"Isn't that cultural cheating?"
"Do you want me to throw this quarter in your mouth and choke you?"
He burst out laughing. "I think I'll pass, thanks. Here." He slid me a pile of notes and change. "That's twenty-percent of what Sienna took tonight."
I hesitated. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, but... "Are you sure?"
One by one, Parker counted out the notes from Sienna's pile, followed by the ones from Vicky's percentage. He nailed it, as close as he could get, and I tucked that money into an envelope along with the money from my tips to give to her tomorrow.
"Thank you." I sealed the envelope with a lick and scrawled her name on it. It went inside the register to keep it safe until I headed upstairs-then it'd come with me. I hated leaving any kind of money in the bar. Only one lock separated my apartment from the bar, but that one lock was just a little more safety in the path of anyone trying to do bad.
"Done." Sienna bounded back into the bar, her reddy-brown hair bouncing around her shoulders since she'd freed it from her braid. "Is there anything else that needs doing, or am I good to head home?"
"You're good to go. Thanks, See. Can you cover for Rosanne tomorrow? I'm gonna call her in the morning," I added before she could answer. "She's due to start at eight."
I declined to mention that my family would be here.
"I can. Just let me know by twelve, okay? I have my niece until six, so I need to make sure my sister or my mom can get her on time."
"No problem. I'll call her at nine and give you plenty of time." I smiled.
She returned it and glanced at Parker. She was almost shy as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "Are you leaving now?"
I leaned a little further forward and hit him with my gaze, too.
Yes, was he?
Was he leaving at the same time as Sienna?
Motherfucker-why did I even care? Aside from the fact I didn't like workplace relationships, it was none of my business what he did in his spare time as long as he didn't bring it into work.
But she was work.
Double motherfucker.
Parker held up his basically-untouched drink. "Soon as I'm done with this. You need me to walk you to your car?"
Sienna glanced at me. "It's pretty dark out."
No darker than fucking usual, is it?
I busied myself cleaning a glass and turned away. Not my circus or my monkeys or my elephants or my clowns. I didn't care what happened there and nor should I. As long as it didn't affect their work in any way, I couldn't care any less if they dated.
But...Could I stop them? I mean, this was my business. Technically, I probably could.
Damn it, I still didn't care. Why did I have even the barest reason to care? I loved Sienna and I loathed Parker.
Even if he was kinda really hot now.
Fuck it.
The door opened and closed and a stool scraped. "You've been cleaning that glass for five minutes."
I jerked back to attention at the sound of Parker's voice. "It was really dirty," I said, barely glancing in his direction. "Awkward smudge."
"Right. Your bargirl just asked me out."
My throat burned with the harshness of my swallow. "Mhmm."
"Well, she didn't ask me out, per se." He paused.
I gave in.
I turned around and met his dark gaze.
"She asked me what I thought you'd think about her asking me out," he said slowly.
"Is this you asking me what I think about it?" I shot back, finally putting the glass down. "Because while, personally, I think she'd be better off dating a bag of rocks, professionally, I think it's an even worse idea."
Parker's deep chuckled elicited goosebumps across my skin. "I'm not gonna go out with her, Raven. I don't have to be Einstein to see how you feel about workplace relationships."
I snapped my gaze to his. "Sienna doesn't have relationships. She has short-term meetings."
"In that case..."
I felt my gaze darken before I could stop it.
He laughed again. "Calm down, hotshot. I met enough of her in New York. I'm not looking for that while I'm here."
"You weren't looking for this job, either," I pointed out.
"True." He sipped his Makers. The glass clinked against the wooden bar when he set it down.
I swept it up and slipped a paper coaster with the logo on beneath it. His amusement was evident in the upturn of his lips, but he didn't say anything as I wiped up the water mark from his glass.
"I don't think you can compare a job and...something personal. This job pretty much fell into my lap."