“No, princess didn’t realize I was the one. But I knew early on.”
“Oh, we all know the story,” Carter added, causing us all to glance his way. “You both met in college, fell in love, and the rest is history.”
Robert and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“History, huh?” Robert questioned.
“You’ve told us the story, Father,” Aaron added.
“You got theabridgedversion, son. Maybe it’s time we tell them the full story,” Robert stated, staring at me.
Lifting my eyebrows, I shrugged. I looked at our children whose faces had shifted to ones of curiosity instead of impatience. “I don’t see why not.”
Chapter Two
Then
Deborah
I crouched down low behind the bar, pulling my notecards from my shoulder bag to study for the next twenty minutes before my shift began. The loud music, constant chatter, and strobe lights that were gaining so much popularity in clubs like this, didn’t make for the easiest of studying locations, but I fit my studying in wherever I could. Thus, as uncomfortable as I was, I snuggled into the far corner behind the bar where patrons couldn’t see me, and where I was out of the way of Pia, the bartender for the night’s, way, and went about memorizing the notes I’d taken earlier in my Theory of Probabilities class.
“Hey, you’re studying already? Wasn’t this, like, your first week of the semester?”
Startled, I looked up to find Pia’s two long, blonde pigtails hanging low as she tilted her head downward, staring at me.
I nodded. “Yeah, but our professor gives us a quiz each week. Just trying to stay prepared,” I muttered the last part before turning back to my notes to continue studying.
“You’ve got another ten minutes. And don’t let Mike catch you back here doing that.”
I nodded, not bothering to look up. I knew Pia would alert me if he came out from his back office. I’d gotten used to the absurdity that studying while not even on my shift could be a thing to hide. Mike, the owner, wasn’t looking for girls who wanted to study to make it out of this place.
“Trinity’s on tonight and it’s a Friday. You know what that means,” Pia continued as she wiped down the bar.
Again, I nodded, but kept my eyes on my notecards. I really wanted to start the semester off well. As a math major, I loved numbers and working analysis by running numbers, as we did in statistics. However, when it came to theory courses that required the understanding of historical explanations, as well as written papers to explain said theories, that was a weakness of mine. I needed to focus on doing well from the very beginning.
After what felt like only a few minutes, I looked at the watch on my wrist and saw that I only had another two minutes before my shift.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” I mumbled to myself, before inserting my notecards into my leather, over the shoulder backpack, and pushing it all of the way behind the boxes of unopened liquor bottles under the bar.
“Time to get to work,” Pia noted as I stood up and smoothed down the edges of the red, checkered mini-skirt I wore.
“It’s that time,” I responded, using my hands to adjust my boobs so they sat up in the midriff, white T-shirt I wore. I pulled up the suspender straps holding my skirt in place. The knee-high white socks and platform heels I wore completed the supposed school girl outfit the owner ofRichie’swas going for. After three and a half years of working there, I no longer thought about the ridiculousness of the outfit. The pay was decent, but the tips more than made up for it, and my while my academic scholarship paid for my school and living expenses on campus, I worked to save so I’d have money to move once I finished school.
“How do I look?” I held out my arms, asking Pia.
Her pink lips spread into a wide grin. “Damn good. Now go make that money.” She smacked me on the ass as I walked past her.
I pushed her arm away, used to her teasing by now. As soon as I stepped from behind the bar, the main lights darkened and the strobe lights turned up. I looked up as the music started playing. I immediately recognized The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar”.Trinity had a thing for anything by the Rolling Stones. Her long, thin frame made its way from behind the red velvet curtain to the stage.
“Hey!”
I turned toward the bar to Pia.
“Mike says we’ve got a big crowd coming in. Potential big spenders or something. Look alive.”
I stood up straight.
“Poke your tits out. Come on, you know the drill!” she yelled back.
