A Tale of Two Pretties (5 page)

Eight

Uncle Tony’s Pizzeria

Thursday

6:45pm

Darcy

While Mac got the cushy day job at the temp agency, the only thing available for me at the Pizzeria was bus girl on the night shift. Brad hooked me up with the job as soon as I said I needed one. I would have rather done something behind the bar or maybe cashier, but he said bussing tables was all I could get.

At least it was better to earn my money than having to steal it from an ex or selling my computer. Eventually, I’d have to get a real job or do something with my degree. If someone would hire a girl straight out of college with no work experience.

Yeah, right.
I was royally fucked.

I stared at myself in the tiny bathroom mirror. I think Brad purposefully gave me the tiniest white t-shirt he could find. My chest looked like it was straining to get out of the damn thing. If I was a waitress I would have gotten a hell of a lot of tips in the tight shirt and tiny black shorts but as a busgirl I planned on just having a lot of shit spilled on my bare skin that I had to wash off.

The Pizzeria was dead when I walked through the front door. I knew it was past dinner time but I expected at least someone to be there. Brad was standing behind the bar talking to a redhead who was perched on a barstool in a waitress uniform. Jealousy boiled beneath my skin as she giggled, touching his hand.

What the fuck was I doing? I was Darcy freaking Pepper. I didn’t get jealous of other girls. I usually just walked in and took what I wanted. But Brad was a different story. He was my landlord, my boss, and the guy who made my stomach do somersaults. I never fell for guys. Sure, I had my love struck puppy moments, but Brad was different. There was something about my tattooed neighbor that had me craving more of him.

I sauntered over to the bar, trying my best to keep a smile on my face even though I just wanted to punch the girl touching Brad. Luckily I didn’t have anything to worry about because as soon as Brad saw me approach all his attention was off the other girl and he fully faced me, pulling his hand away from her. “Hey, you made it.”

“Of course I did. I couldn’t miss my first day of work.” I smiled brightly, making sure to turn up the charm. Redhead wasn’t going to get anywhere with me in the picture.

“Great.” He tapped his fingers on the counter and redhead cleared her throat. “Oh, hey, yeah, Darcy this is Kellie, one of the waitresses. She’ll be helping you with the front of the house tonight and I’ll be helping you close up in the back.”

Kellie’s green eyes intently focused on me, sizing me up from head to toe. “B-Rad couldn’t you get the poor girl a bigger uniform shirt? She looks like she’s suffocating in that thing.”

Mac had a southern twang that I found adorable. Brad’s accent was a sexy drawl. But Kellie’s accent was a high-pitched, piercing whine that made me want to grit my teeth.

“No can do. That was the only size we had left and I think it fits her just fine. I could even get a smaller size if you want it, Darcy.” Brad winked.

Kellie shook her head, her curly ponytail swishing around her head. “B-Rad be nice to the poor girl, she’s just a baby.”

“A baby?” I balked. “I’m twenty-one.”

“Like I said,” she smirked. “Just a baby.” She patted my hand. “But don’t worry I’ll take good care of you.”

I wanted to say something sharp back. Mac probably would have had the perfect comeback, but I bit my tongue. I couldn’t exactly afford to get my ass fired and that would have been really awkward, since I was living above the place.

“Great, should we get started then?” I forced the cheeriest voice possible.

She stood up from the bar stool, adjusting her giant tits in her shirt. “Of course.”

* * * * *

A few takeout orders came in, but nothing for actual sit down customers, so I didn’t have anything to clean for the first hour, which left me stuck talking to Kellie while Brad was out delivering pizzas.

“So how long have you known B-Rad?” Kellie asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

We were filling up the parmesan cheese shakers and I was pretty sure my hands were going to smell like cheese forever.

“Not long.” I shrugged.

“Oh.” She pursed her lips together. “I’ve been working with him ever since he came here from Charleston to help out Uncle Tony. It’s nice not to have one of those typical young ass college guys in here hitting on me.”

“Uh huh.” I knew what game she was trying to play and I wasn’t going to let her get me jealous.

“I mean I wouldn’t ever date someone I worked with, though. I think that’s kind of tacky.” She smiled.

I wasn’t going to feed into her at all. I didn’t want to deal with her shit or anyone else’s. I had enough of that from my mother all my life and all the guys that knocked me on my ass. I was just tired of it. “Uh huh.”

Before she could say another word, the bell dinged over the front door and a loud, booming voice carried over the room. “Ey, ladies, Uncle Tony’s here to save the day!”

His voice may have been big, but Uncle Tony was a short, round man with a bald head, a handlebar mustache and more hair poking out of the top of his V-neck shirt than I think I’d ever seen a man have on his entire body.

“Hey, Uncle Tony.” Kellie stood up, grinning from ear-to-ear.

“Bongiorno, Kellie!” He sauntered over to us and kept his dark eyes trained on me. “And you must be the other half of my new tenants. Bradley told me about the two of you. I already met the little blonde.”

I stood up and nodded, extending my hand. “Yes, sir, that’s me. Darcy Pepper.”

He shook his head and put his arms out, embracing me in a huge hug that crushed me against his round belly. “Ey, ey, no sirs here! I’m Uncle Tony! That’s what everyone calls me.” He let go of me but kept his hands on my shoulders. “And you should too.”

“Uh, okay, Uncle Tony.”

“Uncle Tony!” Brad emerged from the kitchen with his arms raised.

“Bradley, ey!” They hugged and Uncle Tony smiled at him. “I did what you said and put those flyers in every apartment complex within a ten mile radius. Free pitcher with a pizza. This place should be packed soon.”

“That’s great, Uncle Tony.” Brad patted his back.

“My nephew, the freaking marketing genius. I don’t know what I’d do without him.” Uncle Tony looked at me like a proud papa bragging.

I nodded and smiled, their smiles were contagious. “Yeah. That sounds like a great idea.” I hoped it was because if it wasn’t, I was afraid I’d be out of a job.

No sooner had I spoken that a group of college guys walked in with flyers. Kellie grinned at me. “Time to learn from the master now.” She winked and sauntered over to the guys. “Welcome to Uncle Tony’s, can I get y’all a table?”

* * * * *

Turned out that I sucked at bussing tables. Like hardcore sucked. The busier the place got, the more plates I broke and drinks I spilled. This, of course, made Kellie grin like a Cheshire cat. She hid it immediately and I could have been imagining it, but I was pretty sure the bitch had it out for me.

“B-Rad if you need me to stay and help close up, I can do that,” she cooed, leaning across the bar and pushing her tits so far up they were practically in her face.

He shook his head not looking up from the register. We closed the lobby about fifteen minutes before but I was still sweeping up the last broken plate. “It’s okay, Kel. Darcy needs to learn. You can go home now. We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” she pressed.

I tried not to stare but realized I was openly gaping at him when Brad’s eyes met mine. He may have been speaking to Kellie, but his words were definitely meant for me to here. “Yeah. We’ve got it.”

Kellie glanced over her shoulder at me, curling her upper lip before she stood up. “Fine. If you need me you know where to reach me. I’ll just get my purse and see you tomorrow. Hopefully this place will be in one piece.” Her dig at me didn’t go unnoticed.

As soon as Kellie walked out the back door Brad traipsed over to where I was standing. I realized that I stopped sweeping up my mess a few minutes ago and was just completely staring at him.

“You gonna finish cleaning that up so we can start cleaning up the back?” He arched an eyebrow.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry totally um... I was just...” I racked my brain trying to think of a better excuse than I was watching him.

“If you want to check me out all the time, you don’t need an excuse.” He grinned.

I rolled my eyes, trying to appear like I was offended by the idea of it. “Totally was not.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been checking you out all night, too.” He took a step forward, closing the space between us. “I think we could definitely get you a size smaller t-shirt if we needed to.”

I gently shoved his arm. “Oh my God! I can’t believe you just said that!” I laughed.

He held his arms up. “Hey, I’m just offering it to you. Or you could go without a shirt too. Then I’m sure we’d bring in even more customers.”

“Well you would know, since you’re the marketing genius after all.”

His smile faded and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t say that. I’m just trying to help Uncle Tony out.”

“Hey.” I shoved his bicep, my fingers lingering on his full-sleeved tattoo. Every time I looked at it I noticed another part of it from the koi fish that snaked under his shirt to the waves that crashed by his wrist. “No need to be embarrassed. You’re the one who was giving me hell about my uniform.”

“I know, I shouldn’t dish it out if I can’t take it,” he muttered.

I wanted to press further. I wanted to know more about the guy I’d become fascinated with in such a short time, but I also didn’t want to get involved. It was the ultimate catch 22. “Uh, yeah, speaking of dishes I guess I should finish sweeping up my mess.”

“That’d be good. Then hopefully you won’t break anything else when we wash them.”

“Oh my God, shut up!” I pushed his shoulder.

I finished sweeping up the dish, scooping it up in the dust pan and throwing away the shards in one of the big garbage cans near the bar.

“Okay, now that you’ve man handled me enough, let’s head to the back.” Brad motioned for me to follow as he turned on his heel and pushed the swinging door to the kitchen.

The dining area was a good size with quite a few booths and tables, but the kitchen was tiny. The giant stone oven took up half the room with a narrow little walk way between it and the prep table. A few feet behind that was a large industrial sink filled with dishes and pizza pans.

“We have to wash all of these by hand?” I stared wide-eyed at the giant stack.

“Yeah, usually the guys aren’t that busy and can get it done after the dinner rush, but it was pretty swamped tonight.” Brad walked up to the sink.

“So...we have to wash all of these, like for real?” I stood next to him, staring at the giant stack and wondering how many of the plates and other things I would end up breaking.

“What, are you afraid of a little water?” He turned on the faucet and grabbed the hose, squirting it on my hand.

I gasped as soon as the icy cold water hit me. “Brad!”

“You don’t like that? Or was that a good gasp?” He raised his eyebrows playfully. “Maybe you need some more.” He pointed the nozzle right at my shirt and sprayed, the water instantly soaking through the white cotton and bra underneath.

“Oh my God! Totally not cool!” I screamed and grabbed the hose. “Stop it!”

“Stop what, this?” He was definitely stronger than me and grabbed onto my hand, forcing the hose to face me and sprayed a large stream of water that soaked through my shirt again. I screamed and he laughed.

“Brad!” He pulled the hose back so it was just out of my reach and I lunged for it. He caught me, pulling his free arm around my waist and pressing my wet chest against him.

I licked my lips. His eyes flitted from my eyes to my lips. He leaned in, pressing his mouth to mine. I gasped when he nipped at my bottom lip before licking it and then his tongue met mine. I wanted him. I couldn’t deny that, but before I could melt into him I pulled back, staring into his icy blue eyes.

He didn’t say anything, just ran his thumb along my bottom lip. I wanted to stop myself, to say I couldn’t. The way my lip trembled from his touch, and more than just my shirt was wet, was proof enough I couldn’t refuse his advances.

I fisted his hair, pulling his mouth back to mine. He dropped the hose and brought his other arm around my waist as I molded my body into his. Everything about the moment with him felt right. Everything about kissing him seemed right until the harsh reality of the real world brought me back when a door slammed.

I jumped back, gasping and letting go of him. Brad wasn’t so quick to move, only reluctantly letting go of my waist when I shimmied away.

Kellie walked back into the kitchen. “Just forgot something in my locker and thought I’d see how everything’s going.”

“It’s going great.” I forced the biggest smile I could.

“Yeah. Going fine, Kellie.” Brad kept his back to her, his body pressed against the sink.

“Are you sure you don’t need me?” She stepped closer.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Brad said, not even looking at her.

“Okay. Fine.” She turned and stormed out.

As soon as the bell went off over the front door Brad turned away from the sink and pulled me back against him, making it painfully obvious why he wouldn’t turn around once he pressed his body against me. His erection was pushing right into my lower stomach and as much as I wanted him, I had to reign it in.

I put my hand on his chest. “Look, Brad. It’s obvious that I like you, but I can’t do this right now. I mean... well I can do this, but not a relationship. If that’s what you want, I might not be the girl you’re looking for.”

He tilted my chin forcing me to meet his eyes. “Whatever this is, I don’t want it to stop. So whatever I have to do to keep it, I’m cool with that.”

I let out a deep breath. “Okay. I can live with whatever this is. We just can’t tell Mac because she won’t understand. Or Kellie. Or really anyone else for now. Until we at least know what’s going on or not...or...”