Don't Love Me ✓

25

“Rosy?” 

“Yes, Steve?”

“Can you please do me a favour?” His voice almost a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear. There were not many people at Jeff’s right now and I was rubbing the last table of the day as my shift ended in three minutes from now.

“Sure.” I stopped rubbing the table and turned to look at him, who was standing behind the cash counter, eyeing me intently, his cheeks flushed pink.

Well, that was new.

“Never, ever wear a skirt to work.” He walked out from behind the counter and grabbed the cloth from my hand, “Also, I will take it from here. You can call it a night.”

“It’s okay, Steve, I will do it and this is not even your job.” He was acting weird for the reason unknown to me. Jeffrey did not let me change into my uniform today saying I was looking too pretty for a uniform today which shook the entire staff because he had never complimented anyone before, but I was sure they were all just bluffing.

He was a really kind and soft-spoken man, but they all seemed to oppose that. As I had mentioned before, they were all not really huge fans of Jeffrey.

“If you will continue scrubbing this damn table off bending like that then I won’t be able to work anymore, Rosy!” I knew he was trying to hint something and trust me I was not the naive little girl who couldn’t read between the lines, but for some reason I could not comprehend what he was trying to say.

He had been acting very quiet and very distant today. He did not for even once flirted with me like he always did and neither did he try to lighten the atmosphere by cracking jokes, which was so unlike him and it bothered me. It could be either I did something wrong or he was sick, there could be no other possibility.

“I don’t get you, Steve.” I walked closer towards him and touched his forehead to check if he had fever, but he held my wrist and inhaled deeply, shaking his head, “Steve are you... Are you okay? You have been acting weird all day. ”

“Shh.”

Haww!

“Don’t you dare shush me mister, you better tell me right now why you have been acting weird all day or else the date that I owe you is cancel!”

“You don’t get it, do you babe?”

“What don’t I get?”

“Poor guy has a damn boner, Sunshine!” The voice came from behind and I turned to find Caden standing there with an amused smile planted on his face. He was standing there with his arms crossed and looking from his posture, I could make out that he had been standing there from quite a long time.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to understand that you don’t get it when a guy has it turned on.”

My cheeks flushed and I looked at Steve who passed me a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He released his grip from my wrist and I took a step back, looking at his pink ears and flushed face— Oh, so that’s why he was acting different.

“You could have just told me, Steve. I’d have changed into my uniform.” A teasing grin never leaving my face.

“What was I supposed to say? Hey, can you please change your skirt, I am getting a boner looking at you? Yeah, no.”

“Better than working with a hard on all day long.”

“It’s not funny!” I finally let out the laugh that I have been holding for so long, don’t get me wrong, I was not laughing at his misery, I just found the whole situation very funny.

Okay, maybe I was laughing at his misery!

I promise I was not a sadist.

“You owe me two dates now.” He said with a smug smile, his embarassment long gone— This was the Steve that I missed today.

“Sure thing, boo.” I placed a short kiss on his cheek and he returned the same gesture, but with a sloppy kiss making me scrunch my nose.

“I hate it when you do this.”

“And that’s exactly why I do it everytime.” I made a face at him and threw the cleaning cloth on his hand before passing him a huge fake smile, “Have fun cleaning.”

I looked towards Caden who was looking at me or rather staring at me with an unknown emotion all over his face, I passed him an apologetic smile and let him know that I’d be back soon as I only had to wash my hands and splash some water on my face and walked off towards the restroom. By the time I got back, which was only roughly five minutes, I found a grumpy looking Steve sitting behind the cash counter, pouting, his hands crossed across his chest and Caden had smirk plastered on his face.

When Steve’s eyes landed on me, he gave me an accused look and spoke, “You said you didn’t have a boyfriend!”

“I don’t.”

“That asshole claims you as his woman!”

“Don’t worry, it’s only for today.” Creases of confusion appeared on his face and I shook my head at him, “Don’t fret it. I’ll explain everything to you on our date on Thursday, yeah?”

“You promise?!” A wide grin appeared on his face and I grinned back. No, he was not into me and I was not into him, just to clear it all out. He was one of my best buddies and it had been almost three months since we had spent any time together, all I wanted to do was spend some quality time with him and catch up on old things.

Last time we went for lunch, which was as I had said, three months back, he had a crush on this girl and he just wouldn’t tell me if he had made a move on her or not. She was her neighbour and he had been crushing on her since three years, it was high time that he manned up and talked to her and there was no other way that he would talk to me unless we were alone and away from all our gossiping fellow workers.

“I promise.”

And before we could bid our goodbyes, a hand clasped my arm and pulled me out of the cafe saying how we were going to get late for our dinner reservations. Once we were safely seated in cars, he glanced at me before starting the engine and smirked,

“I didn’t know you could flirt so well.”

“Only with Steve.” And then he opened his mouth and spit what he wanted to since we entered the car,

“Is it that you only understand the dirty when implied and not directly spoken?”

“Shut up, I just didn’t think Steve would get turned on because of me. I mean we have been working for almost a year now and nothing like that sort has ever happened before.”

“Who wouldn’t get a boner looking at you bending down and rubbing the tables in such a sexy skirt.” He winked at me and I slapped his arm, which only made him laugh hard. He was being too bold around me, not that I minded, but I needed some time to accept this bold personality of his. He was moving too fast.

“I pity him.” He added.

“Shut up!”

“Poor guy must be having blue balls.” I glared at him, squinting my eyes into slits. If he thought he was the only one who could tease me with all the sexual innuendos, then he was so wrong. I was not seventeen anymore where he would make sexual remarks and I’d brush it off blushing, I was twenty and we were going to play fair.

I put my hand on his thigh to earn a reaction from him and I almost grinned looking at his breathing hitched. I trailed my hand higher and squeezed his upper thigh, making him intake a sharp breath and look at me with hooded eyes,

“If you don't shut up right now, then you would be the one with blue balls by the end of dinner.”

•••••••

How are you enjoying the story line so far?

I hope you enjoyed the fun part I added to break the sad tail.