I own no one but my own people
A/N I know I said only one more chapter but I definitely thinks this fic warrants three but I promise it'll get upgraded quickly.
"I got a whiskey sour, three kamakaze shots, a cosmo and a dry martini for table eight."
Robyn nodded as she began getting out the alcohol, mixes and juice for the order that Ruby Lucas placed.
"God I hate working on Valentines Day," Ruby sighed as she leaned against the bar and looked out over the patrons all visiting 'The Rabbit Hole', the bar she and Robyn worked at, the former as a server the latter as a bartender.
It was still fairly early on in the day, just after three a clock, which meant it was still relatively slow, especially for a holiday. Later on though the bar would be packed to capacity, every seat would be taken and every table would be full of empty bottles and glasses.
Not to mention, of course, all the men buying women they didn't know drinks, the women either accepting the mating call of the North American male or rejecting them and the couples who would so cuddled up and snuggled close together they might as well have been one person. There was nothing sexual about it, not really, but one would wrap an arm around the waist, sit in another's lap, a sweet tender kiss to the cheek, the forehead, the shoulder...
Robyn used to think it was cute, the way couples would hold each other close, especially on a day like today, back when she thought she could have that with the person she loved. But then she had discovered her girlfriend wasn't exactly the PDA type much less one for intimate snuggling.
"Half the drinks ordered are going to other tables and it's up to me to decipher which one is the 'cute one with the big tits'," Ruby groaned as she ran her hands over her face, already over this particular holiday.
Robyn chuckled as she began mixing the drinks for their customers in no big hurry, not like she would be later on at least. "Yeah but the guys give you big tips to deliver them."
"True. Speaking of buying drinks for cute women with big tits…" Ruby leaned over the bar and nodded towards one of the only full tables full of men who were too good looking to be called ugly but too average looking to be called hot. "The brown haired guy at table six wants to buy you a shot."
Robyn rolled her eyes as she poured the drinks into their individual glasses. "Did you tell them they have the wrong equipment for me to be interested?"
"I could have," Ruby mused. "But they gave me $10 to let you know."
Another roll of Robyn's yes before she looked up from what she was doing and easily found the man Ruby had told her about. She just raised a brow at the man who puckered his lips at her with a suggestive eyebrow to match and grabbed the tiny little rainbow flag she kept beneath the counter just for this occasion and held it up, snickering as she watched his face fall in disappointment.
"You could have left the guy with a little dignity intact," said Ruby as she set the drinks on her small serving tray. "Or at least let him buy you a few free drinks."
"I'm already in one crappy relationship," she said dryly, "I don't need to be giving guys false hope for another."
Ruby flinched as if she had been slapped. "Things not going well in paradise?"
"I don't know," Robyn signed. "She acts like she's bored when she's with me, like I'm some big burden to be around, half the time we're out she's on her phone… do you know that Melody got me for my birthday?" When Ruby shook her head Robyn answered with a rather bitter, "a text saying 'hap bday luv ya Rob' two days late, KNOWING I hate that nickname because of how many people call my dad that. Like I'm not looking for her to give me the Mona Lisa but… I want romance in my life."
Robyn's eyes drifted to the bar, picking at a long scratch ingrained in the wood as she voiced her wants to her friend and coworker.
"I want adventures," said Robyn almost pleading, as if Ruby could pull out a woman like that from her front pocket. "I want laughs and smiles and to know what it feels like when a girl actually loves me and gets me much less acts like they like me. I want her to be as excited when she sees me as I am when I see her. Plus? I think she's cheating on me."
"Wait, you think the fish is cheating on you?" asked Ruby with wide brown eyes, using the nickname she knew Melody didn't particular like but to be fair Ruby didn't particularly like Melody. But in turn Robyn and Ruby's girlfriend Dorothy hated one another as well, something to do with Robyn's mother, a lawyer, charging Dorothy with stealing a ruby encrusted necklace. "Do you know for sure?"
Robyn shrugged as she wiped down the spilled drops of liquor from the deeply stained bartop. "I mean I don't have videotape but she's just been kinda skittish lately. Plus the other day she told me she was sick and couldn't go to my archery tournament."
"I thought you said she never goes?"
"She doesn't," Robyn admitted with a stab of pain in her chest.
Every swim meet Melody had Robyn was sitting in the front row, the smell of chlorine and pool water as known to her as the smell of a fletcher resting up against her cheek. She would cheer on her girlfriend, celebrate her wins, tell her how proud she was when she took first place, rubbed her legs after a particularly hard practice…
Robyn could count the times Melody would when show up to one of her archery tournaments and would be on the phone all the while.
"That's not what's suspicious," she added, ignoring the sympathetic frown her friend gave her. "Afterwards rather than go out to dinner with my dad and stepmom like I normally do I went back to Melody's to bring her some soup and take care of her and her car wasn't in the driveway. I figured she must have gone out for some soup or medicine or something so I went home and I… saw her car. In Alex's driveway," she admitted.
"I never trusted Alex," Ruby mused. "What kinda asshole wears glass slipper to a graduation ceremony?"
"But when I asked her what she did that night," Robyn continued. "She just said she stayed home."
Ruby's face fell. "Oh sweetie…" She reached out and grabbed hold of her hand. "I'm so sorry…"
She blinked her tears away, shrugging her pain and doubt away. "We don't know for sure," Robyn said, trying to assure herself as much as Ruby. "She could have just wanted some comfort and Alex couldn't come over so she went over there."
Ruby raised a brow but before she could blow a hole in the already sinking ship a man walked into the bar with two bouquets of flowers in each hand. One of them were a large bouquet of red, blue and white roses all beautifully selected and arranged and the other were just six simple pink carnations.
"I got a delivery for a Ruby Lucas and Robyn Locksley," the delivery man announced to the bar.
"Guess which one is yours," Robyn muttered rather dryly before she raised her voice to let the delivery man know he could find the two recipients right at the bar.
"Ruby?" he asked when he approached the two women.
"That's me."
He handed the waitress the roses and then in turn handed Robyn the carnations, bid then a happy Valentine's Day and headed back out to his truck; a large white van with 'Game of Thorns' written on the side.
"To my beautiful Ruby; There's no place like home, especially when you're there with me," Ruby read aloud from the card, a her face glowing with love. "Your Kansas girl, Dorothy. (Toto said to sign his name on the card.)...That is the most adorable thing I've ever seen in my life, oh my god, I love that woman, she's getting the good pussy tonight."
Despite everything, Robyn smiled at her friend, reaching out and rubbing her arm. "I'm glad you have someone that makes you happy, Ruby. You deserve it."
"So do you." Ruby tucked the card into her breast pocket for safe keeping. "But come on, what's yours say?"
Robyn shook her head as she set the flowers to the side. "Probably the cost of the flowers so I can pay her back," she said with a laugh that didn't quite reach her eyes.
"I mean the card is pretty big, it looks like there's a lot of writing on it," Ruby offered with a shrug.
Rolling her emerald eyes and, mainly to shut her up and prove her wrong, she grabbed hold of the card and began to read in a rather exasperated tone.
"I made my life an arrow, The tip a deadly sharpened point, So people never came so close, That I may disappoint…."
Robyn's face fell, going from total boredom to confusion as she read the rest of the poem not outloud but to herself, getting more and more confounded the longer it went on.
"What?" asked Ruby when Robyn's jaw dropped. "Robyn what is it? Oh my god, did she break up with you via flower?"
Robyn looked up front the card, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Did you send me the flowers?"
"No. I mean I like you as a friend but not enough to leave my farm girl for you. Why what's up? Are the flowers not from Melody?"
"According to the note they are but something's off."
"What do you mean?"
Robyn said nothing and instead just handed the note to Ruby. "That sound like something she'd write?"
The waitress read over the card, her eyes going wide her hand going over her heart. "Oh my God, Robyn! This is the most romantic thing I've ever read!"
"Exactly, that's the problem." Robyn snatched the card back and reread her love note, the poetry sending butterflies fluttering to and fro in her stomach. "Those are not Melody's words. She couldn't be that romantic if a gun was held to her head."
Ruby shrugged. "Maybe your dad sent it? Like he knew you were having issues and wanted to make you feel better?"
"My dad always gets me chocolates for Valentine's Day not flowers. Plus he doesn't like Melody anymore than my mom or step mom does, why would he try to pass these words off as hers?"
Another shrug as she grabbed the tray full of drinks that should have been delivered quite a while ago. "You could always call up the shop and ask for the receipt?"
Deciding to do just that, Robyn googled the name of the shop that was on the back of the card and called them up, getting a busy signal the first two times and finally on the third try a ragged out of breath woman with almost a cockney British accent answered with what sounded like a hundred rushed shouting voices in the background.
"Game of Thorns flower shop, how may I help you?"
"Hi, yes, I was wondering if you could tell me the name of a person who sent me flowers."
"You're going to have to come down to the shop and show us some ID," the woman answered in such a hurry that Robyn barely caught her words.
"Are you serious?" she scoffed. "I need to show you ID to get you to tell me who sent me flowers? What if it was some stalker?"
"How do I know YOU aren't the stalker?" the woman on the phone challenged. "Or a jilted lover or simply a prat trying to find dirt on a coworker?"
"..Fair point."
"Yeah I tend to make quite a few of those."
Robyn chuckled as she grabbed a napkin and a pen. "Well can you give me your address so I can stop down there then?"
"Game of Thorns Flower Shop, 815 East 53 Seattle Washington 60612."
"Great, that's only like on the next block from where I work, I can be over there in ten minutes. But I'm assuming there's gonna be a bit of a wait. Although I'm not sure why, what with this probably being the slowest day of the year for you and all."
The woman laughed and Robyn smiled so brightly she swore the woman heard her.
Robyn missed people laughing at her jokes.
After promising to take care of her when she got there both Robyn and the woman hung up. Then after telling Remy to watch the bar for a bit she grabbed her coat and the card before heading off to find her mystery poet…
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