"You're coming back on Saturday?" she echoed, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Of course I'm fucking coming back, Addilyn."
"Oh."
"Oh? That's all you've got to say?" I pinned her to the mattress. "What the hell do you think has been going on between us? Did you expect me to just hop on the plane, head back to Chicago, and forget all about you?"
"No," she sighed. "Not really. But I didn't think you were going to come back so quickly. How was I supposed to know? You never said anything."
"I've told you over and over again that you're mine, baby," I reminded her. "I meant it, each and every time." I dropped a hard kiss on her lips to punctuate how serious I was. "I take care of what's mine, which means I take care of you. I can't do that from Chicago while you're here, which means I'll be here as often as I can while you finish school."
"For me?" Her eyes were filled with hope, and her plump lips were turned up at the corners.
"Of course for you, silly woman." She cuddled against me, her body finally relaxing. "Well, for you and the bar I'm buying."
She pushed against my chest to stare up at me suspiciously with narrowed blue eyes. "What bar are you buying?"
"The one where we met."
"I think you meant to say the bar where I work," she corrected.
She didn't seem too pissed off, so I grinned at her. "Yeah, that one."
"When did you decide you were going to buy Club Cache?"
"My first night here," I admitted.
"So that's why Bob gave me the week off!" she gasped. "It didn't make any sense at the time, him offering to pay me when I wasn't going to be there. It was because of you, wasn't it? During that business call you took while you were there."
"That depends, are you going to be angry if I admit to it?"
"I probably should be," she sighed. "It was pretty presumptuous of you to interfere with my job like that, but it's hard to be mad when you did it so you could spend time with me."
I heaved a deep sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're looking at it that way. On the surface, it might seem like an insane decision. But it was worth it because it gave me you."
Her eyes filled with tears, but she was grinning widely. "Gah! I feel like I'm an emotional yo-yo this morning."
"As long as you stay on the upswing when it's time for me to head to the airport."
Her expression fell again. "Are you sure you have to go?"
"Unfortunately, I do. I have some meetings lined up to put the bar on the market."
She rose up to her knees and stared at me. "You're selling your bar?"
I shrugged, figuring the answer was obvious. "You're here, and my bar is in Chicago. Something's got to give, and it's not going to be you."
"Yes."
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, I'll stay in the suite until you come back on Saturday."
One yes was good enough for now. I figured I'd wait to tell her I'd also contacted a realtor to set up a time for us to go apartment hunting when I got back.
8
Addilyn
"Why doesn't Addilyn ever have to do any of the shit jobs anymore?"
I'd been hearing complaints like that from the other employees at Club Cache for the last two weeks, ever since I'd come back to work. I only put in a few nights a week when Dane was out of town. He wasn't happy about me doing it, but he didn't argue too much about me working since I hadn't put up a fight about our living arrangements-but only if it didn't interfere with us being able to spend time together when he was in town. And as long as I didn't work too hard; something he'd ensured by having another talk with Bob. The preferential treatment hadn't gone unnoticed by my co-workers.
I stomped over and grabbed the two bags of garbage from her hands. "Enough with the whining. If it's such a big deal, I'll do it."
I still had another hour to go until the end of my shift, and I was tired. Exhausted, really. I'd been sleeping more than usual all week, but it didn't help me feel rested. I didn't have the energy to deal with other people's petty complaints, even if they had reason to feel that way. I stalked through the bar and pushed my way through the Employees Only door in the back. The dumpster was only a few steps into the alley, but the stench overwhelmed me before I made it there. Dropping the bags to the ground, I bent over and puked.
When my stomach was finally empty, I knelt there for another moment. I was afraid to get back up because my legs felt like jelly, and I was light-headed. While I stayed crouched low and out of sight, unexpected noises reached my ears. There was a high-pitched giggle, followed by a series of male grunts. Tonight had already sucked, and it sounded like my luck had gotten worse.