There is a tall boy in the World of Water who cut in the waterslide line. Not only that, but he looks entirely too old for the slide.”
“Okay…?” Bailey said, obviously waiting for the rest of the story.
The woman glanced at me, then brought her snooty gaze back to Bailey. “I would like him removed.”
“Um, removed…?” Bailey said, sounding confused. I could see only the side of her face, but I knew Bailey’s brow was creased, even without the visual confirmation. “Did anyone give him a warning, or—”
“No, maybe you could,” the woman said, raising her voice and scowling even harder. “Don’t ask me to do your job.”
I stood, feeling strangely protective of Bailey as the lady snapped at her.
The woman couldn’t have been over five feet tall, but she had that perfectly coiffed way about her that screamed of money and power. Shiny red manicure, big diamond ring, lipstick with a swimsuit, Louis Vuitton beach bag—it looked like the whole package.
“I—I wasn’t,” Bailey stammered, her cheeks turning pink. “I was simply—”
“I’ll talk to the kid,” I said, moving to stand beside Bailey. “You said he’s in World of Water?”
The woman nodded, looking appeased. “Yes.”
I said facetiously, “I’ll go take care of that little whippersnapper in just a moment.”
But then she replied, “Thank you,” gushing and laying some serious See, that’s how you treat a customer eye contact on Bailey before going back down the hallway.
I felt like shouting, “The whippersnapper” was sarcasm, you hag!
“Whippersnapper?” Bailey gave me a look that showed exactly how nauseating she found me. “I think I just puked a little in my mouth.”
I stepped closer. “Quit lying. I was charming as fuck.”
“If ‘charming’ means ‘annoying,’?” she said, biting her lip and trying not to smile as I towered over her, pretending to be threatening, “then yes, you were totally that.”
“Bailey Glasses Mitchell, are you telling me,” I asked, smirking and using my index finger to poke the tip of her nose, “that you don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘charming’?”
She said around a breathy laugh, “I just know that you are not it.”
We were both grinning, and for some reason, I felt an invisible string pulling me closer to her as she smiled up at me.
“For someone who I recall having unflinchingly rigid rules about line cutting,” I said, not moving as the crinkle of her nose did something to my stomach, “your reaction was surprisingly lax.”
“Yeah, um,” she said, her voice suddenly a breath away from a whisper, “I think the airport situation had more to do with the cutter than the cutting.”
“Did it, now?” I said, fighting the urge to lean closer. But, fuck. I wanted to lean closer.
Only… this was Bailey.
We were at work.
There was definitely an undercurrent of electricity in the very small space that existed between the two of us—shit, shit, shit—which is what made me take a step back and say, “Time for me to go kick some whippersnapper ass.”
“Yes,” she said, blinking fast and clearing her throat as she turned back to the computer. “Go kill some whippersnapper ass.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Bailey
Kill whippersnapper ass???
Dear God, I was a bumbling idiot.
I went to the back room to get another ream of printer paper while Charlie headed toward World of Water, and every cell in my body was misfiring as I tried remaining calm. My cheeks were hot and my stomach was wild with butterflies as I crouched to reach the bottom shelf.
Charlie had been flirting with me.
Charlie Sampson had been flirting with me, and I’d been flirting back.
Holy shit.
I had liked flirting with Charlie.
Holy shit, holy shit!
What did it mean?
The tiny exchange kept replaying in my head as I loaded the printer. The smirk, the gravelly sound of his voice when he’d said Did it, now?, the way I’d been leaning closer to him as he touched my nose.
What in the actual fuck??
I wanted to text Nekesa, but she was suddenly the last person whose opinion I wanted about workplace flirtations. I was in a lather as I threw myself into busywork, wondering what Charlie wanted and what I wanted and what about Zack and what about Becca and dear God it was Charlie! I took a deep breath, happy to be distracted as Nekesa and Theo returned. But a second later Charlie reappeared, looking absolutely casual and normal as he popped a pink TUM into his mouth and said, “Problem solved.”
I cracked open the stapler and started filling it, forcing my eyes to stay on that task. “What’d you do?”
He came around the desk and said, “Kicked a little tail.”
I snorted and focused on the staples. “Meaning you said ‘Stop it’?”
He clicked into reservations on his computer, not even looking in my direction. “Meaning I pretended to talk to the kid while the rich lady watched me from the other side of the pool. I didn’t actually say a word.”
“Wow—such a powerful man,” I said, closing the stapler.
“Right?” he replied.
I did glance up then, and Charlie was looking at me. I couldn’t read his expression, but I somehow felt marginally better when he teased in the usual Charlie way, “You owe me for taking care of it, Glasses.”
“I don’t think I do,” I quipped, trying to gauge the situation.
“She was going to destroy you, so I took one for the team and walked all the way down to World of Water, just to save your ass.” He shook his head and added, “I’ll accept a crisp twenty-dollar bill or a Snickers bar from the machine; either-or works for me.”
“Yeah, I actually think you earned a big bag of squat or a box of air,” I said, going around him to fill the other stapler. “Either-or works for me.”
I heard him laugh, and then everything reset in normal mode.
I convinced myself that the entire episode was a product of low blood sugar because I’d forgotten to eat before work.
All in the imagination.
Right?
That night, after I got home from work, my mom and Scott were sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for me. They were all happy smiley, super excited, which immediately made my stomach fill with dread.
“Hey, guys—what’s up?” I dropped my bag in the entryway, slid out of my shoes, and went over to the fridge. “Just finish a rousing game of Chutes and Ladders or something?”
They both laughed, way too excitedly, and then my mom said, “Scott has a surprise for us.”
I opened the refrigerator door and looked inside, seeing nothing as I waited for the surprise that I just knew I was going to hate. “Yeah?”