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“Were you a lawyer? Why are you working in a bar?” Cassie asked, puzzled.
Phoenix rested his forearms on the table and sighed. “Yeah, I am. Was.” He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore. After I got kicked to the curb from Stark Williams, I went back to Grounds and asked them for my job back. But given my boss knew I was leaving, she’d already hired a full-time barista. They didn’t need me anymore. She felt sorry for me and put me in contact with a friend who owned a bar. I worked there for nearly twelve months before I got a job at another law firm. Then I worked there for two years. I was the first into the office and last one to leave every day.” He pursed his lips. “I was getting there, building up my knowledge and setting myself up for tougher assignments. We had a case, a big one, and I thought they were my ticket to stepping up my career. Then my boss’s wife went into labour early. We were scheduled to have a mediation that day, but instead of cancelling it, my boss told me to go in his stead. I still can’t believe he thought I was ready.” Phoenix huffed, and a look of disgust crossed his face. “Turns out I wasn’t. But I tried. I was there, ready to do it, and then I got introduced to the defendant’s lawyer. Your dad—”
“I haven’t spoken to him in years,” Jake murmured, barely loud enough for Phoenix to hear over the chatter in the bar, but he stilled, tilting his head to the side thoughtfully. “Not since he hurt us. He’s not my father any more.”
Phoenix nodded and reached out for Jake’s hand, clasping it on the tabletop. That small move of comfort brought back memories of the time Phoenix had opened up to them. Jake had reached for him, silently lending his support to help Phoenix through his retelling. This time though, she couldn’t tell whether he was giving or seeking comfort. Regardless, Cassie loved seeing it there; she just hoped for Jake that the rest of Phoenix’s story wouldn’t break him.
“Denyer was their lawyer. He’s a mean son of a bitch, and I snapped. Full-blown anxiety attack. I had to get out of there. I ran away, straight to the bloody outback if you can believe it. I stayed with my old flatmate, his boyfriend, and their extended family for a few days to get my head on straight. My boss called me back to Sydney, and I left the station. I shouldn’t have even tried to go. I wasn’t ready. When I got to the turnoff, the same thing happened. I was right back in that mediation again.”
He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his eyes. Exhaustion radiated off him. A bone-deep weariness that was much more than working late or missing a few nights sleep. He looked defeated. Beaten down. Cassie longed to reach for him but couldn’t bring herself to. Not yet.
“I was paralysed. I couldn’t take the turn.” His voice hitched, and the invisible wall that was stopping Cassie crumbled. She didn’t hesitate, slipping her hand into his, trying to reassure him like she was doing to Jake. The three of them were joined now, each of them connected.
The warmth of Phoenix’s hand in hers spoke of strength and vitality, but the two men before her were both broken in their own way. She was the strong one; they needed her, and this time she would fight for both of them. Cassie squeezed Phoenix’s hand, and he closed his eyes before slowly exhaling.
“I couldn’t go. I ended up back home at Mum and Dad’s farm in Tamborine an incoherent mess. I got a job here a week ago. My boss at the bar—he and I became friends when I was working for him—told me to call these guys and give his name as a reference. And here we all are.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes, and he withdrew his hands from theirs, twisting them on his lap. He was visibly retreating into himself.
“Are you okay now? With your anxiety attacks?” she asked gently.
“I… sort of? I need to go back to my apartment and clear my things out. That’s screwing with my head, but working here is good.” He looked around the bar, then down to his watch. “I need to get back to it.”
Jake nodded, and Phoenix stood, but Cassie wasn’t letting him walk away. Not now, not after she knew what he’d been through all alone. Jake had wanted to fight for him, but Cassie knew him. The guilt over his father ruining Phoenix’s career twice would be crushing him. She was strong enough to stand in Jake’s stead. “Phoenix.” He paused in the middle of pushing his chair in. “Come out on a date with us. We came here to the club looking for something. At first, we didn’t think we were in the right place. But we are—we found you.”
“I don’t—”
“Think about it, and this time call me.” She fished a card out of her purse and handed it to him, pressing it into his palm and curling his fingers around it. “Even if you decide it’s a no, call. You have friends here—more than just us. There are people who will care about you and can understand what you’ve been through both with work and in life. You just haven’t met them all yet.”
Phoenix looked down at his hand and nodded once. “Okay.”
“When are you working next?” Jake asked.
“Tomorrow until midnight.”
“We’ll be here.”
Phoenix nodded again and motioned to the bar but paused and dropped his fist onto the chair. “I still have it, you know. Your card. I figured you would have changed your number by now. I was too chickenshit to call.”
Before either one of them could say anything, Phoenix headed off. Cassie held out her hand to her boyfriend. “Let’s go home.” When he nodded, she led him out hand in hand.
The night air blew around them, a cold breeze straight off the Pacific, and with it, the weight that had resided on Cassie’s shoulders for years lifted. Joy bubbled through her veins. Pure, unadulterated happiness. She meant what she’d said to Phoenix—they’d gone there hoping to find something. They’d been attempting to plug the gaping crevasse that Phoenix being torn out of their lives had caused, albeit in the wrong way.
When Adelaide had made Cassie see what Jake was doing, she knew it was the wrong way to go about it. She’d been ready to walk away. To turn her back and never see the club again, but they’d stopped to tell Adelaide their decision. What a sliding door moment it was. Never in her wildest dreams did she think they’d find him there. Now that they had, though? A lot of water had passed under that bridge. A lot of pain and misery had befallen them since their last encounter. Some healing was needed, as well as reconnecting and learning the new them. For all three of them. Jake and Cassie may be a couple, but they needed to get to know the part of each other that they’d only explored once with Phoenix. Jake’s pansexuality and Cassie’s polyamory were almost as unfamiliar to each other as the two of them were to Phoenix. But she was prepared for it. Ready to put in the hard yards to get the results. She wasn’t sure whether that was friendship or more, but one thing was certain—The Exchange was about to become a favourite haunt for them.
They were quiet on the trip home and while they went through their routine getting ready for bed. She padded to the bed and slid in, curling into Jake’s side. “Think we’ll get a second chance?” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“Just like that?”
“Yep. Because even if we only end up friends, he’s in our life where he belongs. I hate that he’s been through so much. We had each other for support. I just hope he had someone there for him too.” Cassie ran her hand down Jake’s chest to his waist and tucked herself in closer. “That first year when we were starting over, everything was falling apart for him, and I hate imagining he was going through that alone.”
“Yeah, me too.”
They didn’t talk much after that, and if Cassie’s thoughts were anything to go by, Jake’s mind was in a spin too.
*****
“What’ll it be, Mr Phillips? We don’t serve double-shot almond cappuccinos with every sweetening known to man here.” Phoenix managed to keep a straight face as he wiped the bar down and rested his hands on the sparkling top as Cassie slipped onto the stool.
