“What about me?” I asked.
“Well, we’re going to have to hide you, since you’re supposed to be on vacation. What do you want to do for the rest of the week?”
“I don’t really know. To be honest, our whole bet slipped my mind when you started talking about Nick Carver, but this has been quite an experience for me. I’m not sure that I’m ready to give up being homeless yet.”
“You can’t be serious. You got punched by a thief in the middle of the night, for crying out loud!”
“Yeah, I know, man,” I said, “but there have been some really great parts, too. I was kind of looking forward to learning to tend bar. You know? It’s an experience that I’ve never had, and I’ll probably suck at it, but I’d like to try. For once in my life, Jason, I feel like I’m really making it on my own steam. Our parents are awesome people, but you know that they handed everything to us. For once, I want to feel like I earned it from the ground up.”
“Jackson, you work very hard. I spent one damn day doing your job, and I was exhausted.
You shouldn’t feel like you haven’t earned your life.”
“I know. I don’t mean it like that. I just mean that when I look at self-made people, like Alissa, I think they have so much to be proud of. Maintaining a business is hard work, but what’s another million dollars on a business that was already making millions? Honestly, it’s more of a challenge trying to get a social security card in this town.”
“So that’s what this is really about?” Jason said with a wide smile.
“What’s that?”
“A girl! You want to stay homeless because you want to be with this girl.” His signature boisterous laugh filled the room. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
Jason
When I left Jackson and headed back to the office, I felt like a thousand pounds had been lifted off of my shoulders. I could be such an idiot sometimes. I was still kicking myself for ever having doubted my own brother. He might have a stick up his ass, but I knew better than to think he would ever screw me over, especially over a company that might be worth fifteen million dollars a year at most. Jackson already had a ton of money, we both did, and I should have known that money no longer motivated him. We both worked for a variety of reasons: we wanted our parents to be proud of us, we wanted to be proud of ourselves, and we enjoyed our jobs. The money didn’t really matter anymore, but Nick didn’t understand that, and I had forgotten it for a brief time.
As weird as it was, I understood why he wanted to do this homeless thing. Of course, it wasn’t at all like being a real homeless person. Homeless people didn’t have social graces embedded in them from an early age; they couldn’t charm their way into jobs. They didn’t have college educations. Most homeless people were also battling mental illness, illiteracy, a history of abuse, and a whole host of other things. Jackson still had an unfair advantage, but for him, this was a big step. I only hoped that he might learn to relax a little. He was so damn serious all the time, and I thought this experience might just teach him to not sweat the small stuff.
So, I’d made him promise to stay in a cheap hotel instead of a shelter, and I’d called off Ben and Sean. We put them to work following Nick instead. I was hoping that they might dig up some information that would be helpful to us.
I gave Jackson back one of his credit cards in case he really needed something. I gave him back his cell phone as well, but he was bound and determined to only use it if it was really necessary. He really wanted to try to finish this week out under his own power. I’d agreed, but we were going to meet every day for lunch just so I could check on him, and so we could continue to talk about Nick. I was going to have my secretary schedule a call for tomorrow that Jackson would be monitoring.
I’d prodded for information about this mysterious Alissa before I left, but after a few basic facts he’d gone shy on me and simply promised to let me meet her in the near future. I was fucking delighted. She sounded like the perfect fit for him, and truthfully, I was glad that she’d met him under false pretenses, or no pretenses at all. Women were funny around Jackson. They were attracted to his money and they were attracted to his good looks, but I didn’t think that there had ever been a woman who lasted long enough to actually be attracted to Jackson. He had incredibly high standards, and he intimidated the shit out of most people.
I really hoped this would work out for him, and I really hoped we would manage to nail Nick with something, too. No one came between my brother and me without consequences.
Chapter 10: A New Trade
Jackson
Wow. What a day. I was punched in the jaw by a homeless man. I saved a beautiful woman from a crate full of crabs. I had an amazing breakfast with the aforementioned damsel in distress. I was attacked by my own brother, who then accused me of corporate theft, before plotting, with the same brother to take down the real crooks. It wasn’t even noon!
I had been on my way to the social security office when Jason accosted me, and I would need to head back there now. I was pretending to not have a limitless credit card or my iPhone. I really was proud of my efforts so far, and I was going to finish this week out if it killed me. A bet’s a bet, corporate espionage aside.
One boring wait later, I was the proud owner of a new social security card or a temporary one anyway. The real copy wouldn’t come in the mail for another thirty days.
I was hungry again, but also out of money again, and what I really wanted to do was take a nap. It had been one hell of a day. I thought back to the park that was across the street from the bar. It seemed like forever ago that I had sat there waiting for the grill to open so that I could apply for a job. It wasn’t a bad place to sit, and I thought it might be a decent place for a nap as well. I curled up on the park bench and closed my eyes.
When I woke, the light was different in the park. I had slept longer than I thought I would. My body was not accustomed to these odd hours.
I sat up and brushed an old wrapper from a fast food burger off of my legs. I stared at the crumpled paper for a moment in disbelief. I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. It seemed like an odd coincidence that the wind had carried it onto my sleeping form. There were no overfull trashcans for it to have blown out of. It was almost like it had been thrown. Was it possible that someone would deliberately put trash on another person while they slept? Having never slept on a park bench before, I wasn’t entirely sure. I found a proper trashcan and disposed of the paper, resolving to push it from my mind.
I still had a half an hour until my shift, so I went to a Wendy’s a few blocks up to use the men’s room. I felt surprisingly rested, and I was looking forward to my first shift as a bartender.
“Romeo returns,” Buddy said, when I walked through the door. “Welcome to your first official day.” He threw me a T-shirt with the name of the bar across the back. “Put that on. I’ll expect you to wear it every time you work.”
“Yes, sir,” I smiled. Not only did I get a job, but it came with free clothes!
“Cut that ‘sir’ shit out,” he said. “Tonight you are working with Jessica.” He pointed to the young blond behind the bar. “She’ll help you get started. Jessica, meet Jackson.” She looked up from behind the bar and flashed me a smile. I knew that smile. I had seen it on hundreds of women before, right before they threw themselves at me . I wonder if I can convince her that I’m gay? It was going to be a long night.
“Jessica,” I said politely, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“You, too,” she said, and then she giggled. God, what an awful laugh. “So, Jackson,” she purred as she leaned forward on the bar, showing off far more cleavage than I really had a desire to see, “it’s your first night?”
Really? What tipped you off? “Yeah,” I said lamely, restraining myself from making a rude comment.
“Great, we are going to have so much fun!” She laughed again, but then, thankfully made herself useful by showing me where everything was. The place was moderately crowded. A few people were sitting at the bar, drinking after work, and a few were at the tables finishing up late dinners. Jessica was also acting as a waitress tonight, so she left frequently to check on her tables while I manned the bar. So far, I thought I was doing pretty well, but it was mostly requests for beer. I hadn’t gotten any difficult drinks.
Truthfully, it was kind of boring. I don’t know what I expected at 10:00 on a Thursday night, but I had hoped for a better crowd and better tips. About 10:15 a man and a woman sat at the bar and requested menus, so I got to take my first food order. Jessica showed me how to enter it in the computer and how to get the food when it was ready. That was good; food orders meant bigger tips.
By midnight I’d made less than $40 and was ready to quit this shitty job. Jessica was grating on my very last nerve, Buddy hadn’t re-appeared all night, and there was no way that anyone could live on this kind of a salary.