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“Miles, wait, talk to me. What’s the job?”
He straightened the collar out on his jacket. “I think we’re both done talking for tonight.” On his way out the door he called out, “Don’t wait up for me.”
Saundra stood in the hallway, alone, listening to the rumble of his motorcycle as he took off down the street. Even after all of the yelling and slamming of doors, she didn’t feel any better.
Miles ordered another shot of whiskey and a fresh beer. He looked ahead and focused on the label of the bottle in front of him, but his vision barely shifted. Not even a decent buzz. He blew air out between his lips and wondered when the liquor was going to hit his system. He could really use the numbness right about now.
It was happening, he was losing Saundra. It was about the time he’d have to tell her about the kid. Miles rubbed the side of his face roughly with the palm of his hand, as if he could sand away the anxiety boiling just under the skin. The bartender appeared with the beer and the shot glass.
As he filled the shot, Miles drank his beer while his knee bounced below. He couldn’t sit still. This was it, everything was falling apart. Now that he was actually faced with it happening, he didn’t know what he was going to do. It was one thing to fear it, another to expect it, and something else entirely for it to actually happen. He was panicking.
“Hey there partner,” the familiar man said as he took the seat beside Miles. “You look in particular rough straits. Everything all right?”
Miles shook his head reflectively. “It’s really not, man. It’s really not. It’s happening. I’m losing everything. My whole life is slipping away and I can’t stop it.”
“Hey, hey,” the guy said quickly, rubbing Miles back between his shoulder blades. “Calm down, man. It’s okay. Have you given any thought to my offer?”
Miles’ tongue flicked out over his lips and he couldn’t stop flexing his fingers into a fist. “Yeah, actually. That’s why I came. I was hoping to run into you.”
“Yeah?” The guy took a drink of his beer, as his second sat frosty and untouched in front of him.
“Yeah, and if it’s still available, I’d like the work. I need money. I can’t let this happen.”
The man slapped the top of the bar and laughed. “Fantastic! When can you start?”
Miles shrugged. “When do you need me to?”
“Hey, if you need money right now, I got some things I could use your help with.”
“Well I can’t tonight,” Miles said, and picked up the beer bottle to show to the guy. “I’ve kinda been drinking already.”
The man leaned in with a decidedly wicked smile. “Even better. C’mon, I’ll take you to your first job. Bring your beer.”
Then, right before Miles’ eyes, the man tipped back one beer mug, and then the other. He drank both beers without even needing to swallow, like something out of a TV commercial or something.
Miles followed him out the front door to his car. After getting in, Miles thought nervously about the fact he had an open beer in the car, but if the guy didn’t care, he wasn’t going to say anything.
As he buckled in, Miles said, “You know, it’s embarrassing, but I don’t think we were ever introduced. I’m going to be working for you, and I don’t even know your name. I’m Miles.” He held out his hand.
“Maybe that’s for the best,” the man said, and shook Miles’ hand. “For now, just call me Boss.”
“Boss? Uh, yeah. Sure.” This was already sounding bad. Crap. What was he getting into? “So where to, Boss?”
Boss drummed his fingers on the steering wheel for a moment in thought and then started the car. “I’m going to start you with something big. If you pull it off, it’ll prove to you I’m for real. If you can’t, well, then you’re obviously not the man for the job anyway.”
Miles was reaching emotional overload. His anxiety over losing Saundra was becoming muted by his fear of the situation he was entering. “Okay. Let’s do this then.”
Boss gave him a crooked half smile. “Don’t you want to know what the job is?”
“I’m not concerned, but go for it.”
Boss pulled onto the street and started driving. “There’s a man that owes me money. He’s owed me money for a long time now. I’ve been nice about it, because I knew he didn’t have it and he was trying to get it. I just found out that he’s had it for the last three days and instead of paying me, he’s planning on putting it all down on a game. That’s my money.” Boss stabbed his own chest sharply. “You get the money from him, and you can have a quarter of it.”
“So you are a loan shark,” Miles said.
“I never said I wasn’t. I just said I wasn’t going to loan you any money.”
How could he get out of this? Loan sharks, illegal stuff, this was getting too deep. That job with Saundra’s dad was looking more and more attractive. But he couldn’t go crawling back now! He yelled at her dad, yelled at her. He said he had a plan. If he went back now begging for help, how much worse would that look? Especially since he hadn’t even told her about the kid yet! No, he had to fix this first and come back to her with results. He hated this, but he couldn’t think of anything else. It was all so damn unfair! He took a drink of his beer.
