He didn’t mess with me on the way home anyway. And when I got home there was a note for me on the table. I wasn’t sure who put it there.
I tore it open. It was from Thea. So, she was back in town, and I’d just missed her. Now I had to warn her about her ‘friend.’ If he hadn’t attacked me, I’d have assumed he was an actual friend.
Idiot, I thought. The note just said that she was back and suggested meeting at a certain all age club. I didn’t respond, just checked the date on it. Tomorrow, when I didn’t have to work. She’d either remembered my schedule or called and checked.
Assuming it was actually Thea, but I put that paranoid thought out of my head. The meeting place she’d suggested was too public for somebody who just wanted to get to me to pick.
So, the next evening I put on more suitable clothes, such as I had, and headed for the club. I’d been there before. It wasn’t a bad place, although it always had that vague second class feeling to it. The feeling that everyone there was just killing time until they could go to the real clubs.
Which would be forever, I thought, wryly. More time than I remembered, a lifetime. And I probably wouldn’t still be here. One way or another.
She was leaning against the bar, sipping a Shirley Temple, as I approached. “Hey. No alcohol?”
“I always feel bad drinking around so many people who can’t.”
I laughed a bit. “That just makes you a decent person.” I glanced at the barkeep. “Get me a Shirley.”
They did sell alcohol if you had a card, but I also knew the barkeep here had some amazing virgin versions of, well, just about anything. Then I turned back to Thea. “Do you know a skinny guy, dark hair, blue eyes? Apparently you have a history.”
“Oh gods. Him.”
“I’ve been telling people he’s your annoying ex.”
“He’s…” Thea let out a breath. “He fancies himself as my annoying ex. Ex would mean there was ever a current. He’s way beneath me in just about every way.”
“Beneath you?” I flickered a grin. “You mean you only date guys who can kick your butt?”
“I only date guys who can keep up. He can’t.”
“He tried to snatch me to get you to talk to him. I roughed him up a bit.” Which probably made Thea’s point for her, but…well.
“I’ll deal with him.”