Love After Divorce

8. Blood and Secrets

"Yes, I'm fine and everything is going according to plan," I assure Cherry over the phone while I clean the messed up kitchen. I chased down three mice this morning. They had somehow found my stack of chips and devoured it before I could have a taste.

"I'm fine, how many times do I have to say it? My apartment is tolerable, I haven't had a breakdown, and I'm on my way to look for a job if I'm going to keep this place."

"Okay fine, but I'm just worried about you. If you want I can have Casper fix up a–"

"Cherry," I call her firmly, "I don't want you or Casper to fix anything. I'm going to find a job today, I'm sure of that, but if you keep worrying and wanting to fix things, I won't learn how to survive."

"I'm twenty five Cherry, twenty five, and I don't have a college degree, working experience, or anything to kick start my life. I need to learn, okay?"

Silence stretches on the phone and I know she's fighting her will to try and persuade me to let her help, but my mind is made up. I'm doing this on my own.

After my call, I freshen up and get dressed. I only had one place in mind for a job vacancy and that is the club I attended two nights ago. I overheard the bartender talking about it when I wasn't drunk yet, so now I have my fingers crossed that it's still open.

I arrive at the club and everything inside is different from what I remember. Firstly there are no dancing men and women, just a few people with brooms and rags cleaning. The DJ's section is empty and everywhere is dim.

I spot the bartender from that night and hurry to the counter. "Hi, um, is there someone I can talk to about a job opening here…"

"You got the job "

"I do?" He straightens up with a small smile, and his light black curls fall in his face as he nods, "you want the job, you got it. Just grab a towel from the back and help me clean this place for tonight."

Gratefulness blooms in me and I hurry to help with the cleaning while we chat animatedly. It turns out his name is Eric and he's the son of the owner of the club, an Asian American, twenty six years old, lost his mother recently, and is saving up to go to college next year. He decided to stay and run the place a bit for his dad.

"Tell me. Why do you want to work here? You don't look the type," Eric asks and hands me a glass. "I didn't realize there was a type," I chuckle, wiping the glass gently. He settles on a bar stool and pushes the rest of the glass my way. "I'm just saying. You look like you could do so much more with your life…if that makes sense."

I slow down, staring sadly at my reflection on the cup, "I wish that were true."

"May I intrude?" Eric leans on the counter, his curious brown eyes watching me, "did something happen?"

"Things happened. I fell in love with a rich guy and got married for five years only for him to divorce me because of a side chick and her baby. Now I'm left with little to nothing."

I sigh heavily and tap on my reflection. What Alex did to me…

"I'm sorry about that."

***

The party is in full swing by the time night falls, and it's the same loud music, dancing and drinking, so Eric and I are up and about serving drinks to everyone until the orders stop for a while.

"I've lost count of the drinks I've served so far," I tell Eric while we rest and watch the colorful scenario. "It's a surprise the number of people who come here to drink away their sorrows and shit."

I chuckle lightly and my mind goes back, "I was in that category two nights ago. A sad and pathetic woman who got dumped by her ex husband. But now I'm feeling great!"

"What would we do without alcohol?" He jokes while handing me a drink, "bottoms up."

After a while of chatting, he nods his head towards the counter saying, "that guy over there has been watching you since he got into the club. You know him?"

I turn confused and almost drop my drink when my eyes lock with a pair of familiar gray ones. "The fu…"

"Is he trouble? I'll take care of him," Eric assures moving to pick up a bat. "No, no, no. It's fine. He's not trouble…"

Of course he is, my mind screams, but my body reacts differently, feeling excited to see him again. There are a thousand red flags flying, but I ignore all of them. "I'll go…talk to him."

I walk over to him with my heart hammering against my chest and wishing that the party lights can hide the redness on my face. He lowers his drink when I reach the counter, and a small smirk plays on his lips.

"What are you doing gawking at me like that?" I murmur, frowning at his figure. "Nice to see you too, princess."

He grins and sips his drink again, and I narrow my eyes at him, "are you stalking me?"

"It's a club, Sofia."

"How do you know my name?" I ask incredulously, searching my memory for when I let my name slip. "I have my ways."

"Stalker."

"Princess."

I groan internally. "Why are you really here then? Don't you have better things to do like take some chick to bed?"

"The only chick I'd like on my bed is you princess," he whispers, taking my chin and pulling me close, "and I don't mind abandoning what I came here for to make it happen."

I stand with my face barely five inches from his, transfixed. A voice in my head tells me to take him up on his offer and experience an even greater night of pleasure from this sexy stranger.

He softly traces my lips and leans close. His hot breath fans my eyelashes as he huskily says, "and if you think for even one moment that I'm stalking you, then yes I am. As long as it sends the clear message that I want you."

Then he kisses me. It is soft, gentle, the lightest brush of lips, but having so much passion in it that I find myself leaning in for more. He smirks seductively at me, "we'll see again princess. Soon."

I return to Eric's side in a trance and I gulp down a glass of water to cool my flaming face. What was this hot man doing to me?! I can't do anything without imagining his kisses on my lips or thrusts in my…

"f**k!" I curse helplessly. He just had to show up here and make it worse.

"So…getting some action?" Eric asks in my ears, a smirk forming on his lips. "What?! No! No, nothing like that."

"You sure, it seemed like you two were ready to devour each other on the counter–"

"Shush, no. No more," I groan and cover my face, mortified of my behavior. Eric pats my head comfortingly, then asks, "what's his name?"

"... I don't even f*****g know!"

***

Hours later, I'm off to the restroom after experimenting on some drinks, and I'm probably almost drunk, but I manage to stay on my feet and use the toilet.

I have finally gotten the job I wanted and a bonus for me that they pay daily, but the thought of seeing him in the club again was something that both annoyed and excited me. I'm a divorced lady so I'm allowed to date or sleep with whomever I want, but Mr gray eyes was definitely off the list.

Everything about him waved red flags through the air, and I was not about to let my heart get broken again.

"You're telling me you don't have the f*****g money? You playing with me motherfucker?!"

A male voice with a deep Australian accent sounds from behind the window of my stall and I fall quiet.

"Look, I'll pay him the money. Isn't that why I'm here? He asked me to see him for the money, and I came. Now why the f**k are you pointing a gun at me?"

"Ah right. Boss did call you here to give him the money. But tell me why the f**k are you in this alley, creeping through the f*****g dumpster?"

A curiosity from nowhere enters me and I climb my toilet seat to get a better look at what is happening. s**t!

There are three men in suits pointing guns at another man who looked haggard and unkempt; almost like they had roughed him up earlier.

The man is trembling with fear and so am I but my stubborn feet refuse to move. I didn't want to witness anything ugly and be held as a witness.

"Stand straight and give us the f*****g money or I'll spill your brains!"

The man looks at his attackers, eyes wide with fear, then he falls to the floor and begins to beg profusely, saying that he had no money.

My heart aches for the poor man who looked sincere with his words, but my mind doesn't prepare me for the shots that ring in the air.

The man slumps to the ground and a pool of blood quickly forms beneath his unmoving body.

I slip from the toilet seat and fall with a shout. The dead silence that follows my outburst and the quick footsteps forces me to dash out of the bathroom in horror.

Of course this would happen to me, why wouldn't it?! I just witnessed a murder on my first day of work!