Room-maid(43)

He deserved so much better than Oksana. So. Much. Better.

The hostess returned and asked, “Is this for here or to go?”

It didn’t take much to make up my mind.

“For here.”





CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The hostess showed me to a table, but I couldn’t see Oksana. “Do you have a booth available? Over there?” I pointed to where I could feasibly hide but still keep an eye on Tyler’s cheating girlfriend. She would have to turn and look over her shoulder to see me, and given how wrapped up she was in her date, I didn’t think that was much of a possibility.

And I was assuming a lot here. Like the fact that I had registered enough on her radar for her to remember who I was. Because the two times I’d talked to her, I got the distinct impression that she thought me beneath her notice.

I called Shay and before I could speak, she said, “Did you figure out a way to get her last name?”

“I’m at Yuto’s and she’s here and it looks like she may be on a date.”

“Oooh.” She sounded way too excited. “How does she look?”

Like she always did? The same way she had when she’d been in my apartment earlier? “Like a shark wearing a human costume? Gorgeous but deadly? And she makes me feel inadequate in every way that a woman can possibly feel inadequate?”

“Well, that’s not true. You’re not a mother yet and that’s going to be a whole new level of inadequacies. I meant, is she dressed up?”

“I don’t know. She’s wearing a dress, but she was wearing the same thing at my house.”

“What kind of woman makes a guy what we’re calling soup and then meets up with another dude?”

Much as I didn’t want to be fair, in this instance I had to be. “You can’t mock the borscht. It was really good.”

My waitress came by then to ask what I wanted to drink and I told her just water. This was not a situation that needed to be alcohol fueled. It was important that I stay low-key and not start shouting things across the room at her.

Which may or may not have happened in some previous situations.

Shay asked, “Why are you in a sushi restaurant?”

So I explained the situation to her, leaving out the parts about the cost and Violet. Shay wouldn’t want me to have to owe anyone in my family and I wasn’t really in the mood to hash it out.

“Can’t you teach the dog not to chew on shoes?”

“Probably. But Tyler’s not really into disciplining Pigeon. He likes to spoil her.” Which I couldn’t blame him for, because she was the cutest and was usually such a good girl.

“That’s excellent,” she informed me.

“Why?”

“Because a man who spoils his dog will definitely spoil the woman he’s in love with.”

“Which is not me and is a very scary Russian woman who may or may not be cheating on him right this very second.” And if I was being honest, none of that was any of my business. I really had no right to be sitting here. “I shouldn’t be doing this. I feel like I’m breaching Tyler’s privacy.”

“More than when you were playing with his clothes?”

“I never should have told you that,” I muttered.

“Probably not,” she agreed. “This is probably some psychological thing. Where you stood by while Brad treated you like garbage so you’re not willing to stand by and see someone you care about get treated the same way.”

“What?” I asked, shocked by her assertion.

“Or I could be totally wrong. What’s she doing now?”

I glanced up, trying not to stare. “They’re just talking and they’re too far away for me to hear them. I should probably just go. Isn’t this technically stalking?”

“I say desperate times call for desperate measures and he is desperately hot and you’re just desperate, so stay put.”

“I’m not desperate—” I tried to protest, but she interrupted me.

“Speaking of desperate, have you told Brad to leave you alone and stop texting you? He gives love a Brad name.”

He had texted me two more times, but I didn’t mention it. “He knows not to. Maybe I should block his number. I told him he’s not the right guy for me.”

“That’s because Tyler is the right guy for you.”

I wished she could see me shaking my head. She needed to let the Tyler thing go. Even if I couldn’t do it myself. “I’m not ready to deal with my mother at the moment. One nuclear war at a time. Now shush. You’re distracting me from my stalking.”

“That’s so I can tell the police I tried to stop you from committing your crime when they accuse me of being an accessory after the fact.”

“Hate to tell you, Shay, but you’re an accessory during the fact.”

“Yeah, okay.”

I went silent, covertly watching Oksana and her date. I wished I could hear them. I could see only the side of Oksana’s face, so it was hard to tell if she was flirting or if she was just talking to him.

I tried to figure out why this bothered me so much. Why I was sitting here watching this woman when it literally had no bearing on my life. I figured it was probably because Brad had cheated on me so often and it infuriated me to think that someone might be doing this to a guy as nice as Tyler. He didn’t deserve it.