Protect Me (6 page)

“Thought I was gonna have to fight an old lady over this last cinnamon roll.” Judy said as Ryan stood offering his chair to her.

“I had to stop her from grabbing a plastic butter knife.” Ashley joked.

“Well, I will leave you ladies to your afternoon, Abbi it was great seeing you again. Maybe I will see you again soon?” He said, throwing her that All-American boy smile.

“Uh, sure. Maybe I will see you around soon. You know where to find me.” Abbi left that sentence open. She didn’t want to be shot down.

“Yes, I do. Well ladies have a great day.” He said glancing over at Judy and then to Ashley who looked like they were about to start drooling.

“Thanks Ryan, you have a great day too.” Abbi answered for the group.

He headed out of the courtyard, down the sidewalk towards his black SUV, but not without turning to catch a glimpse of her one last time before leaving.

“It’s always the new girl that everyone crushes on, like in that sparkly vampire movie and Annette Billings in High School. That hussy stole my boyfriend!” Judy said dramatically handing Abbi a coffee and plastic container.

“What are you talking about? He was just having that conversation because he probably felt bad for me.” Abbi rolled her eyes “I am sure he looks at me as a charity case. You know one of those things you don’t really want to do but you feel obligated. Especially since he just about knocked me out when I was walking into the bakery.”

“Girl, you really are clueless aren’t you. You’re hot! Hell I am jealous of your hair and you’re available. That’s all guys are concerned with these days.” Judy waved her hand towards Abbi. “Guys don’t do the sympathy thing. They do easy, but not sympathy.”

“The last thing I need is to fall for some player who thinks I am just easy. The first thing I need to do is to eat some of this amazing sugar filled greatness.” Taking her first bite she realized that this was probably the best thing she had ever eaten. Better than her Aunt Sally’s cheesecake. The light taste of cream cheese mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon made her senses explode. How were these not individually wrapped and sold on store shelves?

“Pretty amazing right?” Judy smiled as she asked.

A muffled acknowledgment was all she could get out with her mouth full. The three of them sat in the afternoon sun, chatting and finishing their coffees before heading back to Abbi’s apartment.  As the black SUV pulled up outside, the girls said their goodbyes and Abbi headed inside to get ready to head to work.

She walked into her door and dropped her load of bags onto the floor. She would definitely be filling up her closet quickly if she continued this kind of shopping. She made her way through her small kitchen, stopping for a moment to look out the French doors leading to the balcony. She had always said there was nothing like a sunset in the south, but as she watched the purple and pink tones bouncing off of the windows of the adjacent building in every direction they could reach, she began to realize that maybe this was where she was always supposed to be.

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.

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. Goosebumps 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.