by S. J. Blaze
Goodbye Charlie. Maybe we will meet again.
Epilogue
Six months later
“Jazz, I need two Mic’ Lites, two Tequila shots, and one rum and diet with lime,” Candy says from the other side of the bar while smacking her bubble gum pink lips.
“Comin’ right up, pretty lady,” I shout back and get to work popping lids and pouring spirits. I drop the drinks on her tray and grab the next customer waiting at the bar who has been trying to catch my attention. Things are hectic tonight. Halloween is around the corner and I swear it brings all the crazies out to play.
“What can I getcha?” I ask the college aged looking guy who’s drooling at my chest. I can’t blame him, the uniforms here are the pits. The Whole encourages its employees to dress in a certain manner. For example, I’m wearing the required low cut, super tight tank top paired with a short miniskirt.
“Are you on the menu?” he laughs and looks back at his friend.
“Sorry fellas, if you aint gonna order something on the menu then I gotta grab the next customer.” I blow some bangs out of my face, as I still haven’t gotten used to my new hairstyle. I chopped it all off. The bangs are long, but the rest is shaved on the sides. For the month of October, in honor of breast cancer awareness, a bunch of girls at the bar got our hair dyed pink. It’s only the edges of my black bangs, but I like it. I’m only twenty-three, so I might as well do these crazy things while I’m young. Besides, Jasmine Rodriguez, my new name, is a spicy Latina Texan.
I even got several new piercings. I had my septum pierced which now sports a bullring as well as snake bites in my lip. They remind me of the trio. I’ve also added another tattoo: a date. The date my daughter was taken from me, April 21st, 2016. It resides just over the first bullet wound that struck me.
I’ve been debating about adding more tats. Maybe a quote from one of the LG songs, but I haven’t found the nerve to do so. It still hurts too much to know that they are out there and they miss me. When Loaded Gun won best new Rock and Roll Artists of 2016 at the Video Music Awards last month, I almost died. I felt so proud of them. Then they broke my heart and made a big speech about me, about how I need to come home and how much they love me. I thought I had set them up for success. They needed to let me go. Instead of replacing me in the band as I’d hoped, Gunner took up playing the guitar again. I heard they had a successful tour over the summer and I even went to see them when they went through Houston in July.
I live in a smaller town called Beaumont, which is only a couple hours east of Houston. I’ve fallen in love with the city. It’s close enough to Louisiana that I can still smell those beignets calling, yet Texas enough to indulge in a fine piece of meat. The best of both worlds, if you ask me. The weather has been gorgeous and I’m still close enough to the water, if I ever get homesick, which happens more often then I’d like. But it’s a beautiful place to take a leisurely run in the mornings. And I feel safe here.
I haven’t fully emerged from my mourning period. Eating is a struggle. Once food tasted like gooey heaven wrapped in bite-size pieces, but now I taste nothing. I can barely identify various food textures let alone flavors. I eat only because I have to. My slimmer figure reflects it. I’ve dropped several sizes and I wasn’t huge to start.
I wait patiently while the duo of dorks drool. Yup, they’re done. “You sit on it, sugar. I’ll be back.” I nod and look further down the bar, where a guy in a black hoodie over a black hat sits and has been waiting patiently. I can’t see his face, but I can tell he’s a big guy.
“What’ll it be?” I lean forward trying to catch a glimpse, but he keeps his head down.
“Patron, Silver,” he yells over Disturbed’s ‘The Light,’ his head still locked in place.
“A guy after my own heart,” I jest as I walk away and fill his shot. Most people yell for tequila, seldom do they specify. This guy has piqued my interest. Not that I do that. I’m still healing. I don’t date. I don’t do a whole lot. I do have a lot of girlfriends, though, which is new. I found that befriending guys wasn’t an easy road, so I decided to change things up in my new life.
I return with his shot. “That’ll be twelve fifty or we can start a tab for ya, if you’d like?” Although his head is down, I see his side smirk. Instead he slides a twenty-dollar bill my way.
“Keep the change, Jazzy was it?” I nod, take the bill, and walk away to fill the till.
I can’t help the wide smile that spreads across my face. I have to bite my lip to keep from turning back around. I’d recognize that hand from anywhere. D R U M, is tatted under each knuckle on his right hand. I bet L I F E is tatted just under the knuckles of his left, although I didn’t see it tonight to verify.
There’s only one man I know who loves his drums enough to tattoo them on his skin. The same man who swore he’d find me wherever I went and follow me in whatever I did.
A bald headed bad ass! Looks like things are about to get interesting!
Don’t forget to pick up,
The Ghost of Me
For the rest of Charlie’s story
Acknowledgments
A special thank you goes out to my Beta Readers; Tiffany Allen, Dwan Bloomberg, Penny Elbaz, Laura Floyd, Aimee Garbarino, Marni Hoffman, Sharon Sisselsky, Page Taleton, and Ricki Weiseltheir.
Your input in this crazy harebrained endeavor of mine proved to be invaluable. I can’t thank you enough for the time and patience you had with me while I picked your brain. Now you out there in book land have learned priceless information; I may have been a zombie in another life.
To my amazing and talented uncle, Jacob Elbaz, for granting me complete carte blanche on his stunning art. Your digital masterpiece is the perfect canvas for my debut novel. I can’t thank you enough!
To Marisa Rose Shor of Cover Me Darlings and her endless supply of creativity. You are a fierce talent. I am in awe of you. Thank you for your patience with me.
To my husband and four children, thank you for enjoying mac n’ cheese while mommy had to write because she was on a roll and couldn’t quite step foot into reality just yet. “Not again,” becoming the new catch phrase in our house. Sad but true. You, my beloved five, are my entire world. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
A special thank you goes out to my mom. After drafting the first six chapters and wondering what the hell to do with these crazy things called words, she encouraged me to keep them words coming.
And to everyone who told me to NOT GIVE UP!!!
There aren’t enough words in the English dictionary to show how much I appreciate all of you and how you have aided in bringing my special world to life.
“When I grow up...” doesn’t have a time limit.
Thank you to everyone for reminding me of that.
About the Author
Now it’s time for me to introduce myself to you, the reader. I’m supposed to say something insightful and wow you but to be honest, there isn’t much on my plate. Besides, do you really want to know about me and my oddities? How about if we start with this and see where our relationship goes. Think of it as a sweet kiss on the cheek at the end of our first date...I won’t go all the way unless I know that we are in a committed relationship.
Never one to follow the rules, I always did things the hard way. Why go to school on your parent’s dime, when it’s so much more fun to do double duty as student/ parent and graduate in your late twenties? Why have 2.5 kids, when you can have 4? Why be the typical stay at home mom, when you can be the pierced, tatted PTSO President? And the list of conundrums goes on and on.
But it wasn’t my story that I found inspiration from; it was every story. Every story that I read over the last two years made an impact. I fell in love with the writings of sexy Alpha Bikers, of the wicked CEO’s, the shape shifters, the wild Rockers and yes, even the brawlers. I wanted to bring to life a heroine that encompasses all the strength, the wealth, the deceptiveness as any of those Alphas we readers claim as our BBF (Book Boy Boyfriend for those o
f you new to this world). And much like our beloved Alphas, Charlie too, is in need of salvation. Her carefully composed and categorized life is about to take a spill. The question is, how far will she bend for those she loves? How far do any of us really change for our loved ones? And more importantly, is it the right move?