I’d barely started walking in Marlowe’s direction when I noticed she was talking to some guy at the bar. At first, I didn’t think much about it. Bartenders carry on conversations with customers all the time, but there was something about the guy that made my already tense mood that much worse. As I got closer, I realized why. The man she was talking to was Calvin Yates—an asshole who had no business sitting at our bar.
When I made my way up to the counter, Marlowe flashed me a smile and said, “Hey. I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”
“Got here as soon as I could.” Without saying anything more, I turned my attention to Calvin. Over the past few months, he’d put on a few pounds and had grown a hell of a beard, but he still looked like the same old perverted asshole to me. “Hey there, Calvin. How you making it tonight?”
His eyes grew wide when he realized I recognized him. “Hey man. I didn’t mean no harm. I just stopped in for a drink and lost track of time.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah.” He motioned his hand towards Marlowe as he stammered, “Lowe here was just telling me how it was her first night, and I guess we got carried away.”
“Lowe?” My eyes skirted over to Marlowe, and she looked completely stunned by my hostile tone. Clearly, she had no idea who she’d been talking to, which seemed to piss me off even more. I placed my hand on his back and twisted a handful of his shirt into a fist as I growled, “Seems you and our new bartender have gotten right fucking cozy, huh?”
“Nah, man. It ain’t like that. I just came in for a drink, and we got to talking.”
“Is that right?” I gave him a hard tug, pulling him off the stool and onto the floor. “And why would you come in here for a drink when you know you’re fucking banned, Calvin?” I started dragging him towards the front door as I growled, “Or did you forget about how you put your hands on one of our girls?”
“That was all just a misunderstanding, man,” Calvin babbled as his feet dragged across the floor, knocking over chairs and one of the tables. “Besides, that shit happened a long time ago. I thought we could put all that behind us.”
“Banned is banned, asshole.”
I stopped walking just long enough to give him a swift kick in the side, then continued on towards the door. Once I got him outside, I yanked him up and slammed his back against the wall as I snarled. “You show your face around here again, and it’ll be the last fucking thing you do.”
“I won’t be back. I swear it.”
I gave him one last shove, sending him stumbling into the parking lot. As soon as he made it to his car, I turned and headed back inside to find Duce. He was one of our newer prospects, and tonight was his night to monitor the door. The minute I stepped back inside, I found him waiting for me. “I’m sorry, brother. I’ve been through the banned photos a hundred times, but I didn’t recognize the guy. The new beard threw me.”
I was on the verge of completely losing it when Country came up behind me and said, “Don’t sweat it, brother. I missed it too.”
“You really gonna stand there and give him a pass on that shit?” I barked.
“It was an oversight, Rafe. He wasn’t the only one who missed it.”
“What’s the point of us doing all these extra shifts if we’re just going to let shit like this go down? It’s unacceptable.”
Country took hold of my arm and pulled me to the side. “What the hell is up with you?”
“I’m just doing what needs to be done, Country. Which is what everyone around here should be doing.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s more to it than that. Hell, you came in here looking wound up tighter than a straight man’s ass on his way to fucking prison, and even right now, after you nearly ripped that guy’s head off, you still look like you’re ready to fucking blow.”
He was right. I’d let my bad day get to me, and I lost my cool. I knew it was no excuse, but I told him, “I’ve had a long day.”
“We’ve all had a long day. Pfft … Make that a long fucking week, but you don’t see the rest of us dragging assholes around by their shirt collars.” Country took a step closer as he whispered, “You gotta pull it together, brother.”
“I got it. Enough said.”
“Good. Let’s grab a beer and you can tell me about this shitty day of yours.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
As we started towards the bar, I couldn’t help but notice the enraged expression on Marlowe’s face as she glared daggers at me. Damn, I don’t think I’d ever seen her look so pissed or so fucking hot. There was nothing sexier than a woman with fire in her eyes, and as I stood there watching her slam glasses down on the counter, I had to fight to keep my mind from going into the gutter. In all honesty, I couldn’t blame her for being pissed. I hadn’t even spoken to her in days, and then I charge in here like a fucking lunatic and drag one of her customers out the fucking door without any explanation. There was no telling what was going through her head. I’d fucked up. I was trying to think of how I could smooth things over when Country leaned toward me and snickered in my ear, “Looks like you have some ’splaining to do, Lucy.”
“Fuck. This day just gets better and better.”
Marlowe was no longer glaring at me. In fact, she was doing everything she could not to look at me as I made my way over to the bar and sat down. I could hear her grumbling under her breath while she filled a couple of orders. As she slid the drinks over to the waitress, her eyes skirted in my direction for only a brief second, then she let out a frustrated sigh and went right back to work. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with childish theatrics, so I snapped, “Are you done?”
“Nope, not even close.” She huffed. “But if you don’t mind, I have work to do.”
“Marlowe,” I replied with a warning tone. “That’s enough.”
“You don’t get to tell me ‘that’s enough’!” She stepped closer, trying her best to keep others from hearing as she scolded, “I thought you wanted me to work here because you said I could handle the job. If that’s not the case, then tell me now and I’ll find somewhere else to work!”
Before giving me a chance to respond, she whipped around and started back to work, shutting me down completely. I could’ve pushed and made her listen to me but decided against it. We both needed some time to cool off, so I got up and walked back to the office, where I spent most of the night trying to help Menace get caught up with the books. When it was time to shut down, I went out front to find Marlowe. As soon as I got to the bar, Lisa came over to me and said, “If you’re looking for Marlowe, she’s already gone.”
“What?”
“We were pretty slow, so I told her she could head out.” Lisa shrugged. “Clocked out ten minutes ago.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
Chapter 10
Marlowe
“You want to tell me why you left without telling me you were leaving?”