Neal was definitely an interesting man she thought as she let herself into her apartment. She took a shower and then crawled into bed, very much looking forward to her day off on Sunday already.
Chapter 5
Robyn wasn’t sure how much she looked forward to working with Kasia as she got out of bed the next morning. She was almost expecting a female version of Eric from what she had heard about her coworker so far, but she didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with the other woman or to judge her unfairly. Robyn knew that there were some people that would probably judge her unfairly simply because she was an unwed pregnant woman that planned to raise her own child. It was strange to think of in this day and age, but she knew it was true.
The day seemed to drag. She didn’t really have much to do. The apartment was clean, she had groceries, and the baby’s room was set up exactly the way that she wanted it to be. She tried to read for a while but her taste in books usually ran to racy romance novels that involved lots of sex and affairs. With her attraction to both Gabe and Neal, sex and affairs were the last things she believed she needed to think about.
She ate a late lunch and then decided to go to a local discount store and price a cheap laptop. Neal had mentioned that they got paid the following Monday. She figured that she would be fine on money until then and be able to pay her electric bill and pick up a few more groceries and other things after pay day.
She fell in love with a laptop but it cost more than she liked, so she decided on the most basic model that should still do everything she needed it to. They had wireless internet access at her apartment building so she drove home and asked the manager what the password was and then returned to her apartment and set up the laptop.
It was slow and didn’t pick up the wireless connection the greatest, but she figured it would suit her purposes and she could keep in touch with her sisters and brothers and some of her friends from back home easier that way.
There was a free trial for a game on the laptop that was very addicting. She spent the rest of her time before she had to leave for work playing the game. She left her apartment wondering if it would be easier to work with her male coworkers or Kasia. She figured that working with Neal might be the most enjoyable, but tried to put the thought out of her mind as she pulled into the parking lot of Gabe’s Place.
A beautiful woman was behind the bar when she went inside. She looked like a model or an actress, tall and thin with high cheekbones and flowing hair. Her eyes were large and a startling gray color that was almost silver. She was leaning over the bar, talking to a good looking guy that looked to be in his thirties. Robyn was pretty sure that he was looking down Kasia’s shirt as she rounded the bar.
The woman turned to her. “Hi. You must be Robyn. I’m Kasia. Half of the things you’ve heard about me probably aren’t true and that is very likely to be the half that came from Eric.”
Robyn laughed. “He is definitely an interesting guy to work with.”
Kasia snorted. “Eric is a horn dog. His ego has him convinced that he’s still seventeen and captain of the football team. Neal on the other hand, I sometimes wonder if he has an ego or a sex drive.”
Robyn didn’t get a chance to respond because they suddenly got hit with a crowd of customers. When it slowed down a bit Kasia motioned for her to sit down in the chair behind the bar.
“So you’re pregnant huh? Did baby daddy stick around or was he out the door the second you told him?” Kasia gave Robyn an inquiring look.
“He was pretty much out the door the second I told him.”
Kasia sighed. “Some men are like that. And some men will take care of you and your children no matter who they belong to, no matter how you treat them. It’s really too bad that I can’t love the guy and never did. I try not to be a bitch or a slut but I like sex and I am a bitch. Why do women have to love men that are completely wrong for them?”
“I don’t know. How old are your kids?”
“Six, four and three. My oldest son’s father is the one that takes care of us. I don’t have to work here. He is way too generous with me. He pays me twice what they said he had to pay in child support and sometimes more on top of it. He visits with not just his son but my daughter and my younger son too. He’s an angel. I wish I could love him, but I don’t. It doesn’t make sense because he’s smart, he’s good looking, he is so good with all of my kids and he’s got money. But I’m dumb and I hang on to my daughter’s father and let him back into my bed whenever he feels like being there. I let him break my heart over and over again but he doesn’t get away with breaking Sheryl’s anymore. If he wants a midnight bootie call but doesn’t want to play daddy in the morning, we screw and then his ass is out the door.”
“Fuller said that he didn’t want to be a part of our child’s life. He accused me of messing around on him.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Kasia shrugged. “Sorry. I come off as harsh. When guys accuse you of messing around, they’re insecure or they’re feeling guilty because they’ve been cheating themselves. Or they’re one of those guys that don’t believe that anyone can be faithful. A lot of people cheat-a lot more than your average person probably likes to think about. But not everyone cheats and it’s crazy for people to believe that humans weren’t meant to be monogamous. Who wants to be sixty and alone or going out to the bar trying to find someone to take home with you?”
“Not me. But I don’t think that I want to even think about getting involved with a man.”
Kasia smiled. “Neal is a hottie isn’t he?”
Robyn felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “He is, but he doesn’t seem remotely interested in me in that way.”
“But you wondered what he’d be like in bed about thirty seconds after you met him didn’t you?”
“Yes, but how smart is it to get involved with a coworker anyway?”
Kasia made a face. “Don’t remind me. Eric would not leave me alone when we worked together. He bragged about how good he was in bed and how many orgasms he could give me, blah blah blah. He’s hot and not as dumb as he comes off, so I figured what the hell. My kids were with my mom and I was lonely. We cleaned up and then we got into a hot make out session in the big back booth. Eric’s tongue feels good in your mouth but he does not know what to do with it when he goes down town. But I figured he was willing to try and that’s more than what some guys do. The sex was a disappointment. He’s nicely hung, but you know how they say it’s not the size of the boat it’s the motion of the ocean? Eric doesn’t know how to use what he’s got properly. I guess that he’s never stayed with a woman long enough for her to teach him how to be a good lover. I made a snide comment to him after he’d finished. His face fell so far that I thought he was going to cry. He begged me to let him try again, but I told him no way and asked Gabe to put me on another shift the next day.”
Robyn laughed. “Wow. He pretty much told me that pregnant women disgust him.”
Kasia shook her head. “Pregnant women are beautiful. If I was bisexual I would totally want to do a pregnant chick.”
Robyn was glad that several customers came in and she didn’t have a chance to respond. She wasn’t sure what she would have said. But by the end of the night, she liked Kasia and figured that her least favorite work nights would be the nights she worked with Eric. The tips were spectacular and clean up went quickly.
They locked up and then parted in the parking lot. Robyn was very much looking forward to being lazy on her day off. She drove home and showered and then crawled into bed. She realized that she was starting to miss having Fuller in bed beside her less and less. The thought gave her hope that she would be okay by herself and not try to seduce her attractive boss or her attractive coworker.
Chapter 6
Her days off passed quickly. She chatted online with Elza and they reconciled. Her sister promised to gather all of the infant and toddler clothes that she had and send them to Robyn. Elza and Jericho had given up on t
he idea of having another child for the time being at least, but Robyn promised to save her baby things and return the favor if it was needed.
Fuller called her Monday night. He was drunk and said lewd and then insulting things to her so she ended up hanging up on him. She had heard from one of her neighbors that he was living with another woman that had a drug addiction but she found that she didn’t really care about his relationship status any longer. Fuller would only be a part of her life when it came to the child they shared. She would not welcome him back into her arms or her bed anytime soon and felt better knowing that she was strong enough to stay away from him.
She had a dream about Neal on Tuesday night that was so erotic that she woke up sweaty and feeling strange. It was almost as if she could still feel his hands on her body like they been in the dream. She was glad that it was Eric that she worked with on Wednesday night and not Neal. She wasn’t sure she could look at him after she’d had a dream like that and not say something stupid.
Her second night of working with Eric went better. He saved his advances for their female customers and didn’t say anything appropriate to her. She was almost positive that he had sex with a customer in the bathroom during his break, but she didn’t say anything to him when he came back behind the bar, grinning widely and winking at the pretty blonde who barely looked old enough to be inside a bar.
The girl blushed and straightened her clothes. Robyn fought the shake of her head that she wanted to give Eric and figured that many had probably had sex in both of the bathrooms at Gabe’s Place. She knew that they certainly had at the bar she had worked at before.
The tips were good again. When Eric handed her her paycheck, she realized she’d forgotten about it. She didn’t open it until she was home, but when she did, she didn’t believe the amount.
She’d made a rough estimate of what it should be just to make sure that she would have enough to cover her bills before she’d bought the laptop. The amount she was looking at was twice what a full two week paycheck would be.
She wished she had picked up her paycheck sooner. She wanted to talk to Gabe. But it was too late to call him that night and she was tired, so she showered and then crawled into bed, promising herself that she would call Gabe first thing in the morning.
She had another bout of morning sickness and her breakfast didn’t sit well in her stomach though she didn’t get sick again, so it was after ten o’clock when she dialed Gabe’s number.
He answered on the first ring. “Hello.”
“Hi Gabe, this is Robyn.”
“Hello beautiful. Is there a problem? Has Eric been harassing you?”
“No. I think you made a mistake with my paycheck.”
“I check the hours and amounts twice myself before they’re drawn up Robyn. Is it too little? If you need money, just ask. Have you made an appointment with the doctor?”
“I just got the insurance card yesterday. Our mail comes late here so I don’t usually get it before I go to work. I’ll call this morning. My paycheck wasn’t too little. It was way too much.”
Gabe cleared his throat. “Nonsense. And it’s always been my policy that if I make a mistake in an employee’s favor they can keep the money. I’m not like the banks.”
Robyn let out an uncomfortable laugh. “Thank you, but I really don’t like to think that I’m taking more from you than what I deserve.”
“I have customers raving about your beauty, your efficiency and your politeness already Robyn. If you’re good to me, I’ll be good to you. If you make me money, I will show my appreciation. I have a feeling that no matter how long you remain under my employ, you will make me a lot of money. The sales the night you worked with Kasia were fantastic. You’re both gorgeous and between your sweet disposition and Kasia’s sassy, you’ll have all of the male customers filling the till and the tip jar every Saturday night. You’re enjoying the work aren’t you? I assume that you get along better with Neal and Kasia than you do with Eric, but he’s been tolerable at least hasn’t he?”
“After he gave up on hitting on me, yes. Neal is very nice and Kasia is very hard working and straightforward. I think Eric had sex with a customer in the bathroom last night. It was on his break but. . .”
Gabe chuckled. “At least it was on his break. I’m sorry Robyn. But in a small town that runs rampant with affairs, things go on behind closed doors, and sometimes those closed doors are the closed doors of my restrooms.”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m sorry to bother you. I guess I’ll let you go now.”
“You’re not bothering me. Is everything else okay? Have you heard from Fuller?”
“He called the other night but he was being such an asshole. There’s talk around town that he moved in with a junkie. There’s no way I’d take him back.”
“Good. When women are pregnant they’re vulnerable. It can be hard to refuse the father of your child, but you are a strong woman Robyn.”
“Thanks. Goodbye Gabe.”
“Call me if you need anything, and I mean anything.”
Oh if that couldn’t carry a double meaning she thought. “Of course. Thank you.”
“Goodbye Robyn.”
Robyn hung up her phone. She made her doctor’s appointment and then played around on the internet some. She took a nap until late afternoon, wondering if naps were going to become a regular occurrence for her as she got further into her pregnancy.
After that, she got along better with Eric. He had laid off completely on his sexual comments to her. She wondered if she was starting to look pregnant and scrutinized herself in the mirror, but other than a slight rounding in her belly, she couldn’t see much of a change. Her second paycheck was normal. For that she was glad. With tips she was making pretty good money and she was completely comfortable behind the bar again.
The nights she worked with Kasia were interesting. Kasia always flirted with their male customers and the tips were spectacular. But she talked honestly to Robyn when business was slow and confessed that she wanted to find a good man that would love her that she could love back. She said she’d been tempted many times to accept the proposal of her oldest son’s father, but she didn’t love him and already felt like she took advantage of him as it was.
Kasia teased Robyn about Neal. Customers had commented to Kasia that Neal looked at Robyn in ways that they’d never before seen him look at a woman. Robyn was flattered that people thought he was interested in her, and she had seen him looking her in ways that made her think that he was interested in being more than just her coworker and friend, but he didn’t ask her out. After a while she told Kasia that nothing was ever going to happen between her and Neal, no matter how bad she wanted it to.
Neal was kind to her. They talked on the nights that they worked together. He was so easy to talk to that Robyn felt herself confessing some of her fears to him and the problems she’d had in her relationship with Fuller. He wasn’t judgmental and never told her that she should have known better than to date Fuller in the first place like her mother or Elza did. But while Neal made it easy for her to open up to him, he never mentioned much about himself. Robyn was very curious, but didn’t put much stock in the ridiculous things that Eric tried to tell her about Neal.
Eric also told her that Kasia was sleeping with Gabe. Robyn didn’t believe it. Gabe wasn’t around much but when he was, he was lending a hand behind the bar or helping them clean up so they could get off a little early. He still gave her admiring glances, but she was sure that her admiration of him wasn’t very well hidden as the days passed.
She still felt like she carried a torch for Neal, but she decided he was completely oblivious to her interest in him, or didn’t feel the same way, so she tried to move on. It was hard sometimes, but Robyn didn’t want to feel uncomfortable working with him because she was attracted to him and he didn’t feel the same way.
So she put aside her feelings for Neal. But that only seemed to make her attraction to Gabe grow. It got more and more uncomforta
ble as the days passed. She caught him looking at her one night when she was working with Kasia. She’d met his eyes and had seen such emotion that it had blown her away. Her mouth had gone dry. She’d had to take a sip of water and swallow before she could answer the question that Kasia had asked her.
It was the next week when she decided she couldn’t take it anymore. Her feelings for Gabe had already clouded her judgment. She was worried that they were going to drive her out of her mind, especially since she was pretty sure that he felt the same way.
Robyn was working with Kasia that night. She had been out the door as soon as clean up was over because she had a hot date. Gabe had showed up a few minutes before closing time, helped with the beginning of cleanup and then retired to the office to finish some paperwork. After Kasia left, he came out of his office and gave her a wide grin.
“Ready to go home beautiful?”
“Gabe can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Certainly.” Gabe gestured for her to follow him to the big back booth.
She sat down, her heart starting to beat fast. Her palms were sweaty. She wiped them on her pants. She cleared her throat and looked away from him. He was so good looking that she didn’t think that she could look at his face when she said what she needed to say to him. Her desire for him felt like it was eating her alive.
It had felt the same way with Neal. But it seemed like a much better idea to try to seduce Neal. He was as good looking as Gabe and he wasn’t married, but though he was kind to her, Neal had never given her much of an indication that he was attracted to her. She’d catch Gabe looking at her sometimes like he wanted to kiss her or do something even more intimate to her.
Robyn cleared her throat. “I. . .” She swallowed hard. “I want you Gabe. I know that it’s wrong to want to be with you because you’re married, but it doesn’t change the way that I feel. You are so gorgeous and you have been so good to me. No other man has ever treated me the way you’ve treated me.”
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