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Layne took pause trying to gather her words, and before she got the first word out Rebecca interrupted her. “Oh God, he works for your dad, doesn’t he? Is he older? Tattooed?” The barrage of scarily accurate line of questioning was fired off quickly.
She blinked several times at Rebecca’s sudden conclusions. “No! I mean, yes, he does but… It’s complicated. Yes, he’s twelve years older, and yes, he’s got some tattoos.” Layne eyed her bestie warily while filling her next round of margarita into her glass from the pitcher sitting on the table. She was left wondering if she was that easy to read, and if so, she was going to need to work on that.
“Oo, nice. It’s exactly what I’ve always pictured for you. Does your dad know? Crap, he would flip his lid.” Rebecca pondered all the potential fallouts that would transpire if Scott got wind of anyone working for him fooling around with Layne. It had always been a non-negotiable for as long as Rebecca had been around.
“I don’t think so, not unless Liam has gone tattling.” Layne grimaced thinking about how Liam would be holding this over her head in the future.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows looking for more information on that little nugget of information.
A little bit of pink flushed over her cheeks. “He may have overheard some things. Either way, it’s not a big deal everything has been very casual”
“Liar.” It was an aggressive calling-out, even coming from Rebecca.
“What?”
“You did that thing with your left eyebrow when you lie. Plain as day.” She attempted to mimic the little twitch that had given Layne away.
Layne rolled her eyes. “It’s casual, Rebecca, you’re reading too much into this. You know how I feel about getting too far into the weeds with guys.”
Her bestie rolled her eyes having heard this story before. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Commitments aren’t your thing.”
“Exactly.” Just when Rebecca was going to try and push the issues, Layne gave her a rare look of pleading to drop it. Being the good and sensible friend that she was, Rebecca didn’t press it any further.
After a change to a lighter subject involving Rebecca’s adventures in nannying, they wrapped up the chit-chat after a not-so-subtle hint from the workers in the restaurant that they were closing up for the night.
Right outside the cantina, Layne gave Rebecca a huge hug. “I’m still going to hate you when my ass is sore tomorrow and I can’t get up the stairs.” She teased before letting Rebecca go from the embrace. “Do you need me to walk you back to your apartment?” The apartment building was only four blocks from there, but Layne was willing to keep her friend company to ensure she made it back safely.
“Nah, I’m fine. I will text you when I get in.” She waved off any concern that Layne had.
Layne knew better than to offer up a second time and let Rebecca take off to head home. Being that she was all the way downtown, it was going to be a long trip back to the other end of the city. She hoped maybe she could catch the next 4-5-6 train uptown. The station was only a half block away.
When she got there, she heard the train pulling away as she ran down the stairs of the station, watching the train leave just as she made her way onto the platform.
“Shit.” Now she was going to have to wait for whenever the next one decided to show up. She leaned up against one of the pillars in the center of the platform as she waited impatiently by herself—just her and the rats that moved between the tracks. Fifteen minutes passed and there still was no train to be found.
“Screw this.” She said out loud to herself, figuring at this point it was easier to hail a cab. Just as she got to the bottom of the steps to leave the platform, a train finally pulled in. Layne changed course and boarded it as soon as the doors opened up.
She took a seat in the empty car, relieved to finally be on her way back home. After indulging in several margaritas and an embarrassing amount of chips, she could use some sleep.
Before the doors shut, a small group of men were laughing amongst themselves as they just barely made it onto the train. The doors shut and the train pulled away from the station beginning the long journey uptown.
One of them locked eyes with her and gave an eerie smile, his hand hitting the chest of his closest buddy lightly. “Looky-look at what we got here. I know you.”
His two friends leered at her, and then one spoke up. “You’re that chick that got the slip on the masked freak.” That wasn’t oddly specific at all.
Layne stood up from her seat, holding onto the pole in the middle of the aisle for balance as the train jostled along the tracks. “Wow, I’ve got a reputation now? I’m impressed.”
Three of them and one of her—this was going to be fun. She made sure that her feet were planted firmly in a wider stance given the dynamics of the train movement being a challenging variable.
The guys snickered amongst themselves before the leader of the pack took a few steps closer to her. Layne stood her ground, her eyes locked on his as she evaluated his every movement. When he stopped a few inches from her, she gave him his one warning. “Think carefully about what you do next. I would hate for you to end up limping away with your tail between your legs.”
“I also heard that the boss got you all,” he ran his tongue along his bottom lip, “wet.” Internally, Layne cringed at how gross he just made that sound.
One of her eyebrows perked up, and as one of his hands reached out for her, she grabbed his wrist pulling him forward off-balance as her other hand pushed on the back of his shoulder to send him face-first into the pole in the middle of the aisle causing a fracture of his nasal bone resulting in a gush of fresh blood pouring from his nostrils. He stumbled onto the floor behind her as his two friends were quick to charge at her.
Her hand latched onto one of the straps hanging from the bar to the left and her hand on the pole to the right she kangaroo kicked at the two jackasses while Mr. Broken Nose was shouting a string of profanities behind her. Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum stumbled back.
The connecting door to the next car back slid open. Joey stepped in, his eyes lit up with a wrathful vengeance as his fists flexed at his sides. He grabbed one of the two men closest to him pounding a fist to his face, which caused him to immediately drop to the floor like a sack of bricks.
