teen years He lived off of clients’ previous settlements. Most of the time he never screwed up enough to have to actually work. It was rare that he had to do a settlement nowadays. Losing two clients on retainer was like telling Mr. James that doughnuts had gone extinct. I was in so much trouble.
“I don't understand. I built that all myself, it's ironclad.”
“Apparently it's not strong enough. So I thank you for your time but your services are no longer required here.”
“You're firing me?”
“It appears that way. We can't afford to have issues like this. So while I appreciate your position, and you've been good to this company for the past two years, it's time for you to move on. Maybe somewhere that doesn't need a security system built quite as strongly as we do. Pack your things and leave.”
I sat there for a moment longer unsure of what to do with myself. I had never been fired before, hell I hadn't even quit anything. I was someone who always saw a project through. I could hardly understand where had I had gone wrong.
“Addison, leave. Don't make me call security.”
I nodded just as the tears prickled my eyes. I stood and exited his office as quickly as possible. After walking down the hall and into my shared office I grabbed my things and shoved them in my purse. The only thing I had to carry was my laptop and my coffee. None of the other software techs said anything to me, I doubt they even realized that I'd been fired. We all used to sit there with our headphones in jamming out to music while we wrote code or did research for the lawyers, hacking into companies and finding out things that no one was supposed to know. We weren't really friends, just warm bodies that filled the same room. No one's eyes even met mine as I tearfully walked out the door.
What the hell was I going to do? Where would I go? As I walked out of the building and into the hot summer sun my heels clicked on the concrete and I began walking home. Sure I had usually taken the Metro but I didn't feel like I should just go home. I didn't feel like that was where I belonged. So instead I just kept walking until finally I rounded a corner and saw a pub in front of me with its doors wide open.
Time to drown my sorrows, time to come up with a new plan.
Four
Cole
I sat down at the bar of my favorite pub and ordered a whiskey.
“On the rocks, as usual.”
The bartender, an older man with graying hair nodded to me as he put down the glass that he was cleaning and picked up a short one to fill for me. The place was practically empty, it was the middle of the day. I was actually surprised that they would even serve me this early, I had never been in here at this time before. But after the discussion with my uncle yesterday I had a completely awful afternoon. I spent the entire day going through my phone book to see if there were any girls would even consider going on a date with me. And I had hundreds of girls in my book, and those were just the girls whose names I could remember. The ones I liked enough to get their phone number. Most of the numbers were disconnected, or some of those girls I hadn’t talked to since before I left the military. A couple had been the girls I would sleep with when I was home on leave but surprise surprise a few of them were married already.
I was totally screwed.
Just as the bartender set my drink down in front of me I noticed a girl at the end of the bar setting up a laptop. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and began typing furiously, she was pretty but not in a way that I usually was interested in.
She looked smart, it wasn't that I didn't like smart girls, but that wasn't what I was looking for. No brilliant girl who brought a laptop computer to the bar was going to be my fiancé. That would never happen. She would never agree to it.
I nursed my whiskey and continued to scroll through my phone to see if there was anyone I had missed. Any other calls I could make. But as the afternoon turned into evening and the bar got more popular I realized I had downed three whiskeys and made no phone calls. Occasionally I would sneak a glance at the girl at the end of the bar, but she seemed to be only drinking beer and typing away. I found myself wondering what she was working on.
Suddenly she slammed her hands down on the bar and made me and four other guys have to grab our drinks so they didn’t escape the ledge.
“God dammit!”
She got off the barstool and began searching underneath the bar for an outlet. Apparently, her laptop had died. The other guys at the bar started murmuring about her wondering if something was wrong with her. I didn't know if there was something wrong with her or not but clearly, she wasn't having a good day.
“What's the girl at the end of the bar drinking?”
The bartender held up a bottle of some hard cider. A total girly drink. “Great put on my tab.” He cracked open the bottle and passed it to me. I grabbed my whiskey and sauntered past the mumbling men and set it next to her laptop.
“You look like you could use a drink.” Then I survey the three empty bottles in front of her. “Another drink,” I remedied.
She looked up at me from her spot on the floor and pushed her glasses up on her nose. “You're buying me a drink?”
“Actually I think I already bought you a drink. You just have to accept it.”
I set my drink down on the bar and offered her hand. She grasped it gently and stood up staring right into my eyes. Reflected back at me was a girl I hardly understood. Perfectly green pools with golden flex swimming around in them. Her skin was pale like she wasn't out in the sun very often and she had a bridge of freckles that went just across her nose. She was adorable. With a cute little body to match. Perfectly pouty lips and breasts that were just a little too full for the top that she was wearing. My eyes continued down to a black pencil skirt and matching black pumps. In between, she had perfectly sculpted legs. I thought she wasn't my type.
I was wrong.
“Thank you. It's been kind of a shit day.”