Protect Me

by Jennifer Culbreth

  Leaving the small town she had lived in for ninety eight percent of her life should have been scary. Most people don’t go outside of the county limits because they are afraid of what is out there to get them. She embraced it and jumped clear off the side of the cliff. The day she found out her father died, she had an overwhelming urge to just run. Head out the door and run until her body gave out. A part of her felt like it was her mother’s spirit encouraging her, but deep down she knew it was her own. It was telling her not to end up in the same situation her mother had been in, where everyone she relied on left or gave up on her. She craved having people in her life that she knew wouldn’t leave. That was what scared her most about gaining relationships, but here in this city that should have swallowed her up and spit her out she had made that connection.

  Breaking away from her thoughts, Abbi made her way upstairs, dragging behind her the loot from today. She would put these away later, for now she had to get showered and head to work. She grabbed her towel and headed down to the small bathroom. She was still praising herself for having chosen such a cute place. The brick wall set off the open stair well leading downstairs to the living space. The apartment came furnished with a small loveseat and chair. The blaze orange color of the furniture mixed well with the soft white color on the walls. Her kitchen was small, but housed the necessities. Stainless steel appliances gave it a very modern feel and the dark cherry wood of the cabinets gave it the warmth it needy to feel homey. She was determined to cook a meal in this kitchen the first day she had off.

  Her bathroom was quaint, a floor to ceiling glass wall made up the shower and next to it sat a granite counter top, supporting the large glass bowl that made up the sink. She didn’t have a bath tub, the only thing she missed from her double wide in Georgia. One thing you could always count on was a garden tub in the master bathroom of most trailers. She laughed at the thought of how many times she had laid in that tub with her eyes closed hoping that when she opened them she would be anywhere but there.

  She started the shower as she began to peel off her clothes, looked at herself in the mirror, and thought that maybe she should look different. More traveled, more versed maybe. She wasn’t quite sure but she was still the same girl she was just a few weeks ago. Maybe with time she would begin to fit in a little more with the LA style. For now she needed to get a move on or she was going to be late to work.

  After she had washed her hair, shaved all the necessities, and scrubbed the LA smog off of her body, Abbi headed back upstairs to get dressed. When she first got to Mist, Trent had urged her to use the employee area there at the club to change and keep all of her uniforms. But for some reason she felt better getting dressed at home, there was something about the upstairs to the club that gave her the willies. Noticing that she was actually doing pretty good on time she decided to blow dry her hair out, and apply a little extra make up. She grabbed a bottle of hairspray and tamed the waves of hair that flowed around her face. She dusted on a light covering of mineral powder, before applying black kohl eyeliner onto the tops and bottoms of her eyes. She finishing off with a fun shade of light purple eye shadow. It had just enough sparkle that you would be able to see it in the dark light of the club.

  Her so called uniform consisted of a short ass pair of black shorts and a black v-neck short sleeved shirt. Both clung to her skin a little tighter than she had liked and she swore that Trent had given her the smaller sized shirt on purpose, there weren’t enough employees for him to already be out of large shirts. But even if he had, she figured he had been around this town long enough to know what worked.

  She found her black Nike sneakers that completed her ensemble and headed towards the door. Grabbing her keys that hung on the wall next to the fridge, she threw her purse onto her shoulder. Checking her phone before throwing it into her bag she hopped she could get a cab and get to work without being late. She still wasn’t sure how to gauge this LA traffic. Apparently her short shorts not only worked well at the club, they also helped her get the attention of the taxi drivers. She hopped in and directed the smiling driver towards Mist.

  Chapter Four

  The bass pumped through the air, the girls were on fire tonight. Friday nights were always the busiest ones on the bar scene. All of the people who had been busting their asses behind a desk were all out ready to unwind after the week. Abbi spun from end to end of the bar mixing drinks and pouring shots. As she stood at the beer tap filling a cold mug with one of the new microbrews they had gotten in that morning, she heard a whistle from the end of the bar. Great now they were resorting to cat calls.

  As she topped off the glass she turned, a tall muscular man with copper blonde hair stood towards the end of the bar. By the grin on his face, she assumed he had been the one responsible for the whistle. She handed the beer over to the paying customer and exchanged change with him before making her way down towards Blondie.

  “What can I get you besides a new set of manners sir?” She said as she laid a napkin out on the bar top and gave him a smug smile.

  “Your number.”

  “Well it’s in the phone book.”

  “Oh, but I would need your name.”

  “That’s in the phone book too.”

  “You’re not gonna make this easy on me tonight are you?” His grin turned into a full blown smile. Yeah he was cute all right “Ok, how about we start with a beer and then we can go back to my place later?”

  “Are you sure two people can fit under a rock?” She shot him a sideways look as he clutched his chest as if his heart was breaking. “What kind of beer would you like?”

  “Sam Adams, please.” Regaining his composure.

  “Oh, so your mama did teach you a few manners.” She walked back towards the beer tap. It was guys like this that made her night interesting. She enjoyed the banter back and forth and it made the night go by a little faster. As she handed him his beer she lingered a moment.

  “Thank you, so are you going to tell me your name.”

  Oh why not, he was cute. “I’m Abbi.”

  “Nice to meet you Abbi, I’m Jeff.”

  “You too.” Oh hell she was out of witty comebacks. What the hell was she supposed to say now? Yeah, so how’s the weather?

  As she searched her mind for something else to say she heard a voice coming from the back of the counter and it didn’t seem very happy. “Abbi!”

  She turned seeing Trent with an unpleasant look on his face, one hand on his hip as he tapped his foot. She wanted to giggle at the fact that he looked like her mom did when she would get on to her as a little girl. She smiled at Jeff and turned to make her way towards Trent. Containing her smile she walked up to him with a straight face.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “How about you stop showing out in front of all the guys and start paying attention to the other paying customers as well. I pay you to serve drinks. Not flash a piece of ass towards any guy that walks into the place.”

  Man! What had crawled up his ass and died. He sure was in a foul mood, much different from when she had gotten to work earlier tonight. She wondered what had happened for him to be in such a bad mood. Her natural reaction was to lighten the mood.

  “Um, Trent. Actually you do pay me to show a piece of my ass.” Turning around to show him her backside “You picked the shorts out not me.” She said hoping that would turn his mood around.

  She could see the corner of Trent’s mouth curve up slightly. “Ok, you got me there. Just try to not rub it in my face that you’re being pursued by every man on God’s green Earth ok?” He reached up and brushed his hand down her arm before dropping it back by his side.

  Oh no, the sentence that Judy had made the night before was beginning to ring back through her head… You know he has the hots for you right? No, there was no way. Trent was a successful business man. There was no way that he would be into some backwoods girl from Georgia. And not to mention, he was her boss and there was no way that she was even going there. Goosebu
mps covered her body from head to toe.

  “Ha! Trent you can be very entertaining at times. Now if you don’t mind, I better get back to work before my boss gets any more ornery than he already is.” Nervously she turned and stalked back over to the bar top. Something about the look in his eye was making her feel a little uncomfortable. She decided for the sake of her job she would just ignore it. She had tough skin and he was right. She needed to be focused on all of her customers. She would just pretend that all of his comments were geared towards being as snarky as most of hers were.

  “So what was that all about? It looked like Trent was about to have a meltdown.” Judy asked as she squeezed in between Ashley and Abbi to get a bottle of tequila.

  “I think it’s because he wants to do nasty, dirty things to Abbi here. And she’s over there shakin’ it for Blondie on the other side of the bar.” Ashley tilted her head in Jeff’s direction.

  “No way, he’s my boss. And even if he did, want to do those things.” Abbi stuttered. “I wouldn’t even think about going down that road. That’s weird. Right?”

  “Honey, you aren’t in Georgia anymore and the owner of the bar isn’t your Uncle. So no it’s not weird.” Judy shouted.

  “For your information, my Uncle was a truck driver and I am not shaking it for Jeff!” Abbi protested as she lined up a round of shots.

  “Ahh! So he has a name! Do tell, who is this mystery man? Is he gonna be your boyfriend?” Ashley wiggled her brows in Abbi’s direction

  “You two are impossible!” Abbi shouted as she slid the shots to the customer in front of her.

  “What? Can’t a girl get some juicy info about her new bestie? Inquiring minds wanna know. You gonna bang him?”

  “Oh good grief Ashley, I just met him ten minutes ago!” Abbi was astounded. “He is not going to be my boyfriend and I don’t know who he is. For all I know he might be an ax murderer.” Abbi exclaimed as if saying it loudly would make them change the subject.

  “I don’t think he would be an ax murderer. Do you know how hard it is to find a hardware store in Los Angeles that would carry an ax?” Judy joked.

  “Yeah yeah, but that doesn’t mean he can’t get a good pair of scissors from the corner store.”

  “Oh, you’re over reacting. You need to live a little bit.”

  “You don’t classify leaving your hometown and traveling to the opposite side of the United States on a whim as living?” Abbi chuckled. “Man what’s a girl gotta do?”

  “Go on a date with Blondie.” Ashley answered her back from the other side of the bar.

  “Ok and how am I supposed to do that? Walk up to him and ask him to dinner, then to take me down the streets of LA strolling hand in hand?”

  “Hell no, listen you go over there and prance around for him a little and he will be begging you for a date. Then you let him wine and dine you before you go back to his apartment and have hot monkey sex with him.”

  “I can’t believe the phrase hot monkey sex just came up in conversation.” Somehow she didn’t think Ashley was buying the mortified look on her face.

  “Oh who are you kidding, look who you’re talking to sister. I invented hot monkey sex! Now watch and learn.” Ashley looked sideways at Abbi before walking over to a nice looking guy at the edge of the bar.

  Abbi watched as she touched his arm while she got his drink order, smiling so hard it made Abbi’s own cheeks hurt. As Ashley walked over to the beer tap the guy’s eyes didn’t leave her ass, and Ashley played it up, sashaying around hard enough to break a hip. Watching as she bent over to pick a napkin up off of the floor, it was everything Abbi could do to not stare with her mouth wide open. As she poured the beer, Ashley glanced back over her shoulder giving the guy a wink. She topped off the glass and returned it to her unsuspecting victim. He fiddled with his wallet without breaking eye contact with her and before he could lay the twenty on the counter.

  “Hi, um, I’m Matt. Would you like to grab a drink sometime?” The attractive man asked Ashley.

  Abbi couldn’t believe it. It actually worked, in a matter of four minutes Matt had gone from complete stranger to Ashley’s next date. She battled back and forth in her head, one side telling her to go for it, the other telling her to just save her loses and go for someone a little more on her level. I am sure there is some guy running a comic book store that would love to take her out. Not that she would probably find any of them in here.

  “See it’s that easy.” Ashley stuffed the napkin scribbled with black ink into her bra.

  “Yeah, for someone who knows what they are doing it is.” Abbi looked exasperated.

  “What’s wrong Abbi?” Ashley looked genuinely concerned. She hadn’t intended to upset Abbi.

  “It’s just that…”

  “What girl? You can tell me.”

  “What if he shoots me down, or isn’t interested? What do I do then?”

  “Well, I will be the first to tell you that won’t happen because he hasn’t taken his eyes off of you all night, but if for some reason he does, then just smile and move on to the next one. That’s the great thing about this city. There’s more fish out there than there is water to hold them. Now look he needs a refill, so go work your magic.” Ashley gave her an encouraging look.

  Ok she was going to do this. And God help her, if she fell on her face hopefully she wouldn’t look too stupid doing it. She plastered a big smile on her face and walked over to Jeff.

  “Well hello gorgeous. Where have you been all my life?” Jeff looked her up and down.

  “The same place I will be the rest of your life, in your dreams.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. She made her best attempt to bat her eye lashes, but figured she just looked like she had dirt in her eye, as she grabbed a strand of her hair and twirled it around her finger.

  “You’re dangerous, you know that?”

  “How so?”

  “Because you’re beautiful and you know it. Not to mention that mouth of yours. I don’t think anyone has quite put me in my place before like you have tonight. I like it.”

  Oh hell, again she was at a loss for words. She could keep up the sarcastic remarks but what the hell do you say when someone says something like that to you. “Well I appreciate the compliment.” Yep, that was lame. “So would you like another beer?”

  “Can I get it to go? Preferably with you?” she saw a look of hope in his eyes. For the first time the roles were reversed and she could see it happening right in front of her face. He thought she was going to turn him down.

  “It’s possible, though not tonight because I have to close. But get me your number and maybe we can get together next week when I know my schedule.” Abbi merely choked on her words. Her mouth was so dry and not to mention her heart was thumping so hard in her throat she could barely breathe.

  “Ok, it’s a date.” Jeff reached for a napkin as he scribbled down his number. “Don’t break my heart, beautiful.”

  “Well I say. I would never.” Abbi said in a deep southern drawl.

  Jeff smiled sliding her the napkin as she was stepping back away from the bar top with a shit eating grin. She looked up, Trent was standing at the top of the staircase leading up to the offices on the second floor. The look on his face sad that he was less than pleased. She watched him stalk through the door before slamming it shut. She flinched only at the thought, as the music was too loud to hear it slam.

  As she looked back up she saw Jeff’s eyes turning back from the same spot she had been looking at.

  “Having some boss issues?”

  “I am not sure what his problem is tonight, maybe he’s having a hard time getting it out.”

  Jeff looked at her with a confused and slightly disgusted look.

  “The stick up his ass.” She laughed.

  ******

  Trent stalked into the office. He slammed the door coming up to the second floor and then slammed the one going into the office. Screw it, no one was up here and no one would hear over the sound of t
he loud music.

  He paced angrily across the floor of his office. There was no way this guy was coming into his bar and trying to take his things from him. He was never one to share his toys and he wasn’t going to start now. He knew it was unreasonable to have him thrown out. Hell, all he did was talk to her.

  The images of Abbi and Blondie were flashing through his mind. The way she smiled. She didn’t smile like that with him. He could see the sway in her hips as she walked over to give him his beer. He could feel the anger burning up his face. Maybe he would go make some ridiculous claim and have the guy thrown out, after all it was his club, he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

  He walked around his desk and sat in his chair. As he stared off towards the wall contemplating a plan, he heard his phone go off in his pocket. He reached in pulling it free and after taking in the number on the caller ID he immediately answered it, putting the phone up to his ear.

  “This is Trent” He answered the phone nervously. There was no way he would be able to get away with ignoring anymore of these calls.

  “Mr. Williams, I hope you haven’t been dodging my phone calls. I haven’t been able to get a hold of you for the past few days. I was beginning to get worried that you had gone back on our deal.” A heavy Hispanic voice came through the receiver.

  “No, not at all. I’m sorry. Things here with the club have been very busy. And my girlfriend, she uh, she has been sick.” He wiped his hands up and down on his slacks trying to wipe the sweat off, hoping that he sounded convincing.

  “Well Mr. Williams. Busy means money. You do have my money right?”

  “Yes, I have your payment for this month.”

  “That’s great Mr. Williams. Really Because I didn’t want to have to hurt you. I will be sending an associate down tonight to pick it up. Have it ready.”

  “Yes sir. I will make sure it’s ready.” Trent prayed in his head that they had made enough in sales tonight to cover the money he had used.