“Is this like in elementary school, where we all picked boyfriends and forgot to mention it to them? If so, I got tired of playing that game in third grade.”
“You’ve got an attitude, anyone ever told you that?”
“Not that I can remember. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
When she storms off, I thank God for the year I spent at a private boarding school. It was my last year of high school and the year my brother went into the military, so he couldn’t care for me. The snarky, bitchy comebacks turned out to be worth their weight in gold.
“Don’t mind Candy.” The new voice comes from my left. I turn to find a woman sitting at the bar, sipping a huge margarita. She’s a flashy one, wearing all silver—clothing, jewelry, everything.
“Let me guess,” I say. “Your name is Silver?”
She grins. “Yeah, word gets around about me and my love of silver, right?”
I warm up to her immediately because this woman is totally open and nice as can be. “Yeah, everyone has nice things to say about you.”
“And you’re TJ’s sister. He’s hot. I’ve always had a thing for him.”
My eyebrows fly up. “Really? I mean of course you did. He’s a great guy with big muscles, cool tattoos, owns his own home, and is co-owner of a gun repair business.”
“He’s always nice to the club girls,” she says before taking another sip of her margarita. This woman acts like we have known each other for years. I like her already. I sense she has good energy.
“Candy’s not as bad as she seems. She’s just territorial. When a new girl shows up, she’s got to mark her territory. It’s a whole club girl thing. I used to be that way too.”
“Wait. You’re telling me that the two of you are club girls?”
She nods. “I’ve been here for a few years. Candy’s been here a year or so.”
“You’ve got good style. That’s probably why people like you even when you don’t mark your territory.”
She just laughs, snorting some margarita out of her nose. “Girl, you’re so droll.”
“Am I? I never knew,” I respond, pretending to be surprised.
“Doesn’t matter whether you’re droll or not. You’re here, you’re young, you’re pretty. That’s enough to get one of the club brothers to fall for you,” she says without an ounce of shame. “Once Candy figures out you’re not trying to take her favorite brother away, she’ll cool her jets. If not, I’ll handle her.”
“You can do that?” I ask, not too sure about it. Surely, the club girls don’t keep up this kind of immature, petty drama forever. I honestly don’t think I could deal with that long term.
“I can do a lot of things,” she assures me, leaning back on the bar. She stretches her arms over her head. “It took me a while to figure out how things around here worked. I made some mistakes early on.”
“What kind of mistakes?” I ask curiously.
She sniffs, glancing over her shoulder to see if anyone is listening. “The kind you make when you’re young and stupid and think being pretty is the only thing you’ve got going for you.”
“I think that being a good listener gets you more attention from men,” I say. It is just something I know. Years of sitting across from people while I draw their faces taught me that the most important skill in portraiture is not technique. It is attention. People love to feel like they’re seen.
Silver turns and looks at me with genuine interest. “That’s really insightful,” she says. “I think you’re right about that. I can see how that would be true.” She pauses. “You’re not what I expected.”
“What exactly were you expecting?”
“I expected you to be some scared little college girl hiding behind her big brother.”
“That’s not me, not most of the time anyway.”
We sit there for a while, chatting, and the conversation comes easy with Silver. She tells me about her second chance, how she came to Cedar Falls after messing things up in Las Salinas.
We’re knee deep in every kind of conversation when the front door of the bar opens and Flint walks in. He looks amazing in his black jeans, Sons cut, and intricate ink. His eyes find me and Silver immediately. His expression closes down. He cuts a look at Silver that would stop me in my tracks.
Silver catches it too and just grins. “Flint. Do you ever do anything other than frown?”
