Oh, shit. Oscars, where I’d given my impromptu Coyote Ugly impression. “The bar?”
“Yeah, she was tending the bar the day you…visited.”
This was not happening. There had to be hidden cameras somewhere. “Oh, hell no. She’s going to take one look at me and laugh, and that’s not something I can take right now.”
He took a deep breath. “You are so frustrating. You’ll take your clothes off for a room full of men, but you won’t ask Maggie to hire you?”
“I don’t expect you to understand.” Like he’d ever made a mistake in his life, let alone left a trail of them in his wake.
He turned, leaning one elbow on the counter, dangerously invading my space, and my head. “Understand what? That your skin is a lot easier to expose than your pride?”
I sucked in my breath and tore my eyes away from the gray ones that were currently cutting through my defenses. “Yes.”
“Then I understand just fine, and I’m telling you they’re equally important. Now fill out the application, Samantha.”
“She’s going to throw me out,” I whispered, looking up at him.
Grayson arched an eyebrow. “Not everyone judges people on a first impression.”
“You did.”
“Something I’m still paying for when it comes to you.”
“There’s…people here.” I counted at least fifteen people working out in the immediate vicinity who would all bear witness to my humiliation.
“Are you going to let them stop you?”
I weighed my options as Maggie walked toward us with her daughter. I couldn’t get by without a phone or gas money, and at least this would keep my clothes on. Head high. Let’s do this. “Something you might not know about me, Grayson? I don’t let anyone stop me.”
“Something you might not know, Sam? I was depending on it.” The corner of his mouth lifted into what I could almost define as a smirk, but that might mean a smile was possible.
“Here she comes,” Grayson said into my ear, his lips barely brushing my skin. Chills raced down my neck. “Hold on.” He walked through the line of treadmills to meet Maggie halfway. At least two spandex-clad girls eye-fucked him, but he didn’t seem to notice, and not in the way a cocky guy would ignore it, but more like…he didn’t see.
What was a guy like him doing single? Sure, he still had a stick up his ass, but there was more to him than the wall he used to keep people out.
Maggie smiled when she saw Grayson and met him near the entrance to the locker room. Her gaze jerked toward me, and I gave a half wave. Nausea rolled through me, but I fought the urgent need to puke. I’d made my bed, I was strong enough to lie in it.
Maggie made her way to me and cocked her head to the side. “If it isn’t my personal show-stopper. Grayson tells me you need a job.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “Yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry for how I behaved. I promise that’s not my normal”—anymore—“and it won’t happen again. Ever.”
“Well, you got Grayson here up on the bar, so I have to give you credit there.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Another time he’d saved me from being an idiot.
She sized me up. “You’re a math girl?”
I nodded. “That’s my major. I’m only a junior, but I’m a fast learner and a hard worker.”
She clucked her tongue and glanced from Grayson to me. “Well, Grayson vouches for you. I need some part-time help behind the front desk. Mostly secretarial duties, mail, schedules, phones, supply orders. Are you up for that?”
Wait. What? “Really? You’re going to let me work here?”