"I need help for the entire afternoon and part of the night. Can you be here by one?"
I glanced at the clock on the DVD player to find out what time it was now. It would be tight but we could pull off being there within the hour. Everyone was staring at me with curious eyes.
"Yea, we'll be there," I confirmed.
"Good. Bye."
Chase hung up and I just stared at the phone. That was the most we had spoken to each other in three years. How we managed living together for thirteen years still boggled my mind. Every conversation throughout that time was like the one we just completed - short and detached. There was no way of knowing that we were family without asking. The sad part was that I had no memories of my parents so my first memories were full of fear and solitude. If Trey's mom would have forgone extending a welcome to the neighborhood, my childhood could've been much worse. She introduced her family to me on my first day here. At least that was what she told me anyway. I struggled to recall a lot from that time in my life and that was a separate issue in itself.
The only reason Chase tracked me down was because Bri and I helped around the bar in high school. He probably went through his entire phone book before he considered me. Whenever I helped him in high school, he took a huge risk but it never seemed to bother him. He projected an attitude towards life that puzzled me. It was as if he went through his life going through the motions not ever truly participating in it. It terrified me that living all those years with him more than likely had an impact on my own beliefs.
I moved out from under his roof the day after I turned eighteen. It made my senior year of high school remarkable and there was not a damn thing the school district or anyone else could do about it. I enjoyed every second of that year without a thought of Chase and how shitty he had made my entire childhood. He was never mean to me but he isolated me in such a way that it seemed like there was something wrong with me. It was the negligence coupled with the obvious dislike that made me want to be as far away from him as possible. He never displayed any love for me but I loved him regardless of how strained our relationship was with each other.
I brought myself out of my fucked up relationship with Chase. I handed Bri's phone back to her. I had no remorse for including her in the misery my next ten hours promised to be. In reality, I needed her to be there with me so it was almost a blessing for Chase to request her.
"Your penance for broadcasting our party which led to all of us not knowing what happened for the majority of the evening has warranted you a day of working at the bar."
Bri looked at me like I couldn't be serious. I glared daggers at her to drive my point home. She shuffled out from underneath Trey and made her way to the stairs. Trey was unable to hide his shock. He knew firsthand what the relationship was between Chase and me. I gave him a subtle headshake not to dwell on it. Bri blew past it without asking why I agreed to help him. I doubted that it would come up later. Between keeping up with customers and preventing our heads from falling off, we'd have little room to get into a heart to heart.
I stopped on the landing peering back at the boys. "You guys are responsible for getting this place cleaned up. If time allows, try to find out what's in that bucket."
Trey grimaced but nodded. Jackson and Shane remained unmoving.
We got ready quicker than we normally do. Time was a luxury we no longer had so I showered in the boy's bathroom while Bri cleaned up in ours. We exited our rooms in faded, torn jeans and white tank tops displaying the O'Reilly's signature mark with our hair pulled back and oversized sunglasses. She looked as bad as I felt and she returned the same amused expression. I laughed and winced when it in my head. Bri rolled her eyes as she fell in step with me. On our way to the door, Trey sat up showing concern.
"Are you sure you guys are okay to drive?"
I tilted my head to the side letting my eyes pull into a death stare. He knew the expression well enough not to argue with it. Bri went over to give him a kiss before meeting me at the door.
"If you need an extra bartender, give me a call," Trey offered as we walked out.
We flew down the interstate in silence. Our hangovers had us in our own personal hells so the thought of even trying to have a conversation wasn't on either of our minds. Bri kept her eyes shut with her head against the window as she massaged her temples. I wanted to do the same thing but the car wasn't going to drive there on its own. We got to the bar shortly before one. Chase took one glance at us and shook his head. I held up a hand not even wanting to hear any of his bullshit. It took everything within my power not to flip him off and turn around.
Chase can fuck off for all I care. No hello or how have you been not that I'm surprised but the least he can do is let us walk into the bar without fucking judging us.
His bar was pretty basic. After walking through the front door, there were booths that lined the walls with tables scattered throughout the rest of the area. There were sections that Chase arranged for pool and darts. The jukebox was near the bar along with a popcorn machine. The bar was circular and by the back wall with a small path around it. There was a walkway through the center of it to make it easy to get around. The register was in the middle facing towards the cut out window on the right side of the wall that allowed you to see into the kitchen.
There was a door in the middle that led to the kitchen off to the right and a supply room off to the left. Beyond that area, there was the back door that dumped you into an alleyway. It was where I parked and where Chase's vehicle was since he turned the second level of the building into his apartment.
We grabbed aprons from the supply room then propped ourselves behind the bar to wait for people to start coming in for their afternoon fix. By happy hour, there was very little room to move around with the amounts of people that swarmed in for the drink specials. I cringed at that thought and prayed that a regime of water with Excedrin would be enough to keep me going. I glanced over to Bri. She had her head in hands. I grabbed two glasses and filled them with water. I squeezed her shoulder before placing the glass in front of her with some Excedrin.
"Take these. It's not going to make it go away completely but it should help."
"How do you know?" Bri asked, pulling her arms from her head.
"I took some before hopping in the shower. It's starting to work. Don't get me wrong. There is still sludge hammer running through my skull. It's just less intense," I replied.
Bri shrugged as she popped them in her mouth and took down half of her water. "A bar is the last place anyone should be when they are this hung-over. I'd rather walk through the fires of hell with gasoline all over me than be anywhere near alcohol," she griped.
I gave her an empathetic nod. "Thanks for doing this Bri. I really do appreciate it."
She smirked. "It was a bitchy move to rope me into this but don't worry about it."
There was no more time for chitchat. Patrons started coming in and we were taking orders and pouring drinks. The first whiff of hard liquor made my stomach feel like it ate itself then up-chucked it all in one motion. I was lucky my gag reflex was solid. I looked over at Bri on the other end of the bar as she mixed her first drink. Her naturally tan skin was green. We caught each other's miserable eyes. Today was going to be a very long, painful day.
We had been at it for about two hours before catching a lull in customers. I took advantage of it by washing glasses behind the bar. Bri was verifying that everything was in stock for the night crowd. She was inspecting our supply of Jack Daniels at the other end of the bar when she gasped loudly. I glanced over my shoulder to see what the big deal was. Bri was stumbling her way back towards me with her hands to her eyes and rubbing them as if to clear her vision. I couldn't figure out why so I went back to the dirty bar glasses.
"Sweet Baby Jesus. God's gift to women just walked in," Bri said hoarsely.
I groaned. "I've known Trey my entire life. Do you really have to refer to him like that?"
Bri turned me around to face the front door. I tossed my rag on the bar and looked around.
"I wasn't talking about Trey. I'm talking about that fine specimen of a man," she whispered.
My breath hitched as my eyes absorbed Ethan. He was in torn jeans and a plain white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up showing off his tattoos. My pulse quickened when he gave me a crooked smile. He motioned to an area of tables to the right of the bar silently asking if anywhere was okay to sit. I nodded indicating I'd be over in five to take his order.
His eyes lingered on me for a few more seconds before he settled at a table. The heat that rose around him had been on the move. I swallowed hard realizing that this really was about to happen. This afternoon was about to wreak even more havoc on my world at his office. I had gotten lost in his looks and my inability to fight it today that I failed to remember Bri was watching us. She arched a brow. When I remained silent, she forced me to face her.
"That's Ethan," I said, feigning indifference.
Bri glanced at him and then back at me with cartoon character like speed. "That's Ethan as in the Ethan you work for now Ethan," she confirmed.
I nodded while lightly chuckling. Bri wasn't as amused by the hardness in her eyes.
"What you said before was the same thing that I thought when I saw him for the first time."
She giggled. "Who wouldn't react that way around someone as gorgeous as him? I've never seen anyone that beautiful. It's making me reconsider polygamy and open relationships."
"I can't believe you said that out loud."
Her lips curled into a twisted grin. "I can't help it. He's fine with a capital F. It wouldn't matter if I made a pass at him. He seems to have eyes for only one person in here."
I looked around to see who else was here. When I gazed around before, there was no one under the age of fifty so there had to be someone new in here for her to make that comment. A small pit formed in my stomach wondering who might have caught his eye.
Bri rolled her eyes as she playfully knocked at my head. "I'm talking about you, you idiot. He hasn't stopped staring at you since he figured out that it was you behind the bar."
"Whatever," I retorted, throwing my dishrag at her.
"The looks you two were exchanging are enough to make me want to call the fire department to be on standby. You better go over and take his order before the bar spontaneously combusts," she remarked.
I grabbed my order pad and made my way over to his table.
"Hey Ethan, what brings you down here today?" I asked.
I wanted to slap my forehead at my own stupidity. Until now, my face had remained crimson free but that changed as I flushed scarlet. His lips twitched at the corners forming a grin that flashed his gorgeous dimples.
"Hello Mia. I was putting in a few hours at the office. I stopped in to get something to eat before heading home." He paused, raising an eyebrow at the note pad in my hand. "I'm surprised to see you here. I wasn't aware that you had another job."
He kept his eyes focused on me with their usual intensity. My heart raced ahead while other parts of my body joined the sensation party that it seemed to throw whenever I was this close to him. His eyes had done a visual one over of my body. After spending far too much time on my chest, he settled on my lips. He brought his tongue out grazing his bottom lip. I started to come apart watching his tongue gently caress his lip as if he was trying to tease me.
"Oh, this isn't another job. This is my uncle's bar. He's short staffed so I'm here to help. Umm...the Juicy Lucy is the best thing on the menu. It's what I would recommend if you want to make your virgin trip here an unforgettable experience."
I did not just say that out loud. Why God? Someone please shoot me now.
Ethan chuckled and who could blame him. Officially embarrassed, I looked away from his face to notice that he had folded his menu up. His eyes danced with amusement across his face.
"It's already unforgettable. I'll go with the Juicy Lucy and a beer."
Still mortified, I jotted down his order without looking at him. Irritation flooded through me as he continued to laugh at my expense. "What are you laughing at?"
Ethan stopped chuckling and crinkled his brow apparently intrigued by my outburst. "It's different seeing you away from work or listening to you for that matter. I was laughing because...well you're definitely straightforward with your thoughts," he answered.
I rolled my eyes. "You look as different out of a suit as I'm sure I do out of a skirt."
Ohmigod! I said that out loud too. What's wrong with me?
I tried to improvise by motioning to his tattoos. Ethan bit his lip to hold back laughing any harder. His gaze ran up and down my body with no shame. He had me tingling everywhere. I wished that it were just the two of us in here with zero chance of being interrupted when we tore each other's clothes off.
"You look different in jeans and a tank top. Younger but more relaxed." Ethan paused and gestured to his tattoos. "These are a happy addiction. Do you have any?"
His eyes penetrated mine with thoughtfulness behind them. I needed to get away from him and his sexy...his sexy...well sexy everything. Every part of me was on carnal overdrive with the only goal in mind being hot and sweaty sex. It was probably because my body was struggling overall today. Tossing Ethan into the equation was a bit more than I could handle. The construction crew in my skull reminded me of their presence as my head started to pound.
I ignored his question and asked, "Uh, what kind of beer did you want with your burger?"
"Miller Lite on tap if you got it."
"We do. I...uh...I should get your order in," I stuttered.
"Sounds good, I'll be here," Ethan replied, waving a hand in the air around him.
I walked to the kitchen window to get his order in with Chase. Bri's eyes bored into me every step of the way. After his order was in, she ushered me to the other end of the bar. Bri went as far away from Ethan as she could get us. My head pounded even more while the rest of my body burned to be next to him a little longer.