Out of Bounds [h.s. au]

Chapter 30

I rolled my eyes at the text message. Now Justine was asking for my forgiveness? And in the middle of the night, no less.

I dropped my phone back on the end table and rolled over. She was probably drunk, feeling lonely and crying over our fallout. Let her! She wasn't going to be hearing from me.

Less than ten minutes later, however, my phone rang. Past feeling perturbed, I sat up and turned on the lamp. Reaching for my phone, I realized it was not Justine calling, but Harry. With a sigh of relief, I answered.

"Hi, baby," I greeted.

"Hey," he said shortly, not giving any term of endearment. I could tell from that one word that he was not happy.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Well...um...I just got fired."

"What?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Your pal Justine came in with that lawyer."

"Oh no," I muttered. What had Justine done?

"Oh yes," countered Harry. "I had to wait on them. At first I just did my job, tried to be courteous. Like the last time, they both ordered a lot of drinks. They started getting kind of loud, and Justine started whining to me about how you didn't want to be friends with her anymore. And how she wanted me to talk to you to change your mind."

"Oh Jeez."

"Yeah. So I told her I wasn't going to do that. That you could make your own decisions, and for what it's worth, I agree with you."

"I bet she loved that," I commented sarcastically.

"Right," said Harry. "She started yelling at me then, calling me names, saying I was a little prick who was only out for one thing, and after a few months I'll drop you."

"No way!" I exclaimed.

"Yep. I told her that I didn't give a shit what she thought of me, especially in the state she was in. She said that I was there to serve her, and if I wasn't going to do so I could go to hell. Her lawyer friend then piped up and said he knew precisely who I was and where I lived. I asked him if that was a threat. He stood up and said 'No, but this is'."

"Holy shit, Harry!"

"I know," he sighed. "I almost punched him, but I held back long enough for the manager to walk up. He told me to head out back while I guess he apologized to his customers. When he finally came to talk to me, I was still livid. But all he said was I was fired and walked back inside."

"Harry..." I cried. "Harry, you can't let them do this to you! Go get your job back!"

"I'm already home now," he said. "But I'll go back up there tomorrow and talk to Dennis. I just needed time to cool off."

"Okay," I muttered meekly. "Hopefully you can get it all straightened out. Surely they know what a valuable employee you are."

"It's just a bar, Tisa," Harry scoffed. "It's not the end of the world."

"I know, but still..."

"I'm sorry to call you so late," he added. "I just had to tell you."

"It's okay," I said. "I'm glad you did. I just happened to get a strange text from Justine ten minutes before you called."

"Really?"

"Yep. Saying she'd done a terrible thing. I guess she felt guilty for getting you fired."

"That figures."

"I'm so sorry, Harry," I voiced.

"Nothing for you to be sorry for, love," he replied. "It'll be alright."