Chapter 14 – Andy
Chapter Fourteen
ANDY
When I wake, the bed is empty. I sit up, glancing around, but there is no one in sight.
It’s disappointing, but I’m sure Niki has a life to get back to.
I should do the same. I make myself get up and reluctantly put back on my uniform and grab my phone.
I smile when I see it’s on the charger, and I know I hadn’t put it there.
It’s a small thing, but it’s sweet. Holy crap, the bar is on the floor for me when it comes to people going out of their way, but it’s not only that.
Niki had spent most of his day with me yesterday and let me take over his bed.
I’m not used to that at all. He hadn’t expected anything for it, either.
I grab the rest of my stuff, double-checking to make sure I have everything before I head out. I stop short when I hear a noise coming from the kitchen.
“Hey, thanks for—” I stop speaking when I see it’s not Niki. It’s his friend, Bam.
“You’re up.”
“Yeah, I’m going to head out. Thanks for letting me crash.” I owe him some sort of thanks since he made it possible for Niki to stay with me last night.
“Niki will be back shortly. He had to take his sister to an appointment.” Niki is nothing like he appears. I never would have pegged him as a caretaker, but that’s exactly what he’s done for me since the moment I met him.
“Okay.” I shrug, feeling awkward all of a sudden. “I’ll text him later.”
“All right.” We both stare at each other.
“Again, thanks.” I take a step back and then another before I spin on my heels and dart out of the building. When I hit the sidewalk, I pull out my phone to text my mom, letting her know I’m headed home.
I keep my head down, not wanting to draw attention to myself.
When she doesn’t text back, I call, but it goes straight to voicemail.
It’s not normal for her to not text at all.
She might go a few hours, but eventually she gets around to texting me.
It may be to ask me for a favor or for money, but I hear from her nonetheless.
Worry starts to settle in that something may have happened. Especially with the way Niki and I found the apartment I share with her yesterday. That thought has me picking up my pace.
I’m almost home when I get a call, seeing it’s Rico. My stomach sinks. I can’t get a hold of my mom, and now her boss over at Blush is contacting me. Dread fills me. I can’t stand Rico. He’s the new owner there. He bought it out when Samuel retired.
Samuel had his issues, but overall he meant well. He also never gave me the creeps. I think it was because the word was that over the twenty years of owning a strip club, he wasn’t hard up to get into every girl’s pants.
The girls that work there talk, and none of them ever said anything bad about him in that regard. I’m pretty sure if he wanted sex, he’d have simply paid one of them for the service.
Yeah, I know that goes down there. My mom tells me she only serves drinks topless, but I’m not sure that’s true. For all I know, she does it all.
It’s not legal, but most things aren’t around here. That stops no one. Not when the streets aren’t really run by the police. Everything can be paid for, and I fucking hate that shit. I answer the call because it has to be about my mother.
“Hey.”
“We have a problem.” Of course we do. I’ll add it to the damn list.
“Is she okay?”
“Not sure she’s ever been okay.” I bite my tongue to not snip back at him. It will help nothing, and I’m not trying to make this harder.
“Where is she?” I ask, not touching his comment.
“The hospital.”
“What!” I screech, making a few people pause and glance my way.
“I don’t know what happened. She was out of it, so I had one of the guys drop her off there.” Is this guy serious? She’s worked for that place for years now, and he couldn’t even call for help for her. He just had some random dude leave her at the hospital doorstep.
“You just dropped her there? Which hospital?” I can’t keep the accusation out of my tone. I know she’s not his problem, but he could have a little human decency.
“Sunset Hospital. What the fuck was I going to do? Call the cops?”
“An ambulance.”
“The cops, same shit,” he clips. “Your mom isn’t getting my place shut down because she buys cheap drugs to snort up her nose.”
“Fuck you, Rico,” I say, ending the call, knowing he’s not going to be helpful in the least. That doesn’t stop him from calling me back while I’m trying to pull up my app to call for a car. I’ll spend the money to get to the hospital faster.
I swear, if it weren’t for bad news, I’d have no news at all lately. Every single day another obstacle gets in my way. It’s overwhelming at times.
I take a minute to get myself together while I finish booking the car, which says it will arrive in ten minutes.
I send Rico to voicemail for the third time, not wanting to deal with him any longer.
I know he’s going to shout at me and call me a few choice names.
Men like Rico get pissed when a woman talks back to them or worse, ignores them.
I glance down at my phone, seeing I still have seven minutes until the car arrives.
Please let my mom be okay is all I can think.
I consider calling the hospital but know from experience that they won’t give me any information over the phone.
Have you ever noticed when you’re waiting for something that the seconds tick by so damn slowly? Especially in high-stress situations.
My phone vibrates, drawing my attention to it again. This time it’s a text from Niki. I don’t check it. It will be too tempting to respond, and the last thing I’m going to do is lay more of my shit on him.
Besides, I know at the end of the day, I can only ever rely on myself. I can't start to ever let myself believe it will be any other way.