The customer falls all over herself thanking him, but I can’t help but feel just plain sick. I want him to go away and if I could change my schedule to ensure that he wouldn’t be here with me, I would, but he’s a manager which means he could just change his any time he wanted to. Fuck. I want to scream.
“Seen you with that big guy. So that’s why you won’t go out with me? You havin’ a bit of fun before you settle down?” he asks, licking his lips as his eyes travel down to my breasts.
Refusing to answer him, I announce that I’m going on my break, loud enough that I know Brenda at the register across from mine hears me. Mark’s face turns red as I walk past him, but I don’t care. I just need to breathe.
Slipping into the back room, I sink down in one of the chairs and close my eyes with a heavy sigh. I hear one of the chairs scoot across the floor and my eyes fly open to see none other than the man I’m trying to escape from sitting in front of me.
“Mark, this is not appropriate. You need to leave me alone, please,” I say, attempting to be firm.
He tilts his head to the side, his eyes searching my face and then his lips twitch into a smile and the expression on his face changes as he looks at me like he thinks I’m being cute or something instead of dead serious.
“I know you have to say that because you’re involved with that guy, for now. But I also know that soon you’ll be free again.”
Shaking my head, I lift my hand and wrap my fingers around the front of my throat in an attempt to breathe. “Mark. Louis is my boyfriend. Please, don’t make work weird.”
He grins, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip. “I’ll see you tomorrow night at work.”
Without another word, he stands and I watch him walk out of the door. Letting out a whimper, I lower my forehead to the table and attempt to catch my breath.
Tears fill my eyes and as hard as I try, I can’t hold them back. They fall down my cheeks and land on the tile floor of the breakroom.
After a few moments, I compose myself, wipe my tears, then head back out for the rest of my shift. Mark doesn’t stop being creepy. It’s like he can’t help himself. He positions his body at the end of my conveyor belt and bags every single customer’s items for me.
He is making me nervous, on edge, and the time can’t pass quick enough. “Hey Tulip, you okay?” a male voice asks.
Lifting my head from staring at my barcode scanner, I blink at the sight in front of me. It’s Wyatt and Rylan. They look dirty from a hard day’s work. They both look equally handsome, in completely different ways, too. Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with men like them? Why did I have to fall for someone famous who is ultimately going to leave me?
“I’m okay, how are you guys? All done for the day?” I ramble.
Rylan nods with a grin on his face, but I don’t miss the way Wyatt’s gaze shifts from me to Mark, then back to me. “What time you gettin’ off, darlin’?” he asks, keeping his voice in a low murmur.
“Twenty minutes,” I sigh.
He nods once. Then takes his card out to pay for the few things that they bought. “Good to see you, Tulip,” Wyatt says loudly with a grin.
I watch as both of them walk out of the store, as I bring my gaze back to my register, I press my lips together at the sight of Mark who is almost glaring at me angrily. He doesn’t say anything right away, instead, I continue to feel his intense anger directed toward me.
Thankfully, it isn’t for long. I quickly clock out, count out my drawer and go through my closing procedures. Hitching my purse over my shoulder, I begin to walk out of the store, but I don’t get far.
Mark’s hand grips my shoulder and squeezes, jerking me backward. He looks down at me, his body trembling slightly. “No other men,” he growls. “You want to play with that, whatever the fuck he is. That’s fine, but nobody else. I’ll see you tomorrow, be ready for me, Tulip,” he snaps.
I stand there, blinking as he releases me and turns to walk away. He’s completely lost his fucking mind. Shaking my head from side to side, I just stare slack jawed, until I finally shake myself out of my stupor and quickly walk out of the store.
“He touches you like that again, I’ll have to tell Louis and I don’t think he’d be very happy to know that your boss was manhandling you,” Wyatt drawls.
Spinning around, I notice that both he and Rylan are leaning against the side of the building, their arms mirroring one another, crossed across their chests. I gulp, nodding my head a couple of times.
“He scares me,” I admit.
“Louis shouldn’t ever scare you, Tulip. What he did, that was an accident and the doctors had already warned the guy,” Rylan explains.
Tilting my head to the side, I can’t help but wonder what exactly they’re talking about. I was telling them that Mark was finally beginning to scare me, but they were talking about Louis.
Taking a step toward them, I open my mouth, then snap it closed, only to open it again. “What do you mean, I shouldn’t be afraid of Louis?” I softly demand.
“Who were you talking about?” Wyatt asks.
“Mark, my manager, but tell me what you meant.”
Both Rylan and Wyatt share a look and then shake their heads once. They bring their gazes back to me, and then I watch as their eyes shift over my shoulder and they jerk their heads as they push off of the wall.
“Go to your man,” Wyatt murmurs.
Turning my head, I look back over my shoulder to see that Louis has pulled into the parking lot. “Tell me what you meant,” I demand.
Rylan jerks his chin behind me. “Ask him. Thought you knew, otherwise I wouldn’t have said shit, because it ain’t none of our business.”
Then they both push off the wall and walk away from me. Narrowing my gaze at them, I watch them walk over to Wyatt’s truck before I spin around and begin to make my way toward Louis’ pickup truck.
Climbing inside, I slam the door closed and let out my breath in a whoosh. I don’t know why I’m so mad. Maybe it has to do with the fact that both Rylan and Wyatt know that Louis is hiding something from me. Maybe it has to do with Mark harassing me all freaking day long. Or maybe it’s because I know that whatever this is between me and Louis is most likely close to an end.
Whatever it is. I’m pissed.
LOUIS
I watch as she jumps into my truck and blink at the obvious frustration that she so clearly wears on her face.
“You want to talk about it?” I ask.
She looks at me, her gaze narrowing, and I know without a doubt that something is incredibly wrong with her. She doesn’t speak right away, but I don’t demand that she does either. I want her to be ready to talk through whatever is bothering her.
“Your friends thought that I would be scared of you for some reason. What aren’t you telling me, Louis?” she demands as soon as we begin to drive down the road that leads to my house.
My hands jerk the wheel to the side, and it takes me a moment to get the truck back on course and catch my breath from her question.
“What did they tell you?” I ask, wanting to know how hard I should beat them.
She’s quiet for a moment. “Nothing. Just that. When they realized that I didn’t know, they said goodbye and left. They were backing you up, but I want to know why.”