T.A. (Biker Bitches 6)

“I’m still not giving you a ride Monday.”

T.A. picked up one of the bread sticks. “That’s okay. I don’t blame you.” Nibbling on the stick, she glanced at Sex Piston, who was putting several gooey slices of pizza on her plate.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be late. Al came over as I was about to leave, and I lost track of time.”

“That’s the same excuse you used yesterday.”

“He eats a lot of bread.”

Her eyes narrowed on hers. “Bitch, you can’t lie worth a dime. What did he really want?”

T.A. took a bite of her pizza trying to come up with another, more believable lie.

Sex Piston’s leg started swinging nonchalantly. “How much did he borrow off you this time?”

She had trouble swallowing at her friends’ accusing glares.

“Five hundred.”

Sex Piston’s leg stopped moving. “You’re kidding, right?”

She wished she’d told another lie instead of admitting the truth. “He needed it for rent. He’ll pay me back when he gets his check.”

“How’s he going to do that when he still owes you eight hundred for the last two months you helped him pay it?”

“He’s trying to find a roommate.”

“No one is going to be his roommate. He’s a jerk.”

“He’s not a jerk; he’s just cranky.”

“He’s an asshole. Al wouldn’t give you the time of day if you weren’t bankrolling him.”

“Yes, he would. He likes me.”

“Then you’re the only one in Jamestown he does. He’s just using you, T.A. At some point you have to stop being so nice and giving him money.”

“I don’t want him having to move away. I like him.”

Crazy Bitch shook her head at her as she went back for more bread sticks.

“If you like him so much, why don’t you ask him for a ride to work?”

“He has trouble waking up in the morning.”

Crazy Bitch pointed a bread stick at her. “He doesn’t have a problem getting up in the morning to ask you for bread or money. Make him lend you his car until you get yours back.”

“I can’t ask him for his car. What if he needs it while I’m a work?”

“Then tell him you’ll bring the car back if he needs it. If it makes you feel better, take a couple of hundred off what he owes you. It’s not like he’s going to give it back anyway.”

“I wouldn’t feel right putting conditions on my loan.”

Crazy Bitch stared at Sex Piston in bewilderment. “You talk to her, because I’m getting ready to deck her.”

Sex Piston shrugged. “You’re wasting your breath. You know what she’s like.” Getting up from the chair, she threw her plate away. “When are you going to get it that sooner or later, you have to come first? How many jobs, men, and friends do you have to go through before it dings in that head of yours that you can’t let people take advantage of you?”

“I don’t—”

Sex Piston folded her arms over chest. “Then why did you lose your last job?”

“They were downsizing.”

“You were the only one who lost her job. That slut you trained wasn’t downsized. The job before that, you were fired when your boss was caught stealing and you didn’t report it to his fucking boss.”

In her defense, T.A. had tried to support her previous boss. “David was going through a divorce, and his ex-wife was hounding him for the money.”

“He needed the money to buy his new girlfriend that big-ass diamond necklace she was showing off around town.” Tossing a crumpled napkin in the trash, Crazy Bitch made a sarcastic face at her. “You’re worse than Fat Louise. She might be a patsy, but at least she admits it and is smart enough to walk away when losers keep running over her. She hasn’t talked to her mom in a year.”

T.A. picked up the pizza box to carry it to the back room. When she came back, her two friends stopped talking. Giving them wary glances, she went behind the counter and noticed their customers parking through the window.

“What were you two talking about while I was out back?”

The look they shared gave her even more reason to worry.

“Nothing about you. We were just talking about what we’re doing for dinner.”

“Oh… what are you doing?”

“I put a pot roast in the crockpot. Crazy Bitch and Calder are going out. What are you doing?”

Sex Piston was lying, but she was better at it than she was, so T.A. couldn’t call her out on telling one.

“Nothing. I’m just going to make some soup and stay home and watch movies. It’s too cold and rainy to do much of anything.”

“You’re not going to hang out at the club? Fat Louise and Cade will be there. Meri and Keri are babysitting for them.”

Sex Piston’s stepdaughters had been earning extra money wanting to have their own spending money for a trip their whole family was planning to take to France next summer.