Take Three (The Jilted Bride #2)(23)

He’s just a regular guy…a regular sexy guy…keep it together!

He watched me as I approached him, and I had to control every muscle in my body to make sure I didn’t blush.

“This is the heritage blend,” I avoided his eyes as I poured the coffee. “It’s the house favorite, but it’s also extremely hot so make sure you let it cool for a few seconds.”

I heard a familiar laugh outside the window and immediately looked up: Taylor and Jessica were strolling by hand in hand and she looked like she was nine months pregnant. Nine. Months. Pregnant.

I need to go out there and confront them! Right now! How dare they do this to me? How can they still be together? The audacity! The gall! The nerve!

Jessica must’ve called me a million times after I caught her and Taylor going behind my back, but I didn’t pick up once. I couldn’t.

I listened to all her apologetic voicemails, read all her remorseful messages, but I was always too hurt to respond.

I tried not to scream as I watched the two of them walk down the street, as I watched them lean on each other, laughing. I wondered what they were talking about, if they ever discussed how wrong they both were when it came to me.

All of a sudden, I felt a hand tightly squeezing my wrist. I looked down and saw that I’d poured the entire pot of coffee into the sexy stranger’s lap.

“Shit! I mean, oh my god! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” I dropped the steel pot into his lap and watched as his soft blue eyes darkened and flamed with anger.

“Water…Water…Now,” his voice was a breathless whisper, but his eyes were blazing.

“I said I was sorry. It’s not like I tried to pour it on you,” I rolled my eyes. “And I specifically told you it was hot! Why didn’t you listen? You didn’t feel anything until the pot was completely empty? I think you should’ve jumped up a long time ago! I refuse to take the blame for your—”

He tightened his grip on my arm and narrowed his eyes. “Water…Now.”

“Right,” I ran into the kitchen and filled two pitchers with ice. I held them under the tap until they overflowed and rushed back out to the seating area.

I went back to his table and dumped the first pitcher of ice water into his lap, watching him squirm in discomfort. And then, seconds later—although he seemed to be calming down somewhat, I dumped the second one on him.

He groaned and swore under his breath. He balled both of his fists and didn’t look up at me.

Whoa…He must be really mad…He looks even sexier when he’s mad…

“I really am sorry,” I cleared my throat. “I know it wasn’t completely your fault but…you definitely could’ve gotten up before I poured the whole pot on you. You didn’t feel those first few drops at all?”

He shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. “Un-f*cking-believable...”

He grabbed the ledge of the table and slowly stood up. He took a wet twenty out of his pocket and placed it on the table. He grabbed his pink to-go box and finally looked me in my eyes. “Thank you very much.”

I heard the bell over the door ring as he walked out.

Chapter 10

Ethan

I sank into my ice-filled tub and groaned. Lola had declared my pants a “coffee-tastrophe” and told me to go home for the rest of the day.

I couldn’t believe that Sweet Seasons waitress for blaming the wasted coffee on me. The audacity. The gall. The nerve!

I wanted to threaten to sue Sweet Seasons once she was done babbling about how it wasn’t her fault, but I knew there wouldn’t be any point in that.

I didn’t feel the coffee dripping into my lap at first because I was too busy looking at her, wishing she would look back at me. She was the same woman who fell backwards in Autumn Wonder days ago—except she wasn’t really a blonde and I still couldn’t figure out where I knew her from.

Although I was furious with her, I couldn’t deny that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen in my life. Even with her raven-black hair in a simple ponytail, she was stunning. Absolutely stunning.

I wondered what she would be like outside of work, if she would consider going out with me.

I grabbed my phone from the ledge and called Barry.

“Ethan?” he sounded surprised. “What’s going on buddy?”

“I never want to hear that story about you and your stupid jellyfish again. A waitress poured a whole pot of scorching coffee in my lap today and I’m pretty sure she did it on purpose.”

“Ouch! Did you go to the ER?”

“No…Turns out our employee uniform pants are pretty heat resistant, but my thighs still hurt like crazy.”

“Good to know. By the way, I got your reports earlier. I’m presenting them to the board first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Great. Tell me something,” I suddenly thought about Lola. “Do we drug test our employees? Like, thoroughly?”

“Um yeah? We give one before hire and two random ones a year. Why do you ask?”

We need to increase it to six…

“Just wondering. Listen, I’m not so sure about this expansion site now,” I sighed. “It seems like we have some pretty decent competition outside of Starbucks. A lot of locals are addicted to this place called Sweet Seasons. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to put them out of business by December, even though that would be ideal…”