The Strip - Max

27 / Lies and Secrets

There are times when you wish you could just crawl back into bed and hide. Maybe if you stayed asleep, none of the crap that surrounds you would be happening. They say bad things come in threes... Tyler was having a bad week and probably wished it would have ended at three. It started with a Monday morning delivery mix-up that escalated to the delivery truck wiping out his car as it left the parking lot behind the club. Then another girl handed in her resignation on the same day the city served Tyler with a fine for a noise complaint and owning an unlicensed dog.

"I'm telling you, I don't own a dog," Tyler said into the phone as he shook his head in disbelief. "No, there are no dogs in my yard and none of my neighbors have dogs either."

I sat and listened while he argued with the woman on the other end of the line. Once he had exhausted his abundant supply of patience, he hung up without resolving the issue. "I'm just going to talk to her boss when he comes in this weekend."

"My dad would have put her on hold for ten minutes, just to waste her time. He called it balancing the universe. Waste my time, I'll waste yours." I realized I hadn't spoken about my father since Megan moved away. I would still have an occasional, one sided conversation with him, but even those had fallen by the wayside in the preceding months.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked. "You look a little melancholy."

"I'm fine. Just remembering the funny things my dad would do." I shook myself out of my thoughts and got back to the reason for venturing through the club to Tyler's office. "Gina said you wanted to talk to me."

"Yeah, do you know a girl that goes by the name Gretchen? She worked at Please! but it looks like she wasn't there long."

"She started the day I left so I don't really know her, except that one of my friends said she's nice and fun." I paused for a moment. "I think she might have just been there as a temp."

"She's applied to replace Chantel. I guess I have a couple positions to fill, now," he said while he ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm sorry. I forgot to ask how you're doing."

"I'm good. It seems you're having a bit of a rough week."

"You could say that. Before that call about my non-existent barking dog, I was on the phone with Chantel." He didn't have the gleeful look that usually makes his face glow when he talks about Chantel.

"Is something wrong?"

He nodded and I watched his face lose all expression. "She was using fake ID when she worked here. She just turned eighteen a couple weeks ago. She worked here for more than two years. Do the math."

"Oh..." I let the numbers sink in. "OH!!! Shit!"

"Yeah... The manager of Fantasia called me. He was ready to fire her over it, but I talked him out of it." Tyler sighed. "I called her about it, and... I was so mad when I was dialing her number, but when I heard her voice I just..."

"Melted?"

"Yeah. Why didn't I see it? How could I not know?" he asked.

"She had you under her spell. And look at my aunt and cousin, Megan looks like she could be Nat's sister. I suspected she was younger but not that much. Like, I figured she was maybe a year younger than she let on, but not... wow..."

"Don't ever say that to anyone. If you suspect someone is underage, you are obligated to report it," he said as the phone rang. "Speaking of people that don't look their age, it's Mei. Don't go anywhere—"

Tyler answered the phone with his usual welcoming tone, but concern took over his expression as he asked, "Mei, what's wrong?"

As his eyes started to glisten with forming tears, I couldn't help but feel my own start to well up, and I didn't know what we were crying about. I heard things like, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it," and "what hospital?" as he spoke to Mei.