Prompt: I Thought You Said You Knew What To Do With That Thing
April
"Mineral water, bottle water, just water," Nadine muttered, staring across the bar at Coleman. "As long as it's not on tap, unless there are regulations for something like that. Doesn't the health board have to check such a thing? If you have papers or something, I'll take tap water, otherwise it better come unopened with a cap."
The bartender arched an eyebrow at the blonde, who'd spent the last twenty minutes lining a bowl of bar nuts in neat little rows. "Are you going to eat those?"
"No, don't you know what kind of germs are in these?" she asked, holding her hands up and rubbing her fingertips together as she frowned. "Urine, fecal matter, just to name a few. Do you have a wipe of some kind? I'm completely disgusted with myself now."
"Got a rag," he shrugged, grabbing one from beneath the counter. "It's a fresh one, but I'm going to have to run it under the tap water."
"Don't be rude," she scolded, sweeping her nuts into a pile, not sure whether to put them back into the bowl or toss them on the floor. She'd just have to let Coleman make that decision, though she didn't really want to see him dump them back into the bowl to serve to the next drunk patron.
"Here you go, sweetheart," he said, handing her the damp cloth and a bottle of mineral water. "Never even been opened."
"Thank you," she murmured, wiping carefully at her hands as she sighed.
"So, what's eating you, honey?" he asked, raking the peanuts into his hand and throwing them into a trashcan below the bar.
She assumed it was a trashcan. Or at least she hoped. Why did she ever let the girls bring her here?
"Nothing, I'm fine," she replied, digging through her purse and letting out shriek of glee when she spied a tiny container of antibacterial cleanser. "Thank God."
"Now why all the fuss over germs if you have that?" Coleman asked, tossing the rag she used beneath the counter, leaving her to wonder what the hell was beneath the bar. It had to be a bottomless trashcan, a long shelf, or worse, he was just tossing the shit on the floor.
She shivered at the thought as she rubbed her hands together, reminding herself that while the bartender was extremely shady, Jason seemed clean enough. After all, Elizabeth was semi-dating him now, though it was hard to keep up when the brunette was so tight-lipped about her own affairs – until she had a few drinks in her, that is.
"Good evening," muttered a much older and creepier man, as he stepped up beside her, ordering several shots. He was dressed in an expensive suit with a bad tie, and he smirked at her as he gave her the once over with his eyes. "Can I buy you a drink?"
"Nadine here is a recovering alcoholic," Coleman replied, lining three shots on the bar and filling them with tequila. He winked at her as he slid the shots across the bar. "She just likes the chatter and the atmosphere, and maybe my company."
"Well, if you ever feel like relapsing," the man said, sliding a business card onto the bar beside her, "give me a call."
Her mouth dropped open and she managed a weak smile before he made his way to the other side of the bar. "Coleman, I think you officially met your perv match," she hissed, picking up the card. "Ric Lansing. Why do I know that name?"
"District attorney," the bartender laughed, shaking his head. "If I were you, I wouldn't get in any legal trouble."
"Great," she said, stuffing the card into her purse and slumping over the bar.
"You sure you don't wanna talk about it?" he asked again, but she shook her head, waving him away.
She opened her water, took a tiny tip, and within seconds her stomach started to churn, just like it had whenever she'd ate or drank anything for the past three days. Sliding off her stool, she held her hand over her mouth, hurrying for the bathroom. She'd feel terrible if she threw up all over the dirty floor. Then again, it may convince someone to clean it.
"Oh, this is disgusting," she moaned, stooping down in front of one of the toilets and bracing her hand against the stall. Her eyes filled with tears as she stared at her rippling reflection in the toilet bowl. "I cannot be pregnant."
"What do I owe this pleasure?" Coleman asked, leaning against the bar as Emily slowly approached.
"I need to think," she replied hesitantly, sitting down across from him. "And I need a beer. Not to drink, but more so to stare at."
"Beer and a water?" he asked, having seen that it was becoming the trend of the evening. "Mineral? Bottled? Tap? Bucket?"
"Any is fine," she said, raking her fingers through her straight, brown hair and sighing heavily.
"Now that is the sound of someone needing the aid of a bartender," Coleman muttered, sliding a bottle of water, deciding against the bowl of nuts after the blonde's whole bit.
"How many people come to you with their problems?" she asked, wrapping her hand around the cool beer, but not daring to bring it to her lips.
"Oh, I'm a regular Freud," he replied, with a wink. "Hell, if I wanted to deal with getting an education, I could easily give Lainey Winters a run for her money."
"Only because you'd suggest that your patients drink," she teased, resting her chin in her hand.
"Not heavily," he chuckled loudly, looking her in the eye. "What's the matter, sweetheart?"
"Why? You have advice that's going to save me?" she asked, attempting to unscrew the lid from her water with one hand.
When she failed to do so, Coleman reached over and opened it for her. "I have advice for everything. Knowing a beautiful lady like yourself, this is probably over a man. A man who is a shithead for ever upsetting you in the first place."
"Oh, a man after my own heart," she murmured, sipping her water.
The bartender shook his head as he watched her double fist the mineral water and beer. "What did Patrick do?"
She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Is there anyone who doesn't know we were sleeping together?" she frowned. "Because that's what it was, just sex. It sure as hell wasn't anything else. This is all Kelly's fault. She was the one that suggested I take more risks, and I stop planning every single little thing. I don't have casual sex, and I sure as hell don't sleep with the higher ups, even if he's really good at it."
"Then again, he'd have to be," she continued, tightening her grip on the bottles. "Patrick Drake's hands aren't the only thing he knows how to use, but he's had so much damn practice that I dunno why I let it surprise me."
"Sounds to me like you're getting laid by a guy who you ladies consider to be a very attractive guy," he shrugged, glancing towards the doorway to see Nadine coming back from the bathroom, where he knew she had thrown up for the third time that afternoon. "What's the problem?"
"The problem is that he obviously didn't do so well in sex-ed," she cried, her eyes filling up with tears. "Oh, God. I shouldn't be telling you this."
"Gotta tell someone," he murmured, watching as Nadine started to hesitantly approach Emily.
"I may, or may not be having a baby with a man who is only interested in sleeping with me in the on-call room or above this stupid bar," she hissed, tears slipping down her face. "And the worst of it, is that it's my fault too. I should have been careful. I should have known how to use a fucking condom!"
"Emily," Nadine said softly, sliding onto the stool.
"Were you listening?" the brunette spat, glaring at the nurse.
"Not by choice, believe me," she replied, holding up her hands and silently declaring her innocence. "I just…I wanted you to know you're not alone."
She wiped her face with the back of her hand and stared at the blonde. "Are you-"
"I have no clue," she admitted, relief washing over her face as she finally let someone in on her secret.
"Me either," Emily sighed, shaking her head. "I have all the symptoms though."
"Me too," she said, clutching her purse tightly in her lap, "but it was only once."
She grunted, taking a drink of water as she continued to hold onto the untouched beer. "It was a lot of times."
"What are you going to do?" Nadine asked, clearly desperate to be shoved in some kind of direction.
"Same thing you are," Emily replied, glancing at Coleman. "We're going to sit here, be miserable and get really drunk on mineral water."
"So explain the problem to me again," Kelly said, leaning against the car door and staring across the roof at Elizabeth.
"He pushed and I pulled away," she replied, rubbing her hands over her face. "Things are different with him. I just-it's like I can't trust myself." She pushed the lock button on her keypad and started across the parking lot towards the bar.
"You like him, right?" her friend asked, sliding her hand over her shoulder.
"I do," she answered, unable to hide her grin that came with the sheer thought of Jason. They'd gone out several times now, mostly for rides on his bike, and it was the most amazing escape from the rest of her life.
He tracked her down at the hospital, just like he promised, and asked her out to dinner, which turned into a bike ride that kept them out all night like long. He drove the cliff road that led to the outskirts of town, and he'd kissed her as the sun came up. It was incredibly romantic, and she refused to tell any of the girls about it, simply because she wanted to keep it all to herself.
They'd gone out several times since then. He always seemed to have a knack for knowing when she was having a bad day, and he would show up with his bike in tow, ready to take her away. The last time they'd ended back up at his place, and just when things got hot and heavy, she panicked, saying she couldn't do this and hurried out of his penthouse.
Yes, the owner of the shadiest bar in town lived in a penthouse. She didn't ask any questions and just took it as it came. There was no doubt that Jason Morgan was a man with a past, one that he didn't want to talk about.
Elizabeth wasn't stupid and knew exactly why she was freaking out, but admitting it to him was too hard. Things were moving quickly between them and she was feeling all the same things she had with Nikolas. Maybe it was guilt or fear, but she just didn't want to find herself in the same place she had been a few months ago. She wanted a commitment without all the things that came with a commitment, and well, that was just impossible.
"What am I going to do with you?" Kelly asked, pulling open the back entrance to the bar. "You have the hottest man I've ever seen, who surely knows how to put all that hotness to use, and you're running."
"It's complicated," she replied, knowing how ridiculous that sounded. Months ago, she was all too willing to let Jason take her. Granted, she'd been intoxicated, but she could still remember how badly she wanted it that night, and now that she could have it, she was freezing up.
"So why are we here?" the OB asked, following Elizabeth down the hallway to the bar.
"You know why we're here," she replied flatly, her heart sinking in her chest when she stepped through the doorway, and Jason was nowhere in sight.
"Judging from the disappointment on your face," Kelly sighed, a grin breaking across her face. "I'd say we're here for the tequila."
"Out with it," Kelly ordered, slamming a shot glass down on the table and wiping her hand over her mouth. She glared across the table at Emily, who was still clutching the now luke-warm beer and a fresh bottle of water, before shifting her eyes to Nadine, who just looked all around miserable. "There's a bottle of tequila sitting in front of you two, and no one's reaching for it."
"I'll reach for them," Elizabeth said, grabbing the bottle and filling two glasses. Taking a deep breath, she tossed them back, one after the other, doing her best not to gag in the process.
"We're just choosing sobriety," Nadine shrugged, grimacing as she watched Elizabeth pour two more shots.
"No one chooses sobriety," Kelly snorted, rolling her eyes. "You think I'm choosing not to have sex? It's just part of the program."
"Liar," the brunette chimed in, tossing back the next two shots. She contemplated pouring two more, but stopped and leaned back against her chair, staring at her friend. "You want to have meaningful sex. That's why you're not having casual, meaningless, screw-whoever-you-can-find sex."
"Is that why you're not having it?" she retorted, narrowing her eyes playfully. "You could be screwing Leather Jacket Man, which would be meaningful, despite whatever reasons you've created in that pretty little head of your's."
"Don't do it!" Nadine and Emily both cried at the same time, their faces turning bright pink when they noticed how the other two women turned to look at them.
"Uh, oh," Kelly murmured, her eyes lighting up. "Looks like our ladies are regretting their one night stands."
"She had a one night stand," Emily muttered, glaring at the blonde from the corner of her eye. "I had lots of encounters where I just couldn't say no. I should have been better prepared for this moment. I should have known it was going to come."
"What moment?" Elizabeth asked, leaning forward and giving her best friend a curious grin.
"Just the…you know…possibility of getting…involved with Patrick Drake….renowned womanizer and…incapable of…"
"Committing," Nadine jumped in, widening her eyes at Emily. "Though I have to hand it to you, I think I'd much rather have someone who wasn't as committed as Spinelli."
The table grew silent, all the women knowing how much the poor nerd had been hanging around the hospital, only to be ignored the majority of the time by Nadine. They hadn't thought about it until now, but that was really odd for her, seeing as she usually paraded him around on her arm, listening as he rambled on about whatever the hell it was tech-geeks talked about.
"Enough," Kelly said, waving the tequila bottle at her silent friends. "Spill it now, ladies, or else I'm going to bend your heads back and make you down this bottle of liquor."
"Oh, I'll grab them by their hair!" Elizabeth chimed in, laughing as she slid an empty shot glass across the table.
"Brats," Emily hissed, glancing at Nadine worriedly.
"Are you waiting for that to surpass piss hot?" Kelly asked, pointing at Emily's beer. "I think it's good and past that."
"No," she snapped, sitting the beer down on the table. "I just wanted the comfort."
"Are you on your period?" Elizabeth asked, motioning for Kelly to hand her to the tequila bottle.
Emily's eyes lifted to Elizabeth, and her face grew flush as her eyes filled with tears. "No," she replied flatly.
"Em, what gives?" she asked, shaking her head at her best friend. "You've been acting weird for days now."
"This isn't about me," she replied defensively, pointing at Nadine. "She's the one being mean to the nerd."
"Oh, and you're just so great to Patrick!" the blonde cried, narrowing her eyes at her. "It's not that hard, Emily. If you don't want to have sex with him, then don't do it. It's not like he's begging you to sleep with him!"
"Oh, Lord," Kelly muttered, grabbing a shot and holding it up at Elizabeth, who did the same, before they tossed them back in unison.
"Are you just pissed because Spinelli's begging you to sleep with him and you don't want to because it was so bad the first time?" Emily replied, getting up from the table.
"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Nadine shouted, jumping up beside her. "It was one time, and it wasn't bad, but of course, you're used to good sex because Patrick has had so much damn practice at it."
"Ladies!" Kelly cried, getting up from the table and shaking her head at them. "We do not fight at the bar. This is a place of peace."
"Oh, hell," Elizabeth muttered, holding her face in her hands.
"What's wrong with you?" Emily snapped, looking around the bar. She rolled her eyes when they landed on Jason, who had just walked in with Spinelli and Johnny in tow. "This is far worse for Nadine."
"Emily!" the blonde growled, smacking her on the arm. She spun back towards the table when Spinelli started in her direction. "I need a drink."
"You need like ten," Emily murmured, glaring at the nerd in hopes that he would get a clue and disappear.
"Here," Kelly said, handing her the tequila.
"I can't," Nadine moaned, backing away from the table. She held her hand over her mouth, like she'd gotten a bad whiff of the liquor. "God, I'm going to be sick."
"Oh. My. God," Elizabeth and Kelly cried in unison, their eyes going straight to each other.
"Are you oh-my-Goding about what I'm oh-my-Goding about?" the OB asked, her mouth hanging open.
"If you mean Jason flirting with that pathetic ass blonde at the end of the bar, then yes," Elizabeth replied, narrowing her eyes in his direction.
Kelly glanced over to see Jason sitting beside a blonde in a pair of jeans and a far too revealing top. She leaned over just enough to give him a view of her breasts.
"Unfortunately, she's talking about Nadine," Emily sighed, relieved to see that Spinelli was retreating back to his friends. "Being pregnant is way worse than Leather Jacket Man picking up a woman who will actually sleep with him."
"Pregnant?" Elizabeth cried so loudly that heads turned to their table. "I'm not pregnant!" She jumped up from the table so quickly that her chair fell backwards, and she would have fallen over had Kelly not grabbed her arm.
"Let's hope not for the sake of the baby," Kelly said, holding her arm to steady her as she looked at Emily. "Though something tells me Nadine's not the only one with possibilities in utero."
"I'm not having a baby!" the brunette repeated, jerking out of her friend's grasp.
"I didn't say you were," she hissed back, knowing from the look on Jason's face, he'd heard her clear across the bar. "Great, now what are we going to do?"
"He didn't really hear me, did he?" Elizabeth moaned, from where she sat on the floor of the women's bathroom, her head resting against the side of the trashcan.
"Yeah, he kind of did," Emily replied, stooping down in front of her, a guilty smile on her face. "It's my fault. I should have never-"
"No, you shouldn't have!" Nadine shouted from inside one of the stalls. The toilet flushed, and she appeared seconds later, a heavy scowl on her face. "You had no right to tell any of them I'm pregnant. One, it's none of their business, and two, I don't even know if I am!"
"Well, I let myself out in the process!" she cried back, standing back up and staring her in the face. "You should be happy because if you are pregnant, at least you got knocked up by someone who's not a commitment-phobic freak! Spinelli would probably be a good dad-"
"As long as he could Google," Elizabeth chimed in, moaning softly as she slumped against the trash can.
Emily couldn't help but laugh, not only at what she said, but just over Elizabeth's entire state. She was a complete and utter mess, and sadly, she was the one who seemed to have the perfect guy, and was running quickly in the other direction.
"Elizabeth," Nadine clucked, digging through her purse as she walked over to her, pulling out her bottle of anti-bacterial cleanser. "Here, honey." She gently pulled Elizabeth's head to the side, rubbed the cleanser on the side of her face, and let her head drop back against the garbage can.
"I can't believe he heard me," she moaned, holding a hand over her face.
"You're not pregnant, so there's nothing to be upset about," Emily reminded her, motioning between her and Nadine. "We're the ones that could be giving birth to the next generation of Drakes and Spinellis."
"Don't say it like that," Nadine moaned, leaning against the sink and looking at her reflection.
"I have to go talk to him," Elizabeth muttered, pushing herself up from the floor. She rubbed a hand against the side of her face. "What the hell did you-"
"Okay, ladies!" Kelly said, bursting into the bathroom, a paper bag tucked beneath her arm. "Pregnancy tests at your disposal."
"You cannot be serious," Emily said, watching her pull out six different pregnancy tests.
"Did you drive?" Nadine asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
"No, there's a drug store on the corner. I hobbled my way down there, managing to catch the man just as he was locking up," she replied, opening two of the boxes and pulling the sticks out. "Granted, when he saw that I was buying tests in a state of inebriation he was clearly worried, but that doesn't matter."
She held the sticks out to each of the women as Elizabeth made her way to the door. "Wait, you can't leave yet!" she cried, moving in front of the door. "They have to take their tests!"
"Them, not me," Elizabeth groaned, bracing one hand against the wall. "But if he thinks I'm pregnant-"
"He doesn't think you're pregnant," Kelly said, rolling her eyes as she waved the sticks at her friends. "I made sure of it." Elizabeth's face turned to stone. "I told him that you weren't pregnant."
"You did not!" Nadine cried, leaning over the sink as she held her stomach. "That means that he knows either me or Emily may be!"
"Well, you know this isn't my fault!" the OB snapped, glaring at both of them. "You're in the medical field. You should know what the hell to do with a condom."
"I know how to use a condom!" Emily hissed, grabbing the stick from her and hurrying into one of the stalls. "I took sex-ed, you know. And I've had a lot of sex, but sometimes you forget."
Kelly grunted, leaning against the door and staring at Nadine. "So, what's your excuse?"
"Tequila," she spat, jerking the stick from her hand and going into the other stall.
"Did you really talk to Jason?" Elizabeth asked weakly, wobbling back and forth on her feet.
"Of course not," she replied in a low voice. "Besides, you haven't slept with him, so it wouldn't be his baby if you were."
"No, it would be Nikolas' baby," she said, wiping at her cheek and looking down at her hand.
"Oh," Kelly said, grimacing. "That would definitely not be good." She stepped forward, pounding on the stalls. "What's the fuss, ladies?"
"I can't pee!" Nadine whined, kicking the stall.
"Well, too bad!" she replied, hitting the door again. "You should have learned how to properly use a condom!"
"Done!" Emily shouted, opening the stall and appearing with a frown on her face. "If it's positive I don't want to know."
"Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose?" Elizabeth asked, as Kelly laid the test on the sink, and Emily washed her hands.
"Would you wanna know if you were pregnant right now?" Emily asked, looking at her in the reflection of the streaky mirror above the sink.
"Fair enough," she murmured, just as Nadine's hand appeared below the stall, tossing the stick out. "I don't want to know anything." She stepped out soon after, rubbing her hands with the anti-bacterial cleanser.
Kelly smiled at the girls as she bounced back and forth on her feet, ready to keel over with anticipation. When the time had passed, she leaned over and picked up the sticks. A grin broke across her face as she looked up at them mischievously. "So, can I be a godmother?"
"We're not pregnant!" Emily screeched, launching into Patrick's arms and kissing him hard the second he walked into the bar. She'd had several shots of celebration, vowing to never allow such a thing to happen again.
"God, Lainey and Robin are going to be so sad they missed this," Kelly laughed, sipping her beer a she poked Elizabeth in the arm and pointed in Nadine's direction. She was sitting on the far end of the bar, talking quietly to Spinelli while they held hands. "Oh, nerd love."
Elizabeth chuckled softly, nursing her beer and refusing to look over her shoulder at Jason, who'd been standing behind her for the last twenty-five minutes playing pool with Johnny. She was too scared to speak to him, too nervous to turn around, and too drunk to get up and do either of the other two things.
"You know, it's evenings like this where I feel most proud that I'm no longer a sex addict," she proclaimed, grinning widely. "Seriously, I get to be with my friends and pass on all my genius wisdom about life and sex and-"
"Using condoms," Elizabeth interrupted, arching an eyebrow at her, teasing her about the speech she'd given both girls about the importance of contraceptives and condoms.
"Yes, and had the bar had a banana on hand, I would have given a very good tutorial," Kelly said, nudging her with her elbow as she winked. "Using only my mouth." She got up from the stool and grabbed her purse. "My work is done. I'm going to check the lot for cabs. You want to get a lift with me?"
"No, I'm okay," she replied, glancing at Jason's reflection the mirror behind the bar. He looked up just in time to catch her eye, but quickly turned his attention back to his pool game.
"Good luck," Kelly murmured, tossing her purse over her shoulder and forcing a smile, before she hurried off towards the back entrance.
"Wait," Elizabeth called after her, sliding herself slowly off the stool. "Kelly!" She grabbed her purse, glanced one last time in Jason's direction, not surprised that he was looking at her, but trying not to be obvious about it.
Shrugging, she hurried to the back of the bar where Kelly was waiting, refusing to sit and pine, all drunk and alone while hanging on the possibility that Jason would talk to her. Then again, she was the one that had made things extremely awkward, so there was a pretty good chance that he was waiting for her to come to him. It was too messy and complicated and made her head hurt more than the tequila.
"I think I'm going to go with you," Elizabeth said, looping her arm through her friend's.
Kelly arched an eyebrow, tossing her head in Jason's direction. "You sure?"
She nodded, rubbing a hand over her face. "I'm drunk. I need sleep. And he had all night to talk to me." Sighing, she couldn't help but look over her shoulder one last time, smiling to see Emily and Nadine with their respective boys.
Tomorrow Emily would whine about how Patrick had used her, and Nadine would blush when Spinelli's name came up, and Elizabeth would do what she always did, just sit back and listen, seeing as she only seemed capable of screwing things up.