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Thankfully, the woman—Tamara—from earlier this morning wasn’t working behind the bar. She was even more grateful not to see Ricky, Corey’s brother, around either. Although, her heart deflated when she didn’t see Corey. He was the man she was after.
Not that he made it easy on her. Getting Amelie was going to be a hard task. Harder than she anticipated.
Druggie. Loser. It shouldn’t have been this difficult.
She had time to think about how she approached everything this morning and came to the conclusion she approached it all wrong. She went at him like a bulldozer instead of a shovel. One little dig at a time would be much better. They could come to some sort of agreement.
As long as it ended with her leaving with Amelie.
She wandered around the bar, keeping an eye out for Corey, yet not seeing him. She should’ve stuck around longer this morning. Watched him from across the street and followed him. Then she’d have another point of entry on getting Amelie. Instead, she was stuck searching the bar, hoping for a glimpse of him.
Of course, she’d do this every day until she got what she wanted. Righted so many wrongs.
She grabbed a seat recently emptied by a party of four at a table in the corner by the door. It didn’t matter the table was jam-packed with empty beer bottles and scraped plates of what looked like remnants of taco fixings. They were starting to sound good. Maybe she should order a beer and get her free taco. She couldn’t sit here and stare at everyone without ordering something.
“Welcome to The Corner Bar. Let me clear this for you. What would you like to start with?” the peppy brunette with a wide smile said as she cleared the table with an ease that said this wasn’t anything new for her.
“Those tacos smell good. I guess one of those with a beer. Doesn’t matter what kind. Surprise me.”
“I love that. We just got a new IPA you’ll love. It’s my favorite. I’ll be right back.”
She nodded as the woman walked away, dodging customers like a pro with her hands full.
Her beer was delivered less than two minutes later, and in another five minutes, her taco was sitting in front of her making her salivate.
The first bite was heaven. The rest disappeared without hesitation. She might order more tacos without the beer. She wasn’t here to get piss-ass drunk anyway.
She nursed her beer while she debated ordering more food and keeping an eye around the bar, still hoping Corey would return.
Time passed, although she didn’t keep an eye on how fast it was going when two men started shouting and causing a ruckus near the bar. A guy behind the bar shouted a warning for them to knock it off or get booted out. Neither listened.
“Yo, Daisy, Gabby’s upstairs. Go get her. Now!” the guy behind the bar shouted.
Daisy, her waitress who had stopped by her table a few times checking on her, nodded and headed for the back of the bar. The same area she had seen Corey disappear to earlier this morning.
Upstairs?
There was another level to the bar? Or something else, like an apartment.
She got up and left a nice tip on the table, in addition to the one she had already left when she paid for her beer. Daisy had done a nice job and deserved to be recognized for that.
She slipped by the commotion, jumping back along with a few other people when the two men started throwing punches at each other. Daisy rushed into the scene with another woman—presumably Gabby—by her side, who jumped in without hesitating. Who was she? A cop? A bouncer? It didn’t matter. She had other things to attend to.
No one noticed her as she headed toward the hallway and slipped past the bathrooms and stopped at a door near the exit.
A door that led upstairs?
Did she enter it?
The shouts and noise coming from the bar said this would be her only chance.
So she took it. She needed to find Corey.
She twisted the handle and jaunted up the stairs, quiet as a mouse. Or at least, she attempted it. The stairs were wood, but her brown boots were old with treads nearly gone. She could be light on her feet when she wanted to be.
Another door stood closed at the top, but luck was on her side. Not locked. She took her time opening this one, cracking it inch by inch. Who knew what was on the other side?
Corey, hopefully.
