Fucking bad luck.
Had to be that. Definitely had to be that.
What else could it be?
“Can I have your strongest drink please?” I asked the bartender.
He smiled and walked over to the counter to mix my drink. It wasn’t even five and I was drinking. I was drinking in the middle of the day.
That was never a good sign. I’d always been told the day that happened was a signal to take a stock of everything, time to see what had gone wrong and fix it.
Except this couldn’t be fixed. I’d driven mindlessly around town for an hour after after speaking to Perry. I found this sports bar a few hours ago. I came in and sat in the corner by the TV at first then I just thought fuck it. I needed to get drunk.
Wasted. Wasted like I’d have to spend a week trying to remember what happened today.
I’d been in town for a little over a week and I’d lost the assignment that was supposed to take me to the next level in my career.
I didn’t know what the hell to do anymore, especially since I didn’t know where I’d gone wrong.
The bartender came back with a blue drink and smiled. “This is for you pretty lady.” He winked at me.
“Thank you.” I took it and knocked back the whole thing.
Darn, I shouldn’t have done that. It had vodka in it and it seared my throat.
“You’re gonna need a lot of water with that,” the bartender cooed.
All I could do was nod. God, I certainly knew how to make a bad situation worse.
He grabbed the water for me and came over with it. I downed that too, and thankfully the ice cooled my throat.
“Do you have anything a little milder? I’m going to need a few.” To go in for the kill I didn’t want to reach that buzz too quickly and have a mere hanover in the morning. I needed to do this properly if I was going to do it.
* * *
A few hours later, I was nearly there, nearly as drunk as I wanted to be.
A few more drinks and I’d be in a coma of intoxication.
Right now, I was aware of my surroundings and had a buzz that had that lackadaisical effect I craved. It lured me into thinking I didn’t have a care in the world.
I’d spotted a few guys playing pool and joined in their game. I couldn’t even play pool, but somehow it felt like I should just play.
I literally let my hair down and decided to have fun.
I set my drink on the bar and leaned over the pool table to line up my cue then I took a shot. I could feel eyes on my ass as I did so, but I didn’t care. For tonight, I didn’t care about anything. Everything was shit and I was most likely going home in a few days—why should I give a shit about anything?
Except when a large hand landed firmly on my ass, something snapped in my brain and brought me back to reality.
I whirled around to face a trucker with a crude smile. All of him was muscle, thick muscle, and he looked like a pit bull.
“I’m taking you home with me tonight, angel doll.” He looked me over with satisfaction and licked his lips when he looked at my breasts.
“Asshole, how dare you touch me?” I pushed him.
Of course he didn’t move. He was solid as a rock. I also might have pushed him a little harder if I wasn’t drunk. I actually did more harm to myself than him because my wrist hurt.
“Come on, baby.” He grabbed me and tried to pull me through the crowd that had now formed in the bar.
