Page 14 of Untethered Heart
I place two bottles of beer in front of the guys waiting before moving on to my next customers. Thursdays aren’t as busy as the weekend nights, but we still get a decent crowd. Especially since the nightclub is a part of the High Rollers Casino, and the Callahan Hotel next door attracts a lot of tourists.
Speaking of the casino, one of the owners, James Huxley, walks behind the bar as I turn to pull a cider from the fridge for my next customer. He’s trailing behind his sister, my boss, Gen.
“Do you have to be here annoying me?” she says over her shoulder tohim.
The younger Huxley sibling is always stern and closed off. He walks around with his hands in his pockets, his eyes always observing his space. Seeing. Judging. He scares the shit out of me, but Gen says he’s harmless.
“I haven’t seen you in a month. Didn’t you miss me?” James asks, his lip pulls into what I’m assuming is the closest this guy gets to a smile.
“Not really,” Gen says, and I can’t help but chuckle. I last saw my brother three weeks ago, and I can tell you with all the certainty in the world that I miss him. He lives a few hours away in our hometown. I plan to move back home next year, but for the moment, I’m trying to put my studies to good use and gain hands-on experience running a bar so I can help him when I do.
“Everything all good here, Lex?” Gen asks. Her dark hair is pulled off her face, her blue eyes lined in black. Everything about Gen is like shadows in winter. Her brother is the same, but Gen has a nicer way about owning her icy personality.
“Yep, all good.” I smile. I look over her shoulder where James watches with disinterest. “Hello, Mr Huxley.”
Gen snorts at my greeting. I just don’t feel comfortable calling the millionaire who pays my wages by his first name.
“Hello, Alexis. Has my sister been behaving?”
“What do you mean by behaving?” Gen scoffs.
“Not making people uncomfortable with your no-filter personality.”
“What part of that is uncomfortable?” Gen looks to me as if her brother is talking crazy. It’s true, Gen has a no-filter personality. Much the same as Claire. Maybe that’s why I get along with her so well. I like loud personalities. It means I can shrink into the background if I need, and I know they’ll be content to carry the conversation.
“Some people don’t like to talk as openly as you do.”
“Give me an example.” Gen rolls her eyes as she fills a glass with vodka and sodawater.
“Telling me you feel better after a good railing,” he deadpans, then looks over at me with wide eyes. “No brother wants to hear that.”
I bite my lip to hold in my laughter.
“Who doesn’t feel better after that?” Gen says. “I’m just the one saying it.”
“That’s my point, Genevieve, you’re the one who says everything. Hence, the no-filter personality that can get you into trouble. So, I ask again. Alexis, has my sister been behaving?”
“She’s her usual endearing self,” I say, winking at Gen. An obnoxious, toothy grin covers her face as she looks back at her brother.
“If my behaviour,” Gen says with air quotes, “bothers you so much, brother, then I ask again, why must you be here annoying me?”
“I told you. I haven’t seen you in a month. I came to say hello.”
“How was Royal Harbour?” Gen asks, while I continue to serve customers beside them.
“Good. The hotel on the property next door to the casino is finally up for sale, so we’re buying that. I’ll meet with Tenley Callahan when the deal goes through to get another Callahan Hotel linked to the casino.”
The Callahans own hotels across Australia. They have a lot of pull in the hospitality industry here on the West Coast. Tenley Callahan owns the building where Claire is currently renovating her new salon.
“We met with the Heart siblings over there as well,” I hear James continue, but a customer further down the bar pulls my attention away. The rest of the shift goes quickly after the last call. It’s a rush to close out the tills, wipe down and reset the bar. Before I know it, it’s just before three in the morning when I pull my car into the gravel driveway of Claire’s and my house.
A white truck is parked next to my normal spot. Claire must have found a friend to bring home with her. I’m quiet asI approach the front door, keys ready to unlock it when it pulls open, startling me. It’s the blond guy Claire hooked up with the same night I met Caleb. His hair is mussed up, and he holds black sneakers in his hand as he looks at me with a slight blush.
“Hey,” he whispers. I don’t really make an effort to get to know Claire’s hook-ups. Not a lot of them are repeats, and they almost never stay till the light of day. Guess she likes this guy more than usual if he’s hanging nearly two weeks later.
“Hi,” I say as we awkwardly move around each other. He hurries down the porch steps while I make my way inside. Seeing him reminds me of the night I met Caleb, putting him even more vividly in my thoughts right before I get into bed.
It was just one night. Why does he consume my thoughts so much? For the last few years, I’ve been focusing on my studies, knowing it was working towards my brother’s and my dream to honour our dad. When my dad passed away, Claire stepped in. I was only fourteen, so I moved up to Heart City to live with my grandmother. But my brother was twenty, so he was allowed to stay in our family home and keep running Dad’s pub. When my grandmother passed away a few years later, Claire and I moved in together. We were already inseparable, so it made sense. But something has shifted lately. I feel so untethered, and I wish I knew why.
