The Delivery Girl

19. Bar

"I'm getting too old for this," I grumble to myself as I push my way through the dense crowd.

Ever since the tequila incident in my second year of undergrad, bars have become more and more unappealing to me. These days, I'd much rather spend a Saturday night curled up with a good book.

I scan the barstools and high tables until I begin to spot the familiar faces of my friend group by the corner of the bar.

"Julie!" Casey calls. She gets off her stool and squeezes through the group to get to me. "Thanks for coming!"

"What are we celebrating again?" I shout over the music.

"Midterms being finished!" she says gleefully.

I swear this girl will find any excuse to party. I don't have the heart to tell her that I still have one more midterm on Monday.

She links her arm with mine and tugs me towards an empty booth along the wall. "Let's catch up! I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

I decide not to point out that we got lunch together a week ago. Casey is probably the most extroverted extrovert I've ever met.

Shot glasses of a dark, amber liquid are handed out when someone from our group orders a round for everybody. We down the shots that burn the whole way down.

"I swear it's been years since I've had shots," I say, grimacing at the taste.

Those days are far behind me now. I used to lie to dad, telling him I was staying over at Casey's. In reality, we were out partying till the sun came up. As far as he knows, I'm staying over at Casey's again tonight.

She chuckles and takes a sip of her other drink. "Reminds me of our early undergrad years." She orders two more shots for us. "So, how have the jobs been going?" she asks excitedly.

"Not bad, I like being a TA. It's a big time commitment, but Dr. Kim is really nice." I try my best to stifle a yawn. Things have gotten so busy lately that I hadn't even noticed how tired I've been these days.

I get home later four times a week because of the new jobs and still work my usual shift at the restaurant afterwards. I've found myself staying up much later than I used to too. Grading assignments takes much more time than I was expecting it to, and I get tons of emails from students.

I'm confident I can handle it, though. Mom and dad raised us to be diligent and hardworking, no matter the challenges we might face. It's not like we had much other choice anyways, especially after dad took over all of the parenting.

"That's great!" she says, excitedly clasping her hands together. "How about the other one?"

I pause, tempted to lie and make it sound as glamorous as she thinks it is. I've been changing the subject every time she brings it up, but I can only hide it for so long.

"It's been not bad, mostly just admin work," I say with a small shrug.

She absentmindedly stirs her drink with her straw. "Aw, I hope you get to take on bigger things soon," she says. "How about that mysterious boss?"

We had spent the night before my first day doing some stalking. Despite Casey's social media and internet investigative skills, she wasn't able to find much about Callen – not even a single photo from the last five years. You'd think one of the country's few billionaires would be more well known, but he's kept an impressive amount of privacy. That might be how he managed to keep his name out of Maddie's scandal.

"He's interesting," I say. "He can be so distant and serious sometimes. Other times, he's actually pretty nice."

"He probably just has a lot on his plate. I'm sure he's glad to have you."