Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“How does one clock out?” she asks. “Do I text you?”
“No.” I walk to the POS system. “Your name is already in the system,” I say, pointing at her name. “You just click, end shift.”
“But I didn’t do that when I started,” she mentions, pressing the button.
“I did it for you,” I inform her, and she nods, going to the closet and getting her purse before coming back and grabbing her phone that she left turned over behind the bar.
“Is that it?” she asks. “Do I come back tomorrow?”
I stare at her, taking in how her eyes are guarded. “Yeah, you come back tomorrow.”
“Perfect.” She starts to walk out of the bar. “See you tomorrow, Brady.”
“I’ll walk you out.” My mouth deceives me and she turns to me.
“Why?” she asks me, her eyebrows pinched together.
“Because it’s late and I want to make sure that you get to your car.” I toss the rag on the counter and I’m about to walk around it before I watch her head tilt to the side.
“But it was okay for your girlfriend to walk out by herself.” The way she says it rolls out with disgust.
“Girlfriend?” I ask, shocked. “Who the fuck is my girlfriend?”
“Janelle.” I throw my head back and laugh.
“Harmony, Janelle is not my girlfriend.” I watch her eyes go up in surprise. “I don’t shit where I eat. Which means I don’t date anyone who works for me or with me.”
“Oh,” she says, “but she winked at you.”
“Yeah, Janelle winks at everyone. It’s her thing.”
“Got it,” she says, then looks down. “Well, good night, Brady.” She turns and makes her way out of the open doors.
I watch her walk out of the bar for a second longer than I should before I walk over and close the door. Ten minutes after she’s gone, I walk out of the back after alarming the door.
My eyes go to her house as I make my way to mine, and I see she’s not home yet. My heart starts to beat just a touch faster since she left early, wondering if something happened to her on the way home. Even though we would have taken the same streets and there wasn’t a car in sight. I get out and walk over to the steps, seeing the car headlights coming my way. She left way before me, I think as I watch as her car pulls up into the driveway, and she gets out, going to the back door and opening it up. She bends inside, and I see her try to carry her son into the house. His feet dangle by hers as she steps up the stairs. He’s dead asleep on her as she closes the door behind her.
I stare at the house a couple more seconds before I see her return and go to the car to grab a bag before heading back inside. I shower and crash into bed, waking up at 5:00 a.m., looking out the window from my bed before getting up and heading down to the kitchen to grab some water. I see the house next door with the lights on from the kitchen. “Does she sleep?” I ask myself before walking up the steps and returning to bed. But instead of sleeping, I worry about whether she is getting enough sleep. That’s the second time I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, and her lights have been on. I stare out the window, watching the darkness turn to light, and I get up, giving up on sleep and knowing I’m going to be dragging my ass by tonight.
Instead of having my coffee outside, I get in my truck and head to the bakery. I get there at the same time Ms. Maddie opens her door. “Aren’t you here early?” she says in greeting, and I just smile at her. “I haven’t even set out the donuts yet,” she tells me, walking to the back of the counter and putting fresh cakes out, wrapped in cellophane with a white ribbon.
“Since when are there cakes?” I ask, looking from the donuts to the cakes.
“They’re new,” she replies. “They usually sell out by ten.”
I look at the cakes, seeing strawberry jam cake, lemon raspberry, apple caramel, and then the raspberry white chocolate that looks pink with a white drizzle on it. “I’ll take this,” I order, “and two coffees, please.”
I head back home and see her car is gone from her driveway. I grab the cake and the coffee and head out toward my front door when I see her coming back. She gets out of her car, and I see she’s wearing cutoff shorts with a tank top. My feet start to move toward her house, and she must sense someone is there, so she looks over her shoulder. Her hair, which was all wild last night, is now tied on the top of her head. I can see she is tired. “Morning,” I say when I get close enough, “I brought you coffee.”