This had to be the worst day ever at work, I couldn’t get the memories out of my head. The crowd of shocked faces staring at me. I knew I had to run the moment that Nial handed me that annulment document he’d somehow found.

No wonder he had looked familiar, his yellow tie gave it away. He had been at the club that day that group of men came to complain, and now he knew who I really was. A failed actress who’d made one very big mistake, agreed to show the camera a little more skin than I was comfortable with. I’d only done it because they said it would help my career, but when the scene was over, my dignity stripped away, I’d argued with the director, pleaded with him to cut the sex scene from the film. But he fired me and swore that no one would ever hire me again. To my shame, the scene was never cut and the director kept his word. He ruined me, making me run away to Las Vegas where no one knew my name.

Now Nial knew about the sordid performance, and presumably so did Ethan.

We were doomed. Strike that. I was doomed.

I didn’t even want to hear what Nail had to say. It was all in shambles, the mutually beneficial agreement torn to shreds, no Ethan for me and certainly no money now that the cat was out of the bag.

Again I’d fled blindly and stolen Ethan’s car in my desperation to escape. Trying to put distance between myself and the shame… but the longer I drove, racking up the miles, the more my shame ballooned. I wanted to get home, bury my head in my pillow and never see another living soul ever again.

Once I’d resurfaced, the only communication I allowed myself to have with Ethan was a simple, straight to the point, text to tell him where I’d abandoned his car. I had not responded to any calls since, there was no way to patch over what we had. No salvaging our relationship. Not now that he knew what I’d done in desperation to keep my acting career intact…

I had to get back to my new life and the matter of surviving this town. Today that meant serving drinks while I desperately wore a fake mask, smiling even though my heart was breaking.

Already, in the space of half an hour, I’d served the wrong drink… twice. Clumsily I also dropped one entirely. That would be coming out of my paycheck if Maximo heard about it. Money I couldn’t afford to lose. Gone were the dreams of opening my own business. I’d be lucky if I clung on to this job.

My head was all over the place, made worse since today was also the day of my review. God knows how badly that was going to go. But I couldn’t bring myself to care. I just wanted to make it to the end of the day. I wished April was in, a friendly face. Or even Kitty, Maximo’s niece, either of them might have been able to save me from myself.

“Hey you! I specifically told you no ice. There’s ice in this, isn’t there? Listen,” the rather sarcastic customer rattled his drink at me. “Practically a whole iceberg in there.”

I took a deep breath and started to count to ten. I reached three as the glass continued to rattle. Fuck this shit. I scooped the ice cubes out of the drink, plunging right in there with my fingers, and slung them over my shoulder.

“There! No ice!”

“What the hell!” the customer exclaimed.

“Peach!” shouted Maximo behind me.

I turned to my red faced boss as he continued to hiss at me. “Perhaps we should start your review a little early?” he said, gesturing towards his office. “Sir, whatever you want is on the house, Peach will make sure to it. Then after you’re done with that, I want to see you in my office, Peach.”

“To hell with that!” I blurted. My feelings had reached a critical point, a storm that finally broke through the clouds. I knew the review would involve the bullshit accusation from those malicious customers. He would never listen to my side. “And to hell with you. I’ll get the gentleman another drink over my dead body! Go get it yourself!” I yelled.

“That’s it,” said Maximo holding his hand out to halt me, “you’re done, finished. Get out of here. You’re fired!”

From the look on Maximo’s face, there was obviously no appealing or begging for my job back. Even if I managed to calm down and start groveling. But I was passed getting on my knees for men like him.

Fuck, I’d really done it this time. I was done and stormed from the lounge, tears spilling freely.

I sent one last desperate text to April, perhaps I could drown my sorrows with her. But there was still no response. That left me with only one option. The only place I had ever felt happy here, besides Ethan’s arms. I only hoped someone at the chapel was having a better day than me.