Kate
“Hey babe! You wanna slide along over here and entertain my friend and me?”
The sound of his thick New York drawl echoed around my ears again and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to calm myself down before turning to face him.
He was grossly overweight, perched on the edge of the bar with his swollen, red, blotchy face twisted into a drunken smirk. I disliked him instantly.
“Can I get you anything else?” I offered, doing my best to remain professional.
“Why? What you offering?” he laughed, and his friend nudged him. “You doing any extras in the back for VIP’s? Do these drinks come with a happy ending? We pay good!”
They both laughed heartily though through his eyes I saw the disrespect. He meant it. If I’d said yes, he would have taken me back to his place without a second thought.
I leant over the bar top as close as I could get to them, the annoyance brimming underneath my skin.
“Listen,” I said through gritted teeth. “You don’t know a thing about me. You’re disgusting and I’ll have you removed if you don’t stop. Who the hell do you think you’re talking to…?”
“Kate?” I heard the voice of my supervisor, Stuart, behind me and I straightened up, realizing what I was doing. “Is there a problem?”
“Um…”
“I’ll tell you the problem,” the man announced pointing at me before I had a chance to finish. “Your bar woman, here, hasn’t got a sense of humor. It was only a light joke, you know, just a friendly flirt while we had a drink. That’s what’s wrong with these establishments, too many feminists behind the bar! You should be grateful for the attention!”
“What? Excuse me?” I fumed at him.
“Exactly!” he exclaimed smirking at me. “Ridiculous!”
He knocked back the rest of his drink and stood up.
“I think you owe Mr. Kramer here an apology, Kate,” Stuart said, gesturing to the swollen man.
“What?”
“Kate…”
“Screw this job!”
He raised his eyebrow as though warning me not to embarrass him, but instead I turned to walk away into the back of the bar, undoing my apron ferociously.
Stuart followed me, hurrying in and closing the door behind us.
“What the hell just happened out there, Kate? What was that? Do you know who he is?”
“I don’t care who he is. Did you just see and hear the way he spoke to me?”
He sighed and sat down.
“Kate, he’s one of our biggest customers. He spends a lot of money in this place. We need him.”
“It’s not all about money,” I said quietly. “You want to ignore the needs and protection of your staff to please him? Just for money?”
He glared at me.
“Listen, we don’t all have billionaire fiancés to fall back on. Some of us have to actually make money! Yeah… don’t think I haven’t realized who you are by now.”
“How dare you! What the hell do you think I’m doing here working?”
“I dunno. Maybe he cut your allowance or he’s testing to see what level of gold-digger you really are?”
I sat glaring at him, stunned that the words were coming out of the mouth of someone who’d been kind enough from the start to give me a job and let me work as much as I needed to claw back every cent I owed.
It took the wind out of me, and I stood up. I could have told him that Jonathan and I were no longer together, but I couldn’t. The contract had barred me from talking about our relationship or marriage unless the publicist had briefed me first, and yes, Jonathan had hurt me the worst way possible, but that didn’t mean I’d turn into a monster and do him over.
“Shit, Kate. I didn’t mean that,” Stuart said shaking his head. “I just got riled up, that’s all. Business is dying, and my old man has given me targets to reach or I lose the place.”
I tried to find sympathy for him, but I couldn’t. If I couldn’t even trust my boss to keep me safe at work, then I really was alone in this world.
I picked up my coat from the hook and got my bag from the locker.
“Hey, where are you going?” he asked.
“I don’t think I can stay here anymore,” I said, more to myself than him.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know what I was thinking there.”
He followed me back out to the bar and I turned to him.
“It’s just been a crazy month and my head’s all over the place.”
“Fine, have the rest of the night off, but come back tomorrow. We’ll talk it over.”
I nodded, not sure if I would ever return, because all I could think about when the man had been talking to me was how Jonathan had stood up for me back when we first met. He’d come to my aid, and that was one of the things I liked so much about him. He was direct, protective, and forceful, and honestly I missed everything about him. I missed knowing he was there and I missed that fact that I had someone who cared.
I pushed the doors open out into the cool New York night, contemplating whether it was a good enough investment to get a cab home or if a bus would be more practical and economical.
The papers had labeled me as a gold-digger, but if only they knew that I had walked away from Jonathan and left every penny behind that he’d ever given me, they’d see me completely different. I had to start over with nothing whatsoever, yet people still assumed that I wanted him for nothing but money.
They didn’t know the way my body reacted when he touched me, or the way my heart skipped a beat when his fingers traced lines up and around the back of my neck. They didn’t know the connection we had and now, they never would.
I reached into my pocket, gathering the lose change I had, hoping that it was enough for a cab so I could just get home and disappear under a hot bath with candles and bubbles, when there in front of me, his frame dressed in a long black overcoat, was Evan. He was ushering two girls to the sidewalk who’d just stepped out of the limousine with him. They were wearing colored twinsets with perfectly coiffed long, sleek hair. I could have sworn they were Mormon.
His eyes caught mine and he gave me an awkward, shocked half smile.
“Kate?”
He left their side and came hurrying over to me, still surprised.
“What the hell are you doing all the way out here?”
I pointed behind me to the bar, embarrassed slightly that he had to see how far I’d fallen since calling the engagement off.
“I’ve just finished work.”
He looked back to the limousine uncomfortably, then at me again.
“You want to join us for a drink or something?”
“I can’t. I should go,” I pointed to the two women huddled together in the cool air looking at us. “Besides, you have two lovely dates waiting for you…”
“Yeah, about that. We’re only…”
The rest of what he said faded into my subconscious because behind him, stepping out of the car and buttoning his suit jacket up, was Jonathan, still as chiseled and handsome as I’d remembered him. My heart jumped, and I put a hand on Evan’s arm to steady myself as our eyes met. He looked at me, the cool, calm smile falling from his face and he stopped still.
Seconds passed that felt like minutes or hours, and just as I took one step towards him the voices of the girls on the sidewalk brought me back to reality.
“Jonny, are you coming?” One of the girls laughed. “I’m freezing!”
Jonny?
I pulled my coat around me and Evan rested a hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not how it looks. Just stay,” he said firmly under his breath
I shook my head. Jonathan’s actions spoke louder to me than any words could, and it proved that I didn’t really mean anything to him at all. All those things he’d said that night were empty. Just words to make sure I kept ending up in his bed each night and not back out of the contract. He’d just fed me everything I wanted to hear, and the moment I walked away he’d replaced me. He’d already moved on and found another suitably boring woman to marry him instead.
I turned away from them all just as people started to recognize Jonathan and hurried off down the sidewalk.
“Kate! Wait!” he shouted, as I neared the end of the block and crossed the road. He ran after me and grabbed hold of me pulling me around to face him. I fell into his arms and he cradled me, everything I felt for him coming back despite my reluctance. Damnit!
“Why won’t you just talk to me?” he asked, his lips against the top of my head, and then he pulled away from me, his hands holding my arms.
I couldn’t look him in the eyes because I knew that as soon as I did, I wouldn’t ever want to walk away with the knowledge that I wouldn’t get to see them again.
Kate?” he urged. “Is that it then? After everything that’s it?”
“You don’t get to ask questions!” I snapped, pointing back towards the bar. “You’ve already moved on. You’ve found someone else to marry you, so what does it matter?”
I knew I sounded stupid. I was the one who wouldn’t speak to him or return his calls. He had every right to move forwards with his life, but I couldn’t help the selfish streak inside me. I wanted him to want me only.
“It’s not like that. They’re just friends of Helen. She thought bringing me out would make things better.”
“And does it?” I remembered the look on Krista’s face as she emerged from behind the door. The soft hazy look she had in her eyes of happiness and contentment. The same feeling that I’d felt with him. Was that how he treated every woman? Was that they way they all felt about him? Loving Jonathan wasn’t so simple. He was a man that was used to women falling at his feet, and I was used to being alone. It wouldn’t work, but that didn’t stop the tingle that shot through my entire body when his fingers crept up and around the back of my neck suddenly. He did it because he know that once he did, I’d crumble.