Beau cursed and I stood up. “Take care, Beau.”
Beau didn’t say anything more as I walked back up to the counter and ordered a black coffee to go. After paying for the coffee and the cake pops that were beside the register, I headed back for the car where Brianna was silently fuming.
That fume slid off her face when she saw the food and drink in my hand.
“Is that for me?” She smiled as she reached for the cup. “You shouldn’t have.”
I moved it out of her reach. “Actually, I’m going to drop you off at the station and go have lunch with my girl.”
Brianna’s face went mutinous.
It stayed mutinous the entire trip to the station.
And when I pulled up to the curb at the front to let her out, she slammed the door so hard on her exit that my ears popped.
“Bitch,” I muttered under my breath, putting the cake pops into the seat beside me before heading in the direction of Chick-fil-A.
Cannel had said that Chick-fil-A was her guilty pleasure. That she could eat it morning, noon and night.
I couldn’t blame her. I could as well.
The only problem was I didn’t have a great metabolism, and if I wanted the weight to stay off, I had to eat like I wanted it to stay off.
That meant instead of ordering two chicken sandwiches and large fries like I wanted, I instead ordered four orders of grilled nuggets and a side salad while I ordered her a number one with macaroni since I had a feeling the fries wouldn’t taste all that good when I got to her floor.
After having to smell it the entire way, I was more than ready to eat by the time I got into the elevator to head to her floor.
When I arrived, it was to find a few nurses in the nurses’ station, and no Cannel.
My eyes narrowed on the women who were chatting and laughing about something, wondering if they were some of the ladies that made it hard for Cannel to work there.
By the catty look on some of their faces, I wouldn’t doubt that they were.
“’Scuse me,” I said stiffly, not liking the idea of my girl having a bad day. “Could you point me in the direction of Cannel?”
The first woman that I’d spotted on my way up, the blonde with her ponytail in such a severe bun on top of her head, stood. “She’s on break. Can I help you?”
“Not unless you can take me to where she’s taking break,” I replied coolly. “I’m her man. We’re having lunch together.”
Eyebrows went up at that. “I thought she couldn’t ‘handle’ being around a male?”
That catty question was from the brunette with her hair in a ponytail on top of her head.
I looked her squarely in the eyes and said, “It’s taken a lot of work, but I can finally say that I’ve made a lot of leaps and bounds in helping her realize that I won’t kidnap her, take her to a cabin in the woods for a year, and continuously threaten to rape her if she doesn’t do exactly what I want her to do when I want her to do it.”
After the day I had, I seriously couldn’t handle having catty bitches thinking they knew Cannel tearing her down.
There was a long moment of silence as each woman took in the news.
“What?” the brunette asked.
“Maybe, before you start tearing someone down that’s prettier than you, for something that isn’t of her own making, you’ll stop to consider why instead of hating,” I all but snarled. “If I find out that you’ve hurt her anymore, I won’t be nice like she is. There’s a reason for laws around here, and that means that if they’re broken, someone can come enforce them.” I went on to glance at each woman. “And if you’d let her, she’d be your best friend.” I turned to the woman walking down the hall now that hadn’t been in on the conversation. “Can you point me to the nurses’ lounge?”
She pointed at a door at the end of the hall. “Right there.”
I nodded in thanks and headed that way.
Immediately the whispers started behind me, I just hoped that I hadn’t made things worse for her up here than they needed to be.
I had my hand on the door of the nurses’ lounge when my phone rang in my pocket.
I pulled the phone out and pressed it to my ear at the same time that I turned the knob for the lounge.
“Hello?” I answered the unknown number.
“It’s Shine,” Cannel’s brother said. “You have time to meet tonight?”
Cannel stood up from the table where she’d been sitting, no lunch in front of her, and stared at me openmouthed.
I winked at her and moved toward her at the same time as I said, “ I have a few hours.”