The Nightmare Of Life

Chapter-26: Rebound

Well it sucks to say this but Serena and I have barely talked since the cruise. I have been just focused on working for Jake and his club. I see Serena all the time when she performs in Emerald's band but that's about it. Jake's club is very successful, he was telling me the other day that he has already made over four hundred thousand dollars in just the month or couple of months that its been open. I quit my job at Olive Garden because Jake is now paying Theo and me. I make 18 an hour and Theo makes 20. I have really taken an interest in bar tending and its been a pleasure working with Theo and being able to pick his brain. I get a ton of tips too, I average over 300 dollars per night, I guess being extremely pretty is a money maker. I have been working at Jake's club 5 days a week because he only has two bartenders at the moment. He keeps apologizing for it and telling me that if I want more time off tell him but I always say that I love my job and its making me a ton of money so its a double win situation. I am currently at home curling my hair getting ready for my shift tonight. I hear my phone ringing and to my surprise its Alicia. "Hey girl what's up?" I answer after putting my phone on speaker. "Hey Tiff! I was just calling to tell you that Jake said you could have the night off, he actually finally hired someone new and is going to have Theo train him tonight." I sigh and continue curling my hair. "He feels bad again doesn't he?" I respond. "Is it that obvious?" I chuckle at her answer. "Tell that man that he doesn't need to worry, I need the money. If not bartending maybe I can be a server with you, that way I can help you out. I mean come on Ali you're pregnant and running around with your head cut off, that cant be health for the kiddo" I respond trying to be sincere. "Okay you make a fair point. I will abuse my power just this once but Tiff you and him need to sit down and discuss a permanent shift because he has you working 5 days and Theo working 6. There needs to be some kind of breaks for all of us." Alicia responds and you can tell in her voice that she is exhausted. "Tell you what the club doesn't open for another two hours, is there a way we can arrange a staff meeting?" For a moment Alicia is silent. "Yeah, I'll let Jake know, lets all meet at the club in an hour. I feel like we need to make a schedule for all of us because none of us need to get burnt out. Especially because Vision is really popular right now" She responds with a pep in her step. "Sounds good I'll see you all soon!" We say our byes and hang up. It takes me another twenty minutes to finish my hair. For my makeup tonight I went with some black eye shadow and lipstick. I pick out this gorgeous red strapless dress and red heels. After finally being finished getting ready I make my way to the door grabbing my phone, purse and keys. I open the door to Serena seemingly just about to knock. "Hey?" What are you doing here?" I ask. She is wearing her work clothes and her hair is thrown up in a bun. She looks at me stunned. "Wow, You look beautiful Tiffany!" She says in a sweet sincere tone. I take her in her compliment but still feel a little hurt about everything that's going on with us. "What's up Serena I need to go to work?" She looks at me confused and seems to be a little hurt in her eyes. "I... Uh? We need to talk" I glare at her as the tensions seem to arise. "I can't right now, Can we try tomorrow?" She looks down almost like she is ashamed. "Okay, text me a tine... See you" I watch her walk away and I feel terrible. She gives me one last saddened look before backing out of my driveway. I feel a rush of anger and throw the thing that's in my right hand and just my luck its my phone. "fuck me" I yell as I pick it up. The phone is shattered and it wasn't a cheep phone. I get in the car and throw my things into the passenger seat. I grab the steering wheel and let out a painful scream. You can hear all of my emotions in the scream. It takes me a little while but I finally regain my composure. I start the car and begin driving to the club. During the ride I get my fake smile ready. I pull into the parking lot and park next to Jake's mustang. I see Joe at the door just before I walk in. "Hey Tiff!" He says. "Hi Joe" I respond as I enter the club. Jake has hired 4 new security guards since that night I was grabbed and he told me that he will never let anything like that happen to me again. Jake, Alicia, Theo, and a young brown man with long wavy dark blue hair, light brown eyes, he has a medium build with some tone in his biceps and has to be 5'10 or 5'11 are all sitting at the bar. They all smile when I walk up to them. I sit with them and put my purse on the bar counter. "Okay now that everyone is here let the meeting begin, Tiff since you arranged this meeting I'll let you start and oh right this is Eric, he is the new bartender. Jake stands up and says in a confident tone. "Its nice to meet you, Yeah I wanted this meeting because I feel like we need to make a set schedule for all of us. I was thinking on the way over here that maybe Theo and I can work 5 days and off 2 or maybe 4 days on 3 days off. And with Eric he could also have that shift but we will make it all interlock sometimes, maybe have a day or two where we all work together, maybe on the weekends because that's when we are the most busy. I was also thinking that Alicia shouldn't be working until the baby is born, I may not have ever been pregnant but all this work can't be good. So I was thinking we could hire another server and I will just fill in until that is done. So? What do you all think?" After I finish they all look at me intrigued. "Wow, that's the most I have ever heard you say" Jake responds which gets a chuckle amongst the group besides me. "Okay, I like that so here's what we will do, Tonight, Tiff you can be server and Alicia honey I will send you home. Theo and Eric you will run the bar and its only Thursday so it shouldn't be to packed but in the off chance that it is I will send Tiff over your way and I'll serve for a little while. Alright that concludes our meeting and Tiff could you please follow me" Jake says with a confident smile. I push myself up as Jake and Alicia share a kiss before Alicia turns to me and smiles. "Thank you I really need to take a nap" I smile and pull her into a hug. "Of course" we let go and she walks away and I follow Jake to the back room. We walk into his office that I had no clue existed. "Have a seat" He says politely, I do as he says as he shuts the door behind me. The office is modern yet simple with a desk with a computer on it. He sits in front of me. "You know Tiff you have really grown on me and I have to say you have been one of the reasons this club has some success." I give him a weak smile. "Thank you Jake. Is there something you need?" I respond trying not to sound rude or let my emotions get the best of me. He leans onto the desk, eyes unreadable. "Yeah I wanted to offer you another job. How would you like to be Vision's first manager. I will bump your pay up to 23 an hour." I look at him wide eyed. "Me? What? I thought Theo would have been the better choice or maybe you know your fiancée? Why me?" I respond shocked and confused. He chuckles and leans back in his chair. "Well if I may be honest I asked Alicia first and she said that she doesn't think she would be good at it and as for Theo we have talked before but I like him where he is at and that's bar manager and he seems really happy there as well." He pauses and gives me a sweet and sincere smile. "Before you think you were a third choice you really weren't, I have had my eye on you for this position since day one, the way you were willing to learn and the way you handled everything. You are our MVP and just now you arranged a meeting and said everything that needed to be said. I was already going to offer you this position before you did what you did today but now I am more then confident in your abilities to lead this club. Alicia and Theo agree too by the way. So what do you say Tiffany? Would you like to become Visions Manager?" I take everything he said in. I feel a tear fall down my cheek and a sense of warmth in my hear. He hands me a tissue. "I'm sorry, Its just. Nobody has ever offered me anything like this before. I never thought I was good enough for a position like this." I respond as I wipe my eyes. He leans in on his desk again and looks me in the eyes. "You are more then just a pretty face Tiffany. You are better then you give yourself credit for. I need an answer the club opens in less then 20 minutes." I wipe my eyes again and give him a reassuring nod. "Yes" I respond with a smile and push myself up and offer my hand. "No that's to formal." He laughs and looks underneith his desk for a moment then after a few minutes he gets up and walks around the desk and pulls me into a hug. I hold him back and we embrace for a moment. Once we pull apart we gaze into one another's eyes. "We may have started off on bad terms but I am grateful you are in our lives Tiffany" I smile and pull him into another hug. "Thank you so much Jake and me too. You and your family have changed my life for the better." We break apart once more and he opens the door and holds it open for me. I walk out to Alicia, Theo, Eric, Joe, and Emerald all clapping. I look at everyone in shock "There's our new manager" Theo says with a smile. He rushes up and gives me a brief hug. "I may have texted everyone that you said yes" Jake laughs. I am so overwhelmed with emotion that its rendered me speechless. "Well I will bump up your pay right away and your first act as manager is deciding everyone's schedule and your first shift your in charge of is this one." Jake says. I look at him shocked but finally regain my composure. "Okay. Jake you and I are servers, Alicia go home and Theo I assume you already trained Eric throughout the day so if you guys ever need help then come get me Emerald can go with your mom because we all know if you don't she won't leave" Everyone laughs but then disperses in different directions. "Jake made a great decision. You are going to crush it!" Alicia says in a sweet smile. I share a hug with both Alicia and Emerald before sending them home. My first night as manager goes well. Its a smooth shift with no problems. Eric doesn't talk much but is a good worker and it really seemed that he and Theo will be great together, Jake and I got a little overwhelmed for a moment because the place ended up being super crowded but we managed. It has now been 1 hour since closing and we have already cleaned this place up. Jake makes everyone including the security detail clean the club before leaving. We have sent everyone home and are now shutting off all the lights. I follow him outside and he closes and locks the door. "Do you mind giving me a ride home, my darling fiancée took my car" Jake laughs. "sure no problem" I respond. He follows me to my car and gets in. He grabs my shattered phone and gives me a concerned look. "May I ask what happened?" I give him a guilty look before starting the car. "I kind of threw it out of anger. I will have to get a new phone in the morning" He gives me a saddened look. "Is everything okay Tiffany?" I let out a weary sigh as I take the phone and put it in mu purse. "Just some shit going on with Serena and me. Nothing I can't handle." He looks at my phone then back at me. "You sure about that" I look at him and a rush of sadness and anger push through me. "Can you just leave it please!" I snap but instantly regret it after. "I'm sorry. Its just a lot right now and I don't know how to handle it. I really like her and she said to wait and I have been but its so hard and yesterday I blew her off basically and I feel terrible about it. I am just hurt. Like I know she's trying to work everything out and it makes sense. I think I am in love with her and to not be with her is messing me up" He seems to take my words in as I begin to drive. The whole ride to his place we both are silent. I park next to his car and he puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. "In my experience you need to talk to her and tell her how you really are feeling, look at me and Alicia, yes we are together now but that took me 10 years just to ask her out on a freaking date. You and Serena have already been together and she thought she could handle it but she was not ready." I give him a weak smile and feel a tear fall down my cheek. "What if she will never be ready..." He looks away for a moment. "Then as harsh as this may sound, you might have to move on. But don't think about that now and just focus on talking to her. I know she's off tomorrow so go and talk to her. Hear her out and then vent everything to her and make sure you don't leave anything out. If there is going to be a chance between you too you both need to be honest even if the other one doesn't hear what they want to hear." I take his advice to heart as he exits the car and leans in. "Goodnight Tiff" I say goodnight back and le walks away leaving me in my thoughts. After a little while I drive home. Once I get home I toss my keys and purse onto the counter and walk to the bathroom, I look in the mirror and see someone that's lost. "Come Tiffany pull it together" I don't bother to do anything with my hair, I just throw on my Pj's and go to bed. There is knocking at the door that forces me awake. At first I think its nothing but then it happens again. I grunt and force myself out of the bed and walk slowly to the door. I open it revealing Serena. She is wearing sweats with a black half top and her hair is put up in a pony tail. "Thank god, I tried to call you" I hold the door open for her and she walks inside and I shut the door behind her. "Wait here please" I respond and then I dash to my room and grab a blouse with pink short shorts. I get changed quickly then I walk to the bathroom and grab my brush. When I make it back to the living room I notice she has not moved at all. I begin to brush my hair and motion her to my couch. We both sit down. "What's up Serena" I ask as I continue to brush my hair. She lets out a weary sigh. "Are we good?" She asks in a sweet yet worried tone. I set my brush down and run my hand through my hair. "Honestly Serena no we are not good, not even close." I pause and run my hand through my hair again. "I mean. You told me to wait and I thought we would still be super close and eventually when you were ready you and I will get back together but then we grew apart. We barely talk anymore Serena and yes part of that is on me but damnit Serena I want to be with you so bad that it hurts not knowing anything." She looks away for a moment and I can sense that something is off with her. "Tiff I... I don't know if I will ever be ready. I thought what I needed was time but it turns out" She pauses. She goes to speak again but i stop her. "I know what you are going to say and I can't hear it right now. I am going to have to ask you to leave" She looks at me with sadness in her eyes. "That's it, just because i don't have feelings for you. You're just going to kick me out. You know you can be really fucking selfish sometimes Tiff" She says with slight anger in her voice. She stands up and begins to walk towards the door. I push myself up in anger. "My fucking bad Serena. Right Tiffany is selfish, like I have never heard that before." She stops in her tracks and slowly turns facing me. "Its not my fault Tiffany, all of this is just to fast for me. I have never in my life ever dated a girl and for you I gave it a shot but it didn't work out, but I thought that maybe with some time I could get over it and date you but I just can't." I look at her and for a moment don't say a word. "Leave." I finally respond. I see hurt in her eyes and for a moment she turns to leave but suddenly she stops in her tracks and faces me again. "You know what no! I will not let you flip this shit on me because your feeling are hurt. I am sorry that I don't see you that way. I am sorry that I tried for you. Get over yourself Tiffany" She says her voice a little raised. I loom at her taken aback. "Fuck you Serena" She crosses her arms and glares at me. "So that's it huh. We aren't going to be a couple so that ends our friendship." I look away from her trying to compose myself. "I don't know what to think anymore." She says again and now I can't handle it anymore. I face her and let the emotions out "I'm sorry Serena. Yes I am selfish. I am fucking in love with you and I can't seem to let you go, I'm sorry that every night I think about what you said when we broke up, I'm sorry that I cling onto hope that the love of my life will love me back. I'm sorry that I actually took your words in and gave you time to adjust. You're right Serena, its just the same old selfish Tiffany." She looks at me shocked and this time a tear falls down her cheek. "That's... That's not fair Tiffany" She responds in a saddened tone. I look away from her. "Just leave Serena" I respond. My heart drops when I hear her walk out of my house and shut the door behind her. I can't handle this anymore, I dash to my room and fall face first onto my pillow and cry into it, all my emotions pour out and I can't seem to stop it. I cry so much that my stomach begins to hurt. After a really long time I finally sit up on the bed my face damp. I can't feel anything anymore, Its like my feelings suddenly went numb. After a long pause I finally push myself up and get off the bed. "Okay Tiff pull yourself together" I think to myself. I wash my face in the bathroom and plant a smile on my face. After throwing on my shoes I walk outside to the hot sun wind blowing in my face. Based on the light outside my best guess is its roughly 10 or 11 in the morning, I have my purse with my broken phone still tucked inside. After a short drive i am now sitting outside Verizon. I take a moment to prep my fake smile and fake happiness. Finally after a moment I get out of the car and walk inside and am instantly greeted by a employee. "Hey, Welcome to Verizon how may I help you?" I pull out my phone and watch as his smile fades. "Sheesh, What happened?" he asks politely. I give him a warm smile "Anger issues." I respond with no remorse. He takes my phone and brings me over to his desk. "I've been there, may I have your phone number please?" I give him my information and after a few more moments he smiles at me "Well it seems like you just bought the phone outright and since you have the newest phone out there and insurance I can just replace it for you today and don't worry I'll put on the report that you dropped it down the stairs or something along those lines. We have this phone in stock, would you like black or grey?" I smile at him. "Thank you and I'll stick with black please." He smiles. "Okay just one second" he responds before walking to the back. After a few minutes he returns and hands me the phone still in the box. "So all we have to do is transfer the sim card and you can back up the rest of the phone through your email" I spent the next thirty minutes getting my phone set up. As I leave the store my phone blows up with notifications, some missed calls from Serena and just recently Alicia and there ae some texts that seem to have just happened as well. I look at the texts and one is from Alicia like 10 minutes ago, it reads "Jake told me everything, Call me as soon as you can!" but just as I am about to call her another text pops up and its Serena and at first I don't want to read it but I know I have to. I click on it and it states "Both of those fights were rough, I want you to know that I really care about you and I didn't mean to call you selfish I just don't know what I want. I know you probably won't respond after what happened earlier this morning but I hope we can try to talk again soon. I love you Tiff" I feel tears in my eyes as I respond with "I love you too, but I need some time to myself. Please don't try and contact me. I will contact you when I am ready to talk again" After I press send I try not to get in my feelings and give Alicia a call. She answers instantly "Tiffany! I hope you're okay." she says in a sweet tone. "I. I'm fine, what's up?" I respond. "Ah, there is someone I want you to meet, come over, Jake and the kiddo our out for the day." For a moment I contemplate but I think I need a good distraction. "Okay, I'll be there soon" We say our byes and I hang up to another message from Serena. "Understood. I'll miss you" I feel a tear fall down my cheek as I get in the car. After a short drive I park next to Alicia's impala. I get out of the car trying to remain positive. Once I get to the door I take a deep breath and give the door a gentle knock. It swings open to Alicia with a smile, she lets me in and shuts the door behind her. I notice a really pretty girl sitting on the couch. She stands up when she sees me "Ah Tiffany this is my best friend Abby, I don't remember if you already met or not" Alicia says with a sweet tone as Abby holds out her hand. I shake it gently "I think we briefly met when the club first opened but its nice to officially meet you" Abby gives me a warm smile "Likewise" Abby responds. "Well, I need to use the bathroom be rights back" Alicia says with a smile as she dashes to the bathroom. Abby and I share a small smile as we both sit down on the couch. "So, I don't want to overstep but Alicia told me what's going on and I want to help as I have been through a similar situation" I look at her in shock but regain my composure and give her a real smile. "I'm listening" I respond.