Page 49 of Two Wrongs

“Go change. You can help me behind the bar. They’ve got me running more than a toddler hopped up on sugar.”

I find a small t-shirt, and tie the corner to show off a little skin. I’m usually fully covered and buttoned up, but my talk with Charlie has me wanting to be anyone other than myself. I’d changed into a tight pair of ripped jeans when I got the news of my office being shut down, so I am not otherwise overdressed to start working now.

Donovan and I develop a rhythm pretty quickly. I like how busy it is. There’s not any time to think, let alone answer any questions about my personal life. People are laughing and joking with friends, and it helps soothe some of the loneliness I’m feeling.

Bess comes in after about an hour of me working behind the bar. I give her a look, silently asking her how the other night went. She winks at me and ties her apron around her waist. Donovan cranks up the music, and even though it’s the beginning of most people’s work week, it’s a party inside the bar.

When the crowd finally starts to thin out, we’re exhausted, but I’ve got a wad of tips in my apron pocket that should help me makeup for what I’m losing at the office.

Donovan stops wiping down the bar and leans in front of me. “I figure I owe you, so if you need more hours, they’re yours. I’ll even teach you to tend bar if you like, that can give me some time to do the admin crap I hate so I don’t have to come in so early.”

I look over at Bess. “I don’t want to take away any hours from anyone else.”

She waves me off. “Please, I’m finishing up my AA degree online. I could use a little extra time to study. I’ve been working so much because he refused to hire extra help.”

Then Donovan’s words sink in. “What do you mean, you owe me?” I ask him.

He starts concentrating hard on wiping a non-existent spot off the bar. “Donovan,” I shout.

Taking a deep breath, he looks up at me. “Liam wasn’t all that sneaky. He came in here a few times and left with different women. It’s only the last few months that he stopped. I assumed the two of you made up.”

My legs buckle, and if not for Bess guiding me to a barstool I’d have fallen on my ass. “Different women, so not a singular affair then,” I mutter to myself.

Bess wraps one skinny, bracelet-laden arm around my back and leans her head on my shoulder. The silent support says a lot that words can’t seem to accomplish.

Donovan looks at me with pity. “Please don’t look at me like that,” I whisper to him.

He nods. “I’m sorry I haven’t said anything to you. We didn’t really know each other well, and if I went around telling all the things I’ve seen in here, I’d never have any customers. But, let me ask you this, whether it was one woman or a dozen, does that really make the betrayal any less?”

Does it? I sit with that for a moment. “I think it does. As much as an emotional relationship hurts, I think I like the idea that his feelings got the best of him better than he just wanted any warm body as long as it wasn’t mine.”

“If Bess won’t hit me for saying this, he’s a fucking idiot. You’re hot,” Donovan says.

Bess rolls her eyes. “You’re supposed to wait for me to say go ahead, dumbass.” She looks at me and smirks. “But he’s not wrong. You’re hot as fuck. I’d do you if I didn’t have this idiot and if you were into girls.”

“I’ve never really thought about if I’m into women or not,” I muse.

Bess laughs. “Trust me, if you haven’t had it cross your mind, then you’re not.”

There’s one self-discovery item I can cross off. “I take it the two of you sorted everything out the other night?”

She drops her arm from my back, and props her elbows on the bar with her head cradled in her hands. “Oh boy did we. He did this thing with—“

Donovan puts his hand over her mouth. “I don’t think our little Wrenegade is looking for details.”

“I’m really not,” I confirm.

“You’re both boring,” Bess complains.

Donovan pours each of us a beer. I take a big drink of mine, and wipe the foam away from my mouth. “So this is what it’s like. Meeting friends at the bar, talking about anything and everything.”

Bess mumbles into her drink, “Not everything. You won’t let me tell you about the thing he did with a bottle.”

I choke on the beer I’d just drank, then start laughing. “What would I have done without the two of you.”

“Probably had more time to bang your father-in-law,” Bess says.

Donovan spits his drink across the bar. “It all makes so much more sense now! That’s why he’s been acting so pissy with me. He knows that you and I aren’t anything, right?”

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