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The next day, I was going to need to figure out the bus routes in the area.
But I was over an hour late for work already. I couldn’t waste another second worrying about that shit.
I had taken all of two steps in the door when Toll’s gaze slide over and found me.
He was reaching for his phone before I could even get a word out.
“Don’t,” I said, rushing forward.
“Sorry, kid, but the boss lady was worried, so I gotta tell her,” he said. “What happened?”
“My brakes gave out,” I told him, shrugging. “Just my fucking luck. Thank God it wasn’t slammed,” I said, moving behind the bar.
“Danny, hey, yeah, she just rolled in. She had a car accident,” he said, then his gaze slid to me as Danny said something to him. “To be honest, it’s not looking good,” he said. “Yeah. Okay. Danny wants to talk to you,” he said, holding out his phone toward me.
Taking a deep breath, I took it.
“I’m fine,” I said before she could get anything out.
“If Toll is saying it’s not looking good, Theo, it’s not looking good. This is a guy who once told me when I had a finger almost hanging off that it was nothing and I was being a pussy about it.”
“I just hit my head on the window when I crashed,” I told her. “It bled like a bitch. And I have some nice bruises to pair with the stitches, but I’m okay.”
“She’s bullshitting you,” Toll called. “She’s squinting like she’s got a wicked migraine.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted again, even though just saying that seemed to sap more of my energy than seemed normal. “Look, I need to work, okay?” I said, knowing the desperation was in my voice.
There was a deep exhale on the other end of the phone. “Okay,” she conceded. “But let Toll do most of it.”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“Liar,” she shot back, letting out a little laugh.
“Oh, Danny?”
“Yeah?”
“When does my medical insurance kick in?”
“The second you signed the papers and started working,” she told me. “I get a much better deal when I have more of you on it,” she admitted. “It was killing me with just four of us on it. You’re covered, girl. Don’t stress about that shit.”
“Thank you,” I said, again feeling a little glassy-eyed.
It would be okay.
Without medical bills, it would be okay.
It wouldn’t be easy.
I mean… I couldn’t afford to fix my car. Even if it was fixable. I had to check into that. And it was going to be a royal pain in the ass to try to get around doing errands for my father on the bus.
But I could figure it out.
I was good at that.
“Give me back to Toll,” she demanded.
“Okay.”
“And Theo?”
“Yeah?”
“How are you really?”
“I’ll be okay,” I said.
I figured that a woman like Danny, someone who reminded me of myself in a lot of ways, could read between the lines there.
I wasn’t actually okay.
But I was going to be.
I handed the phone back to Toll who talked to her for another couple of minutes as his nervous eyes kept moving in my direction as I tried to shake the headache and the aches and the way my nerves felt frayed at the edges, and get some side work done before the rush came in.
I usually really looked forward to weekend nights.
The tips couldn’t be matched.
But I found myself wishing it would be a quiet, empty night at the bar so I could take it easy.
Fate, though, had other plans.
It shouldn’t have been surprising. She’d always been a real royal bitch to me.
We got absolutely slammed.
And every single person wanted to know what happened to me. Which probably meant the tips would be better, but I couldn’t even muster any excitement about that as, despite the pain pill the doctor had given me, the migraine just jackhammered through my skull.
“Lil’ mama, whose ass am I kicking?” A asked, making me look over to find him leaning on the bar, his dark eyes deadly serious.
“My car’s,” I said, sighing. “I don’t think you’d win,” I told him, grabbing his cups for him and his crew. “Though she is probably totaled now anyway, so you stand a chance.”
“You were in a crash?” he asked. “And you dragged that busted ass of yours to work?”
“Hey, right now my ass is one of the few places on me that doesn’t feel busted,” I said, trying to smile but it made my face hurt.
“The fuck you doing here?” he asked, shaking his head at me. “Homie over there held down the fort just fine before you came to help. He don’t need you.”
“Maybe not,” I agreed. “But I need to work. So, I’m here. Seriously debating taking a couple of shots to see if they will take this headache away.”
“I won’t tell on ya,” he said, waving his men over to take their drinks as I handled his card.
