Eight
E
I lock the door and lean against it with a tired sigh. For a Thursday night, Rebar was slammed, but we survived. And it's all because of the beautiful girl bussing tables and dancing to the music she chose on the jukebox. I grab a tray and join her.
"Thank you, Bella. I really couldn't have gotten through tonight if it wasn't for you."
She turns to me with pink cheeks and a shy grin. "I'm glad I could help. It was a lot of fun."
I try to talk her into letting me call her a cab, but she refuses to leave me to close by myself. We work together, tackling the dishes, and I make her sit down while I mop the floors.
It's decided that I'll be giving her a ride home when we're finished.
While I mop, she asks questions about drink ingredients and my personal life. They're very random, and I don't know what's going to come out of her mouth next.
"What goes in a Cosmo?"
"We don't get many orders for those." I snort and rattle off the ingredients. "It's more of a townie drink."
Her lips purse. She isn't a fan of the nickname.
"Are you single?"
I stop mopping and look up to find her smirking. "l am." I nod. "You?"
"Yup. Broke up with my boyfriend when I moved out here."
"I'm sorry."
Bella throws her head back and laughs. "I'm not. Jacob has small town values. He didn't understand why I needed to get the hell out of Forks. He wanted me barefoot and pregnant and living on the reservation. I had bigger plans."
"So, you broke up?"
"Yup. Royally pissed off my dad. Charlie and Jake's dad Billy are best friends. They had plans for our wedding since we were in diapers."
"Sounds like a nightmare." I go back to mopping, stacking chairs as I work.
"You have no idea," she mutters. "So, tell me about your doomed marriage."
"Long story short. We were high school sweethearts. We broke up for a while when she went to college. I stayed and took a bartending course with plans for this place." I finish mopping and move to count down the register. "When she graduated, she moved back home, and we got back together. Got married shortly after."
"But it didn't last."
"Nope. She hated that I had dreams of opening a bar. Hated the hours I worked at the time. It came to a head, and she took everything."
"Damn. Sounds like a nightmare," she echoes my words.
"Oh, she was."