Chapter Two

"Don't lose me!" I shouted over the loud music. The club was hot and crowded. I walked close behind Tana so we wouldn't get separated. I was feeling tired and fed up with the demands of Matt. I had seen him five separate times since he winked at me and still, neither of us brought it up. I was starting to wonder if I had imagined it.

"How's work going?" Tana asked me as we sat down at the bar.

I shook my head and leaned close to her. "I don't want to talk about work tonight. Matt has me running around like a headless chicken and it's stressful."

Tana tipped her head back and laughed. "I told you."

"Told me what?" I asked.

"What can I get you?" The bartender said, leaning on the counter.

"I'll have a Bud light lime." Tana said.

"I'll take an apple martini," I said to him and Tana rolled her eyes. She was always judging me on my taste in drinks. She preferred to drink beer, and she thought my preference for mixed drinks was "high maintenance" and "conforming to the rules society had set up for women." I ignored her eye roll and watched the bartender open a bottle of beer for her and set it in front of her on the bar before getting started on my drink.

"Anyway," Tana said. "I told you that working in the corporate world would cause you to lose your soul."

"I haven't lost my soul!" I argued.

She looked at me. Her face saying the words she left unspoken.

"yet," I added.

Tana was an interesting person. She disagreed with so many social norms. I admired her for it, honestly. I knew I could never write off half the shit she did. I felt so uptight when I compared myself to her.

I grabbed the drink the bartender sat down in front of me and took a sip. The vodka burned the back of my throat and all the way down. I set my glass back on the bar and stirred it with the stirrer he had provided. There was about three times the alcohol in there as there should have been and I wondered if the bar owners realized how much alcohol was going out the door each night. I took another sip, tasting just a tad more apple flavoring than before.

"Tell me more about Matt." Tana set her almost empty bottle of beer down on the counter.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you have a crush."

I tried to fight it but still felt my cheeks grow hot. If we wouldn't have been in the dark club, I'm sure everyone would have seen the 50 shades of pink on my face. "What are you talking about?" I played dumb.

"Come on. I feel like I've hardly seen you. I need details. Lord knows my bed's been empty as fuck." She said, taking a long pull from her beer and setting it down. She licked the small drop off her lip with her tongue. I wanted to laugh at her use of the words "as fuck". The saying was a staple in her vocabulary.

"Details about what?"

"Your crush. Damn it. Stop fucking around." She took a final swig. Having emptied the bottle, she slid it to the bartender. "Yeah, can I get another one, please?"

At least she was polite. I thought. "So the other day we were in his office. And Erin showed up. They left for lunch and as they were getting on the elevator, he winked at me."

"I'd hate to work for someone like him." She said.

"Why?” I asked, knowing far too well what she was about to go on about.

I watched her down the second beer the bartender placed in front of her. "Because working for him would mean working for that scum, Steve Marston. You realize how evil Marston Media is, right? Steve raised one point four million to buy a yacht. A fuckin' yacht, Amber. Like instead of donating it to charity, instead of doing something good with it, he bought a fucking' yacht. Do you realize how disgusting that is?"

I laughed at her rant. It was a typical thing for her to do. Drink and rant about all the evil corporations of the world.

"Don't laugh at me, Amber. You know it's shitty." The bartender placed another beer in front of her. I wondered if I'd be carrying her home later. I still had half of my drink left.

"I know. But I need this job. It's not like I can just walk away from it. It pays good and there're great benefits." I explained.

She wiggled her eyebrows at me. "Like the eye candy."

I gave her a playful shrug. "sure."

She sat up straighter in her chair. "Ooo bachelor party, six o'clock." I looked over my shoulder at a group of guys that had just walked in.

I wasn't the least bit interested in any of them. They all looked like they belonged to the same frat. Probably at Columbia, but I saw the look in Tana's eye. She spotted something she wanted, and I knew she would sink her teeth in him. It didn't take long before she was off the bar stool and walking over to the guy.

I watched them flirt. She would lean into his ear and say something, he'd smile or laugh and respond in the same way. He said something about her hair and she giggled. They always said things about her hair. She was open about her sexuality. She was Bi and very proud and she didn't care who had anything to say about her being with so many people.

I fucking loved her for that.

She came back over with the guy a few minutes later. "I'll uh, be home in the morning."

I laughed. "Okay. Sounds good." And stood up. I placed a 50 on the counter and left. Tana and the guy were long gone, probably to swallow each other's tongues somewhere in the back of the bar. I walked back to our studio apartment. My mind wandered to Matt. What he was doing. Who he was with. Was he with Erin? I wasn’t sure and I didn’t know why I was so focused on him during my time away from work.