Chapter 1
Shae tried the door at the back of the bar. Sighing at the locked entrance, she started back around the loud building. It was just starting to get dark and she knew that she had several more hours until she had time to leave. With a test the next day, Shae just wanted to get home and get some studying in. The parking lot was full though, so the chance of her leaving early was slim.
Waving to a regular that was heading home, Shae ducked back into the dark interior of the club. Her friend Carla was behind the bar and once she got back to work, the rest of the night finished off quickly. The walk home was quick, as the college housing was only a few blocks away. The moon lit the way where the streetlights did not. Shae didn’t sleep till several hours later. There was just not enough time in the day for the woman to do everything she needed to and she hoped that the load would slow down when she left school.
The next morning came early and she woke up in a daze. Realizing that she was going to be late for Economics, Shae changed and took off out the door. She made the class just before the Professor came in. She found a seat in the back and waited. The room filled up quickly and Shae got to spend the time scanning her classmates. She was only a few weeks into the class and there were not many people that she knew.
The Professor was an older man with hazel eyes. He had a lecherous look on his face most of the time, but Shae just didn’t wear low-cut anything and he could manage some eye contact. “Good morning class. Today is test day, so I hope you have all studied.”
He started passing out papers and she looked at the test in her hand. It was all stuff she knew and started to relax. She was too type A and would over-prepare in everything. Shae was not a go-with-the-flow kind of girl. She had plans and steps to reach her goals. It was like her education, a certain path was laid out for her. Shae was done early and instead of waiting around, she wrote down the work for the next class and took off. It was frowned upon, but the only way that Shae could afford to go to the college she wanted, she had to have many jobs.
Dashing across campus, she made it to the student services building with enough time to grab a smoke. Shae was trying to quit, but the few she had throughout the day, seemed to take the edge off of her chaotic life. Beyond the bar four nights a week and booking three days a week, she also graded papers for several of the professors. Shae stayed busy and she waited for the summer that would bring a little more time to just be.
Stubbing out the fire with her shoe, Shae walked in the air-conditioned building and instantly felt better in the cool air. She said hello to a couple of people and then went back to the small cubical that she used while she was there. It was not just hers, but several others, so she looked at the smiling faces of someone else’s kids all day. Looking at the files that needed to be keyed in, she sighed to herself and checked her watch. She had four hours there and then another class and another night at the bar before she had to get a few hours of sleep and do it all over again. It was safe to say that Shae was burning out quickly and needed something new and exciting in her life.
***
“Shae you coming out with us tonight?”
The blonde shook her head. “No, got to work.”
Alice sighed. “You are always working.”
“Well tuition hikes each year don’t help. I am so happy this is my last semester. One job is going to feel like a vacation.”
“That is if you find a job. My sister is still looking and she graduated last summer.”
Shae nodded and turned away to head home and shower before work. It was her last night there for the week and though she felt like she may drop then and there, she got dressed and slowly made her way to her second job of the day.
The night went slow and by the time she left, she was beyond tired. Shae didn’t pay much attention that night at work or that evening as she walked home. If she had, she would have noticed the man that stared at her and then drove behind her slowly as she walked home. Shae was oblivious to it all, her mind already thinking about a writing project for Comp class that she still needed to finish. Her mind had no time to worry about the present. She was too far ahead into the future.
She took the stairs down to her apartment. It was nice to not have too many stairs and even better when they went down, but it also made the windows smaller than every other apartment in the building. Sighing to herself, she fed her fish and ran some water for a shower. She hoped that the next day would be better, but she still had two jobs to go to.
Shae undressed and got in the hot, steaming water. Her mind was on her mental to-do list and Shae spent several minutes with her head under the hot water. It helped her think and relaxed all the muscles her over-worrying caused throughout the day. Stepping out ten minutes later, she grabbed a towel and dried herself off. Wrapping up in the plush fabric, Shae padded back into her bedroom to put on some sleep clothes. She had a feeling that caused the hair on her neck to stand up. She figured it was because the window was open, so she shut the blinds and let the towel fall to the floor.