CHAPTER 9
L ogan had gone to a meeting after she tried calling Ava to talk about what had happened between them. Ava hadn’t picked up, but she had texted Logan that they were fine; she just needed some time. Logan only had one friend in the world these days, and that was Ava, so not being able to talk to her or hang out with her would be hard. She still didn’t fully understand what had come over her. Ava had always been very responsive when they’d been together, and it had been easy to read her whenever she wanted sex, but they hadn’t done that since they ’ d broken up, and truthfully, Logan had been good with that. There would probably always be a slight attraction between them because Ava was a beautiful woman and just Logan’s type, but she shouldn’t have gone down on her like that. Ava was a relationship woman. She didn’t do casual sex. Logan knew that about her, but casual was all she could offer any woman, and it was now just one more of her many fuckups.
She had gone to a meeting so that listening to someone else’s problems would take her mind off of her own. She had listened to a man who talked about how his wife had divorced him and had taken their two children away after he’d gambled away everything they had ever saved. She’d listened when a woman, who looked to be a little older than her, talked about how she’d stopped herself just before losing the last hundred dollars she had to her name only hours earlier and was there in the hopes of never gambling again.
“Mostly sports,” the woman had replied when someone in the group had asked her about how she usually gambled. “Basketball, baseball, football – pretty much anything where there’s an over-under.”
Sports had never been Logan’s thing, but she could understand the appeal. If a person dropped that hundred bucks and got it right, they could double their money or more, and there was nothing like the high of getting it right, feeling like they somehow knew something that no one else knew. Along with that feeling, there was money in their bank account.
For Logan, it had been poker and mostly online because that was more convenient and usually cheaper. If she played in the casino, she would drink, and she’d never had enough cash to play at the big tables where they got free drinks. She also liked the slots. She loved the sights and the sounds in a casino. And if she went, she could be found at her favorite slot machine, letting it take all her money nearly every time she pressed the buttons, but on the rare occasion when she won something substantial, she would get that high. She’d let it take over her and convince her that there was more to be won, and she would press the button again and again until she was sitting on a stool with no money left to gamble with until her next paycheck came in.
The meeting had helped, but on her way to the bar, she had picked up a few rides, and one of them had been in her back seat talking about going to the riverboat that night with friends. Logan tried to think about the woman she’d fucked right where he was sitting to focus on anything else, and she’d still been thinking about that when she’d bumped into Rory at the front door of the bar earlier.
“Hey, can you get the guy at table seven a new bourbon? Straight.” Candace asked her.
“Sure,” Logan replied.
She poured two fingers into a glass and set it on top of the bar. Candace was out working the nearly full tables and took it from her.
“Thanks. Oh, and can you yell at Mickey to make me two nacho platters with extra sour cream and one mozzarella sticks with ranch?”
“Ranch for mozzarella sticks?” Logan asked her.
“That’s what they said,” Candace replied.
Logan opened the door to the kitchen and found Mickey plating up potato skins and calamari.
“Hey, can I get two nacho platters with extra sour cream and one mozzarella sticks with ranch?”
“Yeah, no problem. Can you take these out?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said and lifted both plates with her hands before turning.
“And swing back by. I’ll have the nachos ready.”
“Okay.”
Logan made her way out and found Candace at the bar.
“Calamari and potato skins.”
“Table four,” Candace directed. “And I’ll need three Heinekens for table nine.”
“Got it. I’ll put those in and grab the nachos for seven.”
“Thanks,” Candace replied.
It had only been a couple of nights since she’d started at this bar, but Logan liked working with Candace so far. The woman wasn’t demanding and had clear expectations. She also made sure to check in on Logan to see if she was too busy and needed help, and she hardly spent any time in the office when they were open. Candace seemed to prefer being on the floor with the customers, which Logan liked.
“Mickey said I’m supposed to give these to you.”
Logan had been popping the tops off the beer bottles when she heard the voice and looked up. Rory was standing there, holding two giant plates of nachos.
“And he said that the cheese sticks will be ready in two minutes.”
“Would you mind taking those to table seven for me?” she asked.
“I’ve got it,” Rory replied.
Logan watched her walk over to the table and smile as she put the plates down. Rory was young and still had a little of that wide-eyed innocence that Logan had lost a long time ago, but it was nice to see it in someone else.
A minute later, Logan had dropped off the beers at table nine and headed back behind the bar, where she found a new customer sitting on a stool.
“Well, hello,” the woman from last night said.
“Hey. What can I get for you?” Logan asked.
“You know,” the woman told her.
“To drink,” Logan clarified, putting a napkin in front of her on the bar.
“You know that, too,” the woman said with a wink.
Without another word, Logan turned around and began working on the martini, and when Rory returned to the bar, she stood and looked over at the woman. Logan was looking at what she was doing and maybe glancing up at Rory a little, too.
“She’s staring at you,” Rory half-whispered.
“Who?”
“The woman… from last night.”
‘So, she had noticed,’ Logan thought to herself.
“It’s fine,” she said.
“Can I get another Guinness?” Rory asked.
“For you?” Logan asked.
“What? No, for the table where I put the nachos.”
Logan smiled at her and said, “Yeah. One sec. I thought you weren’t coming in.”
“I said I might,” Rory replied.
“Right,” she said and turned around to put the martini in front of the woman she’d fucked last night. “Here you go.”
“When do you get off?” the woman asked her.
“I’ve got to make a drink,” she said instead of replying and turned back to Rory.
Logan pulled the handle on the tap into the Guinness glass and filled it with the dark liquid and signature light foam before she set it on the bar in front of Rory so that it could settle properly, which was the special thing about Guinness.
“Thanks.”
Rory went to grab it, but Logan put her hand on top of Rory’s on the glass.
“You don’t pour Guinness often, do you?” she asked.
“No. Why?”
“The glass is only half-full, Rory,” she explained. “You have to let it settle. Then, you fill it up the rest of the way. The first pour is done at a forty-five-degree angle, and you give it about a minute to form the foam. That’s how you know that it’s ready to be filled the rest of the way, holding the glass straight this time. May I?” Logan nodded to the glass.
“Oh, sure,” Rory said, seeming a little out of it.
Logan gave her a smile before she finished filling the glass and set it back down.
“There you go. All yours.”
“Thanks,” Rory said again, looking like she was back to herself now. “For the… lesson.”
“No problem,” she replied and watched her walk off.
“Is that your girlfriend?” the woman asked.
Logan turned back to her and said, “What? No. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“I thought maybe that was why you were pretending.”
“Pretending?” she asked.
“That last night didn’t happen.”
“I’m not pretending anything. I’m just working.”
“You were working last night, too,” the woman pointed out before she took a sip of her martini.
“We’re busier tonight,” Logan told her and scanned the bar to find Candace, who was at the corner table, talking to customers.
“So, when do you get off?” the woman repeated.
“In about an hour. I’m on the early shift tonight,” she answered.
“Just enough time for me to finish this slowly, and then you and I can get out of here.”
Logan didn’t like a woman who would just assume that she was hers now or that she would make herself available whenever to fuck her how her husband wasn’t, apparently.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” she said noncommittally before she moved out of the bar and went to the back, where she grabbed the mozzarella sticks and carried them out to the table.
When she noticed Rory sitting at a table by herself now, Logan approached and sat down across from her.
“Are you working or just hanging out tonight?”
“A little of both, I guess,” Rory told her and looked over at Candace, who was behind the bar now. “Shouldn’t you be back there?”
“I have a break coming,” she said, which wasn’t exactly true, but she hadn’t sat down in hours and could do with a break.
It had been a long time since she had been on her feet for this many hours in a row. Her body had gotten used to her sitting in a car every night for hours on end. She liked it, though, being up and moving. It felt like something that her body needed.
“Do you… I mean, do you leave with…”
Logan watched Rory as she tried to work up the courage to say something.
“Do I what?”
“Is that woman your girlfriend? The one who stared at you?”
“Oh, no,” Logan replied. “She’s just some customer.”
“She was in here last night.”
“Yeah. I left with her.”
“And…”
“And I slept with her, yeah,” she answered the implied question. “Is that a problem?”
“No, I’m–” Rory cut herself off. “I just don’t… I don’t do that, so I was curious.”
“You don’t have sex?” Logan asked.
“What? That’s not what–” Rory stopped again.
“You don’t have one-night stands?”
“She’s here again, so I guess it won’t be one night,” Rory pointed out.
“We’ll see,” Logan said with a shoulder shrug.
“What does that mean?”
“I might. I might not.”
“Because another woman might come in?”
“You sure are curious about this, aren’t you?”
“She’s still staring at you,” Rory noted, looking over at the woman.
“It’s no big deal. If I feel like leaving with her, I will, and we’ll have a good time. Then, she’ll go home. I’ll go home.”
“Oh,” Rory said softly, seemingly trying to comprehend what Logan had just told her.
“So, you’re a relationship girl, right? Not into the whole casual thing?”
“I’m not in a relationship,” Rory told her.
Logan laughed and said, “I just meant that you like relationships, not casual sex.”
“I guess so.”
“You’ve really never just slept with someone, good or bad, and then left it alone?”
Rory shook her head.
“It’s a lot easier than falling in love.”
“How?” Rory asked.
“You’re one of those.” Logan nodded. “Want the handsome guy with the perfect hair to show up to your door with flowers and reservations at the best restaurant in town?”
“No,” Rory said.
Logan stared at her for a moment and asked, “No?”
“I guess… a handsome woman, maybe. Or, a beautiful woman. Or, a woman, really. I don’t need flowers or a reservation, though.”
Logan’s eyebrow lifted.
“You’re…”
Rory nodded and said, “Not many people know yet.”
“Candace?”
“Yes. She’s my best friend. And my other friend, Enid, knows, too.”
“No one else?”
“No.”
“Why did you tell me ?” Logan asked.
“I don’t know. You were making some judgments, and I wanted to correct them.”
“They weren’t judgements,” Logan said.
“Yes, they were. And I wasn’t judging you for wanting what you want. I’ve never had the desire to sleep with someone I hardly know and that’s it, so I was curious.”
Logan nodded and said, “Okay. Well, I’m sorry if I came off as judging you. I’m not. I’m the last person to be judging anyone.”
“Okay,” Rory replied.
“And… thank you.”
“For what?” Rory asked.
“Telling me,” Logan replied, offering Rory a smile. “I won’t say anything. I know I couldn’t exactly hide in the closet myself, being who I am. I mean, look at me – I’m a walking butch stereotype. I’m wearing flannel, for crying out loud.”
Rory laughed and looked away from her.
“Anyway, I don’t know what it’s like, but I would never push someone out.”
“Thank you,” Rory replied and then added, “She’s still staring at you.”
“She thinks you might be my girlfriend,” Logan said with a wink. “I thought I’d come over here and talk to you to see how she reacts. Does she look jealous?”
“She thinks I’m–” Rory stopped. “Wait. That’s the reason you came over to talk to me?”
“Not the only one,” Logan said as she stood up. “How about I bring you a drink? I’m buying.”
“I drink for free,” Rory replied.
“It’s a gesture, Rory.”
“I’m driving.”
“Shirley Temple?” Logan asked.
“Actually, yeah. That would be good.”
Logan laughed a little and said, “I’ll be right back.”
“Are you going to sleep with her again?”
“Probably,” Logan said. “Easier that way.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If she wants it, it’s easier to just do it. Then, I can tell her that it’s the last time. She’ll probably come back once to check on that being true, and when I tell her that it is, I won’t see her again.”
Rory looked almost disappointed, which, surprisingly, hit Logan somewhere deep in her gut.
“You do this a lot,” Rory said.
“I’ll be right back with your drink.”
Logan hadn’t been expecting to have that kind of conversation with the sweet and innocent Rory, but when she walked back behind the bar to make Rory’s drink, she turned around to the woman from last night and gave her a nod. The woman smirked, knowing what Logan meant, and Logan went to drop Rory’s drink off at the table. Rory smiled softly up at her, thanking Logan before she looked back down at her phone, which was displaying some app Logan didn’t recognize.
“What’s that?” she asked, being nosy.
“Babysitting service app.”
“I thought you had a job already.”
“I have regulars, yes, but I’m in grad school and have student loans I’ll have to start paying off once I’m out, so I’m trying to save up as much as I can now. If I’m not in class or studying, I’m pretty much always working. This is about the first time in months that I’ve been without children or books attached to my hip.”
“You work hard, huh?” Logan asked, respecting that.
Rory just nodded.
“Logan, can I get a rum and Coke?” Candace asked.
“On it,” she replied. “I’ll talk to you later,” she added to Rory.
“Okay,” Rory said.
Logan had stayed on later than planned because they’d gotten incredibly busy. Having nowhere else to be, though, she’d had no problem agreeing to help Candace cover the bar for a little longer, collecting more cash in tips. When the place had finally emptied out about halfway and Keith showed up to close, she clocked out and checked for Rory. Noticing that Rory had left while she hadn’t been looking, Logan actually found herself a little sad, but she nodded for the persistent customer from last night to follow her out the front to her car, and the woman did. When they got to the sidewalk, though, the woman’s phone rang.
“Shit. It’s my husband.”
“Does he know?” Logan asked.
“What? No,” the woman said loudly and answered the phone. “Hi.”
Logan couldn’t hear what the husband was saying while she stood there, looking a little foolish as she waited for this woman to get off the phone so that she could fuck her fast and go home to shower it all off.
“Well, tell him that I’ll be home in an hour,” the woman, whose name Logan still didn’t know and didn’t care to learn, said into her phone. “I’ll read him a story if he’s still awake then, but he needs to go to sleep.” She paused. “You’re his father. Handle it until I get home.” She hung up. “Sorry, my son won’t go to sleep. Where were we?”
Logan stared at her and shook her head.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
“What? We were on our way to your car,” the woman noted.
“I’m not really feeling it anymore.”
“You were feeling it last night when you were fucking me in the back seat. I was going to let you go down on me,” the woman told her as if she was giving Logan some gift.
“Does your husband not do that to you?” she asked, feeling petty.
“Not in years. I want your mouth,” the woman replied, pulling on Logan’s belt buckle. “I’ll take care of you, I promise.”
She wouldn’t. Logan knew that much. She would’ve declined either way, but this woman hadn’t even offered to touch her the previous night. Logan knew that once she made her come tonight, the woman would just make up some excuse or bring up her kid and say that she had to go.
“No, thanks. I’m going to go home. Have a good night.”
“What the hell? I waited for over an hour for you.”
“Sorry,” Logan replied.
“Tomorrow night?”
“I don’t think so,” she said, taking a step back.
“Well, fuck you, then!” the woman tossed out angrily and turned to go but immediately turned right back. “I’ll let you fuck me however you want. Literally, anything you want.”
Logan just shook her head.