She tried to ease me toward the door, but I moved away from her hands and took a step toward the guy.
“She’s a bartender,” he said. “She can consider it part of my tip.”
I was instantly ready to fight. Ava grabbed onto me and tried to push me out of the bar area, but I shook her away.
“You better watch your fucking mouth,” I said.
“Mason,” Ava snapped. “Get away from the bar. This isn’t where you belong. You need to go do something else.”
She stared at me for a few seconds, then stomped away toward the office. I knew she was mad but decided to leave it be for now. Going to talk to her wouldn’t do any good. I left the guy to be attended to by the new bartender and headed back into the kitchen.27Ava“You should have seen them,” I said. “They were literally growling at each other. I was expecting them to go across the bar at each other and clash horns. And Frank, I can completely just put him out of my mind. He comes in all the time. He gets drunk. He says stupid things. Usually not that stupid, but stupid. It’s whatever. It was Mason who bothered me so much.”
Stephanie looked at me over the massive ice cream sundae she was in the process of constructing. “Just so I can be absolutely sure how it is I should respond to the situation, I’m going to need you to clearly define what it was about his behavior that bothers you so much.”
If I hadn’t been so frustrated and exasperated in that moment, I would have laughed. It was hilarious hearing something like that come out of the mouth of a woman who was drizzling chocolate syrup over scoops of ice cream and adding sprinkles with a dramatic flourish.
“Mason was walking toward the kitchen, and as soon as he heard Frank say that to me, it was like he ran into a wall. He couldn’t even take a step forward. He had to turn around and, I don’t know, defend my honor or some stupid shit like that.”
“You’re seriously angry because a gorgeous man who loves you wanted to protect you and not let another man say inappropriate things to you?” Stephanie asked. “Are you hearing yourself right now? Do you know how many women would kill just to have their boyfriend notice someone was looking at them, much less go to the effort of actually confronting another guy?”
“I know,” I said. “And it’s not that he defended me. I love that he defended me. Hearing guys say stuff like that to me makes my skin crawl. And having Mason stand up for me makes me feel safe and protected.”
“I just don’t know if I understand what you’re so upset about,” Stephanie said. “A drunk guy at the bar said something really inappropriate to you, and the man who loves you stood up to him and made sure he knew that wasn’t acceptable.”
“Exactly. He was just a drunk guy at the bar. And Mason was suddenly almost primal. He got angry and right on the edge of seeming like he was going to get violent.”
“That’s kind of hot,” Stephanie said.
I rolled my eyes, even though she wasn’t lying. “The point is, we already had the talk about guys flirting with me at work. He got all jealous at the classic-car night, and we had to have a talk about it. I thought he was over it and was going to be able to deal with it. I can’t stand the idea of going into work every day and having him act like that toward every guy who says something to me. It’s just too much hassle, and it’s going to cause a lot of trouble with customers. Not to mention just aggravating the hell out of me.”
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” Stephanie said. “I get what you’re saying.”
“Then what do I do?” I asked. “How am I supposed to handle it?”
“You’re just going to have to talk to him again,” she said. “And this time, be more direct with him. Just say, ‘Mason, look, I’m super-hot and irresistible and I work around drunk guys. We had this conversation and you’re just going to have to learn to ignore their comments like I do.’”
She plunged a long-handled spoon into the ice cream for emphasis.
“You’re ridiculous,” I laughed. “Just like that?”
Stephanie nodded. “Just like that.”
“Alright. Then that’s what I’ll do,” I said.
She handed me a spoon, and we clicked them together before diving into the sundae.
After we finished our ice cream and talked about the wedding and the dress saga, Stephanie left. I was still thinking about how Mason acted and decided it would be better to take care of it now rather than waiting until after work. I didn’t want the awkwardness of the interaction the night before to hang over us and make it harder to concentrate.