The next morning I was aroused from a dead sleep by the smell of coffee. The smell slowly yet inexorably drifted from the kitchen, under my door and wafted into my nose, awakening me from the deepest sleep that I had had in ages. As I attempted to get up, my eyelids refused to open and felt filled with sand. When I concentrated to open them a second time, a stabbing pain pierced in my forehead, right over my left eye. Wondering what was wrong with me, I finally forced my eyes open, and immediately shut them. The morning sunlight shown straight into my eyeballs like a knife through butter; my eyelids felt how I imagine a vampire would feel if he stepped into sunlight. At the same time the glaring pain on my left side flared up to encompass the right side of my head as well. What is wrong with me!? I wondered in fear.
Slowly and carefully I maneuvered myself to a sitting position and painfully opened my eyes, avoiding looking at the sunlight. With the pain in my head as a soundtrack to the pain in my eyes and the soreness in my limbs, my eyes wandered the room. I saw my Merlotte's uniform unceremoniously dumped in a pile by the side of the bed and then realized that I was naked! Eek! I attempted to leap out of bed to pull on some sweatpants and a shirt. I only attempted to leap since my body felt like it had been hit by a truck, and my head squeezed in a vise. As I was getting dressed I noticed that I had several bruises along either side of my ribcage. Then, when I sat on the edge of the bed to pull on my underwear, I felt, rather than noticed, the bruise on my left butt-cheek. With my head throbbing I knew I needed to immediately ingest some of that delicious smelling coffee that Amelia brewed and several aspirin pills and then I needed to reconstruct my evening; already I was getting some very uncomfortable flashbacks of Eric and I had a guilty feeling regarding Sam. Pulling on a robe over my shirt and pants, I slowly padded out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen.
"Oh good" Amelia appeared to yell, although I knew that she was only talking normally. "You look how I feel. What on earth got into you last night and why oh why did we ever decide to drink two bottles of wine? I don't even remember why or for what purpose that we were drinking. Although I do seem to remember you telling me some sordid details about Eric and reciprocating myself about Tray." Amelia reached into the cupboard and pulled out a mug for me and poured in some coffee and placed it on the kitchen table with the milk and sugar. I slowly and painfully sat myself down, wincing when my left side hit the chair. Before answering her I doctored my coffee and took two sips. Then I just looked up at Amelia. Smiling wryly, Amelia reached behind her and grabbed a bottle of aspirin and placed it on the table in front of me. Nodding my thanks I opened the bottle and downed two pills with my coffee.
"Wow Sook. You are in much worse shape than I am! I was still able to get myself out of bed by 10am and get showered. Here it is almost noon and you look like you need a few more hours of sleep!"
"It's almost noon!?" I imagined to croak. And surprisingly jumped to my feet. "I need to be at work at noon. Oh no Sam is going to kill me. I'm pretty sure I said some awful things to him last night and I don't know what got into me! I need to apologize to him and beg him not to fire me."
I dashed into the bedroom and immediately got into the shower. Between the hot water easing up my muscles, and the aspirin working on my head, I actually began to feel almost human when I stepped out of the shower. The headache was still throbbing behind my left eye, but at least it wasn't my entire head. I could handle work like this.
When I stepped out of my bathroom into my bedroom Amelia was sitting on my bed waiting for me. Realizing that I wasn't going to get out of talking her I give her a quizzical look and began searching for another set of black pants and another white Merlotte's shirt.
"Sookie. I love sitting around and drinking with you and gossiping like school girls. Last night was really fun, but there seemed to be some sort of urgency to you. You almost appeared to be drinking for a reason. From what my foggy head can remember, it seems like you and Eric finally consummated things, post memory return, but I don't remember any of the other details. I think you were happy about it, but, as logic kicks in, didn't you have to work last night? Why were you back so early? Did something happen with Sam? And how are you feeling about everything with Eric? In summation, are you ok?" Amelia inquired with the quickness of a prosecutor.
"Honestly Amelia," I began while getting dressed, "I don't know how I feel. For some reason I can't remember clearly what happened last night. I know I went to see Eric, rather than him coming to see me. I remember coming onto him and I remember that I enjoyed myself. Like really enjoyed myself. I didn't have an ounce of guilt, or worry or even a thought other than lust. I seem to remember my emotions better than what actually happened. Then I went to work and I remember getting annoyed at something, taking it out on Sam and leaving. I really owe Sam an apology. And instead of showing up early to talk to Sam, I just slept late instead and now I will be tardy to work, rather than early. I just hope I still have a job. And to top it off I have a splitting headache that despite the aspirin is still taking up permanent residence in the front of my skull." I finished tying my shoes and grabbed my purse and looked at Amelia for her response.
"Alright Sookie, well you know Sam adores you so he won't fire you and once the hangover wears off and you rehydrate the headache will fade and the evening that you have blacked out on will return. If not, after work tonight you and I will sit and go through your entire day step by step. Since you get off at 5pm today I will take care of dinner tonight, even though it's technically your week to cook. Then we will have a nice wholesome dinner with iced tea to drink!"
"Thanks Amelia." I gushed. Once again I was grateful to have a girlfriend on whom I could dump all my sorrows and men troubles on and share a relaxing evening with at home. With that thought I said goodbye to Amelia, swept my still damp hair up into a high ponytail and gave it a strong yank to keep it secure.
While driving I replayed in my head what I would say to Sam. I knew in my gut I had said some horrid things to him, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what they were! And that really worried me. Clearly I was upset about something and spoke in the heat of anger. I really needed to work on keeping my emotions under better control. Whenever I spoke in an emotional state I tended not to think through what I would say and just blurt something out, usually which I didn't mean, nor something I would normally say. Feeling strong emotions was akin to being drunk for me. So, like I do the day after drinking, I began replaying my evening at Merlotte's trying to remember what happened.
Aha! And then I had it! Those Fellowship of the Sun jerks were at Merlotte's and I had had to serve them! And poor Sam didn't deserve my anger. Although, despite their rude comments, Sam had still made me serve them and didn't step in to tell them that they were saying inappropriate things to me. In fact, it was rather inappropriate that Sam even allowed trash like that in his bar. He should have kicked them out after their first rude comment.
"Wait! Stop it!" I said out loud to myself. I was beginning to act irrational again. There was no reason for Sam to throw out paying customers just because I didn't like them. I wasn't overly fond of Andy Bellefleur and I didn't think Sam should throw him out. Ok, that was a bad example, since Andy was in law enforcement. Well Jason was sometimes inappropriate with women in the bar and I didn't think Sam should throw him out. Just because someone doesn't share the same political views that I have is no reason not to serve them. Feeling that way makes me no better than them, and Gram would roll over in her grave if she thought that I was a bigot. Now, them touching me was a different story. But of course, Sam did jump over the bar with his baseball bat in his hand once that happened...it just angers me that Sam let it get to that point before he would did anything. But I am Sam's friend and I need to remember that. He can't always be looking after his friends, or even his waitresses; he needs to remember that the law does not discriminate and he needs to look after the well being of his bar. He took decisive action once it became clear that he his customers were misbehaving.
"Arg!" I exclaimed crossly. Why does this still make me angry? I'm usually a very understanding person but for some reason this situation makes me very ticked off. I told myself to shake it off as I pulled into Merlotte's employee lot and bolted from the car towards the bar. Sam was actually out back of the bar lugging a heavy trash bag to the dumpster. Before he could say anything I exclaimed,
"I'm so sorry Sam! I know I am late; I overslept. I'm going to run in and get to work, but when things slow down a little bit later on I'd like to talk to you and apologize for last night, if that's alright?"
Sam just looked at me for a minute, and without any expression on his face, nodded and said "ok." He looked at me as if I was a stranger, or a piece of trash on the street. Then he turned back to carrying his garbage. Clearly he was still very upset with me. Gosh darn it why couldn't I remember exactly what I said!? I'm pretty sure, since things had slowly began coming back once I saw Sam, that I simply told him to mind his own business, but I'm not sure what's so awful in that. A little rude perhaps, but not mortally insulting, the way that Sam just acted. I shrugged and resigned myself to groveling once I spoke to him; even though I was justified in being upset during last night's incident, there is no excuse for me to take it out on him. Walking past the kitchen and waving hello to Buddy I grabbed an apron and put it on. Then I stashed my purse in Sam's office and half run down the hallway onto the main floor of the bar. That little dash of mine made me feel a little woozy and brought the throbbing in my head back full force again. I passed a shaky hand over my forehead and realized, unfortunately, that Arlene was my counterpart on the floor today. This was going to be the longest lunch service ever. As I grabbed a pad and pen from behind the bar I saw that Claudine was sitting in my section. I gave her a halfhearted wave hello and then marched my southern butt over to Arlene to apologize for being late and thank her for covering for me.
"Arlene, thanks for covering me this morning. I overslept very badly and I appreciate you covering my tables for me. I am sorry about that" I apologized.
"Just give me the tips for those tables and try not to do it again," Arlene practically barked at me. Before I could even respond she stalked away to one of her tables, since she knew I wouldn't follow her and yell at her in front of customers. Taking a deep breath and simply deciding that today wasn't my day and accepting the fact that today would be a terrible day, I walked over to my section and begin refilling drinks, taking orders and accepting payments. I put Arlene's tips for my section in my left pocket, so I wouldn't mix them up with mine. Finally, after taking care of the customers that weren't my friends, or fairy godmothers to be exact, I went over to see Claudine. I even managed to muster up half a smile for her, especially since it was rather amusing to see her in such a bland, boring outfit, rather than yesterday's stylish trendy ensemble. Today she was wearing a simple brown skirt suit, with two buttons on the blazer. She had on a pair of plain brown pumps and was wearing a silk cream blouse underneath. She even had her hair down very professionally; it was pulled back into a low bun at the nape of her neck. She had strung a set of pearls around her neck and had pearl studs in her ears, with her hair pulled back to cover the pointy tips of her ears. All in all, she looked the consummate professional working woman.
"Hi Claudine. How are you today? Can I get you anything?"
"Sookie. You look terrible. Do you still have that awful headache that you had yesterday?" Claudine inquired.
"Not only do I have that headache, but I have a host of other problems on my plate, and this headache is making it difficult for me to function at work, let alone sort through all of my personal issues. I just want to get this shift over and go back to bed and start over tomorrow, but I still have another five hours left here today." I exclaimed in an exasperated tone. Then I took a deep breath and remembered that this woman, or fairy, is my friend. And then I said, more calmly, "I am sorry Claudine. I didn't mean to dump all of this on you. I am just not feeling well, or myself today."
"That's ok dearie. I completely understand. We all have bad days. Tell me, that headache you had yesterday, did it go away after you had my tonic?"
I thought about it for a minute, sorting through the haze that was yesterday and realized that she was right. I didn't have that headache again for the rest of the day. See. There is a silver lining everyday.
"Yes Claudine, actually, now that I think about it, that tonic did cure me of my headache. It made me a bit dizzy at first, but it cleared that headache right up. I don't suppose that you have anymore of that miracle liquid on you now, do you?" I eagerly requested.
"Now Sookie, I am your fairy godmother for a reason, aren't I?" Then Claudine reached into her brown Louis Vuitton bag and pulled out another purple vial of that brown sludge with the green swirls inside. "This time, don't take it like a shot of whisky. Just sip it down, even though it tastes terrible. This way it won't make you dizzy."
Agree with Claudine's advice, I took the vial carefully in my hand and slowly sipped the stuff. It still tasted a little like amaretto, but a stronger alcoholic amaretto that you do not want to sip. I had a hard time not gulping the entire vial down in one go, just to finish it. Instead I made myself finish it in about five sips. When reaching out to Claudine to hand her vial back to her, I had a bit of vertigo and needed to grip the back of her chair to keep from stumbling. The vertigo only lasted a moment and then I was able to straighten up. Immediately I could feel the effects of the tonic; my headache was already beginning to recede. And as a result, I began to feel better, stronger and less sore. Suddenly working five hours didn't seem so bad.
"Thank you Claudine! I feel better already! Can I get you anything to eat or drink today?"
"No thanks my charge. I am just glad that you are feeling better. I am going to head out now." Claudine responded while standing up. She then hugged me goodbye and walked out.
I then heard Buddy ring the bell that some of my food was up so I walked to the kitchen and grabbed Kevin and Kenya's food and brought it to them. The next hour passed by smoothly and quickly, with no major incidents. As each minute passed I felt better and stronger than I had before. Finally, I had a minute to myself, when all of my tables were satisfied, and the frenetic rush of lunch hour was nearing a close. Sam was filling an order at the bar, and then all of the tables would be fully stocked with drinks. Now that I was feeling better, I wasn't in such a rush to apologize to Sam. Even though I might have said a few things that weren't nice, he wasn't super supportive to me either and I figured we both owed each other an apology. But…he was my boss so, even though I didn't really feel like it, I decided I should apologize first.
"Sam," I began, "could I see you in your office for a few minutes when you finish with Arlene's drink order?" When Sam looked up at me with that same expressionless look as before, I smiled my real smile at him, so he would know I wasn't trying to cause any more problems.
"Sure." He responded and went back to fixing the drinks. I then headed down the hallway to Sam's office, and once I reached his doorway, Arlene waylaid me.
"Sookie. I need to talk to you" she began. "My friends told me how you treated them last night. I just want you to know that I think that you behaved totally unacceptable and I plan on lodging an official complaint with Sam about you. You are a deceitful, rude, sinful hussy who puts out for vampires. You should not be allowed to work here anymore because you are immoral and we can't have you compromising the values of those of us around you anymore. And I am going to make sure that Sam is aware of how I feel, even if I have to make a petition for our customers to sign. But for now, can I have my tips from your tables that I covered for you? I don't trust that you will give them to me later if I don't ask for them now."
I took a deep breath, thought of several comebacks, including slapping her across the face, and just decided the hell with this. I don't need to put up with this bullshit. I pulled Arlene's money out of my pocket and threw it at her.
"Here's your money you shallow-minded, ignorant bitch. I hope you rot in hell." I retorted. Then I grabbed my purse from Sam's office and stalked back into the bar. I threw my apron at Sam, who was still standing behind the bar, and said, "I'm done. I need a few days off and if you want to know why just talk to your buddy Arlene!" Then I walked out to my car and drove off, taking the first deep, satisfied breath that I had taken all day. I decided that I was feeling pretty good about myself and wanted to go shopping. Most of my clothes were boring or simply comfortable, so I headed my car towards Tara's Togs. I knew there would be some more fun and interesting things in there for me to wear and boy did I need something fun to do.