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“Okay, well goodbye then, Mr. Banker,” Leah says quietly. “I’ll see you next week.”
Of course I feel bad as she exits the room, I’ve let her down just like I have done everyone here. This place is the reason that I’m struggling so much with what I’m doing. The center is the half of me. I want to go home to tell Pru to go back to her own home for a while so we can both have some space to think… but I don’t know how powerful that half of me is quite yet.
I need to go home, to talk to her. We need to make this decision together. I can’t do it alone.
I grab my brief case and I walk purposely towards the exit, needing to get out of here before anyone can stop me… but of course, it’s just my luck that I’m not going to be allowed my space.
“Hey, Logan!” Hank’s voice calls out to me as he spots me going. “Are you on for tonight?”
“Erm, maybe.” I yell back, not breaking my stride. “I need to pop home to sort some stuff out but I’ll give you a call if I make it out, okay? Keep an eye on your cell phone.”
“Ah, you have to sort your women trouble.” His words make me cringe, they reveal too much of me that I don’t want to be seen. “Great, well I’ll get you one in then. You’re going to need it!”
He might be right actually, I don’t know how this is going to work out so a beer with some guys might be just what I need. This might end up in a massive horrible row, not that I want that, in which case I’ll need to drown my sorrows.
“Awesome, sounds good, Hank, cheers buddy!”
Chapter Twenty Two – Prudence
This is better, I think to myself as I smile and look around the store. Lo
gan was right, I just need to keep on pushing forwards. It was too busy for my first day and I allowed that to overwhelm me, then I let one bad day send me backwards into a very dark place, but now I have confidence. Now I feel like I can really do this. Maybe that’s because Alice and Becky have been really nice to me, or because I’ve made a couple of sales, or maybe it’s because me and Logan finally had sex.
As I sit in the staff room at the end of the day, waiting for everyone else to gather up their stuff, all the memories of us sleeping together bursts into my mind. I have a cheeky, sexy secret and I love it so much. It makes me feel like I’m much less of a boring, quiet person. Now I’m worthwhile.
“You’re doing good, girl,” Alice declares loudly while circling my waist with her arm. “This has been a much better day for you, hasn’t it? And you didn’t even need all those sales tactics.”
I grin at her, letting my happiness shine through. “No, you’re right, I didn’t. I’m much calmer now, I think the first day nerves just got the better of me, that’s all. I’m more positive now.”
Alice flips her long red hair over her shoulder as she sits next to Becky. She’s pretty, like a delicate English rose with her pale skin and the smattering of freckles across her nose, but her deep brown eyes give her a cheeky look, and those voluptuous curves of hers make her so sexy it hurts. Becky has a completely different look; dark hair, dark eyes, tattoos all over her, but she’s equally as hot. Next to them I feel plain and simple looking, but I have Logan so it doesn’t matter.
“You know what, Prudence? You should come out with us tonight for a couple of drinks after work. We’re headed to a bar just around the corner from here, it’ll be really fun.”
My heart lifts with excitement. Yes, I know that me and Logan probably need to have a conversation about what’s to come next, but this is what I want, this is all part of my new life and the experiences that I want to have. Friends, bars, drinking, dancing. Logan will understand, won’t he? He knows more than anyone how important this stuff is to me. We can have our chat any time.
“Yeah, actually that sounds great.” I glance over at the laptop in the corner of the room. “Do you think it’d be okay for me to borrow Mr. Turners computer to send an email?”
“Oh yeah, we do it all the time.” Alice waves her hand dismissively over in the direction of it. “Why do you have plans to cancel? Can’t you just send a text message?”
My cheeks flame with embarrassment. There’s no way in hell that I can confess to this girl that I can’t text because I haven’t ever had a mobile phone. I’m doing my best to keep my past with my mother, my father, and the center long behind me, I don’t want anyone to know. At least not right now, maybe I’ll tell them when I’m ready, but this isn’t the time.
“Oh, my cell is broken,” I lie with a shrug. “I’m waiting for my pay check to get a new one.”
That’s going to be one of the first things I buy actually. Now that I have a life I need a cell phone to go with it, but for now I have to be content logging on to my email on Mr. Turners laptop. I fire off a quick email to Logan, hoping that he’ll see it and that it’ll be enough, then just as an afterthought I scribble his cell phone number down on a piece of paper and I slide it into my pocket. There’s a massive chance that I won’t need it, but I’d rather have it in case.
“Okay.” I turn to Becky and Alice grinning happily. God this has to be the best forty-eight hours of my life. First things happening with Logan, then work going well, and now friends. “Let’s go.”
I walk slightly behind the girls as we leave the store because I don’t know where I’m going and because I’m also a little concerned about how embarrassing this is going to be if I end up getting booted out of the bar because of my age. I can’t exactly explain my desperation to a bartender now, can I? I’m only just eighteen years of age, and I think that I look it too, whereas I know that Becky is already twenty-one. I think Alice is about nineteen but she has a fake ID, I heard her talking about it before. Maybe I’ll just have to be the lame kid who doesn’t drink booze. I never really wanted to before because of my dad, but this is the first time it feels like I’ll actually be missing out.
As we reach the bar, Becky heads directly for the bar counter while me and Alice get a seat in the back where we can’t easily be seen by anyone. Because she’s been the kindest to me, I open up.
“I’m actually a bit afraid that I’ll get kicked out,” I tell her quietly as I take my seat. Of all the people who I think might judge me, Alice isn’t that person. “Because I’m too young.”
“Oh, don’t you worry about it.” Alice doesn’t seem concerned at all. “Becky knows the bar man in here, she’s been sleeping with him for ages. And you look all grown up in your work uniform anyway, you could easily pass for twenty-one. Stop worrying about it, just have some fun.”
I nod slowly and suck in a breath. She’s right, and anyway, this is the sort of thing that teenagers do all the time… or so it seems from the high school movies that I’ve watched. A little bit of underage drinking is just fun. And at least I have Logan’s to go back to, I won’t be alone to choke on my vomit or anything. This is a good thing, this is fun, this is where I should be.
Becky comes to join us with a massive jug of some orangey looking liquid in it and three glasses beside it. I have no idea what it is, but I’m getting excited to try it. Alice pours us all a glass then holds it out in a cheers gesture. We clink them together and drink… well, they drink. They glug the drinks back rapidly. I sip. I try to slug a decent amount of it back to keep up with the girls but I don’t quite manage it. It’s hard to drink something that’s so fruity and bitter all at once anyway.
