I walked back behind the bar and sat down. I poured myself a vodka tonic and sipped it slowly. I usually made these things weak when patrons bought me drinks, but this one I hooked up for myself. I needed it dammit.
As I stared around, I realized what was missing so badly, the thing that had brought home how unhappy I was in this job. Mason. I hadn’t seen him in almost three weeks, not since that night that Tyler had come in.
Tyler had been arrested later that night and he was now facing charges. He was in jail. I would have to testify against him about all he’d done to me and if I was luck he would go to jail for a nice lengthy stay for threatening me, harassing me, and disturbing the peace. And I was sure they’d pick him up on other things. He most likely had drugs in his place.
Turned out I was right in my assumptions. He was being charged with drug possession I would come to find out in the days after his arrest. He had cocaine and marijuana in his possession at his place. The bastard. He was a true piece of work. How had I ever cared about him?
Tyler was over. I was over him. I was ready to move on.
And I wanted to move on with Mason. But he was suddenly gone, too. I knew he had a lot going on with Jack. I wondered if everything there was ok. I didn’t want to get into his business, but I was genuinely curious about him. I decided right then and there that I had to know. I needed to know if he was alright.
I had his number from a while back when he put his business card in a raffle jar at the bar. I had kept it and I decided that I would use it to call him now. It was weird, pushy, and he would probably think I was some kind of a desperate freak, but right then I didn’t care. I had to know for sure what was going on with him. I had to find out what it was.
I called him. I stood there pacing back and forth behind the bar while I waited for him to pick up. A part of me was hoping he wouldn’t since it meant I wouldn’t have to go through this awkwardness, but on the fourth ring he picked up.
“Hello?”
I froze. For a moment I forgot who I was and for what reason I was calling. Then it flooded back to me.
“Hey, it’s Laney,” I said.
There was a pause. Right… he probably forgot who the hell I was already, which meant that I thought about him far more than he ever thought about me. Good Laney. Real good job.
“Hey,” the voice on the other side said. I recognized that it was in fact Mason’s voice. “How’s it going…” He was obviously weirded out that I called. Why did I do this?
I kept it going naturally though. I had to play it as if it wasn’t weird so that it could set us both at ease. “Yeah, I just thought I would give you a call since I hadn’t seen you in the bar the past few weeks. I wanted to make sure you and Jack were ok. I tend to notice when my favorite patron doesn’t show up for a few weeks.”
“Um, yeah. I’ve been so swamped with work. My nanny quit. She had a family emergency and I’ve been a little bit stuck. So far no luck finding someone new.”
“Wow, that is rough. That explains it, then. I thought you just didn’t want to hang out with me anymore.”
Why was I pushing this angle? Shit. I was teasing the shit out of it wasn’t I? Stay cool…
“Well, that’s part of it, but it’s mostly the other thing.”
“Ah, I see. Well, that makes me feel a bit better. I hope you find a nanny soon.”
He sighed. “Yeah, the quest isn’t going well. I’ve interviewed about twenty people but none of them are right for the job, just a vibe I get you know?”
“Ah, I see.” Then the idea hit me. “Wait… I’m curious… how much does it pay?”
“What?”
“The nanny job. What is the pay?”
“Well, it would be a weekly salary of a thousand dollars. The hours vary depending on my schedule, but they are fairly close each day.”
That was actually more than I’d been making at the bar, even with tips. And the nature of the job was way better. I was tired of working nights. I wanted to go back to school and I needed a job with some downtime that would facilitate that and allow me to at least get some stuff done. This might actually accommodate that. I had an interesting proposal for Mason.