Page 33 of Callow
“And your parents…”
“My mother took off when I was young. My father worked and drank himself to sleep. When Daphne was about six months, I got the hell out of there and never looked back.”
“Christ, you’ve been alone-alone,” he said, breaking off a piece of his pie with his fork.
“Yeah. It was a lot rougher in the years before Daph went to school. Once she did, it made work… somewhat easier. And thanks to Britney, I had someone to pick her up on the many school holidays and such. And help over summer vacation when she was too young to be home alone. My job is not forgiving of unexpected, or even planned, days off.”
“Where do you work?”
“The Hamlet Hotel,” I told him. “I started as a maid pretty soon after Daphne was born. Worked my way up to the Head Housekeeper.”
With it came a nice salary bump that had made things easier the past few years. But it also came with the added stress of the boss being on my ass all the time about any small thing that may have gone wrong with one of the maids. Everything from someone calling in sick to a missing bar of soap was my fault now.
“Do you like working in hospitality?” he asked.
“Oh, God no,” I said immediately, getting a chuckle out of Callow. “It’s, you know, a job. Not everyone has the luxury ofworking their dream job. But it doesn’t mean I hate it. It’s nice just being able to leave it at work. If it was something I really cared about, I imagine I’d be stressing about it nonstop.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
“If my boss wasn’t so overbearing, it would be the perfect job, honestly. I really like everyone else.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Callow said. “Most people don’t quit jobs; they quit bosses.”
“What’s your boss like?” I asked.
“Fallon is chill. He’s a third generation biker president, so not much gets a rise out of him. He’s seen or done it all himself. Brooks is more our direct ‘boss,’ if you will. He used to be wound a little too tight. But he’s chilled out now that he’s got a girl and a life outside of the club.”
“Do a lot of the bikers have significant others?” I asked.
“Most of them. They eventually get sick of the partying and shit, find a girl, settle down, have kids. Very domestic. The only single guys now are me, Sully, Nave, Perish, and the twins.”
“By choice?” I asked.
“I guess?” he said, looking confused by the question. “I mean I think it’s more of a… the right person hasn’t come around sort of shit? At least that’s how the other guys who’ve gotten shacked up explained it. They were perfectly fine with life the way it was. Until the right woman came around and knocked ‘em on their ass.”
“Have you ever been married?” I asked, not sure how old he was exactly, but I would put him about eight or ten years older than me. It was possible he’d been married and divorced once or twice by now.
“No. I was too busy with work. I was never really anywhere for long enough to meet anyone for longer than a day or two.”
The conversation slipped to less personal things then. Growing up in this area. How I’d been so hilariously ignorant to how much criminal activity went on in Navesink Bank.
Apparently, the bar I’d been to a few times to celebrate things with Britney and Sam was owned by a family of loansharks, of all things.
And Famigilia—the fancy Italian restaurant I took Daphne to for her sixteenth birthday—was owned by themob.
By the time our food and coffee was gone, the line was practically out the door again with teens looking for a place to kill a few hours.
“I should probably get going,” I said, checking my phone, frustrated by the hour and the fact that I didn’t have full certainty that Daphne would stay in like she claimed.
“Yeah, gettin’ late,” Callow agreed, reaching for my plate and my coffee cup to bring to the bins as I gathered my things and got to my feet.
The table was almost instantly filled up as I walked with Callow to the door.
“I’m this way,” I said, waving down the street.
“I’ll walk you,” he said, making my belly wobble deliciously.
The last time I had a man walk me to my car was at the hotel when I’d needed to work an overnight and some guys were lurking around being creepy, making me ask the custodian to walk with me.