“Thanks.” I smiled a tiny smile and tucked my hair behind my ear. “I hope the others are good.”
They were—just as good, if not better. They were better if you listened to West, and Vicky did, which meant I had to too. They were pretty good; I had to admit that much at least. We unpacked stacks of each together, and then West clapped his hands once.
“Vicky,” he said, breaking through the easy silence that had descended. “I need to submit the order this afternoon. Can you check the inventory in the cellar? The order form is upstairs on my desk. I think I have most of it, but I did it yesterday, so after last night’s craziness, we probably need more.”
“Sure. No problem.” She handed him the closed penknife and jumped off the stage. Then she disappeared through the door, leaving us alone together.
I swallowed hard and grabbed the pile of fliers that advertised the Sunday-through-Wednesday happy hour. I wanted to at least get these on tables with the general ones tonight. They were super shiny, so I hoped the worst-spilled drinks would slide right off them without damaging them too much.
I scooted myself to the edge of the stage and jumped down. Then I grabbed both piles of fliers. I almost dropped one pile, and I had no idea how I kept it in my arms.
“Here. Let me take one.” West took the happy hour fliers. “You want them out now?”
I leaned over and pointed to the days. “Might as well. Get as much as possible before the online advertising goes out. We really need to talk about social media too.”
“Yep.”
“I think they’re best on the table.” I put my flier down on the clean, wooden tabletop. “Put two of yours next to it, but a little bit on top. As soon as they sit down, they’ll see them. They’ll probably put them in the holder with the drinks menu after they’re done reading, but most people will pay attention to it. Maybe even take them for future reference, which is why you need two.”
He put his two down, but I couldn’t see there was two. I leaned over in front of him, licked my finger, and split them. The bright colors combined with the important text in white would be readable even in the low club light.
“Ah. Got it.”
For a businessman, he wasn’t good at placement. I had to redo another two of his as we slowly made our way through the next few tables. Awkward silence surrounded us as my parting words from not so long ago hung in the air. The tension thickened every time we put fliers down and our hands touched. I couldn’t fight the sensations that zinged across my skin whenever our fingers brushed.
I needed to speak to cut the tension and break the silence. So I said the first thing that came to my head. “Last night’s craziness, huh?”
“Hm?”
“What you said to Vicky.”
“Oh, yeah.” West fiddled with his sleeve and put a flier down. “The bachelorette party got a bit excited. One of them threw up in the restroom but missed the toilet. The bride wooed herself one of my guys and made out with him quite enthusiastically. Her cousin slipped and sprained her wrist when it hit a table, and one of the girls put a napkin with her phone number on it down the front of Vicky’s shirt.”
“Wow. Sounds like that was a load of fun.”
“That’s not even the worst part. Honestly, it all paled in comparison to the moment the maid of honor asked me how much I’d charge her for, and I quote, ‘the privilege of being able to suck your fine-as-fuck dick.’”
I looked at him. “How much did you charge her?”
He stopped dead, but I carried on, even as his hot gaze burned into the back of my head.
“You think I let her?” he asked.
“I was joking.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“Fine. I wasn’t. It was genuine curiosity that had me asking.”
“Had you asking what? How much I charged, or were you really asking if she did?”
“Both, honestly.” Especially considering I’d gotten to do it for free. Several times.
“Mia.” He put his fliers on the table and moved in front of me.
I hugged my pile of papers to my chest and refused to look at him, so he pried them from my hands. I didn’t let them go easily, but he managed it and set them on the table next to me.
“Do you really think I’d let someone else do that?”
I trailed my gaze up the row of buttons that ran up the center of his fine body until it grazed over his stubbled jaw and finally met his eyes. “I have no idea.”
“Is that why you said what you did earlier? That our personal relationship has to end?” His eyebrows drew together.