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Her response is silence, and her glare a laser that penetrates Jamie.
I shrug. “I’ll stay.”
I’m unsure of why I offer. I convince myself it’s because I’ll get extra for staying past closing time, even though I don’t know if that’s the case.
Jamie lifts an eyebrow. “You sure? You killed it tonight. You don’t need to do anything extra.”
But Shelly has already spun on her heels and made a bee-line for the back door. She lifts a hand. “Bye.”
Jamie sighs and shakes his head. “Thanks, Lara. I appreciate it.” He taps the counter. “Closing list is here. I have to do some things in my office. Holler if you need me.”
As he slips past me, the smell of his cologne sends a shiver through my body. I haven’t smelled that cologne in years. Maybe never, but its uncanny familiarity hits me hard for the first time. Is this why I offered to stay? Did I even recognize it before? Do I want to tell him who I am? To ask him if he remembers me? Do I even want him to?
I quickly start tackling the closing list by washing the glasses first. Then I handle the register. As I check the register against the cash and credit card receipts, they don’t add up. There is quite some money missing from the tally. My heart pounds. I don’t remember Jamie taking any money from the register, andIsure as hell didn’t take any. Could Jamie have taken it when I wasn’t looking? I need to talk to him about it, because if it wasn’t him, why are we so short?
I approach his office. The door is ajar, and laughter is coming from inside.
“What were you thinking, putting that little sexy fox behind the bar? She should have been on the stage. She’d make a fortune with those tits and that ass.”
Who the hell is that? I don’t recognize his voice.
“Trust me, Rick. Her hot little body is the only reason I hired her, but I really needed someone on the bar because Angela bailed on me this weekend. No doubt, the new girl’s curves were a treat to look at all night long. And those eyes, too.”
“Man, that tight body is just what the doctor ordered.”
“Maybe I’ll keep her around long enough to give her the ride of her life and then off she goes.” More laughter and more banter, but I can’t understand it anymore, because my heart is pounding so hard in my ears it drowns out my thoughts.
I don’t know who this Rick guy is, but he’s another pig just like Jamie. Theyareall the same. Maybe Jamie had me fooled for a second, but I know better. I should have always known better. Because nothing has really changed, has it? New job, new place, same shit. I’m never more than a distraction, a fuck toy. It doesn’t matter how good I am at my job. It always comes down to being less than them. Being just another underling that needs to learn her place and lie still while they do whatever they want.
Well, fuck that.
Never in a million years did I expect to be face-to-face with Jamie Albrecht again. It’s such a cocktail of emotions. Fear, anger, regret. And after all that happened today, and with my mind trying to force me back to that time in high school, I refuse to stay here. I’m done.
Heading to the changing room, I just need to get out of this humiliatinguniform,grab my purse, and get the hell out of here. I have my rent money, so I don’t need this shit anymore. I can wait for Gary to talk to Maggie, and I’ll just work at the café. At leastshewon’t be ogling me all the time and trying to get in my pants.
As I leave the changing room, arguing voices from the storage closet catch my attention. The shrill screeching one is Shelly’s. The man’s voice is the same pig I just heard talking to Jamie in his office.
“Yeah, I know it’s not enough,” she snaps. “You saw me working the lounge. Jamie wouldn’t let me dance.”
“Then I’ll just take all of it.”
Peering inside, I recognize the burly man who guards the door. He has Shelly’s purse in his hand and he’s yanking her tips out of the bag.
Shelly reaches out to him. “Seriously, Ricky?”
Ricky slaps her hand away. “What did I say, Shelly? You owe me. Your tips are mine.”
Slipping away from the door as quietly as possible, I sneak away so that they don’t hear me. It doesn’t matter if a man thinks he is above a woman because of his status or his build. They are all the same. How can we fight them? There is no way Shelly could ever face off against this Ricky guy and win. And there is no way I’m letting Jamie, my new boss, discover who I am. Who I was. Not after all that happened all those years ago.
What’s to be gained? No. Best to leave him in the dark about who I am. And the time has come to move on, but before I go, there is something I must do.
Striding toward Jamie’s office, I’m overcome with more than just anger. It’s a desire to take back control.
Storming inside without knocking, I stride over to him.
Jamie looks up from his desk. “Lara?” He furrows his brow. “Everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay.” I’m fuming. I can barely look at him.
