by Jami Wagner
Chapter Six
Kelsey
Crap.
Double crap.
Sara’s going to kill me. If she doesn’t do it physically, she’ll do it with her eyes. She’s the best at speaking with her eyes. It must run in their family. She isn’t going to have anything nice to say about this, even if all of it was unintentional. She should be playing nice. Not only because Ethan is her cousin, but also because he is going to be my temporary boss. And what have I done? Nothing but terrorize the poor guy.
I push open the door that leads into the bar and poke my head inside, looking left and then right. What if Ethan already called her and told her what I’ve done to him? Maybe she will think it’s funny and we can laugh about it. I take a step inside. The coast is clear. She’s probably in the office, outlining the necessary points of this meeting. I’ll have a few minutes to pull myself together before she comes out.
I love the feeling of being at the bar before we open. Like I have secret no one knows. When it’s quiet enough, I can hear the music playing and understand the words. I can actually see the posters of bands who have played here in the past and the neon signs displayed on the walls. Most of the time, I’m so caught up in serving drinks and trying to keep everyone happy, I forget about the small details.
Scratches and chips are visible across the bar top as I run my hand along the surface, heading to stuff my purse in one of the cubbies behind it. It’s an “I’m worn and loved” look, the markings of a very popular bar. I hope Sara’s parents don’t ever try to replace it.
“Day one and he’s going to be late!” Sara slams the office door behind her. I jump and cringe at the same time. Guilty. She stomps her way to the counter, throws herself onto a stool, and buries her face in her elbow as she leans onto the bar. “You’re here before he is. Maybe I should have left you in charge after all.”
Her head snaps up.
“Wait,” she looks around, then at her watch, the clock behind the bar, and finally on me. “Something’s wrong. What happened?”
I show up early and she panics. Shouldn’t the boss be happy about that? I shrug then turn the water on. I should get a head start on the side work. Distracting myself is a good idea.
Sara hops off her seat, and I can hear the sound of her black flats slapping against the hard floor as she makes her way behind the bar. She looks nice today. I like her purple top, and the black shorts are cute too. Wait, those are my black shorts!
“Why are you here early, Kelsey?” A smile creeps up slowly on her lips and she begins tapping her foot. Her eyes give me a once-over. “And you’re wearing a dress…why?”
I focus on mixing the right amount of soap into the water.
“No reason. I was bored sitting at the house so I got ready, went to class, and came here.”
“Mmm hmm. So it has nothing to do with my cousin?”
“No, it has—”
“Well, I’ll be damned, Kelsey Brian showed up to work before me. Now I’ve seen it all.” Logan struts into the bar like he owns the place and lets out a low whistle. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
I roll my eyes, but Sara just stands there with a silly smile on her face. Logan has one of those personalities that you can’t help but love. Just the tone of his voice and his own smile can improve a girl’s mood in less than a second. Not to mention his shaggy, dark blonde hair, blue eyes, and athletic build. He would be a catch in more ways than one. I think Sara is finally figuring it out.
“It’s not what, it’s who,” Sara coos. Warmth creeps up my neck and into my cheeks. Logan’s eyes go wide.
“Dude, are you serious? Someone has finally cracked the ‘I hate boys’ phase we thought would last forever.”
“It’s not a phase,” I interrupt. “I just find it hard to trust someone now.”
Sara’s face lights up as she slowly nods her head up and down. “And stop calling us dudes.” She laughs, pointing at Logan.
“Wait a minute…does this have anything to do with Ethan?” Logan suggests, folding his arms in front of him.
“Oh, I bet it does,” Sarah says.
Logan reaches his arm over the counter, his palm flat, and Sara gives him a high five. It’s like I’m not even here. How does Logan know about Ethan anyway? I just found out yesterday.
“He called me this morning, wanted to get together but something came up, said he needed a rain check.” Logan shares this piece of information as he joins us behind the bar. I continue with my side work and listen to them at the same time.
“Yeah, well, it better be for something good because he said he was going to be late.”
He probably went to change his shirt, but I’d be okay with him not changing his shirt and just forgetting about it altogether.
“Hello? Earth to Kelsey!”
I look up from—wait. Was I just staring at the sink water this whole time?
“What’s your deal?” Sara asks.
“She knows something,” Logan answers.
They both study me with their full attention. I crack under the pressure. It only took two seconds, but it’s always hard to keep things from Sara. Then you add Logan, and there’s no hope. They make a strong team.
“Alright, so I may have seen Ethan once or twice since yesterday.” That sounds good enough. I turn with the intention of filling the sink at the other end of the bar, but Sara grabs my arm. I keep my eyes pinned to the floor.
“And…?”
“And…I might know why he’s late?”
“Is that a question?”
My face wrinkles up. I want to avoid this whole conversation. Treat it just like a Band-Aid, Kelsey. One quick pull and it’s over.
“I may have kicked him in the face, given him black eyes, hit him with my car door, and burned him with coffee right before I got here.” I shrug. “Hence no coffee.”
Phew. I can breathe now. I pull my gaze off the floor to look at Sara.
Scratch that.
Based on the look on Sara’s face, I might not be breathing much longer.
Ethan
“You did what?”
I clear my throat as I walk inside. I don’t want to eavesdrop on whatever I interrupted. Kelsey, Logan, and Sara are the only ones here, and all three pairs of eyes focus on me. Kelsey looks like she’s about to cry. Sara’s eyes practically bug out of her face, and her mouth falls open as she takes a sharp breath. Logan just raises his eyebrows and lets out a whistle, scratches the back of his neck, and walks away. Maybe I should have driven home to get a new shirt instead of buying a new one in town so I could be on time.
“Oh my god!” Sara shouts as she rushes to me. She gushes over me and examines all the viable bruises. It’s like having my mom here all over again. When she finishes, her worried eyes meet mine and they quickly turn cold. She whips her head around so fast I swear she snapped something.
“This is all because of you?” she asks Kelsey. Her tone is sharp.
Kelsey is standing behind the bar, frozen. She nods slowly. Even when she’s sad, she’s beautiful. I want to hold her and tell her not to worry because it’s not her fault. Most of it was just really bad timing on my end. I notice a glimmer in her eyes and my body flinches. I move to take a step toward her, but my cousin cuts me off.
“In there…now!” Sara shouts at Kelsey, pointing in the direction of her office. Wow. So she can act like a boss, even though now is not the time, considering this isn’t work related. I reach out to stop her.
“Sara, it’s not what you think. Wrong place, wrong time is all,” I say.
“Yeah, three times?” She huffs. “I don’t think so.”
I watch as Kelsey follows her with her head hanging low. The front door opens and a guy and two girls walk in, wearing black shirts that are sporting the BA’s initials across the front. One of the women is the redhead from yesterday. Their conversation comes to a stop when they notice me. None of them say anything as they step around me and disappear down the hallway to the left that
leads to the bathrooms and break room.
They don’t know me. Sara never introduced us yesterday, and the bar is closed. Someone should have questioned why I was standing here. Do they just let anyone walk in before they open?
“So,” Logan’s voice brings me back to reality and reminding me he’s probably the reason they didn’t stop me. “You already ran into Kelsey, huh?” He grabs the towel hanging over his shoulder and dries his hands. I let out something that sounds like a laugh, a sarcastic one.
“Yeah, looks that way.” I point to my face and move to stand across from him. He tosses the towel on the counter and then squats down. One by one he begins placing bottles of whiskey on the bar top.
“Kelsey was trying to give us a quick rundown before you came in,” Logan says; it sounds muffled since I can’t see him.
He stands, putting his palms flat out to either side of him, leans forward, and nods in the direction of Kelsey’s office. My head follows his gaze. “I have to tell you, man, I think Sara was faking the whole being mad thing.”
“You think?”
“Yep. I’ve worked with those two long enough to know when they are faking it.” He chuckles. “So tell me…did she really kick you in the face? You look like shit.”
I pull up a stool and take a seat. I explain my last twenty-four hours to him and he just nods, laughing at the right times. Everything sounds different when I say it out loud. In a way, it looks like I was intentionally trying to be around Kelsey at all those moments.
“Does she know that you told me about your kiss?” Logan asks.
I shake my head. “No. She would kill me.”
I’ve never understood why Kelsey got so mad that day. Yes, I had a girlfriend and it was wrong to be kissing someone else. But I was sixteen. Relationships aren’t serious at that age, and this was Kelsey. I had wanted to kiss her since the first day I visited my cousin.
I remember it clearly. I’d been sitting in Sara’s parents’ living room, setting up my Xbox when Sara came running into the house with Kelsey right behind her, laughing. Sara called me a loser for playing video games, but Kelsey just stood there. We stared at each other for what felt like forever to any fifteen-year-old until Sara dragged her away.
From that moment, the idea of Kelsey has always stirred my body.
