Alicia didn’t have the heart to get rid of them. Not yet. She had thrown them into the bottom of the new purse her mother bought her and never looked at them again. First, she would need the spiteful heart to sell them for some much-needed cash.
Danica still paid for her medical treatment, but that was the extent of hearing anything from her. No phone calls. No texts. No assistants showing up at her hotel room door to collect her for dates or to relay information.
The only person she saw from that life was Dee, who swung by the hospital in plain clothes to inform Alicia that bodyguard services had been terminated. “I’m on medical leave, anyway,” Dee had said. “But I wanted to make sure you’re okay. Guess I’ll kinda miss you.”
Alicia should have been grateful to return to a sense of normalcy. She may be sharing a standard hotel room with Candice until they could find a new apartment, but it was more normal than what she went through with Danica.
On the third night in the hotel room, Alicia sobbed herself to sleep. Candice rolled over in the other bed and covered her head with a pillow. Eventually, Alicia was too much. Candice crawled out of her bed and into her friend’s, consoling her with bad TV and a bag of popcorn.
That was the last time Alicia cried. She made sure to get it out of her system so she would never cry about Danica again.
Her heart froze like ice. Her soul shut down. Her mind turned its attention to only one focus: getting another job.
Debts were cleared. Insurance paid for the hotel room while the roommates scrounged up the deposit fee for a new apartment. Yet Alicia couldn’t spend every day of her life sitting around, being reminded of what wonderful things Danica did to her the last time she was in one.
“Are you nuts?” Candice asked as Alicia scrolled through online job ads. “Or are you…”
“Taking matters into my own hands again?” Alicia put her phone down. “I’m looking for a job, Candi. I’m not on Tinder or Hinge trawling for prawns. Not like anyone out there can fuck like She Whom I Will Not Mention, anyway!”
“Well, then.”
Alicia needed the distraction of a job. She needed to feel in control again.
“Irasshaimase!” Alicia picked up a thick stick and pounded the taiko drum behind her. “Ogyakusama imasu!”
Amazing how much Japanese a person picks up after only three days working at an izakaya. Alicia hadn’t even heard of the traditional Japanese pub-style bar until she got a lead for a job. She didn’t bother applying until she double and triple-checked that Moreau Industries didn’t have their chopsticks in the communal bowls.
Now she was already making good headway and decent money. The manager gawked at her résumé before taking it straight to the owner of the large restaurant. Two hours later, Alicia was dressed in a hakama and bandana, shadowing a college kid who had already been working there for two years.
Like any restaurant, there were quirks to be honored. This place strived to be as authentic as the native Japanese ownerscould make it, complete with on-the-floor seating and the staff speaking stock Japanese phrases to the diners. Alicia didn’t have to know as much as the waiters did. All she had to know was how to greet guests. After that first night, Alicia took a study sheet home to distract herself. Candice had to deal with Alicia’s butchered Japanese all night, not that she complained. I’m totally teaching Pete this stuff when we get him back from Candice’s friend.Alicia would die to hear him caw “Irasshaimase!” whenever someone came home.
Tonight, the place was crowded, but not so crowded that it was difficult to keep up with the influx of guests or decide which waiter to give them. In fact, this place was run so damn well that Alicia almost considered it a blessing in disguise that she had quit Blue Bird to run off to Chicago with Danica.
Don’t think about her. Alicia went back to her podium after seating the last two guests. She pulled out an erasable marker and marked that table as taken.
“Hey, Alicia!” Liam, one of the senior waiters at the restaurant, approached her when no one else was around. “Everything going well?”
Alicia liked Liam. Since her first day on the job, he had been nothing but friendly and helpful – and not even in a creepy way like some guys at these jobs could be. He never acted like he expected something in return or that Alicia should be so grateful for his attention.Everyone loves him.She kinda did, too.
“Yeah,” she said, twisting the cap on her marker. “Thanks for checking in.”
“No problem. It’s been a blast having you so far. You really filled in for us after Sadie went back to college early.” Sheesh. It was already that late in the summer? “Anyway, I don’t have much time left in my break, but I was going to ask if you wanted to, um…”
Alicia glanced up into Liam’s blue eyes. “Yeah?”
“Well, some of us are going bar crawling later. I’m the designated sober man who has to babysit everyone, and I could use some help.”
Alicia laughed. “You want me to come be sober with you at some bars while our coworkers get drunk?”
“What? Like that isn’t fun?”
Liam put his hand on the podium. Damn. He was fairly fit. Did he say he played basketball?I used to go to all the games in school.To say she had a soft spot…
“Might be fun with you,” she flirted back.
Liam smiled. He had such a dazzling boy-next-door smile, and it killed Alicia inside.
Supposed to. It wassupposedto kill her inside.
