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“What the!” he exclaims, shoving back from the table and turning bright red. He darts his glance around the room.

So he doesn’t like being the center of attention either.

Too bad, buddy.

“Goodness, I amsosorry, sir!” I say in mock horror, pinching my lips to tamp the laugh that wants to bubble up as I eye the spread of wetness at his crotch. It looks just as I wanted it to—like the wetness came from inside his pants.

“I heard that!” he says. “I heard what you said. You heard it too!” he snaps almost accusingly to his girlfriend.

I signal George, jerking my eyes toward the restrooms.

“I didn’t hear a thing,” the woman behind me says. I can hear the restrained smile in her voice.

“Let me help you, sir,” George says as he appears behind us. “We have stain remover in the restroom.” He guides the sputtering man up and away.

“You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!” the man says through his teeth as he crosses the floor.

The woman behind me snorts. “Bravo,” she says to me when he’s out of earshot. “There’s no case here. Not with me as witness.” I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a senator or something.

“I’ll get you another mimosa,” I say.

Then I turn my attention to the other woman—the bewildered girlfriend in the beautiful purple top. She looks at me with a mix of shock and incredulity. But not the horrified kind.

“I’m sorry he’s like that,” she says.

“No,” I say softly, meeting her eye. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

I take one of the rags George left and begin patting up the mess around her. I keep my voice low so not even the woman behind us can here. “I know it’s not my place to say, but you look beautiful in that sweater. And…and I’ve been where you are. I need to tell you no one deserves to be spoken to that way. No one.”

My hand grips the rag so tightly my muscles ache.

The woman’s eyes fill with tears.

My heart skips. Suddenly, I worry maybe this goes deeper than the negativity and criticism.

But she shakes her head. “Yes. I’m fine. Better than fine, actually.” She lifts her chin and pushes up from the table. “If he asks, tell him I’m…”

I stand up, ready to help her any way I can.

“Actually, don’t tell him anything,” she says, then strides from the room with her chin high. “Let the asshole guess.”

The woman behind me actually whoops.

It’s only then that I look up and see the man standing next to the bar, grinning widely.

It’s Eli.

CHAPTER8

Eli

TRACK:John Prime “I Remember Everything”

“You saw all of that?” Reese says when she reaches me. A strand of her hair has come loose from the tight hairstyle she wears it in here in the restaurant, and she tucks it behind her ear. It falls right back out again, and my fingers twitch with the urge to tuck it back myself.

The pearl-clutching patrons whisper amongst themselves. That anger I’d seen splashed across her face is gone, and now Reese looks nothing short of horrified. Worried. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

“Hey,” I say. “I couldn’t hear much from over here, but I could tell from the body language and the way he waggled that finger he deserved being made to look like he pissed himself.”