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Katy was fumbling to say something, but Eve quickly cut in. “No, you’re not, Rob. Seriously. Me and Katy here are always up for a little company.”
“Oh, okay,” Rob said. He then turned to Katy, who clearly was the apple of his eye in the bar. “So, Katy...Eve...what brings the two of you out tonight?”
Eve purposely looked over at Katy, gesturing for her to answer the question. Katy cleared her throat, frowned, then smiled at Rob once again. “Well, we just decided to come out and get a drink,” she explained. “We were at my house, kind of bored and Eve hear likes to drink, so I figured I would come with her to make sure she doesn’t get out of control.” She showed Eve a sinister grin. “So, yeah, that’s what we’re doing here.”
Eve chuckled then shook her head. She decided she would go ahead and let Katy ride with her fabricated story. “Hhm,” she said.
“So, yeah,” Katy said, smiling. “And you, Rob? What brings you to the Blue Lagoon for the evening?”
Rob cleared his throat as he took a sip of his beer. “Well, actually, I got out of an important meeting late and decided that rather than deal with traffic to get home, I would just change and come here for a little while.”
Katy noticed the guy was wearing a blue plaid shirt and run-of-the-mill blue jeans. She smiled. “Oh, okay. Well, I can certainly understand that.”
Eve looked over at Katy. Clearly, she wasn’t trying to keep the conversation alive even though this guy obviously had a thing for her. Eve chimed in. “Well, isn’t that interesting?” she said. “Well, Rob, if you don’t mind me asking…. What is it that you do?”
“Well, I work for Chase Bank,” Rob explained. “You know?” He gestured to the south. “At the tower. I work in their auditing department. Been doing it for about three years now since I came here.”
Katy nodded. Okay, this guy seems interesting, she thought. He could still be a serial killer, though. “Oh, okay. Well, that’s interesting. Where did you come from? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”
Rob chuckled. “Oh, no, you’re fine. Well, it’s kind of complicated, I guess. I actually graduated from college a few years ago, but wanted to travel a bit before I settled down. I was born and raised in Indiana, not too far outside of Chicago. Then I went to South America...spent a little time in Chile, Argentina. A while in Colombia… stuff like that.”
“Well, isn’t that interesting, Katy?” Eve said, trying to pull Katy to the forefront of the conversation. “Katy, you should tell him about some of your travel aspirations.”
I could really choke you, Katy thought while she looked over at Eve. She then forced a smile once again and turned to Rob. She was becoming more comfortable with him, but hated how Eve literally forced her into the situation. “Yeah, Rob,” she said. “I haven’t actually done it yet, but I did kind of want to travel somewhere.”
“Oh yeah?” Rob asked. “Like where? What do you think is holding you back? Traveling is the best thing you can do really….at least while you’re young.”
“She’s scared,” Eve interjected.
“No, it’s not that,” Katy said, not knowing what else to say. “It just hasn’t happened yet. But yeah, I used to want to go backpacking in Europe or something like that. You said you went to South America, right?” She paused in thought. “I can’t think of too many places down there I’ve ever wanted to go. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Amazon… Of course, I’m not going to go backpacking through it or anything like that.”
Rob chuckled. “Yeah, that would probably be best. Not exactly the kind of place that just the average person could go backpacking. Well, you should definitely make it happen. What are you waiting on?”
Katy shrugged, admitting to herself that this guy Rob was a bit inspirational. “Oh, I don’t know. At first I was so busy settling into my career and whatnot that I guess it just fell to the back burner.”
“Oh, I understand that,” Rob said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a teacher, actually,” Katy said. “Third grade.”
“Oh wow,” Rob said then chuckled. “Geesh, I thought I was brave. You’re the one who’s really brave.”
The three of them laughed together.
“I’m just saying,” Rob said. “I don’t know if I could be a teacher nowadays. The kids these days...the parents might even be worse.”
Katy sighed, nodding. “Yeah, you can say that again.”
“Tell me about some of the issues you deal with with the parents,” Rob said.
Katy loosened up and talked on about the struggles with being a third grade teacher. Her accounts pulled a few laughs out of Rob as he listened. The conversation then steered on elsewhere, from Katy talking about being a teacher to Rob talking about how unprofessional things have turned out to be working at a bank. “My office in on the fourth floor, but the bank has this massive atrium where I can look over the banister or balcony or whatever you want to call it and see what’s going on in the lobby. And… Well….”
“No,” Katy said surprised. “You can’t be serious. People come into the bank and act up?”
Rob nodded. “Like you wouldn’t believe. Homeless people. The kids after school. You wouldn’t believe some of the crap you’ll see working in a bank.”
“Has it ever been robbed?” Eve asked.
Rob shrugged. “Not while I’ve been there, but I heard they had one some months before I go there. I don’t have to worry about that kind of thing with where I am. Never really worked in the bank where the customers come in and stuff.”
