West, however, was wholly unbothered by Renny's relentless questioning.
As a whole, that was just West.
Unbothered.
I couldn't claim to have ever seen the man stressed or irritated. Even when he was given the most menial of tasks to carry out. Sure, he sometimes complained, but he did it in a joking, happy way.
I guess that was why he and Vance got along so well.
Vance was prone to dark moods, to introspection, to walling himself away from everything on occasion.
West was always lightness and ease and extroversion, always willing to drag Vance out of the clubhouse, get him out of his moods.
In turn, Vance helped soften West's sometimes too blunt, poorly filtered words.
West was laid-back, evening out Vance's moodiness. In turn, Vance buffered West's bluntness and poor filter.
They were a good duo, evening each other out.
By Vance's third solo, moping beer, West was walking over, throwing an arm around his shoulders, insisting that he had to come over to see what one of the women could do with her tongue and a cherry stem.
"I'd invite you, but you're still waiting for that chick to text you back," he told me with a knowing look before he shuffled Vance over to the table.
Apparently, observation skills needed to make the list of West's unexpected personality traits.
Or maybe he figured that the only thing that would glue me to technology was a woman.
It was right then that my phone finally dinged.Annie - Hey, Neighbor. Just got in and saw your note. Spent six hours trying to do laundry. Have all but one of the machines always been broken in the basement?- I don't think anyone has even attempted to use the laundry room in years.Annie - That explains the cobwebs in my hair. Live and learn. I didn't keep you up last night, did I? I don't usually have clients that late, but nights work with his schedule.Annie - Oh my God. That was so stupid. I'm so sorry!Clients?
There was a knee-jerk twisting in my stomach, my world being a darker place full of rougher characters, so my mind immediately went toward something illegal, something others would look down on.
That she was selling herself to make ends meet.
But no.
I mean, I had spotted all sorts of prostitutes in my time from the ones working corners, strung out and looking to fuck for their next fix, all the way up to the high-end call girls, wearing designer everything and driving around in cars that cost as much as a modest house. Sex workers came from all walks of life. You were no more likely to pick one out at a grocery store - or apartment building - than a school teacher or a nurse.
But still, something in me said that Annie wasn't a sex worker, that she had some other sort of clients. In her home. At night.
It took a long minute to put things together. The flyers she said she needed to put up, the sounds of both expert and very amateur guitar playing coming from her place.
She was teaching music.
And this client in particular likely worked during the day, and needed lessons later at night.
The apology was almost immediate and sweet. And the perfect opportunity to tell her the truth. I could hear; I just didn't speak. But did I do that? No. No, of course not.- No worries. No apology necessary. I am used to having a lot more foot traffic coming and going. I have always lived in big cities.Annie - I've lived in a big city or two. And small towns. I think I like Navesink Bank best. It is somewhere in between. You get all the convenience of shopping and restaurants but surrounded by nature, so the air doesn't get too thick. What made you end up in Navesink Bank?- My sisters. Not by blood, but life. Liv fell for a Henchman. Astrid and I followed her here. I eventually became a Henchman myself.There was no use not admitting the truth. She'd seen me in my cut, riding in on my bike. And there was no secret about what my club was known for. If she wasn't turned off of me as a person already, my mentioning it to her wasn't going to change anything.Annie - That's really sweet. Do you like it here? Or did you just want to be close to her?- I guess it started as the latter. The dynamic might have changed, but we were still a family. It felt wrong to be separated. And I haven't really led the kind of life that allowed me to settle down and call any one place home, so it wasn't hard for me to up and move, to settle here.Annie - But do you like it here?- I am starting to. It was an adjustment. I'd never been in an MC before. The life is different. But the place itself, yeah, I've gotten comfortable here. I like having places where people know me, know my orders. It makes everything easier.