Kells was just the place in Portland where Rose had never been to. Mac did and she liked it.
"Hey, there's Sheamus." Mac pointed out to the large man that was standing in front of the bar.
The married man had a skin tight button up vest with a long sleep shirt that was rolled up to the elbows. And like when she hadf met him at the barber shop, Sheamus was wearing another flat cap.
"Hello, Ladies." Sheamus greeted them as they walked up to the front of the bar. "Kaitlyn is waiting for you at the bar. Go on in." He flashed them a big grin and then opened the door.
"Thank you." Rose said before following Mac in.
Kells was the kind of place that was hopping on a Friday night. A lot of sports was going on, especially the soccer kind. There were actually two bars on either side of the building, with a lot of free floating tables and chairs and a few booths in between them. The air was filled with the smell of alcohol and sweat, but at least it was a nonsmoking bar. Rose could handle alcohol, just not smoking. And it wasn't a club, so Rose didn't have to worry about really dressing up. Not that she didn't look good with her black jeans, a graphic tee she had found amongst her old college things and her hair was styled tonight to fit her punkish attire.
"Wow, you two could look like sisters." Mac said, motioning between Kaitlyn and Rose as they approached the other woman.
"Nice, but unfortunately I wasn't graced with a rack like that." Rose made a motion to Kaitlyn's bust line.
Kaitlyn, though obviously more fit and muscular, was wearing an off the shoulder top, black jeans and some sneakers. Though her two toned hair was more stylish than Rose's, Rose was happy with the muted highlight of red in her own hair. Both were bombshells, at least that's what Mac said.
"Come on, sit down." Kaitlyn motioned to the stools on either side of her. "So, what's been going on with you and the shop, your life in general?"
"Nothing much. Just work. We're really thinking about canning the receptionist, but Rose wants her to succeed in her career pursuits." Mac rolled her eyes as she waved over the bartender. "Guinness, please."
"And for you, sweetheart?" The man asked, eying up Rose slightly.
"Uh, Rum and Coke, please and thank you." She answered, leaning on the bar with her forearms.
He smiled, nodded and walked away.
"Well, he was definitely interested in you." Kaitlyn remarked looking at Rose.
"I'm not interested in him. He's bald, too old and really, I'm not interested."
"You're twenty nine, how can you not be interested?" Mac asked.
"Back when I was living in Ohio, well there was one guy that I did like a lot. But it wasn't nothing more than a summer time fling. My grandmother just passed away and I was spending the summer there. Gosh, I was hooked on him like an angler to a bass," she said looking up towards the ceiling. "Since then, I haven't really connected with anyone."
"Did you guys hook up during that summer?" Mac asked, but saw a rosey tint to her friend's face even in the low lighting. "I'll take that as a yes."
"We did, a lot. But he was my first, first boyfriend, first lover and then we just sort of lost contact. With him in Ohio and me living here in Oregon, well it was bound to end for either of us. So, there was that one summer. Brought together with the death of my grandmother, torn apart by distance."
"How poetic." Kaitlyn gushed, smiling at Rose. "First loves are always memorable. Sheamus was mine."
"And the age difference isn't an issue?" Mac asked.
"No, not in anyway. We sort of balance each other out. He's really an old school and I am sort of new school, but we speak muscles."
"Are all his muscles as delicious as he is?" Mac smirked.
"Honey, you have no idea." Kaitlyn laughed, touching her knee before looking back towards the front of Kells. "But he is a sweetie, a great man. Do you guys have one?"
"Had one, in a past life." Rose thanked the bartender when he put her drink down in front of her. "Seeing anyone I don't know about, Mac?"
"Nope, I'm between boyfriends. Well, that did happen once but they were twins and they liked a threesome. But they were good."
"Why am I not surprised? I don't want to know what you do outside of the shop ever again." Rose threw her hands up in the air, laughing along with Kaitlyn and Mac.
Falling into a conversation, the three of them talked about anything and everything over all sorts of topics. As the night wore on, they shared drinks and laughs. Misadventures and summers abroad.
"So did you two get married in Ireland?" Rose asked.
"Yeah, we first got married over in Ireland so that his family could be there to attend. And then when he decided to move here to be with me, well we had a small ceremony for my family since they couldn't be over there. And everyone who knows us knows how much in love we are with each other."
"Must be nice to love someone."
"Why Rosie, are you saying you're actually believe what your mother has been saying?" Mac slurred slightly, having one too many drinks than what she was used to. Which was a lot.
"No, I'm not going to shack up with the first guy I see so she can get a grandchild. But it doesn't mean I can't hope that I will find a guy who, who is," she twirled her hand as she tried finding the right word.
"Who is everything you want and not just a fling." Kaitlyn said, making Rose clap and nod before taking a drink from her glass. "Yeah, that's what I wanted and I found it in an ex convict, in an inmate."
"Has he ever explained prison life in Ireland?" Rose asked.
"Not really, but it was a place where you could film one of those prison movies. I mean, there was fights, killings, things like that. And this is in Ireland. I can only guess what it is like here."
"Probably a lot worse." Mac stated. "Have you written to one yet?"
"Yeah, I sent a letter out last week. But the one and only one I wrote to was out in Florida. He's two years younger than me, named Seth Rollins. He's in for attempted murder but that's all his page said." She watched her ice cubes very carefully. "I mean, his profile was compelling, he looked well taken care of, physically, a beard. Not a lumberjack kind of beard but trimmed. So I sent him a letter. Now I just have to wait until I get a response from him."
"You do know that the prison officials read inmate mail, right?" Kaitlyn asked.
"I didn't make any incriminating stuff. I just told him about me, Tinkerbell, the shop. No I didn't tell him your name, you're A and Jennifer is B, that's all that I could come up with on the spot." Rose held up a hand to prevent Mac from speaking. "But just some of the basic stuff."
"I knew you would respect me. And thanks for not giving out my name."
"He likes to work out, I saw his picture and oh my gosh, he's cute." Either it was the rum speaking or it was her own thoughts speaking out loud, but Rose said it. "And I couldn't help but write to him."
"Oh don't worry, it was the same for me when I saw Sheamus' profile. And then when I got to really know him, well," she smiled as her husband approached. "He was more than I had imagined him to be."
Sheamus smiled at the three women when he came up to the bar. "How are you three?" He asked.
"Great, telling details about our love lives or lack thereof." Mac motioned to Rose.
"Ha, ha, very funny." She laughed in return. "I plan on ending that soon. Can we stop talking about my non existent love life and talk about something different?"
"Sure, there's other juicy things we can talk about. Like my husband loosing his job because he's talking to his wife while he's on his shift." Kaitlyn smiled sexily at the redhead Irishman.
"Sass, that's why I married her." Sheamus stated, kissed the side of Kaitlyn's head and then headed off to do whatever it was that bouncer's did.
"I'm drunk, so don't hold it against me." Mac said watching him leave. "But Kaitlyn, your husband has a nice ass in those jeans."
"Tell me about it."
Rose didn't respond. Instead she looked at the bartender and said, "I want more rum and less coke please." She said holding up her now empty glass.
A few days had passed since the club. Nothing really had happened in that time, other than the normal stuff.
The work at Shave and A Haircut was relatively back to normal, no screw ups from Jennifer and the friendship Rose and Mac had going on with Sheamus and his wife was stronger than ever. Kells became a weekend thing for them. Jennifer was only ever seen through work and that was enough. With work not having any issues at the moment it had been a rather quiet time for her.
Rose decided to take Tinkerbell out for a walk since there weren't a lot of work on this Tuesday. She and Tinkerbell first walked the block, stopping at the places where Tinkerbell frequented. She also stopped to let the kids at the Downtown Day School who loved the small dog.
"Tinkerbell!" One of the girls yelled running up to the fence that blocked off the downtown playground that was right across the street from the school building.
The school aids and teachers waved at Rose and Tinkerbell, both of who stopped so that the kids and dog could connect through the low fence.
Once the teachers and aids had rounded up the kids to go back inside, Rose and Tinkerbell headed off on their break. A stop back at the apartment to pick up the mail was also on that thing to do. The apartment building's lobby was where the mailboxes were located so she didn't have to go up to her apartment, it was good to just go in, pick up the mail and then head back to the shop. Rose didn't look at all the mail, instead she just shoved them in her large purse and then headed back out again.
Back at the shop- after witnessing a near death in front of her- Rose opened the door and Tinkerbell walked in before her. She had a stack of mail she picked up from her apartment, shuffling through some- mostly bills-but she stopped so that she could take care of Tinkerbell.
"Anything happen while I was gone?" She asked as she unclipped Tinkerbell's leash from her collar.
Happily trotting over to her bed, Tinkerbell laid down and snorted in Jennifer's direction.
"Nothing, no canceling of appointments or scheduled appointments ." Jennifer responded, looking at her. "How was your walk?"
"It was good. I thought I was going to have a panic attack when I saw someone run across the street in front of a Portland bus. But you know this city." Rose said as she flipped through her mail.
As she walked by one envelope slipped out of the pile and landed on the floor, sliding over towards the receptionist desk. Jennifer beat her to picking it up and when she picked it up she saw a telling mark.
"Florida State Prison?" Jennifer asked, looking up at Rose as she held the envelope out of her reach. "What are you doing? I thought I told you, you can't trust anyone from prison."
Rose reached out and snatched up the envelope. "Let me tell you something, Jennifer. This is my life. I can choose what to do with my life. And I would appreciate it if you would not tell my mother every little detail of my life."
There was a heated stare down between the two. Jennifer's brown eyes looking back at Rose's blue ones. Mac came out of the break room right in the middle of the exchange.
"What is going on here?" She asked, breaking the tension like a knife.
"Tell her, Mackenzie, tell her that she will get ruined by talking to inmates." Jennifer waved the envelope around.
"Go fuck yourself." Rose yelled, snatching the letter. "If you cannot stay out of my damn life you can go find a job somewhere else" Rose then walked to the back of the shop, entering the break room.
"You made her curse," Mac told Jennifer. "If you do another stunt like this again, you will be out of a job."
"But this isn't right." Jennifer threw her arms up. "Inmates are bad people, they deserve the hell that they go through."
"I am not going to say my personal thoughts on the issue of inmate. But this is Rose's choice. If it turns out bad then that is something she has to deal with."
"I just want to save her now."
"Some times it's best to let other people learn from their own mistakes." Mac crossed her arms. "Bring this up again, you will more than likely get your pink slip. Rose has always given you the chances, if it were me, your ass will be out on the street soon."
Jennifer sighed, sitting down back at her designated chair as the phone rang. "Shave and A Haircut, this is Jennifer speaking. How can I help you?"
Hello Rose,
I want to start off by saying that you have a very pretty name. Also I want to thank you for giving me a chance, because not a lot of people have given me a chance through out my life.
So, as I you know I'm Seth Rollins. I'm 27 years old but I'll be 28 in March. Yeah, I'm younger than you. I hope you don't mind the age difference.
And I will be honest with you, I'm a dog person myself so I find it cool that you've got a pitbull. She's really cute.
I am originally from Iowa, yeah a long way from Florida. It's a tale that I'm willing to share if you're interested. But all together my life was never the perfect life. I have a Mom, a brother, a dad, but my parents are divorced. What about you, were you raised by a single parent? I know you mentioned that your dad was a barber and that you learned from him. Or am I asking too much of a personal question?
You're probably wondering what I'm in here for. And I want to be honest with you, Rose. I really do. Honesty around here is important, sincerity is key to my survival in here. You can be upfront and honest with me and I won't judge you. You see, I made the mistake of attacking my ex girlfriend's lover, nearly killing him. I was working at a gym as a personal trainer and she was seeing this guy behind my back. Well, when I came home early one day they were at it, fucking in my bed. I snapped, and it takes a lot to get me so pissed off. No, I never hurt my ex, I was basically raised by my mom and I knew never to put my hands on a girl. But that guy, he said I was not man enough and I snapped.
Prisoners live by a code of ethics. If someone is a rapist, a child killer, a Chester or a Chimo, that means Child Molester, you're as good as dead in here. And when I first got in here it was scary as hell. But I fell into a welcoming group and have found the guys that I consider my friends. I can see how connected you are with your friend if you are willing to open up a barbershop salon. I did get that right, right?
I'll leave it here. This is my first time writing a letter and I don't want to scare you away. If you're still interested in writing back, please do. I would love to have a friend outside of prison.
Respectfully and Sincerely,
Seth Rollins.
And there is was. A response to her letter.
As Rose sat in the break room, Seth's letter opened up in front of her, she wondered about some things. Should she write back? After all she was the one that initiated the contact. And he was honest with what he was guilty of. Is that enough for her to write back?
"So, are you going to write back to him?" Mac asked as she stood across the table from Rose.
"I don't know." She folded the letter up and went to her locker that was located back in the work room. "He was honest about what he was put in prison for. He told me he would never hurt a woman, and I want to trust him, but…"
"But you don't want Jennifer's words to be true, huh?"
"Yeah. Am I really crazy for wanting what Kaitlyn and Sheamus has?" Rose looked over her shoulder at Mac.
"I think it's too soon to worry about that right now. I mean you've only wrote what, one letter to him? I think you need to take this slow, like a relationship." She paused. "Listen to me, I haven't had a serious relationship in years and I'm giving you relationship advice. Just, do what you want at your own pace."
That was a hard choice to make in the matter.
Well, what do you guys think? I really love your guy's thoughts on this story. They help me a lot.