Jack & Lucy

Lucy

I forgot how much the keg room sucks. It's freezing, the kegs are heavy and sticky and the floor is slimy with old soupy beer. There's also probably mold hidden around back here and my short shorts and tee don't do much to keep me from shivering. Jack used to do this part for me. He'd check the kegs and carry the ice to and fro.

I just had to fling a jab first. I just had to call him Jackass. I could have said Jack, Mav, Maverick, Jack-be-nimble, Dalton, Jackoloupe, Kansas or any of the other stupid names I have called him in the past, but I chose Jackass. Which forced the ugly name my sister calls me to come rolling off his tongue. He knows I hate it. He knows I hate the keg room so he called my bluff early. I just couldn't let him win. I can't let him think that anything he says gets to me.

I finish connecting the last keg and then throw my body against the door to get back into the warmth. I know that took me way longer than it should have, but it's probably been a year since I was forced back there. I realize I don't have much time to fill the ice buckets before the place fills up with the first wave of drinkers.

Mag's is actually owned by Maggie's family, the Valentines and is a mix between a dive bar and a sports bar that sits at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Phoenix. We are near the downtown campus of Arizona state and we sit between two massive hotels. We get the college kids that like to get rowdy and watch the games and the business travelers who like to unwind and let loose. We cater to the college student with low-priced drinks but we get tourists, students and professionals in with our late-night happy hours. We serve minimal food, so the crowd and the money isn't really good until after seven, which is why Jack and I usually work the late shifts. That, and we prefer the late shifts because he and I are the only ones that are in school during the day. I am finally finishing my degree in business and he's getting his master's in architecture. We both go to Arizona state but attend classes at different campuses.

I realize this is the first spring break in three years that Jack and I haven't made plans together. Maybe if we can play nice long enough, I'll ask what he's up to this year. Simply out of curiosity and not because I actually care. I no longer care about Jack Dalton and his stupid life. 

As I make my way down the hall, I catch Maggie coming out from the office with her hands up.

"Girl! I have been looking for you! Why aren't you in the front?" She asks me as she grips my arm with her hand to drag me into the office.

"I had to check the kegs," I tell her and she looks to me like I just told her I was speaking to Santa Claus.

"The kegs? Why? We have a guy for that now. Brandon. I finally got us a good barback," she informs me, and my jaw clenches. I'm going to kill Jack. "You don't have to do the bitch work anymore. I don't either!"

"What made you finally hire help?" I ask her and she stops rifling through papers to look at me.

"You left. I didn't realize how much you and Jack used to crank out until I put him with Sabrina. Oh, she's the new girl by the way. You'll meet her tomorrow."

"Anything else I need to know? Anything else changed since I left?" I ask her as I take a seat next to the desk. She drops into her chair and eyes me for a moment like she wants to say something but then she chooses not to.

"Just your new employee number," she finally says as she takes my fingerprint to add me to the P.O.S. "88752." Remember that, breathe that. Tattoo it on your arm." She hands me a sticky note with my number on it and I stuff it into my pocket.

"Really? Nothing new and exciting to report from your end?" I ask but she quickly shakes her head, "You know me Luce, I live and breathe the bar life. I forgot what the outside world is like." I laugh, knowing she does spend all of her time here which is why she only hires people she can stand seeing for that many hours a week. 

"You ready to stand on your feet for long hours again?" She asks me as her eyes flick to the small plastic clock nailed on top of her door.

"No. But I'm hoping I'll make enough over spring break to afford my own place. I just gotta keep that goal in mind," I tell her as I push myself off the frayed leather chair.

"Baking star and student by day, drink slinger by night. Have fun!" She says with a sarcastic grin before I use my hand to swing myself out from the doorframe. I have a grip on the opening but I wasn't expecting anyone to be in the hallway when I swung into it. I fly smack into the middle of Jack's chest and I hear him let out an "Umph!" I take a step back from a startled Jack as he says, "Damn Goose, good thing I didn't have glasses in my hand." He rubs his chest as he continues down the hall and hearing him call me "Goose" again causes my chest to tighten. I want to hate him. I want to be angry with him, but I don't know how long my traitorous heart will allow that.

I watch his sandy hair disappear into the kitchen and I can't keep my eyes from darting to his long legs in his black, slim-cut jeans that accentuate his perfect round behind. I recognize the jeans I picked out when I told him that he could take a break from his Volcom shorts every once in a while to look decent. And he does look decent. In his stupid red Arizona State shirt that accentuates his sunkissed face. His sandy brown hair is already lightened from the sun and his teal eyes pop against his tan skin. He's as hot as I remember and I know why the lake rats flock to him. It irks me that I still find him so damn attractive. 

I find Ashleigh lingering by the back bar and as I slide under the counter, she says, "Oh, there you are. I thought maybe you flaked and like, left."

I shake my head, "Nope. Unfortunately, I am here for the foreseeable future."

"So like, New York really didn't work out? You're not just like, I dunno, hoping Blake comes back to get you?" She asks and I notice her eyes darting everywhere but in my direction. I step closer to her as I check the well and reply, "Yeah. I'm back for good. Blake and I are done." She's now anxiously picking at her flaking pink nail polish and she uses a hand to tuck her long blonde hair behind her ear. 

"Okay cool. Cuz like, there was something I wanted to tell you for like, months now but then you got engaged and I didn't want to like..." I swear if she says like one more time I'm gonna spray her with the soda gun.

"Oh? Okay, what?" I ask as I move around her to punch into the computer. She's oblivious to the fact that I am rushing to get ready and her body takes up half of the footpath.

"Just, so like, there was one time where...ya know what? Wanna go for coffee this week?" She asks, pivoting the conversation. I stop wiping the counter down to look back at her and am about to answer when I hear Maggie yell, "Ashleigh! Hannah could use some help. Back to your bar!" Ashleigh glances at me, a worried look still splashed across her face and she dips around me to make it out of the space. She looks back to me before she rounds the corner and says, "Jack is going to be so glad to have you back!" She gives me a short wave right as Jack passes her in the doorway to come back to me.