Page 72 of Rise & Fall

“What do you meanan accident? What happened?” I feel panic creeping up my throat. “Is Aria okay?”

“Oh, Aria is fine. She’s been with her mom all day. This was a work thing.” A full on panic attack starts to work its way through my body.A work accident.

“I slipped in the rain, and something came flying at my head. It’s stupid and I’m fine, really. I’m just resting in the hospital.” I know he means it to sound like a relief, but it’s not.

“I had no idea, I’m so sorry. I—” I attempt to apologize, I’ve bothered the crap out of him not knowing that he was injured, but he interrupts me before I can finish.

“Don’t you dare apologize, Dakota. This is not your fault. You were having a bad day and you reached out to me. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you.”

“God, you must think I’m clingy. I thought that maybe you had ghosted me. But no, you were just dying on your deathbed.”

“I’m not dying, Dakota.” He lets out a laugh, which turns out to hurt him as he winces in the middle of it. “And I would never ghost you, Firefly. Just a little bit of a hiccup here.”

I hear the bell ring to the door of the bar, signaling guests. I look up to see Dino head to greet, but I know I need to end this call soon before Steve finds me slacking.

“When can I see you?” I duck into the kitchen quickly, thinking Dino will bring the guest toward the bar seating, but he turns right and sits the customer at his table.

“I need a ride home from the hospital tomorrow. Are you available?” His question runs through my brain as I overthink how to answer.Give him a ride from the hospital?Is that something I should be doing? But then I breathe in a much needed lungful, realizing I’d been anxious since leaving Nolan’s house wondering where he’d been and knowing that my instinct was right, something was wrong.

“Just tell me where.” I look around for a scrap piece of paper and a pen, ready to write down the name of the hospital. But when he starts to list off the address, I know I don’t need to write it down.

“Poplar Grove ER,” I say in a whisper. But he hears me.

“Yeah, you know it?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

An hour passes after hanging up the phone with Nolan and the night picks up unexpectedly. The bar is full and loud, and we had to call in backup because of it. So right now it’s me and two others manning over thirty heavy drinkers and chaos is beginning to ensue.

“You doing okay, honey?” Chy asks. She usually works on my off days but she’s the only person who answered the phone when Steve called for help.

I haven’t worked with her more than once, but she’s very hardworking and she makes for a good therapy session.

“Not really, if I’m being honest,” I admit. Knowing that she can damn well read the expression on my face.

I want to be anywhere but here right now.

“Well, no reason to be mopin’ around now. We still got a few hours of servin’. Whatever is going on in that head of yours, you need to push it down for a bit. Once you’re able to get home and get some sleep, you might be able to think a bit more clearly. But right now, you’re not gonna feel any better about whatever is wrong while you’re serving all these drunk men all night.” She tells me all of this while having made two sex on the beaches and pouring three drafts. That’s record time.

I give her a little smile, knowing that she’s right. Her braids are wrapped up in a top knot, but when she nods me in the direction of the door, one of them slips out and falls in her face, the ombre in them perfectly complimenting her dark skin.

I finally look over to where she was directing my attention and I notice that a group of girls fall through the door, laughing loud and being very obnoxious.

Great. College girls.

“Hellloooo. Caniget a sex on the beach. And make it extraaaaa sexy.” A tall, dark-brown haired girl with tanned skin, decked inLululemonwaltzes in and up to the bar. “Actually I don’t want that at aaallll. I wanna tequila soda with limes. Lots of limessss.” She doesn’t look quite of age to be sauntering up, already wasted if you ask me, and slurring her drink order at me.

I give her a little once over, trying to evaluate what I want to do here. Her friends are all hanging back at a stand up table taking selfies and bossing my other waiter, Dino, around.

I’ve never dealt with IDing someone and having to cut their ID. And what if she has a fake ID? I’m not sure I remember the training on how to spot the differences.

“Your red hair is sooooo pretttyyyyy. But you really needa tan cuz your skin’s kinda pale, ya know.” Good to know, but I’m really not here for the insults.

“Can I help you?” Chy jumps in, making me feel a little bit better about the situation.

Chy’s real name is Chy. She’s the only one here who doesn’t get a nick-name. Why? Because the moment Steve tried to come up with something, she put him in his place and basically told him that no one will be calling her by some ridiculous nickname based on some physical characteristic of hers, just like everyone else.

But it’s safe to say that Chy is anythingbutshy.