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“‘Flirting’? ‘Coming on to’? For fuck’s sake.”
“Don’t you swear at me.”
“Oh, fuck that, too. Report me. You’re standing there calling me the next thing to a slut.”
“If it fits. I saw you with Liam just last night, and you’re sure doing whatever you can to snuggle up to Miles. Having him walk you out to your car after closing. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’d try giving Nell a roll if you thought it would get you ahead.”
Morgan let out a laugh at that, couldn’t help it. “I’ll have to tuck that one into my back pocket if I can’t work out a three-way with Miles and Liam.”
Hot color spread over Opal’s face. “Shame on you.”
“No, shame on you and the gutter your mind lives in. I engage with the guests—and the Jamesons—as I read them. Male or female. It’s part of my job. I was not flirting with Liam last night. We were having a conversation, and one that mostly centered around Bailey.”
“After you sent her out there to wait on that bitch.”
“I did not send her out there. She wanted to go out there and she held her own. Just like she held her own at backbarring. Something Liam saw and appreciated, so if he didn’t notice her skills before, he will now.”
“Is he going to start walking you out after closing now? Maybe you figure to pit one brother against the other, playing defenseless woman. ‘Oh, something bad happened to me, protect me.’”
Genuinely shocked, Morgan took a step back. “Yes, something bad happened to me. A lot worse happened to my closest friend. She’d dead. He beat her half to death, then strangled her. She was twenty-six years old.”
A fresh flush worked up Opal’s cheeks. “I’m sorry about what happened to her, but—”
“There’s no but. There’s no goddamn but. If she hadn’t caught a spring cold and ruined his plans, I’d probably be dead. He wants me dead. He wants to kill me.”
“So you say, and—”
“So I say. So the FBI agents say. So would the woman he killed a few weeks ago say if she could, since he left the locket—my grandmother’s locket—he stole from me on her dead body.”
It just erupted out of her now, everything locked inside erupted, hot as hellfire.
“You think this is a game to me? Some sort of game where I use it to get the Jamesons to, what, feel sorry for me? I’m going to warn you once, and only once, whatever problems you have with me, you leave this out of it. You leave this the hell alone.”
“Everybody’s got hardships. It doesn’t mean you get hired out of the blue, get special treatment. And it doesn’t give you the right to make time with another woman’s husband.”
“I haven’t been making time with anyone. And if you’re talking about your version of flirting with Miles or Liam, they’re not married.”
“Nick is.”
“Oh, for— Even you have to know that’s just ridiculous. And now I’ll ask if you’re questioning the Jamesons’ judgment or their right to hire staff as they see fit?”
“No, but I’ve got a right to my opinion.”
“Which you’ve given. As you hold such a low opinion of me, I’ll again offer to switch you to days if you’d prefer.”
“No.”
“All right, then we’ll just have to keep rubbing each other the wrong way.”
She’d dealt with worse, Morgan thought. Shewasdealing with worse.
“I won’t change who I am or how I work to suit your set of standards. As your manager, I’m sorry we can’t resolve this in a more productive way, but as long as we both do our jobs well, we’ll just deal. As a woman, I’m going to tell you to mind your own damn business.
“Now, is there anything else?”
“I’ve got nothing more to say.”
“Okay then. Let’s get to work.”
