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“Maybe. Serves you right. You’ve been consorting with the Devil lately.”
“What does ‘consorting’ mean?”
“Fraternizing.”
“Nice try. I know what ‘fra-tit-er-ni-zing’ means now.”
“Fraternizing,” I corrected. “But I like your version better.”
She wrapped her lips around the straw sticking out of the contraband juice pouch, the joke (thankfully) lost on her.
After a stare off, which I lost, Tessie took another victorious sip. “Stop looking at it like I can’t drink it.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“There’s no extra sugar. It’s freshly squeezed from Squeezed!”
“That place on Fifth?”
How was she getting gourmet juice from a bougie juicery several blocks over?
“Yup!” she popped the ‘p.’ “Ari brings me one every day and leaves them in the break room fridge for me.”
Of course, she did.
I sighed, drawing out my exhale. She couldn’t make this easy on me and let me hate her in peace.
While Tessie pulled out her homework, I eyed the camera. Ariana was still hauling ice up the stairs, a different load this time. Each slow step she took visibly strained her body.
There was that damned guilt again.
ARIANA DE LUCA
The bar got rowdy late at night.
I understood it. People came in to wind down, and the later it got, the more drinks people bought.
It usually wasn’t a problem.
Always let someone on your shift know where you’re going.
Don’t travel to empty areas alone.
Those were two rules we’d gone over during training. I’d noted them back then, but I’d never really adhered to them.
My training gave me comfort, but when it came to actually using it, I realized I couldn’t. Not because I physically could not, but because if I did, I would blow my cover.
Bartenders didn’t have a background in mixed fight styles.
I needed to act like a bartender. Not an agent.
I hadn’t told Graham when I slipped out alone to go to the stock room and grab more paper towel rolls.
Rules number one and two? Broken.
Because of the way the bar’s entrance laid on the side and the basement had been converted into a cellar for drinks and ice, a stock room had been built into the alleyway.
The path was lighted and the bar had bouncers inside and at the door, so with my training, it felt safe to slip around the corner into the alleyway.
