Finding June (10 page)

I walked back to Steve giving a stern talking to Reece. I could hear Reece say he forced me to do it, that it wasn’t my fault and the guests loved it. Steve shook his head and turned around to head back into the kitchen. I was grabbing drinks when I heard Jo come up behind me.

“Holy shit, June, what was that? That was fucking awesome!”

“Jo, shut up. I don’t want people to hear you,” I faked whispered, like I was trying to keep a secret.

“They can’t hear me, trust me. They are still talking about that flash mob type of dance you and Reece did. That was so cool, your tables are going to be throwing money at you after that performance.”

“I can’t believe I did that!” I really couldn’t. Holy shit was right.

“Me neither. That was totally non-June behavior. You swept the floor with Reece! You should do ballroom dancing with him. I bet he could find all the right places to put his hands,” Jolene said with a wink as she walked away.

I gave Jo a weak laugh, but she was right. People were pretty generous with tips afterwards. Sadly, my mood got worse as the night went on. I was starting to get pissed about the fact Reece had totally put me on the spot in front of probably a hundred people and made me look ridiculous. I was an innocent bystander in his singing extravaganza, and suddenly he was making me the main attraction. I was not a circus act.

As I mentally ranted at him, Bethany walked up to me and said, “Hey, how much do you love me?”

“Um, not a lot. Why?” Apparently my impromptu dance was not good for my current mood.

“With the little love you have for me, will you close? My bartender suddenly has the night off and we want to go hang out with his friends.” I was already irritated and didn’t want to deal with Bethany and her little fling.

“Does your bartender have a name, or do you just scream out drinks to him while you’re doing it?” There was my bitchy mood in full force.

Bethany shot me a glare. “Classy, June. You always know what to say to make a girl feel special. Yes, hooker, my bartender has a name. It’s Timmy.”

“I didn’t know anyone named their kid Timmy after 1989.”

This time Bethany huffed, literally huffed, and said, “June, shut up and answer my question! Close for me or not?”

“Technically, it’s difficult to answer your question when you tell me to shut up.”

Bethany’s glare turned into an evil one. Since I had taken out my frustrations on her from the earlier incident and a stupid green-eyed man, I decided my apology would be closing for her, even though I really didn’t want to.

“Fine,” I snapped. “Who am I closing with?”

“Reece. Thanks, June,” Bethany said as she walked away to tell Steve.

Reece? Shit, I knew that! I had forgotten as my mood plummeted. I was trying as hard as possible to avoid him so I had forgotten who was closing. I kicked the crate sitting next to the wall and walked back out front to bus a table. Reece came up to the table to help and said, “Hey, heard you were closing with me now. Cool, but long day for you.” Always so considerate. Damn him.

“Yep,” was my single note reply. I didn’t say anything else as I stacked glasses.

“Well, luckily for you I’m a super quick and efficient closer, so we should be out pretty fast. Hey, maybe want to grab a drink after work? Worked up a bit of a thirst after that dance,” Reece said with an upbeat tone in his voice.

“No, I’m good.” I kept my tone as even as possible. I grabbed the glasses and walked away, for once leaving him standing there with nothing to say.

It died down pretty fast and soon the one table in the restaurant left as I finished cleaning. After Steve locked the doors, I cashed out and realized I
had
made a ton of money. Even for my shitty attitude, I was still able to fake it. I grabbed my purse and my car keys; it was almost midnight and I was ready to be home. I heard Reece behind me as Steve finished turning off the lights.

“Here, let me walk you to your car,” Reece stated as he grabbed his coat. All I wanted was to escape the tension he was oozing.

I spun around. “No, I’m fine. I can get to my car perfectly fine by myself.”

Reece gave me a slightly annoyed look.

“You just made a ton of money, I am not letting you walk to your car alone with all that cash. Anyone could come and take you out.” His considerate ways, for some reason, were really starting to get to me. I didn’t need to be looked out for. I was a big girl who could take care of herself.

I sighed, knowing I would lose this battle, and figured the quicker I got into my car the faster I could get away from this weird ass night.

“Fine,” was all I said as I went out the back door, not waiting for him. He quickly caught up and we both silently walked to my car across the parking lot. I unlocked it as he stood there, staring at me. “With you walking me, I made it to my car unmugged. I guess this is the time I praise you with thanks for being my prince charming?” I said with slight anger in my voice. I wasn’t even sure where it was coming from, but there was no way to take it back now, so I went with it. He simply smiled and there was a slight pause.

“What?” I asked as I turned to face him.

“Just want to make sure you get in your car and started.”

I grew more annoyed as each second passed and he stared at me with those intense green eyes. I got in and started the ignition; Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” boomed out of the speakers.

He had a smirk on his face when he said, “Even your car is mocking you.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I was done with being annoyed and had moved to full out anger.

Reece sighed. “June, we had a great night. Suddenly you get all pissy toward me and I didn’t even do anything. We were having fun, doing something in the moment, but then you got angry about it. Why are you pushing me away?”

I gave him the most evil glare I could muster after working a ten-hour shift. I was seriously on my last thread and he was pretty damn close to making me go off the edge.

“Who gives you the right to pass judgment on me?” I spat out.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t let me off easily. I was standing in the doorway to my car when Reece put both of his hands on either side of me, caging me in. “Why, June,
why
are you pushing me away?”

I gulped as I tried to make eye contact. I had to do something about this situation; I couldn’t have Reece thinking this was anything more than friendship. I knew the words I was about to say were going to be a lie and I needed him to believe it. “I don’t want you.” I had no idea if I thought saying the words out loud would make me believe it, but for the sake of myself, I had to say it.

Reece leaned in further. “You need to admit it.”

“Admit what?”

“Admit it, June. You’re scared, and not just of me, but of what we could become. You’re scared of the unknown, and you cover it with sarcasm or acting like you don’t care. Don’t let fear be the one to dictate your life. You’re better than that.”

“You don’t have any right to tell me what I am or what I’m feeling. You don’t know me, you don’t get a say.”

We hadn’t moved; our bodies so close, but not touching. Our words were heated and I was shaking. I had no idea how this night got so turned around. Reece leaned even closer and was only an inch away from my ear. With the grace of a lover, he whispered, “But I do know you. Even if you won’t let me in.”

He pushed off of my car and silently, calmly, got into his and drove off.

The next morning I heard a pounding on my door at the ass crack of dawn. When I rolled over in my bed, I looked at the clock and realized it was actually ten in the morning. I hadn’t gone to bed until almost two, which meant for me it was the ass crack of dawn. I tried to find pants on the ground, but only came up with some black running shorts. It could only be Jo, so I didn’t bother putting on a bra, just a red tank top. The knocking was not giving up.

“Jo, sweet Jesus I hear you. Hold your panties women,” I yelled. Grabbing my purple fleece zip up, I opened the door. My hair was everywhere. I squinted in the sunlight, but I didn’t see my fiery friend.
Nope
, I sighed,
not Jolene
.

“I wear briefs, actually, not panties,” Reece greeted me with a smug smile.

Fuck me running. This was
not
how I wanted to wake up this morning.

“What the hell do you want?” I snapped.

“With that lovely opening, I can tell you’re not a morning person,” Reece said rather smugly.

No shit, Sherlock. I work late nights. God, I was still mad at him from last night. I had laid in bed for over an hour, going over the night and his words to me. I leaned against the door and folded my arms over my chest, remembering I wasn’t wearing a bra.

“I repeat. What. Do. You. Want?” I snapped with disdain in my voice.

“I am so happy you asked, Jolly June.”

Jolly June? Yeah, that shit wasn’t going to fly.

“I’m here to show you this.” Reece put his phone in my face. There was a YouTube video on the screen that was paused.

Reece saw my confused look and said, “Push play.”

I lifted my arm and pushed play on the screen of his phone. For the next minute and twelve seconds I saw, in horror, the dance between Reece and I on video. My eyes were huge as I watched the travesty on the screen.

Holy fuck.

Someone had taken a video of what people were calling the server flash mob and posted it on YouTube. After the video was over, Reece put his phone down and said, “And the best part … it has only been up for twelve hours and there are almost five thousand views! Jolly June, you are officially a YouTube sensation. All thanks to me, of course.”

There was point two seconds of silence before I screamed the anger that was coursing through me and slammed the door in Reece’s face. I turned my back to the door and slid down. A few moments of silence passed.

“June? Umm, can you open the door?” I heard Reece.

“Go away.”

“But I want to celebrate! Look how cool we are, we’re on freaking YouTube.”

“Reece,” I barked. “Go. Away.”

“Jolly June, you need to turn that frown upside down. Let me take you to breakfast. Maybe someone will recognize us and ask for our autographs.” The amount of joy Reece was getting out of this was sickening.

I, on the other hand, was raging at this point. “If you call me Jolly June one more time I will open this door and knee you right in the balls. Any hopes of you having children will be gone by the time I’m done.”

Silence. I thought maybe he had left.

“Well. That doesn’t sound too pleasant. I could settle for coffee instead of breakfast, June. Just June.”

Oh he thought he was so damn witty. What the hell was I supposed to do with this, with this situation and with him?

“Just June, my dear, I know your sudden fame is a lot to deal with right now, but please open the door.”

The thing with Reece was no matter how rude I was or how much I yelled it didn’t faze him. He always had this happy go lucky attitude. I didn’t know what I needed to do to send him a clear signal that I was not interested and to leave me alone. Even if I had lingering dirty thoughts about Reece, this couldn’t happen. No way. I got up and opened the door.

I was almost pleading at this point for him to leave me alone. “Reece, yesterday was a long day and I am not really in the mood for company and … wait, how did you know where I lived?”

Reece sheepishly stared beyond me, not looking at my face anymore. “Oh well …”

“Jolene,” we said at the same time. I thought she was starting to let go of the whole June and Reece union, but I guess she was just being more silent about it.

Reece slipped his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and rocked on his heels, reverting back to his chipper side. “I was going to call, but I figured it was a beautiful Sunday morning and I could take a lovely stroll to see you.”

I raised my eyebrow. I wasn’t buying it.

He splayed his hands out and said, “Okay, I owe you an apology. I was an ass last night. I had no right to say what I did.”

An apology wasn’t what I was expecting. I was going to say something, but Reece beat me to it. “To sweeten the apology pot, let me make it up to you. Let me take you out,” Reece said with a wide grin. His eyes lit up and I swear I didn’t breathe for two seconds. I couldn’t explain his affect on me. My reaction to Reece was something I had never experience before. Even Owen didn’t stir these feelings in me when we were dating. The small voice in the back of my head repeated to stay away. I was in dangerous waters and I wasn’t sure what to do. Reece could sense my hesitation and said, “Just as friends, a friendly outing in the afternoon. I won’t even make you go out during the night.”

I had the decision to either look like a bitch or to accept. While my mind said no, my heart was telling me a different story. Even though I was still pissed to hell, I knew he was trying to make an effort to be nice and apologize. It was only right I put the bitch away for a bit and accept his offer for a friend date.

“Yes,” I finally said.

“Yes?” He was acting like he couldn’t believe that I had agreed.