Jack

 

For the next four hours, I sat like a love-struck idiot in that shithole of a bar and watched Lily work.  She was a terrible waitress.  I lost count of how many times she nearly dropped a drink, and she had to write every damn drink order down on a little notebook.  Dale and the other waitresses treated her like shit.  The fourth time that little bitch Judy deliberately ran into her, I waited until she was scurrying past me before calling her name.  She stopped immediately and leaned down until her tits were practically in my face.

“Hey, Jack,” she purred.  “It’s good to see you, sexy.  You don’t usually come by the bar.”

“Because it’s a shithole,” I said.

She laughed.  “It sure is.  You’re in the Ice Queen’s section, but she can’t waitress worth shit.  Why don’t you let me get you a drink?  What do you want?”

I crooked my finger at her and she leaned down even closer before smiling at me.  She smelled like cheap perfume and desperation and she had something black stuck in her yellow teeth.

“I want you to leave Lily Carson the fuck alone,” I said. “I see you being nasty to her or knock into her to deliberately try and make her spill a drink one more time, and I’ll tell Dale how you’re skimming off the till.”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open.  It had been a guess on my part that she was stealing from Dale, but apparently it was a good fucking guess.

“You asshole,” she muttered.

“That’s right, I am.  You gonna leave Lily alone or not?”

“What the fuck do you care about the Ice Queen?”

“Her name is Lily, not Ice Queen, and it’s none of your fucking business.  You gonna be nicer to her, or do I need to have a long chat with your fucking boss?’

“Fuck you, Jack.  You’ve always been a dickhead, you know that?”  She straightened and glared down at me.

“Yeah, I know.  Play nice with your coworkers, Judy, or I’ll get your ass fired.  Oh, and you got shit in your teeth.  You might want to floss.”

She flipped me the bird and I grinned at her like the prick I am.  She stomped away toward the bar, but I noticed she gave Lily a wide berth as she passed her.  I took a drink of beer and held my temper when some guy in a fucking cowboy hat and a leather vest, slapped Lily’s ass when she stopped at his table with a tray of drinks.  She jumped like a startled deer, nearly sending the tray of drinks crashing to the floor, and the asshole cowboy said something to her that made his friends laugh like idiotic loons. 

Lily flushed bright red and shook her head before setting the drinks down in front of them.  They paid her, and I watched as the cowboy held out a bill.  Fucking cheapskate was giving her a goddamn dollar tip.  My anger was rising, and I clenched my hand around my glass when the cowboy deliberately dropped the dollar as Lily reached for it. 

Even from here I could see the flash of anger cross her face.  My small grin disappeared when she bent anyway to pick up the dollar from the floor.  When the cowboy grabbed a handful of her ass, I was on my feet and crossing toward them.

She had already straightened and knocked his hand away by the time I got there.  She took one look at my face before grabbing my arm.  “Jack, don’t.”

“Don’t what?  Don’t bash this fucking asshole’s face in for touching what’s mine?”  I said in a low voice.

“He’s drunk and being stupid.”  She held onto my arm in a death grip as I stepped closer to the table.

“I’ve sat here all night and watched you manhandle my woman.”  I leaned over and rested my big hands on the table.  The cowboy gave his friends a quick look before grimacing nervously.

“I didn’t know she was yours, man.”

“Well, she is.  If you fucking touch her again, I’ll break every bone in your hand until you’re screaming like the fucking little cunt you are.  You got me?”

“Yeah, I got you,” he said. 

I wanted to roll my eyes at how quickly he was showing me his belly.  Instead, I said, “Give her a proper tip.”

“What?”

“Jack, it’s fine.”  Lily tugged on my arm.  “Go back to your table and I’ll -”

“Hush, Lily,” I said.  “This asshole has been groping you all night and giving you dollar tips.  I think he needs to show his appreciation for your hard work, and I think he fucking agrees with me.  Isn’t that right, asshole?”

“Yeah,” he said.  He pulled a five from his wallet and I shook my head. 

“Try again.”

He reached for a ten and I bared my teeth at him.  “Try. Again. Asshole.”

He pulled a twenty from his wallet and handed it to Lily.  “Uh, here you go.  Thank you.”

“Take it, Lily,” I said when she just stared at the bill.

She took the bill and shoved it into her apron.  I straightened and smiled at the cowboy.  “Smart move, dickhead.  You gonna touch my woman again?”

“No, Sir,” he said.

I gave him one final hard look before returning to my seat.  Lily followed me and stood next to my table.  I cupped her firm thigh and squeezed it.

“Jack, what are you doing?”

“Keeping those dickheads from touching you while I wait for you to get off work.”

“Why are you waiting for me?”

“I think we discussed why during your break, Princess.”

Her face turned red again and I grinned wickedly at her.  “Go back to work, sweetheart.  I’ll be here when you’re done.”

 

* * *

 

The minute I walked into Lily’s trailer, I knew why she’d spent a good ten minutes after her shift arguing with me about coming here.  The place was even worse on the inside.  Oh, she had tried to make it homey – there was a brightly-coloured blanket thrown across the back of the lumpy couch, a vase of fake flowers sat on the gouged and worn coffee table and there was a picture of her with her parents sitting beside it.  It was clean enough, but the fucking thing was falling down around her ears and it was freezing inside.  I turned and studied the hole in the window next to the door.  She had patched it with a piece of wood and a shitload of duct tape, but a kid could have knocked the wood out with minimal effort.

“What the hell happened here?”  I pointed at the wood-covered hole.

“Uh, that was there when I moved in.  I think the previous renter forgot his key and broke the glass so he could unlock the door from the outside.”

“You need to get it fixed.”

“I know.”

“Call your fucking landlord.  This shit isn’t your responsibility.”

“I’ll get it taken care of.”

“Oh yeah?  How long you lived here now?”

She pressed her lips together, her slender body shivering in the cold.

“How long, Princess?”

“A while.”

“You need to get your shit together.  I know you’re used to having your daddy around to clean up your messes, but he can’t do much from prison.”

Her face paled and I could see her blinking back tears.  I immediately felt like a piece of shit.

Hell, I was a piece of shit. 

It’d been a real dick move to bring up her old man but Jesus, anyone could break into her goddamn trailer and rob her or rape her.  My stomach clenched, and I pulled her into my arms.  She tried to pull away and I kissed her forehead.

“Sorry, Princess.”

She blinked at me in surprise.  I was surprised myself.  When the fuck did I start apologizing for stupid shit I said?  I made it a policy not to apologize, otherwise I’d spend my whole goddamn day doing it.

“I’m being a dick, but it’s dangerous to have that hole there.  Anyone can break in.”

“I know,” she said.

“So then call the landlord.”

“My landlord is Allie Dickerson.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”  She stood stiff in the circle of my arms.  Lily had tormented Allie Dickerson in high school.  She’d been from the wrong side of the tracks, and Lily and her bitch friends had made her life miserable.

“Why are you living here?  Allie hates you.”

“It’s the only thing I can afford.  Well, there were a few other places, but they refused to rent to me.”

Her voice didn’t break, and she didn’t sound sorry for herself.  More resigned.  She even gave me a small smile.  “It was actually really nice of Allie to rent me this place.  The way I treated her in high school, she should have just spit in my face and told me to eat shit and die.”

“You have to grovel for it?”

She shrugged.  “Yes, but I deserve it.  I’ve spent most of my life being a terrible person.”

“You weren’t terrible, just…”

She laughed.  “Terrible really is the most fitting description.  But I think I’ve learned my lesson.  I hope I have anyway.”  She fell silent for a moment.  “I apologized to Allie for the way I treated her, and she agreed to rent me this place.  But the apology didn’t cover repairs to broken windows or furnaces, apparently.  I call her once a week or so, to grovel again and ask if she’ll get the furnace fixed and the window replaced.  She says no problem and then I don’t hear from her until I call again.”

I swore under my breath.  “How long you been without heat?”

“A couple months.”

“It’s just gonna get colder.”

“I know.  I’m sure Allie will fix it before then and if not, I’m saving up my tips to get it fixed myself.”

I let her go and she followed me into the kitchen.  “Hey, what are you doing?”

I had opened the cupboard closest to me.  “You got any fucking food?”

She didn’t reply, and I opened another cupboard.  It was just as bare as the first.  My anger growing, I opened all the cupboards.  The last one had a few cans of cat food and I gave her a look of disbelief.  “Holy fuck, are you kidding me?  You’re eating cat food?”

“What?  Of course not.  I just…”

“You just what?”

There was a loud meow and a cat wandered into the kitchen.  He was an orange tabby with bright green eyes and scarred ears from fighting.

“You got a cat?”

She bent and stroked the cat’s fur when he rubbed up against her leg.  “He was a stray.  He was hungry and cold, so I let him in and he just never left.”

I rolled my eyes.  “You can’t afford to feed yourself, but you’ll spend your money on a damn cat?”

“He’s my friend,” she said defensively.  “I – I don’t have many friends.”

No, I supposed she didn’t.

“Get changed and let’s go.”

She blinked at me.  “What?”

“Put on some warmer clothes and let’s go.”  I gave her an impatient look.

“Go where?”

“Back to my place.”

“What?  No, I can’t go to your house.”

“Why not?  It’s not much, but it’s a hell of a lot better than this shithole.”

She looked around the trailer.  “I – I can’t leave Greg.”

Jealousy flooded through me.  “Who the fuck is Greg?”

She glanced at the cat and I burst out laughing.  “You named him Greg?”

“He looked like a Greg to me.  Anyway, I don’t want to leave him alone.  It’s cold and he’ll be lonely without me.”

I decided if I told her that I was planning on never letting her stay another night in this dump, she’d freak the fuck out.  Instead, I said, “Fine.  Change your clothes, grab the damn cat and let’s go.”

“Jack, I really shouldn’t -”

“This is not a choice, Lily.  Now hurry up.  It’s late, I’m tired, and I’m freezing my nutsack off.”