“Marcus ain’t my only friend. I don’t got favorites.”
I let my head fall back on the headrest and sighed. “How long have you known?”
“Since the Friday after the engagement party. I was sure you were dealing drugs, and I was tailing you.”
“So you knew before I started dating Manda?”
Rock nodded. “Yep.”
‘Then why the hell did you let me get away with it? I couldn’t stay away from her. Someone needed to stop me.”
“Because I was pretty damn sure you were in love with her. I’d never seen you in love. And Manda is a sweet girl. I figured if anyone could make you walk the straight and narrow, she could. But you never stopped working. I couldn’t figure that out.”
“I have mouths to feed.”
“There are other jobs out there that don’t require illegal activity.”
I let out a hard laugh. “Nothing pays me enough. The ones that do I’m not qualified for.”
‘That’s ’cause you’re looking in the wrong place.”
I turned my head to look at him. “Where do you suggest I look?”
“You’re looking in the right place now.” He smirked. “Drive to Pensacola. I got a guy I want you to meet.”
“In Pensacola?”
“Yep. He owns a club. I used to work for him. Bouncers get paid real well. Late hours and good money.”
A bouncer?
“How good is the money?”
Rock closed his door and buckled his seat belt. “The nicer the club, the better the pay. The place I’m taking you to pays more than most at fifty dollars an hour, and you’ll get six hours a night. As many nights as you can handle.”
Three hundred dollars a night. I could work Thursday through Sunday nights and make twelve hundred dollars a week.
“You think you can get me this job?”
Rock laughed. “I already got you the job. I’m just taking you to meet your new boss and get your paperwork done. You start this weekend.”
Amanda
After two weeks of dreading calculus because I’d have to see Preston, and then arriving and him not being there, I had come to the conclusion that he’d dropped the class. This was a good thing. I didn’t want to see him. I wasn’t sure yet how I’d react to seeing him.
My phone started playing my ringtone, and I reached into my backpack and pulled it out as I walked across campus to the coffee shop. I needed caffeine if I was going to make it through the study group I was headed to next.
“Hello.”
“Good morning,” Jason’s voice greeted me.
“Good morning to you, too,” I replied.
“You sound better this week.”
Jason had made the mistake of calling me the day after my breakup with Preston. When he’d asked me how I was doing, I’d starting sobbing and telling him about my breakup. Of course I left out the actual reason why we broke up. Preston didn’t deserve my protection, but I couldn’t stop myself. I loved him. He’d shattered my heart, but I still loved him.
“I think it works that way. Each week you get a little better. Maybe by next month I’ll be out dancing in clubs.”