“And before The Basement, did you bar back anywhere else?”
Her brow furrowed, clearly trying to pre-empt where I was headed.“Yeah, a bunch of places.Why?”
“At any of those establishments, was it ever appropriate to be rude to a customer?”
A huff of breath that sounded suspiciously close to a scoff escaped her, but she still said a petulant, “No.”
“So, you can understand why I wanted to speak with you.”
She threw her hands up.“Look, I’m sorry, okay?I fought with my boyfriend last night, and now he’s not texting me back, and I didn’t mean to be rude or whatever, but, like, it won’t happen again.”
I doubted that.“I know that it can be difficult to separate work and home life.”And I certainly knew from personal experience how badly it could blow up in your face if you didn’t.“But I would ask that you leave your personal problems at home when you come to work.”
She gaped.“So, I should just not care that my life is falling apart?”
“Does that explain why you were late to your shift today?”
“I was barely fifteen minutes late.Getting through Lower Wacker was a nightmare.”Huh.Not a local, then.
“It was forty-five minutes, actually.And it wasn’t the first occasion.If you aren’t able to get to work on time, Riley, then I’m the one who’s sorry because this isn’t going to work out.Consider this your only warning.”
Her face broke out in disgust as she angrily stood up.“This is her, isn’t it?She’s totally gaslit you into this.”I was insulted that she thought I couldn’t come to this decision myself, but that thought was immediately forgotten when I heard Riley spit out, “Fucking bitch.”
A torrent of rage washed over me.“Get out.”
“Finally.”
I heard the deep rasp in my voice, the only outward sign of the extreme prejudice I was feeling about her.“No, I don’t think you understand me.You’re fired.I don’t want to see you here again.”
“What the fuck?”
“You’re fired.Hand your key to Devon and get out of my bar.”
She mumbled as she turned to leave.“Probably slept with you, too.”
I slammed the door behind her.
It didn’t escape me that I was now in a position where I couldn’t return behind the bar for the exact reasons I’d just admonished Riley for.Unfortunately, I would also drive myself to distraction if I spent any longer in this tiny office.Instead, I found Devon and asked him to call me if there were any issues, and I walked the short distance home.
Once I was inside the apartment—myapartment, I had to remind myself—the vice around my ribs eased.
At the sound of my keys hitting the kitchen counter, a wary Siamese slinked around the corner, loudly complaining even as I filled her bowl with dinner.
“Yes, Luna, I can hear you,” I said fondly, scratching her neck.She let out another loud meow before digging in, and I left her to eat.
Pouring myself two fingers of whiskey, I sagged back into the leather couch, a purchase that was only days old, and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the sparkling lights of the city.
Home.
It still didn’t feel one hundred percent real.
A month ago, I’d been in a suite overlooking the strip, finalizing notes for an interview with Eater.In the span of four weeks, I’d been dumped, kicked out of my own company, and forced home.
How had Tiffany phrased it the other day?Demoted and castrated.
I snorted into the silence of the apartment.It felt oddly fitting.
Soon, even the whiskey wasn’t doing enough to soothe, so I called the one person I knew would be awake at midnight.
