I jumped when my phone rang on the table as though it were a King cobra ready to strike. Jonah chuckled, stood up from the couch, and grabbed our empty beer bottles.
“Another?”
“Sure,” I said and answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Simone, it’s Owen. I understand you’ve got some trouble preventing you from coming to work?”
I gave him a quick rundown of the situation.
“Darling, I understand that you feel you need to be home in order to be safe. However, you need to look at it from my perspective too. I’m a business owner. I’ve already let you off two days of work for this shit. I can’t allow for any more or I’m setting a precedent for the other staff. We’re already understaffed. I’m afraid if you don’t make it in for shift tomorrow, I’ll have to let you go.”
“What? No. I need this job, Owen. You know I do.”
“And I’m offering to let you continue working it. We have plenty of bouncers and security here in order to keep you safe. I can make accommodations so that you stay behind the bar, and in view of one of our guys at all times, but either way we know shit can happen. You have to make the decision for yourself. If you don’t show, I won’t deny or put up a fight regarding your unemployment, but I prefer you here. If I see you here tomorrow, I’ll know you’re still working. If I don’t, I’ll have your final check ready for you to pick up, darlin’. Take care of yourself.”
“Yeah, uh, thanks, Owen.”
He hung up and I pressed my hand to my head and slumped into the back of the couch. Worry and fear about how the heck I was going to pay my bills shredded through me like a hundred tiny biting piranhas.
“What now?” Jonah entered with two cold ones in hand. He gave me one and I sucked back a long drink trying to cool my frustration at my predicament.
“My boss at Tracks says if I don’t go in tomorrow, they’re going to fire me.”
“The fuck you say?” He growled, his face turning to granite.
“He’s been as cool as he can be with me missing work. I need to go in.”
“You’re gonna have to quit, babe. You can’t go in. It’s unsafe.”
I shook my head and stood up to pace the room. “Tracks is my primary source of income. As it is, I’m going to need to find a new place to live. And since I’m not going to give any notice, I’ll lose my entire deposit. I’m going to have to move back into Kerrighan house again which is already a huge embarrassment. But if I don’t make money, I can’t pay for my coursework. I’m already behind on the fees. I’ve tried financial aid before but at my age and my lack of income coming and going with any real consistency, I never get approved. I’m going to need to get a new car, again, which I don’t have any money for, and I only had the required liability insurance on it, and it wasn’t worth much to begin with. I don’t have insurance to replace the car. The flower shop was my gas and food on the go money.”
“Simone, relax. Sit down with me and we’ll discuss.”
I ignored him. “You don’t understand. Not having my own safety net financially is the worst. I try and work my fingers to the bone, but something always comes up. Then my sister has to step in as my big knight in shining Prada and pay off my debts so I can crawl out from under water.” I blew a harsh breath from my mouth trying to let go of the anger and frustration coating my every thought.
“Do you have any idea how pathetic and demeaning that is? I swear, I can’t catch a fucking break. And I’m tired, Jonah. I’m so fucking tired of working my ass off for pennies and even then, I can’t hold on to them. And if I didn’t take help from Sonia or Mama Kerri I’d be sleeping under a bridge. I don’t want to sleep under a bridge, so my pride gets to take repeated kicks and I’m the loser of the sisterhood.”
Jonah stood up and hooked me around the waist mid-pace and slammed me against his chest. “You’re not going to sleep under a bridge. And you’re not a loser. No one who works as hard as you do could ever be mistaken for a loser.”
I sulked and cupped my cheek.
“I’ll help you get back on your feet…”
White-hot anger boiled under the surface of my skin. I shoved out of his arms. “No way! Have you even been listening to me?” I grumbled.
“Simone, come on. Be realistic about this…”
I barely stopped myself from stomping my foot. “No, you be realistic. We’ve known each other days, not years. I’m not going to be your kept woman, and I’m definitely not going to take any of your handouts.”
He frowned and placed his hands on his hips. I moved in front of him to put mine on the wall of his mighty chest. His T-shirt was so soft. A beautiful contrast to the warm, hard muscle underneath. I lifted my chin and looked into his eyes. “I’ll figure it out. Though part of that is me going to work tomorrow. I’m sorry. I know you don’t like it and Sonia’s head will likely explode, but I have to work. I just have to.”
He scowled so intensely I got more nervous. “If you’re working, then I’ll be sitting at the bar while you do it.”
“You don’t need to do that…”
He wrapped his arms around my body. “We starting something here. Me and you?”
I smiled softly, hope coating my response. “I think so, yeah.”
“Well, I know so. That means if my woman is working slinging drinks in a bar filled with people and is at risk, my ass will be on a stool in perfect view while she does it. I’m on leave. There’s nothing more important I need to be doing than keeping you safe.”
I slumped against him. “I’m sorry my life is so jacked up.”
He rubbed his chin along the crown of my hair. “I’m sorry mine is too. How’s about you and me put our jacked-up lives together and work together toward making something beautiful?”
I kissed him over his heart. “You keep being so nice and I’m never going to let you get away. You’ll be stuck with me and my crazy sisters and wild ways for the rest of your days.”
He hugged me tighter. “Maybe that’s not so bad from where I’m standing. Especially if it means I get a warm, cuddly Simone in my arms regularly.”
“You’re so swoonworthy.” I lifted up onto my toes, clasped my hands behind his head, and kissed him. He tasted of beer and the rich taste that could only be Jonah. A flavor I was becoming obsessed with.
As was our luck, Ryan took that moment to enter the house, his loud footsteps clomping on the wood floor. He entered and grinned.
“I’m starting to make bets with myself on the various states of libidinous behavior I’m going to see upon entry to my own home.”
Jonah looked at me and then back at Ryan and we both cracked up laughing, me pressing my face against his chest and letting loose.
It felt good to let go and laugh.
Ryan held up two white bags of what smelled like Chinese food.
“At least this time I come bearing gifts and updates!” He grinned and set the lot on top of the kitchen counter.
“Food first. Updates after. Especially if they’re going to be icky. You can tell Jonah all the freaky stuff while I’m showering if that’s cool with you.”