Her Dirty Bartenders (Men at Work #5) - Mika Lane Page 0,15

place? Was it a prerequisite for owning a popular club?

You had to be a hot guy?

“Maze, have you met Stell?” Robbie asked, pointing at his partner.

I could feel a strong heat rush up my neck and over my face. Guess he didn’t know about Marni’s and my debut there the other night, getting close and personal with too many martinis.

Maze smirked. “Oh, yeah. I’ve met this young lady. She was in the other night with Marni. They made quite an impression. Hey, how’d you feel the next day, Stell?”

Robbie’s eyes widened.

I shrugged. “Not bad, but I can’t say the same for Marni.”

Time to eat crow.

I put on my humble face. “Sorry we were such jerks, Maze. I don’t actually remember much, but I’m sure we were horrible.”

Psycho appeared, and shaking out her blonde hair, sidled up to Maze. “Hi,” she said, leaning onto the bar with one elbow, trying to be casual.

He recoiled before he could stop himself. Wow. They so needed to get rid of that woman.

“Hey, Annabel,” he muttered, angling slightly away from her.

I decided to help him out, and needle Robbie at the same time. “So Maze, did you know Robbie and I were already acquainted, before I showed up to work here?”

He looked between the two of us, still pretending Annabel wasn’t breathing down his neck. “You guys know each other?” he asked, puzzled.

Robbie sighed and just kept stocking beer bottles. He knew what was coming

“Well. I wouldn't say we know each other. But our paths have crossed. Or should I say our paths have crashed?”

Maze’s eyes widened. “Did you have something to do with his car accident last week?”

I burst out laughing. “It’s more like he had something to do with my car accident last week. Your buddy here smashed into the back of my car, his insurance company is trying not to pay, and my journey to LA is indefinitely on hold.”

“No fucking way,” Maze said. “What a crazy coincidence. Robbie, sounds like you better get your shit together on this one.”

He sent Maze a dirty look. “Don’t get involved, man. It’s complicated.”

I scoffed. “Yeah. Paying for the damage you caused to someone’s car is complicated. Really hard.”

Dick. Now I was pissed all over again.

Time to go. I looked at my phone and saw my Uber pulling up.

“Hey, guys. Thank you all for a lovely first night as a barback.”

I almost said bar bitch but stopped just in time. I needed this job, shitty as it was, for the time being.

I glanced over my shoulder before I headed out the door. Both Robbie and Maze were watching me, and Annabel was watching Maze, inching closer and closer to him.

Freak show.

When I got home, I dragged myself to my room and started running the tub water as hot as I could stand it while I poured half a bottle of Marni’s expensive bubble bath in it. I peeled the clothes off my tired, sore body and sank into the water, hoping it would start healing me since I had to turn around and go right back to Tableau the next day.

As I soaked, I dove into one of my visualization exercises. LA might be fucked, but I wasn’t giving up on going after what I wanted. I figured I had three goals in the short term: be indispensable at Tableau so I could keep making money for as long as I needed to, get my car fixed, and earn my yoga teacher training certificate. I closed my eyes and pictured each of these things until they seemed within my reach.

I wanted to add a fourth item—to get my ass the rest of the way to LA—but I was afraid to go that far. Like it was asking too much.

I had to take things in steps. Maybe that had been my mistake. It wasn’t that LA was out of reach, it was just that I had to accomplish some things first. Like baby steps.

And stop thinking about how good looking Maze and Robbie were.

11

Cabot ‘Cab’ Hendricks

“My father’s being a dick again. But what else is new?”

I dropped my head into my hands. Bullshit was getting old.

Robbie, assigned to baby duty, jostled the little man to his other arm. “Hold up. He’s asking for his money back? Like, all of his money back?” He glanced at Maze and sighed.

Yeah. It was that bad.

“I don’t get it, Cab,” Maze said, trying to make sense of the craziness that was my family. “He invests in Tableau, we build it