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It doesn’t take me long to find the sign for the restroom and I make a beeline straight for it knowing that Eddie has his eyes fixed on me, at least until I’m out of his line of sight. Once in the bathroom, I get to work.
“Excuse me, can I use your phone? My battery died and I have an emergency,” I ask the first woman I run into.
“Oh, I’m sorry I left my cell in the car.”
“Okay, thank you anyway.”
I ask another woman who looks about my age knowing she’d never part ways with her cell like the older woman, but she acts like her house is on fire and rushes out of the bathroom apologizing along the way.
I’m getting frustrated that no one seems to want to help me and tears sting my eyes as I wash my hands for the fifth time.
My time is running out.
“Excuse me, I overheard you saying you need to use a phone.” A woman with a warm smile and a single, salt and pepper braid down her back approaches me.
“Yes!” I say brightly. “Yes, I do.”
“Here you go. You can make your call while I use the toilet.”
“Thank you so much!”
The woman unlocks her phone using her thumbprint and hands it over to me.
Suddenly it hits me that I’ve never actually pressed ten actual numbers to call Hunter–ever. I’ve always had his number stored in my phone and I just pressed his name.
Fuck!
What should I do?
I decide to go to the web browser application on the woman’s phone and search for The Blue Whiskey. The club hosts some nefarious people on any given Saturday night but thank God it’s still searchable in Google.
The Blue Whiskey
310-555-7822
I press the linked phone number and decide to continue with the call inside a stall just in case Eddie decides to actually make good on his threat and come inside the bathroom.
“Blue Whiskey,” a woman’s voice answers the phone after the first ring.
“Vita?”
Vita is a server who started a few months ago and I’d know her voice anywhere because she’s from Texas and has a distinct accent.
“Yes, who’s this?”
“It’s Megan.”
“Oh, hey Megan.”
Her response is quite casual and I figure that Vita has no clue that I’ve been taken.
“Um, is Hunter there?”
“No, he’s not.”
“How about Lena?”
“Is everything okay, Megan?”