My full tray sat at the end of the bar waiting. I delivered them as quickly as possible, wanting to get back to the bar to find out more about that woman and Miller. Yes, it was shameless behavior but I didn’t care.
Just as I was carrying the drinks across the bar, I saw Miller at the end of the hallway. His steps were slow and measured, like he was trying to find a way out of talking to the woman. I wasn’t used to seeing Miller unsure of himself. It was an interesting sight.
She noticed him out of the corner of her eye and spun, barreling toward him, nearly knocking me over.
“Oh, baby. I missed you so much.” She threw her arms around his neck and tried to press her lips to his. It was hard to watch closely as I made my way back to the bar, but I thought I saw him take hold of her shoulders and push her away.
“I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit,” Derek whispered, watching the two of them.
“Me, too.” I swallowed back a bit of bile at seeing another woman put her hands on Miller. I rearranged some menus, trying to look busy, all the while listening in to their conversation.
“What are you doing here?” Judging by his clipped tone, Miller was not as pleased to see her as she was him.
She batted her eyelashes at him. “Since we didn’t get to finish our date the other night, I figured I come over and see if you’d want to grab dinner and drinks later. Then we could see where the night goes . . . without interruptions.”
I guess I had my answer about where he’d been the last few days—sleeping around, apparently. It pissed me off to think I was just another notch on his bedpost.
Not wanting to hear anymore, I turned to check on my tables when Miller’s answer stopped me in my tracks.
“We didn’t get to finish our date the other night because I wasn’t interested in spending anymore time with you. If I was, I would have taken the time to learn your name and brought you back to my place. I did neither, which should have been a clue. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to get done.”
There was a simple satisfaction in listening to him tell her to get lost. It was also exactly why I needed to get the man out of my head. I never wanted to be seen as a woman chasing what she couldn’t have.
Bottle blonde sneered. It was amazing what a sneer could do to a face. One minute she was a pretty, albeit slightly skanky woman, the next, her face was drawn, deep lines set around her mouth. It wasn’t a good look. “You’re an asshole.”
He shrugged, which only seem to piss her off more. “I’ve been called worse.”
When she started stomping her feet, I thought she might drop on the ground and throw a temper tantrum. She opened her mouth and promptly closed it and stormed from the bar, stomping her feet all the way.
I’d seen enough of the soap opera for my taste and turned to check on one of my tables.
Miller turned to head back to his office, his eyes connecting with mine, and although I tried to school my features, I couldn’t stop the look of disgust that crossed my face. Working in the bar, I’d heard rumors about the way Miller picked up women and discarded them the next second, but to see it with my own eyes made it that much more confronting.
He took one step toward me but I countered with one away from him. He tried again to come closer, his hand leaving his side to reach out to me but I turned, knocking into the bar, sending the straightened menus fluttering to the floor. I knew I should stay and collect them but I couldn’t be there, near him. “Sorry,” I called to Evan, before rushing toward the bathroom.
“Tess,” Miller called after me. But I ignored him and kept walking. “Theresa!”
His voice was louder but as the door to the supply closet closed behind me all the noise from the bar melded into one. I leaned back against the door, dropping to my haunches. I was so damn annoyed with myself for falling for his playboy lines. With hindsight, I could see that’s what they were, but I’d fallen for them so easily, lapping them up like a puppy dog. How could I have been so naïve? The door behind me pushed against my back and I clambered to my feet, wiping at my eyes in case there was any evidence of my extreme stupidity.
Derek came through the door, closing it behind him. “What was that?”
“What was what?” I played dumb. It didn’t work for me but I wasn’t in a place to consider other options.
“That.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Is there something I need to know about?”
“No, just clumsy. In fact, I should get back out there and clean up. Sorry.”
The look on his face told me he didn’t believe a word I’d said but I didn’t give him the opportunity to question me further because I bolted out of the door.