“Yep.”Amazing.Not even so much as a hint of an apology.
“Does your mom like ScarJo or something?” She bats her lashes at me as she waits for my answer.
I give her a curious look. “Um, maybe. Why?”
“Farrah here was just wondering if that’s why you were named after her.” She shrugs her shoulders, ignoring the weird look Farrah is giving her. I’m ninety-nine percent sure Farrah actually had nothing to do with that question.
“I’m not. I’m pretty sure it was my hair color that did it. You know—scarlet.”
Aria purses her prettily painted lips and nods. “Interesting. It isred,isn’t it? Not dyed?”
“Yes, it’s red. And no, not dyed. Would you like some ice cream, or …?” I need these girls—Aria in particular—out of my face. I can tell she’s waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Because that’s what vipers like her do.
“We’ll each take a small cup of chocolate, please.” She pauses for a second as I pull the cups down and start to scoop. “So, did you do that on purpose the other day?”
My blue eyes connect with her cool brown ones as I continue to dip into the ice cream barrel. “Did I do what, exactly?”
“Bury your face in Xander’s lap.” She glances at Danica. “Isn’t that what you said you heard, Dani?” She flips her hair over her shoulder, out of the way—like my answer doesn’t matter to her—but I can tell it totally does.
Danica shrugs and almost seems apologetic. “Um. I heard something like that. Probably blown out of proportion.”
Alora gives a wicked little snort.“Blownbeing the operative word, obviously.”
All four laugh at her joke. Aria narrows her eyes on me. “Well, I missed out on the show, apparently. I did hear that you have no clue what you’re doing, though.”
My jaw twitches.Don’t go there, Scarlett.“Maybe I should take lessons from you, then?” I blink my eyes innocently and give her a sweet smile as I plop the four cups of ice cream onto the counter, push them across to her, and pull off my gloves to ring them up.
Gasps fall from the mouths of Aria and the three cheerleader Barbies.
“That’ll be eight dollars, please.”
“Take that back.” Aria’s face screws up so terribly that she looks ugly, which makes it even more amusing to me because she’s actually a really pretty girl. She’s just nasty on the inside, and it’s showing itself in her rage-y moment.
“Nah. You came in here trying to get under my skin. You’re just mad that I got under yours instead.” I give her a slow wink.
“Whatever. If you’re not careful, you’re going to get fat working here,bitch.”She shoves the money into my waiting hands.
I raise one eyebrow and press my lips together for a brief second before I respond.I can’t even help myself.“I’m not the one eating all the ice cream, now am I, princess?”
The girls huff and snatch spoons from the cup on the counter, then whirl around, making a quick exit.
“Scarlett?”
I cringe inwardly at the voice behind me.Shit.
Terry puts a hand on my shoulder, turning me to look at him. “I’m sure there was more to that than what I overheard.” He clears his throat, watching as the girls stand outside talking to each other, throwing angry glances into the shop. “But you can’t talk to customers like that.”
“I—I’m really sorry, Terry. I didn’t think. I just threw their nastiness back at them.”
With a sigh, Terry shakes his head. “I understand some people can be hard to deal with. You still can’t treat our customers like that. It’s bad for business.”
I bite my lip.Hard.This is going to be the shortest employment in history if I get fired. Between what he just heard and the day I was thirty minutes late last week because I had to go home and change, I wouldn’t even blame him if he let me go. I murmur, “It won’t happen again. I promise.”
He nods. “I like you, my wife likes you, and you’re a hard worker. Those things are all in your favor.” He glances out the window. “But we can’t afford to have people going elsewhere if you give those girls reason to steer people away.”
“I get it. I’m sorry it happened.”
The bell above the door jingles as it opens.