Page 54 of Badd Baby

"Um, you're gonna have to explain that one? How was it for me?" She finally turned around and looked up at me, her big blue eyes wet with tears.

"Well, after you ran away from me in your haste to avoid me, Hayes followed you. I saw him corner you outside the bathroom." I held up a finger. "Actually, I gotta give credit where it's due—it was Hamish who saw it first. I could tell you were getting upset, so I went over and listened, in case you needed backup."

"I can handle Hayes on my own, but thanks."

"Handling Hayes wasn't the issue, Rune." I dropped my voice to a murmur. "You guys were shouting at each other. The whole bar had gone quiet."

Her face paled. "What?"

"Everyone was watching and listening, Rune. Everyone. I…" I sighed, shrugged. "So I drew their attention to myself. I didn't think you'd like that kind of attention, especially not on the, um, conversation you were having, so I did something about it. The toast was the first thing I thought of."

"Oh." She sounded small and miserable. "I just don't get him, Duncan. Even after having months to think about it, Hayes still doesn't understand why I'm so angry at him. It feels like gaslighting, but I think he’s just so narcissistic, he just genuinely doesn't see the problem."

"Rune—"

"I just feel so stupid," she whispered. "How could I have ever loved someone like that? I look back and all the signs are right there. Our first date, he never held a door. I paid for my own food. He was rude to the server."

"Well, there you go. Alongside the shopping cart theory, how someone treats service workers says everything about who they are."

Rune frowned up at me, tugging at the end of her braid. "Shopping cart theory?"

"It's a psychological, social thought experiment thing. Basically, it posits that the greatest litmus test of what kind of person you are is whether or not you return a shopping cart to the corral. I mean, think about it. There is absolutely no consequence whatsoever to not returning a cart. No one is going to yell at you. It's not illegal. It's not even really immoral or unethical or whatever. So, are you someone who returns a cart or not?"

She frowned, looking away in thought. "I always do. But Hayes never did. He'd leave it in the middle of the parking lot. It drove me nuts. Like, it takes all of sixty seconds, and it makes life that much easier for the poor assholes who have to round up the carts."

I laughed. "I was that poor asshole, as a matter of fact. My first job was at Safeway, collecting carts."

"I figured your first job would've been washing dishes for your parents," she said.

I snorted. "Oh I did that, I just didn't get paid for it. I actually got the job at Safeway so they couldn't keep making me wash dishes for free. Although looking back, I think that was their plan all along. I hated that job at Safeway. I lasted all of a month and a half before I was begging Dad to officially hire me as a dishwasher."

"Did it work?" she asked.

I nodded. “Oh yeah. I washed dishes at the original Badd's all through high school for pocket cash. Once I turned eighteen, they trained me in other jobs. They just had to see me develop my work ethic and drive."

"Your parents sound pretty cool."

“They are." I brushed a thumb under her eyes. "Why are you crying, Rune?"

"I'm just…angry. At Hayes. At myself. I'm also a little drunk, which makes me weepy sometimes."

I swept another tear aside as it fell, caught another at the corner of her mouth. "Don't cry, Smokeshow. He's not worth it."

Her wet blue gaze lifted to mine, and she nuzzled her mouth against my palm. "Don't, Duncan."

"Don't what…Rune?"

"Look at me like that."

"Can't help it."

“I’m going back to LA. My life is there."

"I know."

She pushed her lips into my palm, and then nuzzled her cheek against my hand, and her eyes slowly drooped closed. "I wish like hell you hadn't kissed me like that," she whispered.

"Why?" I asked.