Her Dirty Bartenders (Men at Work #5) - Mika Lane Page 0,29

would open wide as he realized he had somewhere else to be.

Like another freaking state.

Yeah, I wasn’t giving that shit bag another chance to run out on me. He could kiss my ass.

But the other guys, Robbie and Maze? Why not? Everybody else was having fun. Why shouldn’t I? Besides, I’d be hitting the road eventually, so I didn’t give a shit what they thought of me.

Well, sort of.

“Hey, Marn,” I said, arriving at the gym.

She was at the front desk greeting members, like she usually was. She liked to provide what she called ‘the personal touch’.

“Hey, Stell. You still mad at me? About Vaughn?” she asked cautiously.

Geez. Since I’d kissed Robbie, I’d almost forgotten about that scumbag.

I shrugged, to make her work for it. “Maybe a little.”

She pursed her lips. “I was hoping we could all be friends. You know, like we used to be.”

Really? She was going there?

I took a deep breath to summon my patience. “Maybe we all will be friends someday. Like look back at this and laugh a little. But that is a long way off because right now, I hope that asshole gets hit by a bus.”

She studied me, possibly absorbing for the first time exactly how things had gone down between us.

It had been quite simple, really. A week before the wedding, some anonymous Good Samaritan had dropped off an envelope of photos at the townhouse we shared. Luckily, I’d gotten home before Vaughn, because it turned out he’d been watching for them and had planned to make an interception. But his plan failed, as did the fling he was having with one of my bridesmaids.

I don’t know who took the photos, or delivered them to our house, but I will be eternally grateful.

I took them straight to my parents’, knowing they’d resist cancelling the wedding without solid proof. When they got their first look at a photo of Vaughn out to dinner with my now-former friend, his arm draped around her shoulder with his hand slipped up her skirt, they didn’t need to see any more.

I didn’t show them the one of her sucking his dick. I’d been tempted, though.

They made a big deal about trying to work it out, as they put it. Mom lectured me that couples survive infidelity all the time, and that maybe Vaughn and I could, as well.

Bless them.

I’d wanted to ask her how many times Dad cheated on her, but I realized I didn’t want to know. But she couldn’t have made clearer that she was one of those people who’d worked it out.

Good for her. She could work that shit out all she wanted.

Me? Not so much.

Two days later I quit my job at the kindergarten, loaded up my car, and started working my way West.

After, of course, having given my parents explicit instructions to not share my whereabouts with Vaughn. Which I now know they had no intention of honoring.

That’s how the creep ended up in my bathtub.

“Hey, Marn, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

Concern crossed her face. “What? Is Tableau not working out? Because I can’t give you a job here.”

Oh my god. Really?

“Tableau is working out great.”

I wasn’t sure yet whether to tell her I’d kissed Robbie. Or Maze. So I decided against it.

I took a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about taking the yoga teacher training. I’m very interested.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Oh. Why didn’t it occur to me to suggest that? It sounds perfect for you.”

Cool.

“If I do, I will need to stay with you longer,” I said slowly, feeling her out. “But hey, I can start paying rent. I… have money now.”

I didn’t share with her I had three thousand dollars from Robbie hidden in my room. I also didn’t tell her my car was repaired. I knew she’d never kick me out, but I just didn’t want anyone to know I could leave Denver whenever I wanted to now.

She waved her hand like don’t be silly. “You can take the class for free,” she said, smiling.

I raised my hands in protest. “No, no, no. I can pay. I want to pay.”

She shrugged. “You don’t have to. But if it makes you feel better...”

Oh my god. I wanted to kiss her. Even if she’d set me up to work with her brother, and had let my deceitful ex-fiancé in our apartment.

“Well, look who it is,” a voice resonated from behind me. “The two most beautiful women in Denver.”

I whipped around and blushed.

“Hey, Rob,”