by Tina Lee
“Who doesn't love a little girl talk, right? So did you see your guy last night after you left the bar?”
“Yeah, actually. He knew that I was going to be at the bar, and he came by. We ended up leaving together and went to his house.”
“His house?”
“Yeah. He lives the next town over.”
“What does he do?”
“He works at a body shop out there.”
“That's so cool!” Jenna said. Her James couldn't possibly be the same James that Jenna was seeing. He didn't live out here. The only reason that Jenna didn't know this James was because he lives in the next town. Also, Jenna's James was not a mechanic. She brightened up and became extremely happy. “I gotta ask you to get me a discount the next time I get into an accident.”
“I don't know if I can do that, but I know that the shop does good work.”
“Awesome.”
“What does your boyfriend do?” Larissa asked.
“He just moved into town. He's going to be the bouncer at Rock and Country.”
“Oh, cool. Did you get him the job?”
“He got the job himself. He started beating up Eli and four of his friends in front of Dan. Dan decided to offer him the position right then.”
“Oh my God. Are you talking about Eli Hoss? He's so fucking annoying. He would come into the strip club over and over again. He even tipped one of the dancers a quarter and got kicked out.”
“What a douche,” Jenna muttered.
“Tell me about it.”
The women ate and talked. Jenna didn't need to be there anymore, but she was in too good of a mood to mind hanging out with Larissa.
Jenna walked into work later that night hoping that James would come in so that she could apologize. She might have made him angry enough that he didn't want to see her anymore. Jenna continued to serve her customers hoping to hear James's motorcycle. Her good mood slowly dissipated as time passed and James hadn't arrived.
Jenna saw three people come into the bar that she had never seen before. This was rare in the small town. She also took notice that these three men looked particularly angry. They wore jeans and leather jackets. Jenna saw a tattoo emerging from the top of one of the men's tee shirt and onto his neck.
“Hey guys. Can I get you something to drink?” Jenna asked.
“We're just here looking for somebody. You just go back to work little lady,” the man with the neck tattoo said.
“Wait. Maybe she could help us,” another one of the guys with a very large beard said. “Have you seen a piece of shit named James around here? Rides a bike and wears a leather jacket?”
“No. I don't know who you're talking about. It seems like you're looking for trouble, though. I'm going to ask you to leave if you're not interested in relaxing and having a drink.”
“Maybe we will just have a beer and wait for him to show up.”
“That's fine, but I know pretty much everybody in town. If he had been here before I would have known. There are a number of other bars in the area. Maybe you should try somewhere else.”
“And how do I know that you're not lying? We had someone tell us that he comes here almost every day.”
“Well, it looks like they were mistaken. Are you going to stay here and have a drink or are you going to go on your scavenger hunt?”
“You might not want to talk to us like that, little girl.”
“You might not want to come into my bar looking for trouble.”
The man with the neck tattoo grabbed Jenna by her arm. Jenna, without thinking, slid her pocket knife out of her pocket and sliced the top of his hand deep enough to make an impression.
“Get out!” Jenna said.
The man stared down at his bleeding hand for a second before looking back up at Jenna. Jenna stared back at him with cold eyes. He looked like he didn't know what to do. This young woman was standing before him with a knife covered in his own blood in her hand.
“Come on, boys,” he said, and they left.
Search
`The men left immediately after Jenna showed them that she meant business. They couldn't just come in here with that sense of authority, and they certainly couldn't touch her. Jenna had never stabbed anybody before, and she couldn't get the man's surprised expression out of her head. And the blood! She had to stop bartending for a couple minutes to properly clean everything. The situation was extremely disturbing, but Jenna did her best to maintain her cool. She knew that the moment she saw James, though, she was going to lose it. She could have been seriously hurt! What the hell was he hiding that was putting her in so much danger? It was unacceptable. She waited for him to come into the bar the entire night, but he never did.
“Are you sure you're okay?” Mandy asked Jenna when she got home from her shift. Jenna texted her right after the incident to describe exactly what had happened. Once again, she conveniently forgot to mention James at all. She merely said that some scary guys came in causing trouble. Jenna also went into great detail about stabbing the guy with the neck tattoo in the hand.
“I'm fine. It was just weird. I never thought that I would do that.”
“I never thought you would do that, either. I never thought that you owned a knife let alone how to use one.”
“It's no big deal. You know that the guys at the bar can get handsy. I just wanted to make sure that I could take care of myself in case anything happened. Luckily, I was prepared. I don't know what would have happened if I wasn't.”
“And you don't know who they were?”
“Not a clue.”
“All these weird people showing up around town. It's like a goddamn invasion. And your boy wasn't there?”
“No. He didn't come in yesterday. I don't know where he was.”
“I think that he might have something to do with it. Maybe they were looking for him.”
“I don't think so,” Jenna said nervously. “They just looked like a bunch of jackasses.”
“Well, you should have called the cops. What if they showed up when you were closing alone? They could have really hurt you.”
“The only thing the guy did was grab my wrist. I'm not so sure that's illegal. I'm pretty sure stabbing someone is. Besides, I think they learned that I'm not a woman to fuck with,” Jenna laughed.
“Well, you let me know if you ever want me or Phil to come close up with you. I don't like the idea of you being there all alone now.”
“I'm not afraid that they are going to come back or anything. Our hatred for each other was quite clear.”
Jenna didn't want to let on that she was actually very afraid. She looked out of the windows multiple times before heading to her car after close that night to make sure that no one was outside waiting for her. She was waiting for the men to come back. She stabbed a man! He wasn't just going to let her get away with that. Jenna kept a cool demeanor and just got ready for bed. She couldn't sleep well; she kept seeing the man staring at her.
Jenna went to work every day hoping to see James. Day after day, she was disappointed, though. At first she was angry. He had people come in looking for him, put her in danger, and he doesn't try to contact her at all? It was way beyond rude. Jenna felt abandoned and used. He didn't even care enough to warn her about the people that were looking for him.
As day after day passed with no sign of James, Jenna started to be worried instead of angry. What if they found him and did horrible things to him? She was worried, and her heart dropped every time she went to work and didn't see his bike parked outside.
Finally, Jenna decided to look for James even harder. She drove to the hotel that he was staying at almost every night after work to see if his bike was there or if she could see him anywhere. She never saw anything to let her know what was happening.
The absolute worst part of the situation was the unknown. She wasn't sure what was happening or what was going to happen. Were those mean men going to come back to hurt her? Was she ever going to see James again? Was he even alive?
Jenna tried to put the negative thoughts to the back of her head. There had to be a good explanation, and James would not just abandon Jenna like this. Jenna repeated that to herself over and over again.
“He's not coming back,” Mandy said. “You should just get over it and go on to the next one. You had your fun, and now you can find something more serious. Somebody who will talk to your friends and be a part of your life.”
“You're right,” Jenna said. “It's been a week. If I haven't seen him by now, I don't think that I'm going to ever see him again. It's just hard to imagine any of the lame asses around here being as exciting.”
“Oh, please. The excitement involved drunken motorcycle rides and scary men grabbing you. I think you'll be fine without that kind of excitement. Now, if you don't mind, you've been too preoccupied with James to talk about Phil. He's still being weird. Even if he's not fucking Larissa, something is going on...”
Hiding
Jenna gave up on seeing James ever again. She used to put on sexy clothes and so her makeup before work, but she was resorting to simple jeans and tee shirts. She had no one to impress. She also kept her hair in a simple ponytail and hardly put on any makeup. She walked up to the bar for her shift and became wide-eyes when she saw James's beautiful bike parked in front of the bar. She ran in with a smile, almost forgetting that she had felt abandoned just days earlier.
She walked into the bar and saw him sitting there drinking his Jack and coke. She ran up and gave him a huge hug from behind.
“I'm so glad that you're okay,” she whispered.
“I'm fine. I'm fine,” he said. Surprisingly, he turned around and gave her a big hug back. He even kissed her on the cheek. It was the very first time that he had shown her any public affection. Jenna was taken back, and she loved the feeling of his arms around her for everyone to see.
“I'm sorry that I was gone for the last week,” he said. “I missed you while I was gone.”
“Where the hell were you?” Jenna asked. She didn't go right behind the bar. She sat down next to James to see exactly what he had to say for himself.
“I am thinking that we should talk about all of this another time. I don't want to get into it here.”
“Well, you have to actually tell me what's going on. I was terrified. I had to stab a man!”
“I know. I know,” James said. “I'm so glad I taught you how to work a knife. You were so brave.”
“How do you even know about it?”
“Look, I'll explain everything later tonight. I know that you have to get to work.”
“Fine. Are you gonna pick me up later?”
“I might just stay here.”
“Cool. Whatever you want. Well, I'm gonna get started.”
“Hey, you look absolutely beautiful.”
Jenna had been too excited to see James that she didn't even realize how dressed down she was compared to how James normally saw her. It was the most amazing thing that he could have said. Jenna wasn't sure why James was being so nice, but she could definitely get used to it.
As she got behind the bar and started handing out drinks, Jenna was surprised to see James smiling and laughing as she joked with customers. He even went out of his way to crack some jokes himself. It was a new James. He still stayed mostly to himself, but it was a significant change.
“I'll be back in like an hour,” James told Jenna about half way through the night. “I shouldn't be much longer than that.”
Jenna knew better than to ask any questions. She just nodded and watched him leave. She could only trust that he wasn't going to disappear again. It had dawned on her the week that he had been gone that she didn't even have his number. They never texted or chatted on the phone. He always just showed up. Luckily, it didn't take James very long to come back. About forty-five minutes after he left, Jenna heard his bike pulling up. He was at the bar having another drink just moments later.
Jenna waited patiently for the night to come to an end. Finally, she was able to lock up the bar and take care of closing up. James automatically helped like he did every time.
“It's so nice of you to help out the way that you do,” Jenna smiled.
“I can't see a beautiful woman working and not help out. I'd help you behind the bar when you're busy if I could.”
“I don't think that Dan would mind that. He already wants to hire you after he watched you take those four guys out.”
“I don't know how much he wants to hire me after those assholes came here.”
“He actually wasn't here for that. I have to assume that he's heard, though. It hasn't been brought up.”
“So I guess I have a lot to explain to you.”
“It would make me very happy if you did, like where were you the last week? Why couldn't you say anything? Like good-bye? Who were those guys? Why did they come here looking for you? Yeah. I guess I have a couple questions.”
“Those guys are some of the people that I worked for. They're not very happy with me at the moment because I told them that I wasn't interested in working for them anymore. They found it to be quite the insult actually.”
“Are they mad enough to try to hurt you?”
“Yeah. I think they were. They didn't look for me just to give me a watch for retirement. They were pissed because I was good at what I did. They're going to lose money without me on their team. That is the most important thing to them: money.”
“And so what? Were you in hiding?”
“Kind of. I tried to make the best of it, but I had to leave for a while to make sure that I didn't get hurt or thrown in jail for seriously hurting them. I should have let you know, but I didn't exactly have a way to contact you. I had to leave immediately.”
“You should have found a way to tell me.”
“I had to leave right away when I learned that they were coming here for me.”
“Do you owe them money or anything? It's hard to believe that they are so angry over something so stupid.”
“I don't owe them a thing. In fact, as a sign of good will, I forgave $25000 that they owed me.”
“I don't understand why they were so pissed then.”
“I already told you. They're just bad people who do bad things. They were mad because I was leaving. It really is that simple.”
“Well, how did you know that they were coming for you? And how do you know that they won't come back?”
“I don't. I only know that they were here and left. I can't live my life in hiding, though. I need to break out and get on with my life.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“Well, I'm' thinking that I take the job offer from Dan if it's still available. If those bastards show up, I'll just have to deal with it.”
“If they are after you, isn't it safer to just start a new life somewhere else?”
“Well then I wouldn't have you.”
Jenna gave James a huge hug. “I was worried that I was never going to see you again.”
“I know. I wasn't about to let that happen.”
“So you're entirely done with all that mess?”
“I'm not going to say that. Once you're in as deep as I am, it's not something that you can just wash your hands off.”
“Fine. Just promise that you're going to stop for good soon.”
“I can promise that.”
“Good. Now help me finish all of this, and we can get out of here. Are you still at the same hotel?”
“I went to a different hotel. We can go there or we can go back to your place. Whatever you'd like to do.”
“Well, I'm pretty sure that my roommate is already sleeping. We may as well go to the hotel. However, she would be a lot happier if you did come hang out some day.”
“I figure I should eventually. I'll want to know people if I'm going to be living here.”
“So you're really planning on living here? No bullshit?”
“No bullshit. I think I've found the place that I want to settle down. I think I've found
the person that I want to settle down with.”
Jenna thought that she had been sexually attracted to James before, but she saw him in a completely different light. She was happy to kiss him and hold him. They went to his hotel and had sex unlike any of their other encounters. He was gentle while still being masculine. They could not stop kissing each other and touching each other. Throughout the night, they would talk about how much they would enjoy being together as an official couple. They spent hours exploring each other's bodies before slowly fading off to sleep.
Proper Introductions
Jenna's favorite thing in the world was to wake up in James's strong arms. He smelled like a man, and his hands were rough. He was always on alert, and he always slightly opened his eyes when she would change positions to make sure that she was okay. It was also amazing how soothing his breathing and heartbeat were. The absolute best part, though, was seeing him asleep. He was absolutely adorable, and if Jenna could live one moment for the rest of her entire life it would be the moment she woke up in James's arms. Luckily, she would get to live that precious moment almost every day for the foreseeable future. Jenna woke up with the beautiful fantasies of her life together with James now that he had decided to stay in town.
“Good morning!” Jenna said. “Let's head back to my place and see if Mandy wants to get breakfast. You might meet Phil, too. He's Mandy's boyfriend. I think you'll like him.”
James didn't look thrilled, but he was slowly getting up anyway.
“We should jump in the shower first. Then, yeah, let's go.”
“You mean take a shower together?”
They enjoyed a sensual shower together and begrudgingly put clothes on.
“Don't look so mortified to be here,” Jenna said while they were walking from the bike to the apartment. “You're gonna have to get used to it.”
“I'm trying. I just don't think that she liked me very much. You can't really blame me for not absolutely loving this.”
Jenna and James walked into the apartment to see Mandy doing yoga in the living room. She was in the downward dog position and fell when she heard them walk in.