Her Dirty Bartenders (Men at Work #5) - Mika Lane Page 0,14

kidding. Now, if you can bring about five containers of ice using this empty pickle bucket to fill up the ice machine over here, that would be great.”

Was he fucking kidding? I was hauling ice now?

“Why do you add ice to an ice machine? Doesn’t it just make ice for you?” I asked.

He smiled. “It does, but when we’re busy, it can’t keep up.”

He thrust the white bucket at me and ran to wait on the thirsty hordes.

Well, shit. Were they going to ask me to scrub the toilets, too?

But I reminded myself to keep my eye on the ball. LA might be slipping further and further out of sight, but I had shorter-term goals like getting my car fixed and maybe enrolling in the yoga teacher training at Altitude. I was hoping Marni would give me a little break on the fee. It was the least she could do since she’d fired me and set me up with this sweet shitball of a job.

I survived the night. Somehow, someway, I did all the dirty work thrown at me and then some, and I could swear, Tableau never had a cleaner bar than when they’d set me loose on the place.

Someone set a beer down, leaving a wet ring? I was on top of that so fast the bar never knew what was coming. We were getting low on lime wedges? I had the bin refilled before anyone noticed. Running out of ice? Boom, done.

Finally, things began to slow. A tall, blonde waitress who’d ignored me all night stood at the end of the bar, and gestured me over.

Hey, I’d seen her at the gym, talking to Maze.

“Hi. I’m Stell,” I said, extending my hand.

Would she be my first ‘work friend’?

“Where’s Maze?” she demanded.

Guess not.

“Oh. I don’t know.” Why was she asking me? “In the office, I guess.”

She rolled her eyes, and next thing I knew, Robbie was beside me.

“Annabel. Do you need something?” he asked.

She pointed to the opposite end of the bar. “You have a customer,” she said, smiling sweetly.

As soon as Robbie was gone, her smile faded. “Look. I’m going to tell you only once. Stay away from Maze. He’s mine.”

What the hell?

“Um, Annabel, I have no interest in Maze—”

She leaned closer. “You heard me.” She straightened back up and with a flick of her wrist, ‘accidentally’ knocked over a beer, which poured all down the inside of the bar and over some clean glasses.

10

Stell

Holy shit.

“You did that on purpose, you jerk—”

“What’s going on here?” Robbie demanded, appearing from behind me.

“Oh my god. You should have seen what she just did—”

He waved Annabel away. “Go. Get out of here before you make any more trouble.”

She smirked at me and slunk away.

She thought she could get away with that kind of bullshit? Don’t think so.

Robbie grabbed a rag and started wiping up the beer. “Sorry about that. She’s pretty much our resident psycho. Can you wipe off those glasses down there?” he asked.

I’d already started cleaning up Psycho’s mess. “I’d say she’s the resident bitch. But that’s just me.”

Robbie leaned closer, and I had to admit he smelled damn good. Pretty much just plain soap, mixed with the scent of a guy who’d been working hard. It was quite pleasant after smelling beer and booze all night. I took a deep breath.

He looked at me like I was a weirdo.

Oops.

“Look, don’t tell her things like where Maze is. She’s trouble and he keeps away from her. I called the office and told Maze to lock the door.”

I nearly dropped the glass I was holding. “Are you kidding? Is she going to go postal on us? Oh my god, this is serious.”

I could see it now.

Former kindergarten teacher on her way to LA, stops over in Denver for a short stay, only to be murdered by a coworker at the Tableau Club…

What a fine end that would be.

“We’re just… careful. Let’s put it that way,” he said.

Um yeah. And that woman was just crazy.

“Is she obsessed with Maze? She warned me to stay away from him. What a weird thing to say.”

He nodded. “I know. She’s whacked.”

Robbie and I, now in close quarters wiping up Psycho’s mess, paused for a moment, just looking at each other.

I almost forgot I hated him.

And then Maze appeared. Instead of hiding from psycho, he grabbed a seat at the bar while the last few customers straggled out.

I looked between Robbie and him. How did two such beautiful men end up working in one