Page 7

Daniel

N ot. Fucking. Happening.

Shawn Stevens was not in my tiny-as-fuck apartment making small talk with my parents. They shouldn’t have been here to begin with. And how the hell had he found me? Allowing him into the employee files felt like a huge invasion of privacy.

Mom pushed him back into the couch as she zoomed over to my little kitchenette. She frowned as she opened the two cupboards, looking for…

“Daniel? Where are your cups?”

Mom was about to be so disappointed in me. “Dishwasher.”

“You store your cups in the dishwasher?”

I held my arms out, waving them around to show off my minuscule living space. “Not like I have a ton of storage to begin with.”

Her look of displeasure said enough. She didn’t deserve to be talked to in such a way and I should have done a bit more research before uprooting my life and moving somewhere as expensive as fucking Seattle.

She pulled three coffee mugs from my dishwasher and filled them with water from the tap before bringing them to the living room and setting them on my coffee table. The thing had to-go containers covering it. Another thing she made a disapproving face at, but had I known they were going to show up today, I would have made more of an effort. There was that whole... telling them not to come thing and all.

“So, where are you guys staying?” I wanted to distract them, not have them so focused on Shawn or my disgusting living conditions. At least I had heat again, though it had taken them a week to fix it and a week too long of listening to my best friend and his boyfriend fucking in the other room.

Mom waved it off, ignoring my question. I hated when she did that shit. She knew I was worried about them. Now more than ever, after the disaster that was Art and Tilly disrupted our lives. Please don’t say anything while Shawn is here.

“There are lots of really nice hotels around the area. Hopefully, no one tried to rip you off with holiday rates.”

Mom smiled at Shawn, and I wanted to punch him. How dare he try to charm my parents?

“I think we got a good deal. We ended up finding a nice place over by the stadiums. Isn’t that right, honey?” Mom turned to Dad, who was staring at his phone. He hummed a response and continued scrolling on his device. What an interesting family dynamic.

“While you’re here, come by Margaret’s. We close after Christmas through New Year, so you came just in time to see your boy in action.”

That had Mom’s attention. “Margaret’s?”

I scowled at Shawn before smiling at Mom. “Yes, it’s where I work. Shawn’s father owns the place.”

Mom clapped her hands in front of her, a wide grin spreading across her face. “That sounds wonderful. I’d love to see it.”

Just great. I was trying to get them to leave, and he was inviting them to delve deeper into the shit show that was my life here.

“Come to think of it...”

Oh. No.

“What is it, honey?” Mom sat next to Shawn on the couch, resting a hand on his knee and leaning in closer to hear what he had to say. If he told her about the trip, she wouldn’t let me turn him down. She was desperate for me to move on from what happened at the beach and staying stuck in my tiny ass apartment wouldn’t allow me to do that.

“I’ve been trying to convince Daniel to come on a trip with a few of the staff members from the restaurant.”

Oh, he was playing dirty. The only other staff member was Chase. Not that it helped my case. Mom loved Chase Dawson.

“Daniel? You don’t want to go?”

I waved around my apartment again, knowing the argument was flimsy. “I’ve got things to do.”

Mom’s lips pinched together as she looked around the place. “No. I think I can help you sort this place out. You deserve to have fun. You spent the last six months being good after... everything.”

Don’t elaborate. Don’t elaborate. Please, oh please, don’t fucking elaborate.

I took a deep breath when Mom abruptly changed the subject. “Tell me about this trip. Better yet, tell me about you. Your father owns the restaurant?”

Shawn blinked at Mom’s rapid-fire questions, turning to give me a curious look. I shrugged. He was the one who barged in on my personal life. He could live with the damn consequences.

He laughed awkwardly, rubbing at the back of his neck. Shawn’s face turned red as his eyes tracked me across the room. There was no way in hell I was sitting anywhere near the asshole. My ass was planting itself on my bed. I didn’t give a damn.

“Well, Uh, yeah. My parents own it. Dad always wanted to do a fancy place and after he helped mom set up her boutiques, he went for it.”

That was news. I knew little about his family outside of his dad. Mr. Stevens was an interesting guy. He was a tough employer, but fair. He ran things by the books, but wasn’t afraid to give someone a chance. Hell, he’d given me a chance after the first three places I’d applied to ran in the other direction as soon as they saw I had some sort of record. It didn’t seem to matter that I wasn’t involved. They only cared that I was associated with a theft ring, and they wanted nothing to do with me.

“Oh, what type of boutiques?”

“Clothing, high-end stuff. Some jewelry. Maybe I can take you on a tour.”

Mom squealed. “Daniel, that would be so great. Why didn’t you tell me you’d made such a prestigious friend?”

Because there was nothing special about Shawn. He was a loudmouth who mooched off his parents’ success.

“What about you? You work next to my baby. You must get along well if you’re here visiting him.”

I wanted to laugh. If she only knew that we spent almost every shift two seconds away from reaching for a wine bottle opener and shanking each other... or maybe that was just me.

“Both Daniel and I man the bar. I couldn’t pick a better person to work with. He’s so good at it. Eventually, I’ll take over the family business.”

My shoulders sagged. At least he didn’t let on that we weren’t actually friends and that the only reason he was here was to be a nosy asshole.

“That’s wonderful. Did you know that, honey?” Mom leaned away from Shawn, hand on his arm, and I wanted to yank her away from him. Here he was, in my personal space, where he had absolutely no business. I wanted him gone, but I wasn’t about to make a scene in front of my mom and dad. They wanted to see me thriving in my new life and not fighting with the first person they perceived as a friend.

Shawn stood. He looked around the room, catching onto the annoyed glare I was tossing in his direction. He gave me a playful smirk that I wanted to slap off his handsome face. Fuck. Not handsome. Hideous .

“Why wait? Tonight would be a good night before people pack the place for Christmas Eve. Want to head down to Margaret’s?”

Did I want to go to work on my day off? Fuck no. It was bad enough that I had to work tomorrow and now my parents were here…

“I think that sounds like a wonderful plan!”

Of course, Mom would love it. She stood and pulled Dad up with her. They hadn’t even taken their jackets off yet. I did a mental check on how warm it was in my apartment and realized I tended to keep it cooler and only prayed that it didn’t mean that my heat was going out again. There was only so much I could take of listening to Nathan and Chase in the other room and I wasn’t about to let on to my parents that something was wrong over the holidays and crash in their hotel room.

That was my next issue. Not only was I heading out to have dinner with my parents, but I was about to do it with Shawn fucking Stevens. Could today get any worse?