EroticReverie

Colson 

I spend the night helping to expedite the food in back since our scheduled expediter, is covering the shift for one of our waiters who had to call out. I don't get to check on Kate until the dining room closes and the last meal is out of the window. 

When I step out of the kitchen and look at the bar. I stop and just watch, leaning against the end of the bar as she talks animatedly to Gus as well as a few younger men and their girlfriends, while pouring them beers from the taps. 

I look over the bar to watch her pouring skills, my eyebrow cocking when she cuts them off at the last second with the perfect amount of foam at the head.  She lifts the two glasses and starts another two as she talks and all of them are intrigued, all eyes on her. 

She wags her finger at Gus, after he says something and then throws her head back with a laugh as he says something else. Two more perfectly poured beers are set on the counter. Then she turns, grabbing a bottle from the shelf, lines up four shot glasses, and tips the bottle, running it along the lined up shot glasses filling each without overflow or a big mess. My brows lift as she smiles at her work and then spins and puts the bottle back. 

I watch her take money from the one guy next to gus, as the two guys and their girls take their shots, while Kate makes their change. 

"Stare a bit harder boss." Parker says from behind me and I turn and look at her. I hadn't even realized she wasn't behind the bar with Kate, I was too busy watching her to notice anyone else. 

"Knock it off." I tell her. 

She smirks. 

"I'm jealous with all that attention you're giving our new girl." she says. 

I look at Parker and she smiles. 

Parker was a friend of mine. A..good friend. One that had made it into my bed one drunken night a few years ago right after calling off my engagement from my ex fiance Natalie, and had been trying to gain entry into my bed again ever since. But I didnt fuck employees. It was messy. Maybe that's why I hired Kate. Not just because we needed someone to replace Tawny when she left, but because it would put up another wall to keep from wanting her. 

"How's she doing?" I ask, ignoring her little comment. 

"Good." she gestures to her. "Customers love her. She's a fast learner, had a trouble with her first few pours, and a bit of trouble on the register, finding the buttons ya know, but that's normal. She's good. Real good." she says. 

"Good." I say with a nod. 

As I'm looking at Kate, something pulls my attention to the door and I feel my entire body tense. 

Natalie. My ex fiance, walking in with some guy. 

She'd dared to come here a few times before, and I always ignored it, hid out in the office like a little bitch, just so I wouldnt have to interact with her. 

I watch as she and her date walk up to the bar and take a seat. 

"Oh no." Natalie says when she follows my gaze. "You good boss?" she asks. 

I nod , tight lipped, nostrils flaring. "Yep." 

I turn and go to the back office. 

---

Eventually the noise from the kitchen dies down, as the cooks finish up cleaning and closing down the line. Only the sound of the dishwasher going now and again and the radio that plays low in the back. 

I'm finishing the numbers up as I hear an increase in the amount of noise coming from the dining room. Mainly a screeching that has me looking up at the cameras and seeing Kate with her hands to her chest , Parker with her hand on her shoulder. And across the bar , right in front of them is Natalie, my ex, being held by her shoulder by her date, as she points and yells at Kate. 

"God damnit" I grumble and get up and make a bee line for the bar, walking behind it. I step in front of Kate , facing Natalie. Who's mouth drops open momentarily in silence, but then continues to yell. 

"You're new dumb fucking bar maid spilled an entire pitcher of beer all over me!" she shrieks. 

I look down, and want to laugh, because yup. Natalie is soaked, her sweater sagging with wetness and her light jeans looking like she pissed herself..quite a few times. 

"It was an accident Natalie." Parker says.

"How do you spill an entire pitcher of beer?!" Natalie shrieks and then looks at me. 

"I want her fired! She did it on purpose!" Natalie demands and my brows lift. 

"honey, let's go" the man says and I notice the gold band on his finger. I look to Natalie's seeing the diamond on hers. My nostrils flaring. 

I didn't want her. But fuck if it didn't still sting a little bit to see she'd married someone. That she'd moved on so easily, so quickly. Married him in two years or less, while we were engaged for five.

"Yeah Natalie. You should go." I say. 

She stops glaring at Kate behind me and looks to me. 

"What?" she asks. 

"Youre kicking me out because of what your idiot blonde bimbo did to me?!" she squeals. 

"It was an accident. You won't talk to my staff like that. Out." I say and nod to the door. 

She scoffs. 

I wasn't even sure who the girl before me was. How did I love a woman like this? So self righteous, to where she think she could make me fire my own staff for a mishap after she bed a man while I was out of town in our own bed. 

"Fire her!" she yells. 

I lose my sense of being professional.

"Natalie. See yourself out. Just like your saw yourself out of our relationship when you slept with a stranger in our bed." I say.

A collective gasp from bystanders as she gapes at me. 

"You bastard." she says. 

"Get out." I say once more, before her new man, her fucking husband, drags her from the bar. 

I watch as she leaves, making sure she doesnt turn back around and then turn to Kate as people whisper around the bar, some chuckling. 

"She had it comin" Gus says from behind me. "Never did like her much." he says and I roll my eyes and then look at Kate.

"You good?" I ask. 

She nods once, looking scared? No...guilty.

I look to Parker, with a questioning stare. 

She looks away. 

"You two. My office. Now." 

--

I have both in my office. Kate sitting in the chair by my desk, Parker standing up by the door as she closes it, and I take a seat. 

"What the hell happened?" I ask looking between the two of them. 

"I..I spilled it on her." Kate says and shrugs. 

"On accident, right?" I ask looking at her and she looks to the side. 

"Yeah, sure." she says. 

Parker smirks to herself, and I look up at her, she catches me, and she wipes the little smirk off her face, and clears her throat. 

"Looked like an accident to me boss" Parker says. 

"Parker. Out." I say. 

"Sure thing." she says and spins , leaving the office. 

"Why would you purposely spill beer on a customer?" I ask Kate, leaning back and crossing my arms as I recline slightly in my office chair. 

Her brows pinch. 

"What makes you think I purposely spilled it on her?" she asks and mirrors me crossing her arms. 

My jaw clenches. 

"Because I know Parker has a big mouth. And she probably told you who that was." I say. 

Kate bites the inside of her lip and shrugs. 

"Maybe she might have mentioned it." Kate says , and I have to fight back a smirk. 

I heave a sigh. 

"Okay, so Parker told me, when I asked if you went home. She just said you usually spend more time out by the bar at the end of the night, but you had to escape Hades." she says and I fight another smirk. Hades is what Parker nicknamed Natalie when we broke up to make me feel better. 

"And if what she did to you wasn't reason enough" Kate says as she sits up , uncrossing her arms. 

"she said something shitty to Parker. So...I...accidentally...shut her up." Kate says and shrugs. 

"Fire me if you have to. It's fine. But she deserved more than a cold pitcher of beer on her, more like a scalding pot of coffee, or....something worse." she says angrily, her lips tight and she shakes her head. 

"What did she say to Parker?" I ask. 

"Something about you two. Asked her if she enjoyed her....if she enjoyed her sad little leftovers." Kate says and my jaw ticks. 

That stung. It really did. I realize more and more each time I encounter Natalie, that I never knew her. Or if I did, she wasn't the same girl I had known when we first got together. 

"I put two and two together, since you were her ex fiance, that she meant that Parker and you had..whatever..and I could tell by Parker's reaction it was true. " Kate says. 

"So, I may have accidentally let the pitcher I was pouring from someone else, fall into her lap." she shrugs. 

God, I wanted to fuck this girl. Hard, and many, many fucking times. 

"So you were retaliating for Parker ?" I ask. 

She shrugs. "Well she wasnt going to do it. She's too professional. So, I did what I could without calling her a cunt to her face." Kate says. 

I bite my lips together. 

"And..it wasn't just for Parker...it was for what she did to you too. That's shitty. Real fucking shitty." she says and shakes her head and looks at the floor. 

"I wanted to slam her face into the countertop when Parker told me." Kate says. 

"and what did Parker tell you?" I ask. 

She looks at me. I roll my eyes. "Parker is a notorious gossip, and what happened between me and Natalie, isn't a big secret around here." I tell her. 

"Told me that she cheated on you. While you were out of town. With some guy. While....while you were at your grandmothers funeral." she says and I tear up slightly, not because of the memory of what Natalie did, but because Kate tears up and she looks at me. I blink away the dampness in my eyes. 

"I'm sorry that happened to you." she says and I nod. 

"Thank you." I say and clear my throat. 

After a moment she takes a deep breath. 

"Well, .." she rubs her thighs over her jeans. 

"thanks for giving me a shot. I'm sorry I caused so much trouble." she says standing and turning. 

"Kate." I say as she reaches for the door knob. 

She turns. "Yeah?" 

"Go finish your shift with the girls." I tell her. 

Her brows raise. "Huh?" 

I just look at her.

"It was just an accident." I say. 

A small smile crosses her lips and she nods. 

"right." she says. 

I nod. "Then finish your shift with the girls. And be here tomorrow the same time." I tell her. 

The smile grows and she can't fight it this time. 

"Yeah?" she asks. 

I nod. "I'll need you to work on controlling your anger on behalf of Parker and me, but yes." 

She nods. "You got it boss." she says with a smile and leaves the office.