“I thought you weren’t open.”
“I think you could use a drink.”
“Okay. Water, I guess.” Eva leaned back in her seat as Ember laughed.
“Water?” She continued laughing. “Straight up or on the rocks?”
“I just lost my job. I shouldn’t be wasting money on-”
“It’s on the house. What do you really want?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Oh my God, Dr. Dash. Just tell me what you want. Maybe not anything too technical though. It’s been a while since I’ve mixed a fancy drink.”
“You’re not a bartender?”
“Not anymore. This is my brother’s place. He’s in the back. I just stopped by and he asked me to help out for a minute with the delivery, which is why that door was open.” She pointed at the front door. “And why you’re here right now.”
“Oh, I just assumed.” Eva glanced down at the custom coasters on the bar next to a napkin rack. “Big Brother Zack’s?”
“He’s my big brother Zack,” Ember answered. “I used to call him that in school and it kind of stuck. He bought the place a few years ago, and that’s what he named it. So, you want some of his booze for free?”
“I don’t want to take advantage-”
“Okay. You’re doing a shot.” Ember pulled a bottle onto the bar and placed a shot glass next to it.
“You interrupt people a lot,” Eva retorted.
Ember smiled back at her and poured tequila into the shot glass.
“I’m not as polite as you, apparently.” She slid the glass over to Eva. “Do this and then I’ll get you that water and something else if you want.”
“I haven’t done a tequila shot since I was in college.”
“You must miss it then. Drink up.” She slid the glass a couple of inches closer while her eyes never left Eva’s.
“If you’re not a bartender here, what do you do?” Eva asked. She lifted the shot glass to her lips, took a small sip and cringed, which caused Ember to smile mischievously. Eva downed the rest and slammed her empty glass on the bar in triumph. “And did you have a date last night too? Is that why you were there?”
“Not exactly.” Ember filled a glass with ice and water. “My parents own the restaurant. I work there. I manage. I was working last night when I saw you. I had to go pick up something. When I got back, you were already gone.”
Eva took a long drink of the water Ember had placed in front of her.
“Thank you.” She put the glass back down.
“Sure. What do you want now?” She motioned to the bottles.
“Nothing. I should get out of your hair.” She exhaled deeply. “I have to go home and try to find another job.”
“What do you teach?”
“American Lit.”
“That’s interesting.” Ember wasn’t a very good liar.
“Really? Didn’t get that by your tone.” Eva stood and slung her bag and purse over her shoulder.
“I was always more of a math and science girl myself. I had my friend write some of my English papers in high school. Don’t tell Mr. Brennan on me. He’d have my diploma rescinded.”
Eva laughed and held her hands in front of her in her standard nervous stance.
“Your secret is safe with me. So, not a fan of classic literature at all?”
“Just never got into it, I guess.” Ember took the shot and water glasses off the bar. “What got you hooked on it?”
“Huh?”
“What made you want to study it?”
“That’s an unusual question.”
“It is? Why?”
“Because when I tell most people what I do, they ask me what my favorite book is or who my favorite author is.”
“Well, you can tell me those too, but what got you hooked in the beginning?”
“Pretty normal stuff. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in seventh grade, and it made me want to read everything. That’s basically the same story every lit professor probably has.”
Ember stopped and crossed her arms over her chest.
“And is that your favorite book by your favorite author?”
“No. Have you read it?”
“I don’t even know what it is.”
“No. Not my favorite book. Have you ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?” she asked as she reached inside her bag.
“I think so, but it was a long time ago. Like middle school and I probably didn’t pay much attention because I can’t even remember for sure if I read it. Why?”
“Here.” Eva placed her own paperback copy of the book on the bar. “You can have this one. Consider it payment for the drink.”
“Oh, no. I can’t take this.”
“I have like three copies. I kind of always walk around with at least two different books just for the train ride or in case I’m stuck somewhere and need something to read.”
“You want me to read it?”
“Only if you want to.”
Ember reached out and picked up the worn paperback.
“And if I read it, what happens then?” she asked.
“You enjoy a good book.”
Ember laughed.
“No, I mean, is there a quiz or something? Will I be tested?”
“By me? No.”
“Okay. Well, thank you for the book then.”
“Sure. Thank you for the drink and for taking my mind off the work thing.”
“Anytime,” Ember replied, but Eva felt like something had changed. Ember’s face showed something like disappointment where before it had shown a wide smile. “You never told me what your favorite book is.”
“Oh, another common choice. Pride & Prejudice.”
“Jane Austen? She’s British.”
“I thought you were a math and science girl.”
“I am, but I went to high school,” she retorted. “You teach American authors.”
“I do. I taught a seminar on Austen once. I appreciate her work, but overall, I enjoy the American classics more, so I chose that focus, while still loving Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s story.”
“Then, it’s not common at all,” Ember told her as she clutched the book to her chest.
“What?”
“Your answer is anything but common then, Dr. Dash. An American classics professor harboring a crush on Elizabeth Bennet, one of the most famous British characters of all time.”
“Who said I had a crush on her?”
“Come on.”
“Okay. I did.”
The smile had returned to Ember’s face.
“Hey, what if I read this book and we meet up to talk about it when I’m done?” she offered. “You can tell me the story about how Elizabeth was your first girl crush.”
Eva laughed and closed her bag. She met those eyes and saw another strand of ashen hair fall. She knew Ember was beautiful and funny and she’d managed to take her mind off all of her troubles. She also made Eva nervous, and that was a good sign around someone she could potentially date, right?
“Yeah, maybe,” Eva responded unsurely. “I kind of have a lot to figure out right now, but-”
“It’s cool. Don’t worry about it.” A look of embarrassment and defeat played out on Ember’s face.
“Hey little sister, did he short us this time too?” A taller and bulkier male version of Ember appeared from the open doorway leading to the back of the bar where Eva presumed the office was.
“No, Zack. He brought everything and that case he owed you too,” Ember replied, but didn’t look at her brother who had matching hair, but darker eyes. She kept looking at Eva.
“I should go,” Eva gave her a small, shy wave and headed out the door.
She hurried the last block to her stop because of the cold, but also because she didn’t want Ember to catch up to her. As much as she wanted to say yes to whatever Ember had proposed, losing her job and her second home today had rocked her. She needed to figure out what it all meant and what she was going to do now.
Eva grabbed her mail before heading up the elevator to her seventh-floor apartment. She opened the first envelope, which turned out to be junk, and tossed it in the recycling bin in the lobby before the elevator arrived. She climbed into the elevator and opened a letter that was from the company that owned the apartment building and read it as she rode up toward her floor.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered to the empty elevator.
When the doors opened on her floor, she stayed glued to her spot until the doors closed again. The elevator didn’t move. She re-read the short form letter and then rifled through the accompanying pages of additional information before finally feeling downward movement. She was going back to the lobby. She continued reading as the elevator picked up a mother and her son and then pressed seven again to head back up.
When she arrived at her floor, she unlocked her door and headed inside. She tossed her things in their normal spots and then tossed herself onto the couch. She continued to read and re-read the letter from her landlord. The building was going to be turned into condos. Her unit along with all of the others would be put up for sale at the end of the year. This was her first notice. On the first of January, each unit would be remodeled and put on the market. If the tenant decided to purchase their unit, the building would offer them a reduction in the market value as compensation for the cost of the remodel, which would be a requirement for the tenants to purchase. In other words, with that money, they’d have to update the unit as per the landlord’s requirements. It would likely cost even more than that on top of their actual purchase price.
She didn’t have the money for a down payment on a condo, and she definitely wouldn’t be able to finance it with her car and student loans. She’d have to find a new place to live. Even if she found a new job by the summer or the beginning of the new semester, she wouldn’t be able to afford to buy anything right now. She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number she dialed more than any other.
“Hey, what’s up?” Alyssa asked her.
“Hey, nothing good,” Eva replied.
Alyssa Masters had moved to Chicago the previous year. The two met at the Camden hotel where Alyssa’s fiancée, Hannah, worked. Alyssa technically worked for Camden as well, but she managed the retail stores on their properties in the region. Eva had been there for a college event, which they often held at Camden properties, and ran into the store that night to get away from a particularly annoying potential donor. She and Alyssa talked and quickly bonded, and with Alyssa being new to the city, Eva offered to show her and Hannah around. They’d all become friends and, at least once a week, Eva had dinner at their place or they came over to hers.
“What happened? Hey, how’d your date go last night? You were supposed to call me,” Alyssa said. “Oh, Han says hi.”
Eva had heard the hello from somewhere on Alyssa’s end.
“I say hi back. Where are you? The office?” she asked.
“Yeah, but I can take a quick break. Hannah won’t tell on me.”.
Alyssa and Hannah each had their own offices at the Camden, but Alyssa typically ended up working out of Hannah’s office.
“I have had a terrible day.”
Alyssa got serious. “What happened?”
“Can we move up our dinner to tonight? I need a night out.”
“Han, can we do dinner with Dash tonight?” Alyssa asked her fiancée. “She’s free. We’ll be done here around five. You want us to meet you somewhere?”
“Yeah, how about Windy’s?” Windy’s was a bar named after the windy city.
“Okay. We’ll be there around 5:30. Just in time for happy hour.”
“Great and you’re buying,” said Eva.
“You sure you don’t want to talk about anything now?”
“I’ll tell you all about it in a few hours.”
Eva was grateful for her new friends. Prior to meeting Alyssa and Hannah, she’d felt relatively alone. She’d spend most of her time at work and socialized a little with her colleagues, but hadn’t yet found a group of friends like the ones she’d seen on every NBC comedy in the late 90s. She’d been jealous of those groups of people who seemed to know one another so well and wished for a group of her own. Hannah and Alyssa were great. She loved them both. They’d recently gotten engaged, and while Eva was incredibly happy for them and knew that she’d be a bridesmaid at their celebration, she was slightly jealous and a little tired of never having anyone to bring to their dinners or hang out sessions. Her dating life had been relatively non-existent, and when she met a woman, it didn’t get far along enough for her to be invited out with them.
“Hey there,” Alyssa greeted her as she walked into Windy’s hand in hand with Hannah.
“Hi, Eva,” Hannah said, and they each hugged Eva. “You look like you hate the world right now,” Hannah exclaimed as she took in Eva’s exhausted and stressed out face while taking a seat at the high-top table next to Alyssa. Her dark green eyes and long blonde almost brown hair made her look slightly younger than thirty-three. Alyssa’s light blue eyes and dark hair somehow made her look older than twenty-seven. They seemed to have met somewhere in the middle age-wise.
“I do hate the world right now,” she paused. “Well, not you guys, obviously.”
“I’ll get us drinks,” Alyssa said and kissed Hannah on the cheek before heading toward the bar.
Their drinks would be their usual order from Windy’s – red wine for Alyssa and Hannah; and whatever imported beer they had on tap for Eva. They’d get the appetizer platter that had every kind of fried food in the world and snack on that until they decided if they wanted something else.
“Have you two set a date yet?” Eva asked, attempting to delay her reason for inviting them out until Alyssa got back.
“Not yet. I’m just enjoying being engaged to her.” Hannah stared at Alyssa who was leaning over the bar, talking to the bartender they all knew well since this was one of their regular hangouts. “I mean, check out that ass.” She smirked. “Wait. Don’t. She’s mine.” She smiled and pointed with squinted eyes at Eva who just laughed.
“Please. Like she’d go for anyone that’s not you. She is crazy in love with you. It’s actually annoying sometimes how much she talks about you.”
“I can’t wait to marry her,” Hannah said.
“You might want to set a date then,” Eva replied.
“We will. Her mom’s coming to visit with her brother. We’re going to talk about it then. Dean’s been working stateside since he got back, but he put in for a transfer to work on a post in Germany.”
“Germany?” Eva sounded surprised about the news. Alyssa’s brother had gotten back from his last tour less than a year ago. “I thought he was staying here for good now.”
“He was, but this position came up and he got the promotion he’d need to go up for it. He seems really excited about it and he speaks German, so if he gets that, he’d leave in three months. We’d probably move up the wedding, so that he could be there. If he doesn’t end up getting the job, we’ll take our time and plan it so that everyone we love can be there.”
“Leave it to my brother to have wanderlust,” Alyssa said as she placed Eva’s beer in front of her and then balanced their wine glasses until she could place them on the table. Hannah slid one glass toward herself. “He just got back and now he’s ditching us again.”
“Says the girl who moved to Chicago before he even got home,” Hannah pointed at Alyssa, who just rolled her eyes.
“So, what’s up? Tell us about this terrible day.” Alyssa met Eva’s charcoal eyes.
“I got fired,” Eva began and gulped her beer. “And I’m going to lose my apartment to condos and gentrification,” she added.
“What?” Alyssa questioned. “What are you talking about?”
“The college had to make budget cuts. I’m the low man on the totem pole, so I was fired. Effective immediately. Oh, and my building is going condo. I can’t afford t
o buy. So at the end of my lease, which is thankfully in December, I’ll have to move no matter what. Oh, and I basically have nothing in savings. So after my severance, I have nothing coming in. I probably won’t be able to afford the rent there anyway and I’ll be homeless. Actually no,” she paused as she held her beer to her lips, “I won’t be homeless. I’ll be forced to move back to Iowa and live with my parents on the farm. I’ll end up teaching high school English and pretending diagramming sentences is important.” She took another drink.
“Oh, my God. Eva, I’m sorry,” Hannah said as she clasped the glass in front of her.
“Dash, that sucks, but I’m sure you’ll find something. You’re a great teacher,” Alyssa added.
“Not in the middle of the semester, I won’t. Everything is taken.”
“Will you be okay financially until the summer sessions?” Hannah asked. “You can do something part-time with any university during the summer. Then, you can find something more permanent. You’re a Ph. D for crying out loud. You’re not going to end up in some small town high school.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll only be able to hang on so long with part-time work if I don’t find something full-time soon.” She paused and leaned forward. “It’s not just that though. That place is more my home than the house I was raised in. I grew up on that campus. Most of the major moments of my adult life involve that place. Now, I’m supposed to leave and never look back. I planned my entire career there. James got me that job. I have all of his work. I was supposed to carry the torch, get tenure and retire in like forty years.”
“Sweetie, I’m sorry,” Hannah said. “I know that place is important to you.”
“I met Faith there.” She looked at Alyssa.
“You got faith there?” Hannah asked and then looked at Alyssa. “Am I missing something?”
“Faith was her first college girlfriend,” Alyssa explained.
“Oh,” Hannah said. “Did she break your heart, or did you break her heart?”
“She died,” Eva replied.
Hannah’s eyes widened, and she turned to Alyssa silently asking “how did you let me walk into that one,” with a look that one often gives their significant other during times like these.
The Best Lines Page 3
