Three
E
Waylon and Harry are smiling something mad when I slide behind the bar. Their glasses are significantly more full than they were before I left, but I don't say anything because there's a twenty in the tip jar.
"Gentlemen." I greet them.
"So, who's the broad?" Harry asks, his voice gruff from the years spent working the mines before he retired and became a professional bar fly.
"Dunno her name, but she's had a rough day." I pour a beer and set it on the bar at the far corner, away from everyone else. "Consider this my good deed for the month, yeah?"
They chuckle and shake their heads.
I wipe down the bar and try not to pay too much attention to the skittish girl as she exits the office. She's swimming in the shirt, and she's taken her hair down from that ridiculously painful-looking bun. It flows past her shoulders and frames her face like a dark curtain. Her fancy glasses have also been replaced by a pair of thick plastic frames the color of fire.
She's still wearing her skirt and uncomfortable-looking shoes, but she looks more relaxed.
I point to the end of the bar, and she climbs onto a stool, looking at the frosted mug.
"I don't have my ID."
"I didn't have any doubt that you aren't of legal age to drink."
Waylon chokes on his beer. "Cullen, have you no manners, boy? You never comment on a woman's age." He turns to the girl. "Sorry, lass, he means well, but he's been a little sheltered. Don't take it to heart."
I shrug.
Introductions are made, and Bella Swan, that's her name, moves to sit next to Harry.
"Where you from, sweetheart?" he asks.
"A small logging town north of here." She sighs dejectedly. "After the day I've had, I'll probably be headed back there soon."
"Nah. It's a big city. You'll find something."