TLC Shots

C.A.J. Part 8

When Thorne looked at the girl, she was so small and petite she could have passed for a teenager. Her blond hair was cut off at her shoulder, and her ocean blue eyes sparkled.

She was dressed in an ACDC t-shirt, a navy blue jacket, black sweatpants, and light blue converse. Everything about this girl was some shade of blue, in exception to her attitude.

This girl was peachy, smiling with thin, pink lips. Her cheeks were lightly touched with a natural blush and some freckles. If anything, Thorne wondered what story she'd told her parents to get here. Did she say this was a movie theater? A friend's house? An after school study club?

The bartender reached into a cooler and pulled out some ice cubes. She plopped them into the girl's glass while shaking her head. "You know, you can get lemonade at Wendy's. Or, just about any other chain restaurant in New York."

Thorne thought the lady was kidding, but he was wrong. The bartender pulled out the ingredients to make this girl a glass of lemonade. Sugar, water, lemon juice. Thorne had no idea that they actually kept those kinds of things at a bar.

With a bright smile, the bartender even placed a lemon wedge on the rim of the glass. "Have that one on me," she said.

The girl shook her head. "Oh no, I couldn't-"

"Come on, Cressy. It's only a couple of bucks. It's fine," the bartender assured her. She turned her back for two seconds. And that was all it took for the girl to whip out three bucks and place them on the counter. As she did that, she got off the stool and went back into the more secluded area of the bar.

When the bartender looked back at where the girl had been sitting, she saw the three dollars and the lack of the young girl. Upon seeing the cash, she groaned aloud.

"I swear, that girl is too nice for her own good," she said aloud.

Thorne felt confused. He couldn't tell if the bartender was just friends with that girl, or if she'd been flirting with her. Either way, it only made Thorne more interested in the young girl. Which made him feel weird, since she looked like a high schooler.

The bartender caught me looking the way the girl left. "She's a regular," she explained. "And she always pays extra for what she gets."

"She's a regular?" The woman nodded. "How old is she?" He he began to take a sip of his beer.

The bartender raised an eyebrow at him. "She may not look it, but she's twenty."

That answer nearly made Thorne choke on his drink. He cough for a moment, then stared at the bartender. "That can't be right."

The woman seemed about ready to smack him. "Care to correct me then? Go ask her yourself if you think I'm wrong."

Thorne shook his head and took a sip from his drink. There's no way that girl is twenty. Eighteen, maybe. But no way in heck is she twenty.

Yet, no matter how many times he told himself she wasn't, the idea that girl was that old made him wonder even more things about her. Most of them would be weird questions to bring up. But some could give him a good idea if he just talked to her.

He shook the thought away. Thorne wasn't going to let one mildly interesting girl get into his head. Not when he could be sent back to jail at any moment for a crime he still didn't understand. Why had his employer wanted the necklace so badly when Winter probably would have given it to them had they only asked?

Thorne tried to bury his thoughts in his drink and in the case he was the center of. But after half an hour of backtracking in his thoughts to that girl who didn't look like she was twenty, he caved.