Page 30 of The Reverse Cinderella

Adam looked at her in shock. “You thought I was gay?”

“You keep talking Max up like he’s the greatest thing,” Dix said dryly.

“He’s my friend,” Adam said defensively. “I’m being his wingman.”

“The wing is broken. He’s homeless. There is no making that truth soar like an eagle.” Dix shook her head. “Give it up Robin, your Batman is broke, and Alfred is on the unemployment line.”

“I don’t like your analogies,” Adam said.

“I don’t care,” Piaget inserted. “The important thing is that both you and Max didn’t tell me. I had to learn the truth from someone else. Which hurts because I thought we were friends.”

“I am so sorry, Piaget,” Adam apologized. “You’re right, I should have been a better friend and I should have told you.”

Piaget buried her head in her hands and leaned on the counter. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Are you going to see him again?” Dix asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“Did he grovel?” Dix questioned. Really, she asked too many questions, thought Piaget. “I usually base my choice on how long I punish a boyfriend on how well he grovels.”

Adam laid a hand on Piaget’s arm in sympathy. “I honestly think you and Max were made for each other. I never would have introduced you otherwise.”

“I feel like he lied to me. I know he says he just omitted the truth and had every intention of telling me but…” Piaget shook her head. “I won’t be in a relationship with someone who isn’t telling me the truth.”

Adam nodded. “I’m sorry, Piaget.”

“I’m sorry, too. I also apologize for grabbing you. It was uncalled for,” Piaget gestured to the menu. “Have anything you like, on me.”

“No, I can’t do that. I know you’re as broke as I am,” he gave a smile. “I’ll still take my frothy coffee and a cinnabun, but I will pay for it.”

Dix pretended not to flirt with Adam for the next couple of hours while she and Piaget took care of customers. Finally, they reached the end of the shift and began closing. Piaget leaned on the broom and asked, “Aren’t you ever worried that one of the customers, like that guy today, will actually report you to the manager?”

“Who would they report me to? You’ll notice our boss Absent Alan is gone yet again. Besides, most customers never actually do complain to management, they just say they are going to,” Dix finished the cash drawer accounting and put the money in the safe. “As long as the tills balance, the place is clean and no one is really busting Alan about a worker, all is good in his life. He’s my cousin. He gave me a job as a favor to my mother.”

“He likes your mom that much?” Piaget asked.

“No. He thinks she’s a nut. I told him if he didn’t give me a job with enough hours, I’d be homeless and a starving artist. When my mom asked me why, I’d tell her it was Alan’s fault for not hiring me. She’d camp on his doorstep and make his life misery,” Dix folded up her apron. “Which is why I’m now employed here. You really need to learn how to manipulate people.”

“That is a gift I do not possess,” Piaget didn’t want to possess that gift. She folded her apron and stacked it with Dix’s under the counter. When she looked up there was Max waiting by the door. Piaget felt a moment of pain before she walked over and pointed to the closed sign hanging there.

“I know,” Max said through the glass door. “I want to walk you home. We don’t have to talk. I just want to make sure you get home safe, that’s all.”

Piaget pulled down the blind, shutting him out.

“Do you want to split a cab and come to my place?” Dix asked quietly.

“Do you have ice cream?”

“And Netflix.”

“Deal,” Piaget leaned on the counter, burying her head in her hands and concentrated on breathing evenly until the cab came.

“I told Elle no deal,” Noah snorted. “She’s out of her mind if she wants to name the babies Colton and Corbin.”

Max grabbed the ball, dribbling it across the court. He held out a hand to try to hold off Noah as he sprinted for the end, making a one-handed shot that missed the basket. Noah grabbed the basketball off the bounce. “You are off your game.”

Max quickly wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He waited for Noah to make a move, but his brother just stood there, chest heaving from the work out they had been putting each other through. Max sighed. Noah wasn’t going to budge until he talked to him. “Maybe.”