Eighty bucks a month? Ouch. I’d have to figure it out.
I nodded. “That’s perfect.”
I’d come to terms with how things were going to end. It was either going to be me in a body bag or Bryce in jail. I was hoping for the latter.
OceanofPDF.com
Fourteen
The next week stretched on and suddenly it was Christmas Eve. I’d gone to approximately one Krav Maga class and had fallen in love. The thrill of knocking a toy plastic gun out of a big chick's hand and watching it fall to the floor had filled me with a total adrenaline rush. Bryce was radio silent again, which was fine by me, but Ethan was the one who had my every waking thought.How is he? Does he miss me? Is he dating someone else?He and his boys never came in to Mickey’s when I was on shift. It was like they called ahead and asked who was working.
“Girl, you look adorable!” Angela shrieked, and I spun around to hug my friend. We were working tonight and I was just putting on my Santa hat to go with my little red dress I’d found, and knee high black boots. I looked absolutely fuckable tonight, with no one to fuck. It was depressing, really.
“Thanks, girl. How’s Finn?”
Her son had an ear infection last time I checked.
She waved a hand. “Gave him that pink shit and now he’s all better.”
I laughed. “They still give that?” I remembered that pink shit from when I was little.
“Yep. Remember when we were in third grade and we got lice?”
I chuckled. “My mom threatened to shave my head.”
She grinned. “They still use that stinky stuff and that tiny comb too.”
Her talk of our childhood made me smile. I didn’t have that in L.A. I didn’t have a home there or anyone from my past, and it had made me forget a part of myself.
“Girl, that dress barely covers your hoo-ha. You trying to get extra tips?” Her eyes fell to my crotch and laughter pealed out of me.
“Maybe.” I winked. Showing some skin was good for business; there was no shame in my game.
She winked and gave me a hip bump.
We walked out to our shift with smiles on our faces. The holidays were here, and although I didn’t have a family to spend it with, it was good to be among friends. Angela was spending tomorrow with her son and her parents. She’d invited me, but I didn’t want to crash. Tomorrow night there was actually a ”Singles On Christmas” event in Phoenix I thought about going to.
If I were still in L.A., I’d be up at 4AM Christmas morning, cooking lunch for Bryce and his friends and then off to the clubhouse for dinner with his parents. I’d be a stressed-out, overworked robot with not a shred of happiness. This year wasn’t perfect, but my first Christmas free of Bryce, doing whatever I wanted and not cooking for a dozen ungrateful idiots, sounded perfect.
Mickey greeted me and Angela: “Grab me a Heineken, dollface?”
Angela handed him one and he nodded, popping the top off and handing it to a customer behind the bar.
“Thanks for coming in last minute. We’re slammed!” he told me.
I smiled. “You know me! I love the extra hours.”
We settled into our routine. I had the left side of the bar, Angela had the right, and Taylor scooped up the middle. For a night when people were usually with family or at Mass, there sure were a lot of people in the bar. People were tipping back beers like it was water and tips were flowing freely.
“Holidays are the best!” Angela told me on our fifteen-minute break out back.
I nodded. “Hell yeah they are.” I had a fat stack of cash in my pocket that was going to pay for these expensive Krav Maga classes.
“You gotta find a proper place to live, mama. You can’t be living in a youth hostel all through college. It ain’t right.” She was extra Latina tonight and it made me smile.
I chuckled. “It’s all I can afford.” Marina, the youth hostel owner, lowered my rate since I had stayed long term. It was now three hundred a month. A bit more than I paid Ethan, but that was a charity case anyway.
Angela shook her head. “No, girl. We’ll find you a place. Like a room on Craigslist. Somewhere I can visit and not have that chatty bitch all up in our faces.”
