Page 12 of Lucky Mother Pucker

She spins around and walks out of the diner. Wait, she got fired? Because of me?

Guilt punches through my gut. I run after her in the parking lot

“Hey!” I realize I don’t even know her name. “Hey, wait. Hang on.”

She speedwalks away from me, ignoring me. But since I’m more than a foot taller than her, I catch up to her easily.

“Wait, I’m—” I stop myself from saying sorry again. She just said she doesn’t want that. It’ll just piss her off even more.

I step in front of her. She stops and looks up at me. “Get out of my way.”

“Will you just let me make this right? I really didn’t mean for you to get fired, okay?”

Pain flashes in those big, sapphire eyes. But a second later, she blinks, and it’s gone. That hard stare is back.

“I’ll talk to your boss and make him hire you back.”

She lets out another bitter laugh. “Yeah, okay. Brilliant idea.” She rolls her eyes and steps around me.

“I’m serious,” I say as I catch up to her again. “It’s not cool that he fired you. And it’s my fault, so I’ll convince him to take you back.”

“He won’t,” she says without looking at me as she walks to a rundown gray Honda at the edge of the parking lot. “Believe me, you could offer him a million bucks to hire me back, and he wouldn’t. He didn’t like me.”

She stops at the driver’s side door and digs into her purse, probably for her keys.

My head spins. I can’t just let her leave knowing that she lost her job because of me. I need to do something to help her.

I grab my wallet out of my jacket pocket and pull out a wad of cash. “Here.”

Her eyebrows crinkle together as she stares at the money. She looks disgusted. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Take this. It’s the least I could do for getting you fired.”

She looks at me like I’ve grown another head. “No.”

“Come on. Seriously. Take it. I was an asshole this morning. I got you fired. The least I can do is give you some money.”

Her mouth turns into a straight line. That fiery, angry look flickers in her eyes again. “I don’t want your fucking money.”

She pushes my hand away, opens her car door, and climbs in.

I glance down at the beat-up sedan. It’s packed to the brim with boxes, a couple of suitcases, two stuffed-to-the-max garbage bags, a small cooler, a folded-up blanket, and a pillow.

Why does she have so much stuff? Is she in the middle of moving?

The engine fires up, and I step back. I stand there and watch her peel out of the parking lot, feeling like the biggest piece of shit on the planet.

That girl lost her job because of me.

I walk back to the front of the diner right as the guys walk out of the entrance.

“How’d it go?” Blake asks.

“Not good.” I swallow hard. “She got fired because of me.”

They all stare at me.

“Shit, really?” Nick says. I nod.