Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 219(@200wpm)___ 175(@250wpm)___ 146(@300wpm)
She looks taken aback, and I wonder if no one has told the employees that their boss passed. I can see her thinking it over, and she suddenly looks up at me.
Her eyes are big and vulnerable, and I wonder how old she is now.
“So I work for you now, then? Is that right?” she asks me, and I can see she’s nervous, but she’s either brave or prideful enough to hide it under a facade of dismissiveness.
She raises her chin as if she’s challenging me, and I smile.
She doesn’t say sorry for my loss, and I’m even more intrigued by her. So many of my friends have offered me platitudes and meaningless words of comfort.
“That’s right,” I answer, realizing she’s waiting for me to talk back to her. “I thought it was you when I saw you inside earlier. And then just now….”
“You knew my Dad,” she says suddenly. “You were his friend before he left.”
“We worked together at the construction site for years before your dad….”
“Before he started stealing from the company and before he left his family behind in the rearview mirror,” she answers, nodding. She doesn’t look sad about it at all.
“What are you doing working at a strip club?” I ask her because I really am curious. I want to know what a woman like her is doing in a place like this.
She had always been so bright as a kid. I just assumed she would be interning somewhere right now or maybe even sitting pretty in an office building downtown. I could never have imagined Kathleen in a place like this one.
I’m starting to believe this has all been a product of fate for the two of us now.
Kathleen begins to narrow her sea-glass eyes at me, raising her chin in defiance.
I can tell that she wants to defend herself, and I feel like maybe I’ve crossed a line by implying she shouldn’t be here. She seems young, though, too young to be here in this seedy underbelly of the city.
I wonder if she would even be interested in an older man. I must be at least twenty years her senior by now.
“What are you doing owning a strip club?” she counters, raising an eyebrow.
It’s a fair point. I like that she’s not afraid to give me an attitude right back.
“My uncle didn’t have anyone,” I tell her, shrugging. “He didn’t have any kids or a wife so he left it all to me for some reason.”
“So instead of a beautiful house or a large inheritance,” Kathleen points out, dimly lit by the street lamps. “He leaves you a strip club in the rough part of town, huh?”
I can’t help but sigh, and my gaze drifts to glance at the diner across the street.
“Do you, I don’t know, want to get coffee or something?” I ask her, nodding at the diner where the neon lights flicker faintly. I push my hands into my pockets.
I feel like I’ve already botched our first meeting, though I’ve been thinking about her ever since I first saw her again after all this time by the table in the club.
She leans to the side and looks at the diner behind me, stealing a quick glance at the thin leather watch on her wrist. I know it’s just a little past ten O’clock right now.
“I need to be home by eleven,” she tells me, looking unsure. “Does that work?”
I wonder if she has a boyfriend to get home to.
Is there someone waiting in the coziness of a fireplace-warmed room, eagerly standing by to watch the love of his life walk through the door into his embrace?
The thought makes me feel sick.
“That’s perfect,” I answer, putting a hand out to walk toward the diner.
I try to lie to myself, thinking that Kathleen has agreed to come just because I saved her from a horrific encounter with disgusting men and not because I could remember how much of a crush she had on me when she was a kid.
I had my own heart-rending crush ignited when I witnessed the small smile on her pretty face that she tried to hide. She likes me a little. I know that much of her.
Kathleen Henderson looks like the sun when she smiles, bright and lovely.
Again, the thought comes to me that Kathleen might not be interested in an older man. She’s young, beautiful, and bright. I want this woman. I want to be there for her, but it’s hard to say whether my advances will be reciprocated.
As we make our way across the parking lot, I stay close to her, protecting her from any and all potential dangers. A girl like her is obviously one to garner attention.
A waitress with a name tag that says Barbara in worn black letters and a well-used pink uniform dress shows us to our seats.