“Don’t you have shit to do?” he asked.
I opened my mouth to say something. I don’t know what but it was going to be something, when the bel over the door went again. I looked in that direction and Smithie was walking in.
My glare transferred to Smithie.
“I’m not talking to you!” I yel ed.
“Shee-it, bitch. What’s your problem?” Smithie shot back.
“You fired me!” I shouted.
His hands went out at his sides.
“I didn’t fire you. I just put you on a f**kin’ unscheduled, unpaid vacation.”
“Yeah, you fired me!” I snapped back.
“I’m guessin’ from the attitude you don’t have your shit sorted out yet,” Smithie said.
“No, I don’t. I’m working on it, okay?”
He walked up to me and handed me an envelope.
“Your tips from Saturday.”
The wind went out of my sails. It was a nice thing to do, coming al the way down to Fortnum’s to give me my tips.
I took them.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“There’s extra in there from the girls and the bouncers.
They did a col ection, knew you needed it,” he said.
Damn.
Trust my luck, after twenty-eight years, to find my attitude and toss it around when people were doing something nice for me.
I felt the tears crawl up the back of my throat and I swal owed them down.
“I don’t know what to say,” I muttered as I shoved the envelope in my back pocket.
“Maybe ‘thank you’?” Mom snapped from behind the espresso counter, again, using The Voice, “Yeesh, you’d think I didn’t raise her right,” she said to Tex.
“That your Mom?” Smithie asked.
I didn’t have the chance to answer when the bel went over the door again.
I turned and saw my sister, Lottie, standing there.
She was wearing skinny, black jeans and a black tank top with the Audi circles straining across her D-cup boobs.
She had a knockout tan and her blonde hair was flopping around the back of her head in a loose bunch designed to look sexy and messy. It worked.
“Eyeeeeee!” I squealed, thril ed to see her, forgetting everyone; Tex, Duke, Smithie, Jane, Indy, Mom and the So Fine Commando Wild Bunch. I ran and threw myself at her.
Lottie squealed too and we hugged, swinging each other back and forth and laughing out loud.