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I yanked her off my desk with the gentleness of a bull in a china shop and dragged her across the room before throwing her insubordinate ass out of my office.
The commotion drew the gazes of everyone in the workshop below, but they all wisely pretended they didn’t see the new receptionist lying on the floor and me standing over her and promptly got back to work.
I waited on the threshold of my office as Atlas struggled to her feet. Her chest was heaving as she glared at me with murder in her eyes, but all it did was make my dick harder.
“Get back to work, beautiful. I’m not paying you to stand around flirting with me.”
With a growl, she flew at me with her fist cocked, so I stepped back and slammed the door in her face.
“I hate you!” she screamed from the other side. The door thumped once from her pounding her fist.
“I hate that pussy too!” I yelled back with a smile. “That’s why I’m going to beat it up.” I leaned against my desk and watched her shadow underneath the door. Atlas didn’t move until a full minute later.
And she called me a psycho.
In my thirty-five years, I’d never courted a female before. As first attempts go, I have to say that it went fucking splendidly.
I’d done it.
I’d made it a whole week at Pride of Kings.
There had even been a pool going on whether or not I’d make it a measly seven days. By the end of the week, the bet had reached a whopping five hundred bucks, which Tuesday had won. She’d been the only one who believed I’d make it to the end of the day after Rowdy ripped me a new one earlier for messing up his lunch order again.
It was Friday evening, and everyone had been buzzing with excitement for the party tonight. Apparently, a POK party was legendary, and even though it was technically a company party, the guest list wasn’t employee exclusive. I had no intentions of attending, so I didn’t share in the hysteria.
I was currently helping Tuesday set up on the third floor after Hudson closed the shop early so we could prepare. The other mechanics—Kane, Jerry, and Norman—had all been given the day off and would return later for the party while the technicians remained on the clock to do all the grunt work. Pretty much whatever Tuesday and I deemed too heavy to lift.
The Kings were still here, though.
The four of them were downstairs in the workshop helping Rowdy with some custom work he was doing on the side to an old-school Caddy.
Despite all his possessive male rah-rah bullshit, Rowdy had kept every interaction between us professional, which was when he wasn’t avoiding me completely.
Fine with me.
“Did you grow up in Idlewild?” I asked Tuesday out of the blue.
I couldn’t take the silence anymore. My thoughts were never good company. I also felt guilty that I hadn’t tried to get to know her when we worked so closely together every day. After Sutton and Sienna betrayed me and then finding out my parents…
Ugh. Whatever.
I just wasn’t ready to dive headfirst into trusting anyone any time soon.
Even Ruen had taken to trolling me online when she realized I was ducking her.
I thought being a receptionist would be easy, but I was starting to question how Tuesday had done it on her own for so long. The hours were long, the customers werehorrible, and our bosses were demanding. At least the pay was good. The Kings had been surprisingly generous with my salary considering I had zero work experience. My parents had wanted me to focus on school and had promised to cover my expenses while at college despite my father’s medical bills piling up.
Tuesday paused in the middle of shelving a bottle of rum in the bar at the far end of the room and looked over at me. “No, actually. I moved here four years ago from Oklahoma. I needed a change, and Idlewild was just one of many stops on my way to nowhere.”
Kind of like me.“What made you stay?”
Tuesday grimaced as she struggled to crack open a case of wine with a crowbar. Once she had it open, she wiped the sweat from her brow before looking at me. “Honestly? This place. It’s more than just a job. It’s home. We’re kind of like family if you can get used to…Rowdy.” I snorted at that since I didn’t believe it was possible. At least for me. “I was around before the shop became what it is now. When the Kings were just four mechanics taking any job they could get. I’ve had the chance to be a part of its growth, and that’s not easy to walk away from. Plus, the benefits are great.” She began removing the bottles of wine from the case.
I laughed and finished blowing up the black and silver confetti balloons with the helium tank, then moved over to help her. “You can find great benefits anywhere, T.”
“Not like these. Remember that change I mentioned?” Sobering, I nodded, peeping the haunted look in her eyes. I knew whatever she was about to tell me couldn’t be good. Tuesday looked like her mind was a million miles away as she stared at nothing. “It was actually my ex I needed to get away from.”
My voice was quiet—somber—when I asked, “Why?”
