Wilson's Hard Lesson

by K. Anderson

  “I never liked it here anyway!” One of the boys protested as he rushed towards the front door.

  “Yeah, the beer is always skunky!” Another added.

  “And the wings suck!” Another added.

  Ivy turned back to thank the man who had chased the boys away, but when she looked up he had returned back to a game of pool. She tried to catch his attention without interrupting his game, but when he didn’t see, she walked over to him. The man was dressed in a pair of dirty ripped jeans and his oil stained white t-shirt was covered by a black leather vest. When Ivy walked over, he and his friends all stopped talking and stared at her expectantly.

  “I…umm…just wanted to say thank you.” She paused. “For your help.” The man nodded.

  “Hey Luther, looks like you’ve got a fan!” One of the man’s buddy’s said loudly. Three more of the guys in the group started to laugh and Ivy began to feel just as uncomfortable as she had with the college boys.

  “I’d better get back to work.” She murmured and turned around.

  Walking over to the college boy’s table, Ivy straightened up the stools and reached for the glasses but as she did she noticed someone standing behind her. Turning around she found Luther standing there in silence.

  “Yes?” She asked, trying her best not to sound too rude but wanting to let him know that he and his buddies were definitely getting on her nerves.

  “I wanted to apologize for my friends.” He offered. Ivy shrugged.

  “Thanks, but I’m used to it.” As she turned to walk away Luther reached out and touched her wrist gently.

  “Are you okay?” Ivy turned back and he took her wrist in his hand to examine it. She nodded.

  “I’ll be fine, thanks.” Luther rubbed the red marks on her wrist with his calloused fingers before letting go and looking at her with a pitying smile.

  “Sorry I didn’t come over sooner.” Ivy gave him half a smile.

  “Don’t worry about it. Thanks for coming over at all. Most guys back here wouldn’t have done anything - they get kind of engrossed in their own worlds.” Luther couldn’t help laugh.

  “You mean we’re asses?” Ivy offered a full smile this time before shrugging.

  “Hey, you said it, not me.” Luther looked back at his friends and then back to Ivy.

  “Can I…uhh…get you a drink or something?” Despite having the exterior of a bad biker boy, Luther seemed more than unsure of himself around Ivy. Ivy shook her head.

  “Sorry, I’m not allowed to drink on the job.” Luther nodded slowly.

  “Well, maybe some other time?” Ivy nodded.

  “That’d be nice, thank you.”

  Chapter 3

  Ivy was exhausted. With another hour to go until close, her feet were already aching and the smell of hot wings was making her nauseous. Luther and his friends still had a monopoly over the pool table and between keeping them supplied with beer and keeping the rest of her tables happy, Ivy was run off her feet.

  “Hey, waitress?” an overweight college kid called her from one of her tables. Ivy walked over, her tray tucked under her arm.

  “Yes, sir, what can I get you?” The kid shook his head.

  “Nothing. I wanted to know when we can get a look in on the pool table, those guys have been there all night!” Ivy looked over to Luther and his friends.

  “I’m sorry sir, they did get there first and as long as they’re paying customers, they can play as long as they like.” The kid huffed loudly.

  “That’s ridiculous! I’m a paying customer too and I’d like to play a game of pool!” The kid raised his voice, only not loud enough for Luther and his friends to hear. Ivy shook her head.

  “Well, sir, if you are really that unhappy about it, I would suggest that you ask the gentlemen over there if they would mind sharing the table.” Ivy smiled politely, paused and then walked away with a smile. She knew that there was no way that the kid would confront Luther and his friends and she refused to play mommy and do it for him.

  “Let’s get out of here!” She heard the kid say loudly as she walked back to the bar.

  “I don’t know what is going on tonight, but it looks like all the weirdos are out in full force!” Ivy said as she leaned on the bar. LaTisha rolled her eyes as she shook her head.

  “Tell me about it, girl.” She looked over to section three and then back to Ivy. “I tell you what, why don’t you head out? There’s only an hour left until close anyway, I’ll cover your section.” Ivy squinted her eyes.

  “Are you sure?” LaTisha nodded.

  “I’ve got you covered.” She gave Ivy a wink. “You look like the walking dead, go home and get some rest, okay?” Ivy gave her a hug.

  “Thank you! I’ll cover you next time, promise!” LaTisha pulled out of the hug and shooed her in to the back to clock out.

  Ivy readjusted the strap of her purse as she walked out in to the dark parking lot. The air was crisp against her bare legs and she hurried as she walked over to her car.

  “Well, well, well, look who it is…” The voice came first and then Ivy saw the college boy who had grabbed her earlier in the night walk out in front of her car.

  “I’m sorry?” She tried to sound sure of herself, unafraid.

  “I bet you are, but sorry won’t get me the wings I wanted earlier will it?” Ivy frowned as she stood still, just feet from the menacing figure.

  “Look, I was just doing my job, okay? Now let me go home, please.” The boy laughed obnoxiously.

  “Let me go home, please!” He mimicked her in a high pitched nasally voice. “Not until you make it up to me for being such a…”

  “Is there a problem here?” Luther’s voice came from behind Ivy, he was so close that Ivy was startled by his presence.

  “Yeah, there is a problem, but it’s none of your business so how about you go back inside, buddy?” The kid had obviously been drinking more since he and his friends had been run out of the restaurant. Luther stepped forward. When the kid realized that the man behind Ivy was the same man who had scared him off, his eyes widened slightly. Despite his fear, however, he realized that it was too late to back down and instead he stood stock still.

  “How about you get in your little car or on your bicycle, or whatever it was that got you here, and you go home?” Luther took another step forward as he addressed the kid.

  “How about you mind your own damn business?” Despite trying to be confident, the kid took a step backwards as he said this to Luther. Luther gave a pained smile as he took the final step forward and reaching out he grabbed the kid by the arm. Jerking him around, Luther locked the kid’s arm out behind him, forcing him to bend over.

  “I would…I usually do mind my own business in fact, but I’m afraid that I don’t tolerate men who treat women the way you do.” Luther put pressure on the kid’s arm and the kid screamed as he bent down lower. “Now, what do you say that you get on your bicycle and ride home.” The kid nodded painfully. Luther released the kids arm.

  “I don’t have a bicycle anyway; I drive a Beemer.” The kid said. Luther chuckled.

  “Right, of course you do. Well, daddy’s boy, get in your Beemer and go home and sleep it off.” Luther turned to walk back over to Ivy, but when he did he heard Ivy scream and seconds later he felt the impact of a fist on the side of his face. Luther sighed loudly and rocked his jaw from side to side as he turned around only to find the kid trying to run away from him. A few long strides and Luther caught up with him, planting his fist square on the bridge of the kid’s nose. Ivy watched in horror as the kid’s nose exploded in a gush of blood.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God I think you broke my nose!” The kid began wailing at the top of his lungs. Luther shrugged.

  “Remember when I told you not to come back here?” The kid nodded as he cupped his hands around his nose.

  “I wasn’t kidding.”

  With the exception of the cleaning crew, Ivy and Luther, Busties was empty for the night. Luther held a bag of
melting ice against his jaw at Ivy’s insistence, as he leaned against the bar.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Ivy asked as she pulled the ice away from his face and took a look at where Luther had been hit. Luther laughed.

  “I’ll be fine. I told you, I don’t need this. I’m used to being punched in the face!” He winked at Ivy and she chuckled.

  “That’s twice tonight you came to my rescue.” Ivy said as she studied his stubble covered face. Luther shrugged.

  “I’m not gonna sit here and watch some drunk kid beat up a girl.” Ivy’s eyes dropped down to the bar top in disappointment.

  “Oh…” Luther frowned.

  “Oh, what?” Ivy shook her head.

  “Nothing. I just…I thought maybe you…never mind.” She could feel the redness coloring her cheeks. She had sincerely thought that Luther had come to her rescue because he liked her. Sure he wasn’t her usual type, but the thought of a tall, dark and handsome man coming to her rescue was more fantasy than any girl could resist.

  “What?” Luther stared at her with his dark grey eyes.

  “I thought maybe you liked me, that’s all.” Ivy couldn’t bring herself to look up at him as she said this. Luther began to chuckle and reaching over he patted her hand lightly.

  “Darlin’ first of all, you are far too young for me. Second of all, I’m not the kind of guy that a girl like you dates. In fact, I’m the kind of guy that your parents warn you against dating.” Ivy opened her mouth to dispute both of these points, but Luther kept talking. “I am a bad bad man, darlin’ and not the kind of man you want in your life.” When Ivy was sure that he had finished, she lifted her hazel eyes to meet his.

  “I don’t think you’re such a bad man.” She said, quietly.

  “That,” he said definitively, “is because you don’t know who I am.” Luther set the ice pack on the bar top and slid off his stool. “Now, before I go breakin’ your heart, I’d better get out of here.” His large hand grabbed the top of her arm gently as he took a step towards the door. “Don’t take it personally, kid, you just deserve better.”

  As Ivy lay in bed that night she couldn’t stop thinking about Luther. She imagined that he was lying beside her, that he hadn’t walked out of Busties and left her there alone. The more she thought about him, the more she found herself attracted to him. She wondered why he had called himself a bad man, she couldn’t imagine anyone like him doing something so bad that she couldn’t forgive it. He had come to her rescue twice already and she couldn’t believe that someone who would do something like that could be a bad person. As she fell asleep, twirling a strand of her dark brown hair around her fingers, Ivy wondered if she would see Luther the next day.

  Chapter 4

  Ivy had been so wrapped up in thinking about Luther that she had completely forgotten that her parents had been coming to pick up some of her things. There were still a few days left until move out day, but Ivy knew what a nightmare it was to find parking then, so she’d asked her parents to come a few days earlier to pick up the small stuff. It wasn’t until they called her from the call box outside of her dorm, that Ivy even remembered that they were coming.

  “Ivy, honey, we’re here to get your things!” Her mother’s voice was shrill on the other end of the phone.

  “Oh God!” There was a loud sigh from her mother.

  “Ivy, you know I don’t like that kind of language!” Ivy smirked.

  “Sorry mom, I’ll be right down to let you in.”

  Ivy was still preoccupied with Luther when her parents had finished loading up their car and it was only when they suggested lunch that she snapped out of her fantasy world.

  “We can go to the drugstore? I loved their soda fountain last time we went and their BLT’s are delicious!” Ivy was sick to death of the food at Jacob’s Drugs, but it was a treat her mom couldn’t resist.

  “Sure, mom, that’d be good.”

  “Okay, you girls go to the powder room and I’ll go down and wait in the car.” Ivy’s dad mumbled as he walked out of the door.

  “I don’t have to…” Ivy managed to say before her mother interrupted.

  “Oh, I do!”

  The drugstore wasn’t too busy for a Saturday afternoon and while the tables were all full, they had no problem finding seats at the soda fountain.

  “Oh I feel like I’m back in the sixties!” Ivy’s mom exclaimed. Ivy laughed.

  “Mom, you were born in the sixties!” Her mom giggled as she picked up her menu.

  “I know!” As Ivy’s parents perused their menus, Ivy glanced around the store. Just as she was turning back, she noticed a familiar figure walk through the front door. Luther walked over to the soda fountain without noticing her.

  “Black coffee please.” Ivy watched him for a few minutes before deciding to talk to him.

  “Hey Luther.” He whipped around and when he saw Ivy he gave her a smile and a nod.

  “Hey, I didn’t see you there.” Ivy smiled.

  “Fueling up for the day?” She asked. Luther nodded.

  “Something like that.” The server handed him a cup of coffee and he handed her a few crumpled dollars. “Well, it was good seeing you.” He gave her a wink and took his coffee off to the far end of the soda fountain.

  When she turned back to her parents, Ivy found them both staring at her incredulously.

  “Ivy!” Ivy looked from side to side with a frown.

  “What?” She said innocently. Her mom lowered her voice and jerked her head in Luther’s direction.

  “Why are you talking to a man like that?!” Ivy glanced over at Luther who she could see was watching her with a grin.”

  “Mom, he’s a nice guy, I met him at work last night.” He mom turned to look at her father, hoping to get some back up.

  “Stanley, tell her. Someone like that is bad news. He looks dangerous!” Ivy stared wide eyed at her mom.

  “Mom, would you keep it down? He can hear you!” Her mom glanced nervously around.

  “I’m just saying, honey, I don’t think it’s safe for you to make friends with people like that.” Her mom turned to her dad and he nodded. “In fact, I think your father and I are going to have to forbid it.” Ivy felt as though she were four years old again but she knew better than to argue, she nodded in defeat.

  “Yes, mom.”

  Lunch was painful. Luther remained at the soda fountain, sipping on his coffee, until Ivy and her family had finished their meal. Ivy had stolen plenty of glances at him as he sat there, and each time that she did, he seemed to be looking directly at her with a smirk. Each time she would shake her head with a hushed laugh and look back down at her plate. She was a child scorned.

  Chapter 5

  Ivy arrived at work that afternoon at the same time as Noelle which gave her plenty of time to fill Noelle in on the events of the night before. Noelle had listened wide eyed as Ivy told her about Luther coming to her rescue.

  “You have to get his number!” Ivy shook her head.

  “I sort of tried to, but he thinks he’s too old for me…that and he says he’s a bad man.” Noelle giggled.

  “Ohhh that sounds like fun!” Ivy nudged her gently.

  “Not like that!” Noelle giggled again.

  “So what is it that makes him such a bad man then?” Ivy shrugged.

  “He didn’t say?” Noelle thought for a moment.

  “Can you look him up online? Like, do a background check or something? Oh my God, what if he’s a murderer!” Ivy rolled her eyes and shook her head.

  “He’s not a murderer!” Noelle raised an eyebrow.

  “How do you know? Maybe he’s like a biker killer, riding across country slashing women’s throats as he goes?” Ivy scrunched up her nose in disgust.

  “Urgh, he is not. He’s too nice to be a murderer. But I don’t know his last name so I can’t look him up anyway.” Noelle sighed as she clocked in.

  “There’s only one thing for it then, you’re going to have to
ask him.” Although this seemed like a logical way to get the information she wanted, Ivy wasn’t so sure that Luther would cooperate. She wasn’t even sure that she’d see him again.

  A few hours after her shift had begun however, Ivy’s worries were laid to rest when Luther and a large group of his friends walked through the door of Busties. She waited, hoping that he would say hello, but was greeted with a nod and a smile instead as he walked past.

  “He’s here…” Ivy whispered to Noelle as she walked past with a full tray.

  “Then, go talk to him!” Noelle walked off to wait on her tables and left Ivy standing in the middle of the room wondering what to do next. Part of her wanted to go and talk to Luther, but the other part of her remembered what had happened last night when she talked to him in front of his friends. She decided that she would be better off waiting at least until the end of her shift, that way if he decided to be a jerk she could go home without having to face him for the rest of the night.

  Ivy’s shift was painfully slow and she couldn’t help but eye Luther’s group at the pool table every time that she walked past. She was afraid that he would leave before she had a chance to talk to him. By the end of her shift however, Luther and his friends were still playing pool, so Ivy settled herself at the bar and ordered a drink.

  “You’re sticking around after your shift is over?” LaTisha asked as she poured her a Coke. Ivy shrugged.

  “You know how roommates are, I’ve got a little time to kill.” Ivy lied. LaTisha nodded.

  “Urgh, tell me about it. Girl, I swear you don’t want to know the noises that come out of my roommate’s bedroom!” Ivy laughed and took a sip of her soda. LaTisha looked up as someone approached the bar and nodding at Ivy she began to walk away. Ivy turned her head and saw Luther standing beside her.