𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑙𝑦.

#53

-D.F

"Bill please," I say tracing after the old hag who rolled his eyes at least five times since my arrival. The familiar bar was packed with people like usual which I knew would give me a better chance at getting back my job as a bartender. "I have nothing else, no one else. I promise you things will be different." I wasn't one for begging, I hate it, but in cases where I had no other option but to do so, I could make someone pity me with ease.

Bill pauses with a tray in his hands. He settles it onto his hip with a sigh and scans over the bar behind me where all of the workers stand. Natalia and Jane are two of them on standby. Their smiles encourage me to raise my lips into one of my own.

Suddenly, Bill's tray is thrashed into my arms and his annoyed face turns into a bored expression. Though he did not feel any pity for me I could tell he was done with hearing me speak.

"Wait on all the tables on the floor and by the end of the night if I don't hear a complaint, I'll consider it." He grumbles before walking off to the counter. "I don't want to see anyone helping her." He says referring to me. I stare at the busy floor I had to take on by myself and instead of worrying, I sigh in relief.

Bill's office door slams and just as he parts from us I see Natalia run my way with open arms.

"Davi!" She says engulfing me in a warm hug. It felt as if I had never left. "You're back," she rocks us back and forth slowly. "What happened to your big corporate job?" Her hands land on my shoulders once our hug breaks.

"It wasn't a corporate job" I laugh. "Things didn't work out?" I say picturing Emilio in my head. My stomach twirls when I realize he's a regular here. If there was one thing I was not going to do, it was wait on him.

"You and brownie didn't work out?" Natalia catches on to me. I smile and shake my head, there was no point in explaining it, it was a never-ending conversation I didn't want to have. "It's ok, he was bitch. I haven't seen him since you left, guess we know the reason why he and his friends came here, to begin with," she winks while soothingly rubbing my arm.

He hadn't been here since I left? Though the thought should comfort me in some sense it only made me more confused. If he didn't care, if everything was a lie, why did he only come here for me? Why did he give me a great paying job for free?

Natalia sensed my mixed emotions and gave me another squishing hug. "Come on," she says dragging me to the counter not a second later.

"Vee" Jane says wrapping her arms around me, it was not like Natalia's hug, it was soft and gentle much like Jen herself. "I missed you." I can tell she means every word by how she rubs my back. Jane had always been the lovey-dovey type of person. She had always expressed everything she felt the moment she felt it. I admired it just as much as I found it slightly annoying.

"I missed you guys" I chuckle, "I'd love to catch up but I should get cleaned up and start waiting on a few tables if I want to keep this job. I can't risk getting fired." I push my hair away from my face and head towards the back room.

You need this job, Davina.

Here I sit outside of Emilio's building anxiously waiting for the courage to go inside. My letter of resignation lies on my lap perfectly folded. I struggle not opening having failed more than seven times this hour just to simply gloss over my work.

There were no mistakes in my grammar or spelling. It had been perfectly written and checked over at least a hundred times. The nerves in my body hadn't left since I had first started writing. I knew that until this piece of paper was out of my hands my quitting would become solidified, I'd have no reason to stress, I had no reason to see Emilio, my father, or anyone who had a hold over my heart.