Trajectory

Brent walked into the Barcade with a bounce in his step. He wasn’t sure she would forgive him, but he had to try. There weren’t that many people in the bar. There were the two regulars, Mr. Lail and Mr. Agnes. There was a man sitting in a corner booth with a long black coat he didn’t recognize. The g

uy grinned at him in a creepy way, so he didn’t look at him again. Ash was wiping down the bar and whistling to himself.

“Hey, Ash, where’s Chloe?”

“She’s filling up the ice buckets. You can’t go back there,” Ash said, smiling at him.

“Okay, I’ll just wait.”

He waited a long time before Chloe finally came out of the back with ice buckets in hand and dumped them into the ice chest behind the bar.

“Chloe,” Brent said, “can we talk for a minute?”

“I don’t know, Brent, I’m really busy. I have a lot of customers. Need another beer, Mr. Lail?” she called over his head.

Mr. Lail looked at his full beer and back up in confusion. “I’m good, dear, but you might want to get this bag of bones another one. The pussy is drinking slow today.” He pointed at Mr. Agnes.

“You shut your mouth, you pansy, you can’t see well enough to know how many beers I’ve had,” Mr. Agnes yelled back at him.

“See,” Chloe said, “really busy today, not a lot of time to talk.” Ash chuckled and they both glared at him.

“Whoa, sorry.”

“It will only take a minute, Chloe, please.” She seemed off to him, her eyes focused on him, but it was still kind of like she wasn’t really seeing him. He may have screwed up worse than he thought.

They walked out the back and next to the trash cans where the other wait staff and Ash smoked.

“Listen, I’m sorry, Chloe. I acted like a complete asshole. I don’t know why I couldn’t handle it. So you have the ability to turn into a bird, so what? I love you. I’ve loved you since we were in middle school and it was stupid of me not to tell you then. I love you whether you’re a cat or a bat or a cow, whatever you turn into I love you. I’m so glad we’re finally being honest with one another and I want to be with you if you want to be with me.” He breathed heavily, not stopping through the whole speech until it was all out.

She didn’t really respond to him, she just sort of stood there, looking at him like he’d just said he made her a grilled cheese.

“Chloe?”

“That’s good, Brent. I think I just need time. I can’t concentrate on anything right now. I just keep thinking about Layla. My brain is one big fog,” she said.

“I do love you.”

“I know you do. We’ll talk soon. I have to get back to work.” With that, she went into the restaurant and left him outside wondering what had just happened. It was like she hadn’t really heard him. Maybe losing Layla was really taking its toll on her.

“She shouldn’t be at work.” Ash walked from the side of the building and lit up a cigarette.

“You know Chloe,” he said. “She’s going to work no matter what.”

“I do, which is why I haven’t even tried to send her home. I don’t know what happened to Layla. The police haven’t said, just that she’s dead. I know you two were there based on the gossip going around town and I can’t imagine how awful that would be.” Ash was flipping his Zippo open and closed, the sound of the loud click accenting each sentence.

“Yeah, I’m just worried about her. I love her.”

“I heard,” Ash said, surprising Brent that he’d been listening. “You never know when she’ll come around. She’s just going through a lot right now. Give it some time.”

“Thanks, Ash.” He walked away from him and headed back to Zazie’s. He’d done all he could do and now the ball was in her court.

* * *

Chloe stood in the walk-in cooler. What had she walked in there for? She was clearly losing her mind because she couldn’t remember from one moment to the next. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

The next minute she was carrying the butter she’d gone into the walk-in to get, then she made her way back to her table and put it down.

“We needed dressing for our salads, not butter,” one of the ladies at the table said to her. Dang it, she’d brought the wrong thing. Ash walked up behind her with ranch, blue cheese, 1000 island and some bread on a tray.