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I tried to sound casual. “How do you know Finn?”
“Told you. I know everything and everyone. Finn’s a good kid, but he ain’t been around in a long time.”
“Why did he stop coming around?” I asked, washing my hands in the sink.
“That’s not for me to say.” Critter smacked the register and it sprang open. “I’m not one to go around telling other people’s stories.”
“So what you’re saying is that you don’t know?” I teased.
“That’s not it. I told you. I know everything and everyone.”
Suddenly I wished I hadn’t torn the picture of my mother into bits and pieces. Critter had told me when we first met that he didn’t know her, but it was a long time ago. Maybe the picture would’ve jogged his memory.
“Finn giving you any kind of trouble?” Critter asked. Wrinkles formed on top of his wrinkles as a worried expression crossed over his face.
“Not really,” I answered. Not the kind that Critter could fix anyway.
“You let me know if I need to kick that boy’s ass for you. I may be getting on in years, but I’ve got some fight left in me for punks like that.” Critter adjusted his belt.
“I thought you just said he was a good guy?”
“Good guys,” he wagged his pointer finger, “those are the worst kind of punks.”
“Let me ask you something, Critter,” I started, arranging napkins into the little plastic holders clipped to the inner edge of the bar. “Do you think people can change?”
Critter paused and licked at the corner of his mustache. “Well, I think people can do just about anything they damn well want, including change. My mama used to tell me that we’ve all got the devil in us, some just got it buried deeper, while others take direction from it. If that helps any.”
I looked up at the tings on the ceiling. Every time the front door opened they danced and twirled together. “I don’t know if it does just yet.”
“You’re something else, kid,” Critter leaned in and whispered, “and you can quote me on that.”
The door opened again, the tings clapped together as Josh and Miller burst through the front door, squawking at one another like seagulls on the beach fighting over breadcrumbs.
“It’s not polite to eavesdrop,” Critter nudged me on the shoulder.
“Eavesdropping would mean that it would take some effort on my part to get closer so I could listen in.” I pointed to Josh and Miller who’d been talking and arguing back and forth LOUDLY for hours.
“That’s what I told you the first time,” Miller groaned.
“That is not what you said,” Josh waved her finger in his face.
I smiled up at Critter. “I don’t think it’s eavesdropping if they’re talking loud enough that I can hear them from all the way over here.”
“Noted,” Critter replied with a laugh and a tip of his chin.
“Josh, baby, when are you going to get that pretty head out of Vaginaville and let me introduce you to Cocktown again?” Miller asked, at a volume slightly above the guitar player in the corner.
“I dated one girl. ONE. And it was six years ago. You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?” Josh jabbed a finger into Miller’s chest.
“No, and I hope I never forget it either. Actually, I think about it all the time.” Miller closed his eyes. “In fact, I’m thinking about the two of you together right now.”
Josh smacked him with her menu.
Miller didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy staring at her chest.
“And I believe it was your introduction to Cocktown,” she glanced down toward his crotch and scrunched up her face in disgust, “that turned me off of men to begin with.”
Miller stuck his bottom lip out in a pout but rebounded quickly. “Best two out of three?”
“By the way, how’s your mom, Miller?” Josh asked, slyly, pausing to take a slow sip of her beer. “She still wiping your ass for you?”
Miller held his hand over his heart. “That really hurts, Josh. First of all, you know that my mom is a lovely lady who makes amazing pot roast. It’s not my fault she needs me to live with her so I can taste test it for her. It’s a rough job, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice.”
“Speaking of jobs,” Josh said, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you have to be at yours?”
It was Miller’s turn to roll his eyes. “No one was speaking of jobs, Josh. No one. And just because I refuse to conform to modern day slavery hours, doesn’t make me any less of a person.” He smiled. “However, upon your visit to Cocktown, all of your racist ways will be forgiven.”
“Sure, I’ll visit Cocktown.” She winked at Miller whose mouth dropped open. “Just not yours.”
“That hurts, Josh. It hurts a lot.”
“I’m going to the ladies,” Josh announced, sliding off her stool. “Don’t follow me.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” Miller shouted after her.
“Guess that didn’t go so well,” I commented, replacing his empty beer with a fresh one.
Miller frowned. “Huh? Why would you say that?”
“Never mind.” I left Miller to live in his own alternate reality while I restocked the napkins.
“Sawyer!” Sterling called over with a bright smile. “When do you get off?” He was standing at the end of the bar with a piece of paper from the ting bucket in hand.
“In about ten minutes,” I answered.
“Want to take that walk with me?”
I thought it over for a moment before answering. “Sure, just let me finish up and I’ll meet you out front.”
Sterling smiled and scribbled something down on the paper before hanging it next to the one he’d hung on the day he declared us friends.
Taking a walk with a beautiful girl.
-Sterling
“He’s so hot,” Kayla said, waving with her fingers at Sterling.
“I could eat him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Maya joined in, biting at the air and growling. When he waved back the two girls giggled and whispered between them. Sterling winked at me.
I should’ve been excited. Or at the very least as excited as the girls were to get a little wave from Sterling.
Suddenly I needed some air. I gathered the trash from the bar as an excuse to go outside.
I pushed open the back door and had only gotten a few steps when footsteps sounded behind me.
“Do you even realize how fucking beautiful you are?”
I slowly turned around to find Finn standing by the back door, leaning against the doorframe, holding a small brown-paper-wrapped package in the crook of his arm. He stubbed out a cigarette on the bottom of his boot.
My palms began to sweat. My skin tingled. Everything inside me came alive. Panic. Fear. Anticipation.
LUST.
I tossed another bag into the dumpster and turned back around to face him. “I came by to see you. To say thank you. You weren’t there.”
“I left town for a while. Had to tie up some loose ends.” Finn raked his gaze up and down my body. “I never got a chance to tell you. I like the boots.”
My heart raced. His words were like a stroke of his strong fingers between my legs.
