𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑙𝑦.

#13

-D.F

"You're here again?" Jane said as she walked toward me. I watched as she tied her apron around her waist in a blink of an eye. Her hands then laced around her soft locks.

"Yep" I pressed my lips together while pouring a glass of beer. Jane finished tying a ponytail and started stalking up her apron, she stuffed pens and a notebook into her pockets and hung a little rag on the tie of the apron which wrapped around her waist twice because of how small it was. She was like the size of a junior high schooler standing at a whopping five feet.

"Do you ever get tired of working? You've been here all week" her words came off as worried but the tone didn't convey any sense of it. I knew better than to tell her any useless information about my life and simply keep it small.

"I like working" I laughed as I shrugged my tense shoulders. I took the money from a bearded man after I handed him a beer. "I'm going to go serve that table." I pointed to a random table and left the unfinished conversation.

Truth is I haven't had a day off in a week, maybe more, I had been working from morning to night every single day. I go pick up Spear at night from Dalia's or Essence's just to drop him off at school in the morning than back at theirs later. It was a dreadful fucking cycle.

"Hello, what can I get you guys?" I asked a group of middle-aged women, they all wore pink sashes around their bodies except for the middle woman. Her sash was white with sparkles and had the word 'Bride' in silver cursive. "Congrats" I smiled at her.

"Thank you! We're all going to take vodka shots, to begin with," the woman squealed annoyingly. I nodded before counting how many people there were. Ok, seven shots. "And keep it going on a tab."

"Alright, it will be right with you." I walked away letting a smile fall in the process. I let out a breath of relief as I saw Natalia speaking with Jane. Thank God I wouldn't be alone tonight.

"Hey babe," Natalia said changing her distraught face, "Jane here was just telling me about her cats, all three of them" oh crap, not the cats, whenever Jane had nothing to speak about she usually brought up her cats. Bambi, Bean and Betzy, the story behind their names was a constant thing that was shared but usually, everyone would forget, I on the other hand blurred out every conversation we had about them. Unfortunately a few stories I remembered, like the one where she dressed all three of them in Marvel superhero characters.

"Oh. Fun" my voice raised as I lied through my lips.

"Very," Natalia laughed as she read me like an open book. Glancing at Jane I was surprised to see a happy smile grazing her mouth. She was so oblivious.

"Well, I have to deliver some shots to those very happy ladies over there." I nudged my head towards them and grabbed a bottle of vodka.

"Hey look," my head slowly turned to the entrance of the bar. I was shocked as Emilio walked through the doors alone. He was never alone. "Cutty sark, looking as good as ever" Natalia gave me a hip bump which dropped some vodka on the counter.

"Hey" I scolded and placed the bottle down. "Clean that," I said as I placed the shots on a tray. It took me a large breath of air before I got the courage to walk around the counter and past Emilio. He paused as his eyes caught me, I turned my head away and focused on my destination.

"He is so hot" the bride whispered to the woman on her left, I couldn't help my ears from listening in. As I placed the shots down they tackled it with giggles.

"Cheers" they yelled in unison.

I walked away thanking god I poured more than seven, I didn't have to make another trip yet. "And what can I get you?" I heard Jane shyly ask Emilio as I walked closer. The moment I got behind the bar I could feel his eyes burn into the side of my head as I walked. "Uhm- sir?"