Thursday morning, I’m walking through the doors of the bar at nine a.m., still a bit bleary-eyed and definitely in need of caffeine.
“Hey,” I call out, the rest of the gang already seated at the bar. Only my owner is behind the bar, pouring coffee. “Give me ten of those, Jeff,” I say, taking the last available stool next to Gaby. He nods and sets about fulfilling my outrageous request.
“Why are we here?” Gaby whispers under her breath.
“Beats me. The monthly staff meeting isn’t for another two weeks.”
“Ask him then.” She plasters a ruffled smile on her face just as Jeff reaches us.
“Ladies,” he says, handing us a steaming cup each. “Sorry for the short notice.”
“Couldn’t give your manager a head’s up, Jeff?” I tilt my head and lift a brow. “You know, since I’m the face of management?” I say, trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably.
“Shit, I’ll miss your smartass remarks.”
What? I jerk my eyes to Gaby, my mouth agape. “What do you mean miss?”
He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he leans against the back counter of the bar and addresses the group at large. “So,” he says, clapping his hands together. “There’s good news and bad news.”
“Never a good start,” Gaby mutters.
“The bad news first, just to rip off the Band-Aid. I’m sick.” The girls in the group gasp, the sound filling the air. A quick look around shows Mark, Bruno, and Jake looking a bit shell-shocked. Jeff just powers through it as I freeze in place, his words and their meaning stealing my breath. “I’ll try and answer the questions I know you’ll ask all at once. Is it serious? Yep. Will I get better? Probably not. Is it gonna stop me living my life? Fuck no, because I’ve always been a live-life-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda guy anyway, so that’s not gonna change. If anything, it’s just given me a kick up the ass to get out there and actually do all the things I’ve always wanted to do.”
Dinah opens her mouth. “But—”
“The good news? I’ve found a buyer for the bar and they’ve assured me that it will be business as usual for the foreseeable future. So over the next few months, there will be a transition behind the scenes but as far as everyone else is concerned, nothing has changed.” He scans the line, meeting everyone’s eyes as he goes before stopping on me. I can’t lose it in front of everyone. Stay strong… “Don’t you dare, Kenz. You’re the strong one. If you start, then Gaby will, and we all know she’s a drama queen from way back who’s far too pretty to cry over me.” His voice goes rough and he looks down at the floor for a few moments, his chest rising and falling as he takes in a few deep breaths. “Right. So that’s done. Now get out of here. I’ve got some things to take care of, and we don’t open for a few hours yet.”
Typical Jeff, business mode. All is right with the world.
Once outside, I hug everyone goodbye before walking with Gaby to my car.
“What was that?” she asks, breaking the silence.
“I know, right?” I unlock the door and, as expected, Gaby hops in beside me.
I giggle as I start the car. “Not walking home today?”
“God, no. We need sugar and trash TV. I’d say alcohol, but we’re due on at four so there’s no chance of that happening.”
“Glad to know you’ve planned my day for me,” I reply wryly, pulling out of the parking lot and driving home.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her lean against the door and face me. “Like you had plans,” she scoffs. “Other than watching your phone like a hawk.”
I react, just how she wants—defensively—before I catch myself. “I have not… oh ha ha, very funny.”
“So.” She beams, turning forward again. “Heard from him yet?”
“What, you mean since you last asked eight hours ago?”
“He might’ve called for late-night phone sex for all I know.”
I snort and shake my head. “At two o’clock in the morning?”
“Stranger things have happened, Kenz. So that’s a no then?”
“Nope. But I’ve been distracted by Jeff’s news this morning. It’s like a slap in the face with a wet fish.”
“Eww, dude. Nobody wants a wet fish to have anything to do with their face. Why would you even go there?”
“It’s just a thing people say… isn’t it?” I scrunch my brows together, wondering who the hell comes up with these things other than my Dad.
“You’re asking me? My mind has gone from the sea into the deepest, darkest recesses of the gutter right now,” she says with a giggle. “I mean, fish, slapping, face—there’s only so much a girl can take.”
“Thanks for that. Now that’s all I’m gonna think of whenever I hear my dad say it.”
“You’re welcome. Glad to be of service,” she says. “Go on then. Tell me about the epiphany you’ve had because of Jeff.”
I turn into my driveway, park my car, and kill the engine. “It’s made me think that life is short. I’m wondering why the hell I need to wait for him to call. I’m a perfectly capable modern woman who knows how to use a phone. Maybe he’s waiting for me to make that first move.” It could be true, right?
“You mean like the third or fourth move, right? ’Cause you made the first move by challenging him that night, then he made the next move asking you out.”
“Well, the third would’ve been Saturday night when he did that thing…” I bite my lip, replaying the entryway antics in my mind before Gaby interrupts the festivities in my head.
“Yeah, yeah. Shut up. Don’t get started on the ‘I had the best sex of all time, all weekend’ speech again. You’ll make my vagina file for divorce. She’s already a tetchy bitch at the best of times now.” She reaches over, putting her hand on my arm. “So I take it you’re not going to wait for him? You’re gonna go after him?”
“Telephonically, yes. I don’t see the harm in sending a short text so he knows I’m thinking of him.”
She bites her lip, a slow-growing smile appearing on her face. “He’s gonna call, Kenz. I have a good feeling about this one.”
“I had a lot of good feelings about him too,” I say. She rolls her eyes, knowing exactly where I’m going with this. “And—”
“And on him, astride him, beneath him… I get the point, show-off,” she says with a sigh. “Now, are we gonna sit in the car all day talking about your sex life and my lack of one, or are we going to stuff our faces until we can’t move and watch Days of Our Lives?”
I stare at her, trying to keep a straight face and failing miserably. “Oh, alright then.”
“Then you can text him,” she adds, grabbing her handbag and literally jumping out of the car like the energizer bunny that I know and love.
Later that night, I take a quick break in the office. Leaning back in my chair, I wonder if I’ll have a job next month, then my thoughts return to Millen. I twirl my phone in my hand and try to come up with the right words to say in a text.
No woman wants to come across as that girl but then again, normally I’m not the kind of girl to chase either.
Millen has me wanting things I haven’t thought about for a while. He has me considering more morning-afters, more Sunday afternoons, more in-betweens. Something that doesn’t have a shit show in hell of happening unless someone makes a move, whatever number move we’re now up to.
Surely there’s nothing I could say that would be devastating at this point. Maybe I should’ve just let Gaby text him for me.
Ah fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen? One text won’t bring on the apocalypse.
Me—Hey. How’s your week going? My boss announced he was selling the business today so there’s new management on my horizon. Hope you’re well.
I move my finger to push save but instead push send. “Fuck!” I spit out, trying to backtrack like a fool and wondering why the hell no one has invented a way to recall texts already. Imagine the drunken messages that could be avoided with a backtrack function. Hell, they could even call it Back Text. An automatic text-reversal service. Maybe I should patent that shit right now.
The office door opens and Gaby pops her head in. “We’ve just had a big group come in. Some urologist conference is in town and they’re in the mood to partay,” she says with a grin.
“I just sent the lamest text in the history of sad, unfortunately socially inept communications. I should never have done it. Modern woman, be damned.” I stand up and move around the desk to where Gaby’s standing, hands on hips, a grin on her face.
“So… did he text back yet?”
“Oh God, it’s never gonna end is it?”
“Nope,” she says, bouncing down the hall and holding open the door leading back into the bar. “But you knew that. As soon as you started this thing, you knew I was gonna make you finish it. You forget that I saw that first meeting. I was damn near blinded by the sparks flying between you. I also saw you two trying to eat each other’s faces off on the roof with not a care in the world. I cannot proclaim to know the inner workings of the male mind, but I will say that if ever there was a time where I could categorically say without a shadow of a doubt that a man was into you, it’s now.”
I quirk a brow and purse my lips, struggling not to burst out laughing. “You know, if this bartending gig doesn’t work out for you, you might just have a future as a motivational life coach.”
“Fuck that shit. Then I’d have to be Little Miss Sunshine and Roses ’n’ Shit all the time. Sometimes a chick has to get bitchy.”
“Oh, you’re good at that too.”
“Why, thank you. Now stop worrying about the boy, because the boy will text back. If he doesn’t, he’ll be forever known as the world’s biggest idiot.” She gives my shoulder a squeeze and grins. “Now let’s go serve the dick doctors some alcohol. Just think of the stories we might hear once they have a few Blowjobs in them.”
For the record, dick doctor stories are always the best stories. Especially drunk ones.