I nod.
“She wants more though?”
I nod again.
“If she were my daughter, I’d tell you to stay the fuck away from her,” Chuck says, not holding back whatsoever.
“I get it,” I say morosely. What he speaks is the truth.
Ellie should stay the fuck away from me.
“She’s the type who goes all in. You’d probably break her heart,” he continues.
“I know.”
“She’s also the type who’d do her damnedest to please you for the rest of your life. Which would have you wanting to do the same, just to earn that sweet smile of hers again and again,” he speculates.
“You’re probably right.” There are girls you fuck around with and girls you revere and put on a pedestal, because you know they’re not built for that.
And that’s Ellie. She’s not the girl you have a casual thing with. She feels too much. She’d fall too hard.
“Don’t mess with her head,” Chuck says, his voice stern, reminding me of my father. “Don’t be telling her you want something more when you don’t.”
“Relax. I’ve got it under control,” I say, flashing him a smile.
He scowls at me in return.
Guess that charming smile only works on the ladies, not middle-aged bartenders who know what I’m all about.
I turn and watch Ellie unabashedly as she works. Carson and his friend eventually leave, and of course, Ellie talks to them before they go, but they’re too far away so I can’t hear what they say. She watches them go, a wistful look on her face and I remember when she used to look like that over me.
Seeing her face, watching her with that Carson dude, reiterates what I already know.
I messed up with Ellie. Big time.
The front doors are eventually locked and the open sign turned off. Management lets me stay because Chuck vouches for me. I keep out of the way as the remaining employees wipe everything down. Ellie and another girl hurriedly mop the floor—what a shit job. Chuck does a thorough clean-up of his bar space.
I sit there like a prince and watch the servants work, like the spoiled brat I truly am. I’ve never had to hold down a job such as this in my life. I worked the dock at one of the resorts on the lake back home the summer between my junior and senior year, but that wasn’t hard work at all. I was taking in boats and flirting with old ladies and getting tips. Working with a couple of guys who turned into my friends, having the best summer ever. I was tan as fuck and looking good. By the time I arrived at school my senior year, girls were literally falling at my feet.
It was a good time.
Around ten, Ellie is finally ready to go.
“I clocked out. You ready?” she asks as she approaches me.
Nodding, I slide off the barstool and leave a ten-dollar bill in the tip jar for Chuck. “Let’s do this,” I tell her.
We walk out into the arid night, the heat still lingering. There are only a few cars left in the small lot, and Ellie follows me to mine, not saying a word.
I don’t speak either.
Not until we’re inside the car and I’ve finally started the engine does she say something.
“Thanks for coming to pick me up, even though you didn’t have to.”
Well. That was a shitty thank you.
“You’re welcome,” I bite out, hating how annoyed I sound.