A Picture Is Only Worth a Thousand Words-Jenna
“AY, girl. Pass me the vodka.”
“Sure thing.” I tossed it up into the air. Joel caught it, spun around, and bowed. The girls at the bar cheered. Only Joel could put on a show like that. He poured drinks for them and probably got a twenty-dollar tip. Thank God we shared tips.
“J, come on back for a minute.” Gage poked his head out of the office. I finished up the glasses I was cleaning before heading back there.
“What’s up, Gage?” He sat at the desk with papers all over the surface and stress all over his face. “You look concerned.”
“The books are fucked. We need to redo the finances. I don’t know if I can do it. I know you’re super-busy. We may have to hire someone to come in to do it.”
“Shit. Okay.” I sat across from him and looked at the paper closest to me. “I wish I knew more about finances.”
“We were barely caught up when Ainsley was born, and we became parents first. Fuck.”
“I don’t blame you guys.” I looked at her picture on the desk. “She’s worth all the mess.”
“I agree, but with you officially owning half the bar now, we need to vote between the three of us.”
“Makes sense. What’s the problem?”
“Well, if we hire someone, you’d have to train them to make sure they do their job. We’re thinking about being silent partners. I want to get back into my dream of opening a tattoo shop, and Cyn wants to float between home and here.”
“You would be great. I know you wanted to do that a while ago.” I thought back to the first year when he and Cyn danced around each other. “Good for you. Chase your dreams.”
“Thanks, J.” He sighed and glanced at me. “I feel like I should be the one taking care of you, but you’re helping us out. Are you up for hiring someone and running the place? You could still bartend every once in a while, but you’d be in charge of scheduling, hiring, and inventory. I don’t want to fuck up your schooling, and I feel like we’re putting you in a bad position.”
“No. I can handle it. I’ll make Joel and Maggie managers. Hire someone for the books, and hell, if I could train them on inventory, it would work out. We’ll be okay.” I shrugged.
He smiled, relieved. “Good. I knew we could count on you.”
“Shit, did you ever doubt me? Shame on you, Gage.” I laughed and went back to the bar.
It was three in the afternoon, and I was dying to get off work. This was new for me. I loved working and being in the bar. It was odd to be excited to head home, especially to go hang out with Aiden. Just the thought of him made me smile. I still couldn’t get over the fact he got a beer-making kit for us. It was such a couple thing to do together. Not like I minded.
Joel yelled something at me, and I mentally kicked myself for daydreaming. I was not that girl. “Sorry, J-Dawg. My bad.”
“Get your shit together, lover girl. We have a pre-game rush right now. I need two hundred bucks, so work it behind the bar.”
“Yes, sir.” I flew into action. I sent a couple of texts to Aiden about the beer and what I wanted to do to him later, but I never got a response. I didn’t have a second to even worry about it. We were slammed. So much for getting off early that night. The basketball game didn’t start until seven, and we had hours before then.
“What the hell, J? Why are we so busy?”
“Game, probably.” My arms hurt, and my legs were sore. It had been five hours of straight action for a Saturday afternoon. Not our typical weekend. It usually got like this later.
“Hell. I’m going to double what I needed to make. I’m pumped, but shit. We don’t have enough servers.”
“I know. I’ll get Gage.” I cashed out the couple in front of me and ran to the back. “Hey, Gage, we are slammed. Can you run food?”
“Sure thing. Just posted the ad online. Be right there.”
“Appreciate it.” I checked my phone. Still no messages. Huh. I passed the kitchen and refilled all their waters. I knew they were roasting back there.
“J! Get more vodka. Hell. These women are going to drown in it.”
“Sure.” I ran back and forth restocking, refilling, pouring, and sweating. I finally started to notice a break in the crowd and sighed.
Joel came up and rubbed my back for a second. “You good, girl?”
“Fuck. I didn’t get enough sleep for this.”
“Aiden. Damn him.”
I laughed and looked up to a familiar face, only with a fresh bruise. I tensed.
Joel noticed and stayed right behind me.
“Kam.”
“Jenna. Hi.” He fidgeted and tapped his fingers on the bar a couple times. “Can we talk?”
“We’re too busy for me to take a break, but I can right here if that’s okay.” I wasn’t going to be alone with him right now. No way.
“Okay. Well, I wanted to apologize profusely for scaring you the other night.” His dark eyes were serious, almost glistening. His hand shook a little. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just…have feelings for you, and I thought you had them, too, I guess.”
“Kam.” I released the breath I was holding. Joel took that as his cue to leave. I knew he would be back in a second if I got distressed, but Kam appeared genuine. “Fuck.”
“I misread the situation. I get it. I do. I was disappointed you picked him. I thought you were too good for him.”
“Kam. He’s your friend. I wasn’t even trying to find someone. It just…happened.” I didn’t like the way he talked about Aiden. He had a past—I got it—but they were friends, brothers.
“He said the same thing.” He touched his jaw and grimaced. “That’s actually how I got this.”
“He hit you?”
“Look, I know you probably won’t believe me, but I saw a girl leave his room this afternoon. I went up to confront him—well, talk to him about you—and saw her leave. I told him I was going to tell you, and, well, he punched my face.”
My stomach dropped. There was no way. He wouldn’t.
I dropped the glass I held. The crash made Joel rush over to me. “What the hell, J? You never—what the fuck happened?”
“I know you might not believe me, but I got a picture of them. I knew he was going to hurt you. I didn’t want that, Jenna. You’re too good.”
Joel grabbed the phone from his hands and hissed in a breath. “Get this shit out of here.”
“Jenna, I’m so sorry. I’m sure he’ll have an excuse or something because he’s Aiden. He always does. I needed to tell you so you could get out of it. I’ll leave you alone, but I’m here if you need to talk.”
Kam walked out of the bar. I stood frozen. I saw stars and heard Joel say something. I saw his mouth move, but it didn’t register.
The blonde in the picture stood in front of me, and Joel’s face warped into one I’d never seen before. Pure disgust. He yelled something at her. She winced but shook her head and pointed to me. She pleaded with him while I stood there, silent. I watched her pull out her phone and yell back at Joel. He read what was on the screen, then slammed his fist into the counter. Spit flew out of his mouth, and he pointed to the door. The blonde obeyed whatever he said, and he turned to me. I watched his mouth form my name. No sound came through, though.
“Jenna. Baby, come on. Answer me.” He ran his hands up and down my arms in panic. “I know you can hear me. Just blink.”
I did.
“She showed me her phone. Texts from Aiden. Begging her not to tell you. I saw them. I’m going to fucking kill him.”
My brain shut down, needing an entire rewiring to understand what just happened. The picture and conversation replayed itself over and over in my head. It was one I would never forget. Aiden wearing the outfit I saw him in earlier, his arms wrapped around another woman, his lips on her head.
My stomach heaved. I sprinted to the bathroom and made it just in time. My hands shook, barely grasping the paper towels to wipe my face. On my third failed attempt, I collapsed onto the ground.
The door opened, and Gage saw me on the floor. His normally stern eyes softened. “J. Scoot over. I’m joining you.”
I did, and he locked the bathroom door and sat on the grimy floor with me. My back was against the wall, and my body continued to shake. He put his arm around me and squeezed. I lost it. He let me snot, cry, and wail into his shirt. He didn’t say a word, just patted my back. It could’ve been an hour or ten minutes. I had no idea, but I felt nothing.
His voice broke the trance I was in. “I’m taking you home. I’ll stay with you until Cyn or someone can come be with you.”
I nodded.
He wiped my face with his hands and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “Jenna, you’ve saved my life before. Literally. Cyn is my life. You will get through this. You’re a badass bitch. This is going to hurt, but you’ll get through it.”
He kept his arm around me and walked me back to the bar to grab my stuff.
Joel was livid. He walked up to me and was about to say something when I saw, for a second time that day, his face distort into hatred. “Get the fuck out of here right now or I’ll kill you.”
“What the fuck? What’s going on? Jenna? Why are you crying?” Aiden’s voice made my stomach heave again. Gage stalked over to him in two steps.
“You need to leave.”
“What the hell? Why is my girl crying?” Aiden panicked. He became distraught and begged someone to answer him. “What the fuck?”
“Get out.” Joel stood on the other side of Gage and blocked him from my view.
“I need to talk to Jenna. I lost my phone all day. I couldn’t call. What’s going on? Someone fucking answer me, goddamn it.” His tone became angrier. A part of me wanted to comfort him, but it died quickly. “Jenna, please. What happened?”
“You have three seconds to walk out of here without my fist in your face.” Gage towered over him. His tone left no room for argument. “Now.”
Aiden kicked the bar and stormed out. I held onto the railing to support myself. Joel was there within a second and helped me back up. “I called Maya and Ken. They’ll be there. I’ll take over. Get her out of here, Gage.”
Gage kept his arm around me on the walk to the car. I shielded my face from the sunlight and turned off my emotions. I functioned better without them. Fuck them. It was all bullshit. I let him do this to me. I fell for him. I fell completely in love with Aiden Chad, and he fucked me over. I was so stupid. I felt tears come on again, but this time it was anger. I pushed away from Gage and went to my bike. “I need to ride.”
“Sorry, girl. Not in this state.”
“I need the wind. I need to escape for a minute.”
He shook his head. “I’m not letting you on your bike. You can hate me if you want, but this isn’t an option.”
“I’m going to fucking scream. I don’t know how to deal with this, Gage. My body is shutting down. I want to crawl inside myself and just rip out my heart. I can’t go back to my apartment. I can’t deal with being mothered. I want to ride.”
He looked at me with a grim face and clenched his fists. “We’re getting Joel.”
Minutes later, Joel and I hopped on Joel’s Harley, and we slid on our helmets. Gage was going to stay at the bar while Joel and I had the night off. I held on to him and closed my eyes. I told him to just drive, not to stop for an hour.
We rode well into the night. Through the mountains. Past rivers and trails. I saw a sign signaling that Flagstaff was close. I nudged him.
He pulled off at a rest area with a cute restaurant. “You good to eat, J?”
“I won’t be able to eat for a while. Coffee or ice cream sounds good, though.” We locked up the bike and found a booth in the back.
We ordered and sat in silence.
“Thank you, Joel. For doing this.”
“Of course. No questions asked. You needed the escape.”
“I’m not ready to go back yet. I don’t want to face…everything.”
“I don’t blame you. I’ve never seen you like that before. It fucking scared me. I never want to see you sad again.”
My eyebrows pinched together, a heavy weight in my chest. “I love him, Joel. Like crazy love him. It’s going to take a long fucking time to get over this.”
“Can I ask you something?” His brown eyes narrowed like he was afraid.
“Go ahead.”
“Is there a small part of you that thinks maybe it isn’t true?” He cringed at the end like I was going to throw my coffee on his face.
“Why?”
“Because I know Kam showed you the picture, and it looked really bad. Really fucking bad. But I’ve seen him around you. It almost seemed…too staged for me.”
“He’s always been a player. It’s what I expected.” I shrugged, refusing to get suckered back into happily ever afters. I blamed all those goddamn movies Ken and Maya made me watch. At the thought of them, I pulled out my phone and saw forty missed calls. Countless texts. I shut off the phone. Everyone knew I was with Joel. That was enough.
“That’s bullshit. It’s been six months. He’s different.”
“People don’t change, Joel.” I twirled the spoon in my coffee just to keep my hands busy. I didn’t even put anything in it. I needed it black.
“I love you, J. You’re my sister for all intents and purposes. But bull-fucking-shit. You’ve changed. I’ve seen you transformed this past year. It’s all for good.”
“How have I changed? I’m still a bitch. Now I just know what it feels like to have a broken heart.”
“You’re not a bitch, per se.” His lips quirked up for a second. “You’ve opened up yourself to Aiden, his friends, Mike, his family. You helped Maya with some personal shit.” I looked up at him because I didn’t know he knew. “Yeah, Maya told me about it. She likes to talk a lot. God, give her a drink, and she goes on for hours.”
“True.”
“Plus, you’ve softened a little with Ainsley. It’s been a combination of everything. You’ve changed. Why can’t he, too?”
I didn’t have an answer to that question. I shrugged.
Joel paid the bill and hopped up from the table. “J, we’ll ride back and go wherever you want. You get tonight to mope and get it out. But you owe him a conversation.”