CHAPTER 15
“T he place is great, Candace,” Enid said.
Logan had seen the woman walk through the front door with Rory a few minutes ago, and she knew that this was the friend whom Rory had come out to and kissed not all that long ago. Logan didn’t know the exact timeline, but she did know that she was jealous. She hadn’t been jealous in years. The last time might have been right before she started dating Ava when Ava had invited her out, and a woman Ava worked with was obviously flirting with her. Logan hadn’t liked that, and it had been what made her realize that she wanted more with Ava. At this moment, though, the jealousy she felt when Enid merely turned to look over at Rory and smiled was on a whole other level.
“Logan,” Candace said.
“Yeah?”
“The beer.”
Candace pointed, and Logan looked down just to realize that the beer was overflowing from the glass she was filling. It had even run over her hand, and she hadn’t noticed.
“Shit. Sorry. I got distracted.”
Logan took care of the beer and washed her hands. As she replayed to herself the last thing she’d said to Candace, she couldn’t believe it. She’d gotten distracted. Thoughts of Rory with someone else had distracted her. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t just the jealousy that was a distraction. Logan replayed the past few days and tried to think about how many times she’d really thought about gambling, downloading her poker app again, or even responding to the few messages she had gotten from women who wanted to spend a few hours with her. She wasn’t na?ve. She knew she’d always think about gambling. No matter what happened in her life, the thoughts of how good it used to feel would always be at least in the back of her mind and, sometimes, at the front of it. Her goal was to try to keep it in the back of her mind to act as a warning and to force her brain to focus on the consequences of gambling, not the euphoric high she had gotten when she’d hit at blackjack and won.
Thinking about and talking to Rory hadn’t just been a distraction, and she knew it. There was more to what Logan was feeling, so it hurt to see Rory with Enid right now, knowing that Enid had gotten to kiss her, and Logan never would. Rory wanted to be friends, though, and Logan would never press her for more, but unless these feelings went away soon, she would need something or someone else.
“Are you okay?” Candace asked her.
“I’m good. Sorry. I’ll pay for it, whatever spilled,” she said, watching Rory and Enid walk over toward a table.
“It’s fine. You just look a little out of it tonight.”
“Actually, can I ask a major favor? And you don’t have to say yes.”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Can I maybe have, like, an hour to go do something important right now? It’s a bit of an emergency. I’ll clock out, obviously, and work later, if you want, or come in early tomorrow.”
“Is everything okay?”
“It’s just something I need to do right now. But I’ll be right back.”
Candace looked around the bar and replied, “Yeah. It’s early. We’re dead right now anyway.”
“Great. Thank you so much, Candace. Can I pick anything up while I’m out? I’ll buy it for–”
“We’re good. Go, do whatever. Just call me if you’ll be later than that.”
“I will,” Logan said.
She felt awful, but she needed a meeting. In the recent past, she might have texted her neighbor or the woman from the bar, met up with them somewhere, fucked them, and returned to work, but tonight, she was going to a meeting. She knew there was one pretty close by. She had looked up all the meeting locations in the city and had them listed on her phone just in case she needed one when she was driving in an unfamiliar area.
Having clocked out, Logan got into her car and drove the short distance to the community recreation center, which looked about as old as the city itself. She was a few minutes late to the start, but she sat in the back and listened, trying to calm her mind. She focused on Rory in that dress, Rory with her adorable blush, and Rory how she leaned over her textbooks in concentration, holding the tip of the pen to the lips Logan wanted to kiss.
“Does anyone else want to share?”
Logan looked up at the man in the front of the room and cleared her throat. He looked at her, meeting her eye but not saying anything.
“Um… Yeah,” she said.
“Great,” he replied and motioned for her to continue with an open palm.
“Hi. I’m Logan, and I’m an addict,” she said, realizing that she’d never said that out loud in a meeting before.
◆◆◆
An hour later, she was back at the bar. She had found a parking spot behind the building, where she’d been sitting for a few minutes now, knowing she needed to get inside but unable to move just yet. She’d just shared at a meeting today. She hadn’t ever shared at a meeting before. Logan had just told a group of strangers that she’d gambled away her father’s business and no longer spoke to her parents, or rather, they no longer spoke to her. She’d shared with them how she’d stolen money from her ex-girlfriend and had lost Ava in her life for a long time. Then, she had told them about how she’d been using sex to keep her mind off gambling, and another man there had spoken up, sharing that he had done the same thing, only he’d been married at the time and when he had felt that his wife couldn’t keep up with his needs, he’d gone elsewhere, destroying his marriage in the process. During the break, they had talked more at the table with the coffee, and what the man had shared with her made her own situation make sense to her. It had Logan wondering why she hadn’t shared earlier.
She eventually got out of the car and walked in through the back, finding Rory carrying a plate of potato skins out to the bar, where she sat next to Candace on one of the barstools. Candace was turning her head every so often to check on the few customers in the place, but the bar was still relatively empty. Logan clocked back in and walked through the staff-only door.
“I’m back,” she said.
“Everything okay?” Candace checked.
“All good. Thank you again,” she said, giving her boss a smile that she hoped would convey her genuine gratitude.
“We’re still dead, as you can see. There’s an event going on tonight, though, so I expect we’ll get busy in a couple of hours.”
“Want me to check on the customers and clean something?” Logan asked.
She wanted to ask about Enid, but she didn’t think it was her place, and the woman could just be in the bathroom.
“That would be great, yeah. Honestly, if you want to check on the customers and maybe go on a little mission for me, that would be even better.”
“Mission?” Rory asked before Logan could.
“Remember how before we opened, you and I did a little recon on the other bars?” Candace asked Rory.
“Yeah.”
“This is the first event downtown since the opening. I want to know how busy the other bars are right now. Not the Quarter ones; the local ones by the arena.”
“You want me to check them out?” Logan asked.
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Candace replied. “Just walk in, take a look around, and see if they’re packed already. I’m joining the business bureau, and I’ll go to the meetings and stuff, but until I can really network, it would be good to know if it’s just me that’s dead or if it’s everyone.”
“I can do that. How many do you want me to hit?”
“However many you can do in an hour,” Candace replied.
“Okay. Sure,” Logan said with a nod before she looked over at Rory, who’d just taken a bite of potato skin and glanced back up at her like she hadn’t expected attention to be on her. “Want to come with me?”
“Huh?” Rory asked as she sort of haphazardly pulled half of the potato skin out of her mouth.
“Recon,” Logan said. “Unless your friend is still here.”
“Enid left. She had some studying to do,” Rory replied.
“So, you’re free?”
“I was going to help Candace and go home to study myself.”
“This would help me,” Candace noted. “Besides, I was able to scramble and get Mickey to come in on his night off because I think we’ll get busier later than I initially thought. He’ll be here in about five minutes, so I won’t be alone. Even Mickey can pour a beer without spilling it all over himself and my bar,” Candace teased, looking up at Logan.
“Yeah… Yeah…” Logan chuckled. “So, are you in?” she asked Rory.
“Um… Okay.”
“Can you start with this street, though?” Candace asked. “McGinty’s is on the corner a block away. They’re my main competition, and they’ve been here for decades, so they suck up most of my potential customers.”
“You got it,” Logan said.
“What about my potato skins?” Rory asked.
“I’ll eat those. Mickey can make you new ones when you get back.” Candace picked up a potato skin and added, “Just not that one. Take that one with you.” She pointed to the one Rory had nearly eaten.
Logan laughed.
Rory glared playfully at Candace, but she stood, which meant she was going with Logan. Logan hadn’t asked her to go with her because she needed a distraction. She was feeling surprisingly good after her meeting. She’d asked her because she wanted more time with her.
“Okay. I’ll follow you, I guess.”
“Let’s walk to the one down the street, and then we can drive to the others,” she suggested.
“Sure,” Rory replied.
Logan motioned for Rory to walk out the door before her and then followed her out. When they hit the sidewalk, she caught up to her, and they were walking down the street together like two normal friends hanging out.
“So,” Rory began after a minute.
“Yeah, so,” she replied.
“We’re really good at this talking thing, huh?”
Logan laughed a little and replied, “I guess so.” Then, they stopped to let a couple walk by them on the skinny and uneven sidewalk, and she asked, “So, Enid?”
“What about her?”
“She was here.”
“Yeah. She said she might stop by.”
“And she’s the Enid that you… kissed, right?”
“I forgot that you knew that.” Rory nodded once. “Yes.”
“It’s not awkward?”
“No, not anymore. It was for a while because we weren’t talking about it, but it’s fine now.”
“And you’re just friends?” Logan asked as she tucked her hands into the front pockets of her jeans.
“Yes. She didn’t like me like that, and I got the message loud and clear when she didn’t kiss me back.”
“I don’t know how she didn’t kiss you back.”
“Well, when my mouth landed on hers, she sat there frozen for a second before she pulled back, and my tongue kind of slid around her bottom lip and over to her cheek accidentally.”
Logan laughed and said, “Sorry. Wait. You went for it with the tongue ?”
“Not in the first few seconds. But I thought I’d embarrass myself even more, apparently, and when I did that, she pulled away.”
“Damn. Sorry,” Logan said again, shaking her head.
An older woman stood ahead of them on the sidewalk. She wasn’t moving, which was strange enough already, but she was also staring at them. Maybe mostly staring at Logan, but she couldn’t tell because they were about ten feet away. The problem was that there was a sidewalk sign on one part of the sidewalk, and the woman was standing on the other side of it, blocking their way. They’d have to get in the street or cross it to get past her if she didn’t move.
“Excuse me,” Logan said.
“Hello,” the woman spoke with a smile.
“Hi,” Logan replied quickly and pointed past her. “We just need to get by.”
“Nice night,” the woman noted.
“Yes, it is,” Rory replied politely and looked over at Logan, confused.
“Can we get by?” Logan asked.
“Have you ever just met someone and felt like your whole life was about to change?” the woman asked instead of moving out of their way.
Logan glanced at Rory for a second, shook her head, and then turned back to the woman and said, “Are you okay? Should you be somewhere?”
“I’m right where I should be. I usually am,” the woman replied. “Sometimes, I’m in the Square, doing readings. Other times, I’m just walking around, and I have a feeling.”
“Readings? Oh, are you a tarot reader or something?” Rory asked.
The woman nodded and said, “Or something.” She met Logan’s eyes and asked again, “Have you ever felt that way?”
“What way?” Logan countered.
The woman turned to Rory and noted, “ You have.”
“Have what?” Rory asked.
“Met someone and thought that your life was about to change. Not all that long ago, actually. There was a bar involved, I believe.”
Logan couldn’t tell much in the semi-darkness, but along with Rory’s wide eyes, she was pretty sure she could make out a blush creeping over her cheeks, which made Logan smile.
“You too,” the woman said to Logan. “It’s important.”
“What’s important?” Rory asked.
“Hey, let’s just go,” Logan suggested, not liking the fact that this woman was staring at her as if she knew the inner workings of her soul. “We’re supposed to be working.”
“Yes, you should do that,” the woman told them with that smile again. “Have a great night.”
Logan reached for and took Rory’s hand more on instinct than anything else, and when the woman finally moved out of their way and walked by them, she gave Rory’s hand a little tug. She hadn’t even noticed that she had entwined their fingers until they were about five steps past the woman and Rory went to let her hand go. Logan looked down at their now-separate hands and then up at Rory. Rory wasn’t looking at her, though. She was looking ahead.
“Friends,” Logan said. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Rory replied. “You were just trying to get us away from a maybe crazy person.”
“Do you believe in that stuff?”
“Psychics? Tarot cards?”
“Yeah.”
“I guess not. I think sometimes, they might get things right, but mainly because they’re guessing. She seemed intense, though.”
“Yeah,” Logan uttered, trying to push the feelings the woman had given her out of her mind.
“So, McGinty’s?” Rory asked.
“Let’s go do that recon.”