Choice

Follow up

To say that Dena was delighted in herself would be the understatement of the century. Apparently she didn't miss me leaving the club with Caleb which was equally as surprising as that time I learned she was an editor for a fashion magazine (one that she called the best in New York but that was probably the bias talking.) It was surprising only because her mouth was practically glued to the 21 year old college student she'd recently started dating, and somehow in between the make out session, she had time to pay attention to little old me walk out with 'Disney Prince Personified.'

When I spotted her through the bar's large windows I was tempted to retreat out the back door leaving Henry to man the place himself with no explanation and maybe a text after the fact. He would understand... mostly.

The plan was a bust because before I could actually hop over the counter and dash out Henry gave me a firm stare and I opted to clean the glasses.

Dena walked in casually dropping her purse on the counter and taking a seat. She greeted Henry with a nod. "Hot stuff."

"Dena," he replied in a monotone and a nod of recognition himself.

Then she turned to me leaning further into the counter with a lopsided smirk. "So Thea I take it Caleb was a hit."

If I didn't have to actually pay for the glass I would've dropped it. Always so infuriatingly straight to the point, and always so capable of embarrassing me in the least amount of words.

Honestly maybe if my face wasn't burning up my glare would've been effective, but it wasn't. Dena only managed to look more amused than she was before (however that worked I would never know.)

I knew a losing battle when I saw one so I coughed. Hoping to regain a shred of professionalism, I said in an even voice, "Drink?"

"Ice tea." She said quickly before returning to the topic at hand completely unfazed. "Anyways I saw you walk out with him how did it go. I know he's not the type to one night stand. Do you have his number? Better yet when's the next date?"

I looked over to Henry hoping that he would help me out of here that was the least he could do after foiling my plans, but at this point he was doing his best to pretend like he wasn't paying attention at all. I was never covering any shift for him ever again.

"Uh... It was pleasant," I smiled hoping that covered it.

Turns out, it didn't. Her fingers tapped against the counter and her face seemed to convey every bit of the words "try again" without a sound actually being made. I felt like a child caught up in an obvious lie, but in my case it was more of an obvious "mild truth."

"Okay so I like him," I mumbled.

That seemed to satisfy her when she broke out into more questions, and I could only really glare at Henry and imagine the multiple ways I could torture his nonexistent voodoo doll that I kept hidden at the bottom of my underwear drawer. I only found solace in the fact that yeah, I was never going to cover any of his shifts ever again.

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