Chapter 23

23

“I’m going to curse her so that no male or female will ever want to touch the disgusting fish and she will die sad and alone!” Theo shouted and slammed her glass down on the bar.

Silver turned from where he was serving a patron at the other end of the bar with a scowl.

Theo held up her hands and mouthed, “Sorry.”

“I’m telling you, Theo, I think I’m cursed. How could Koia of all people come to be the manager of the aquarium I worked at?”

I tossed back the rest of my drink and slid it close to the edge, so Silver could grab it easily to refill it. I sniffled and wiped at my eyes. I’d sworn I wouldn’t cry about this, but I loved that job, and losing it hurt a lot more than I wanted to admit to anyone, even Theo.

Theo hugged me and patted my back. “I’m so sorry, Kass. What did the guys say?”

I flinched as I remembered their anger. It had taken me five minutes to convince them not to quit their jobs at the aquarium as well. We couldn’t afford for three of us to lose our income. “Not well. They wanted to quit, but I convinced them not to.” With a big sigh, I laid my head on my arms and said, “It’ll just be me trying to find a new job.”

My prospects were pretty low. I couldn’t put that I’d been an exhibit at the aquarium on a resume, and not having a job for so many years would raise a lot of red flags to potential employers.

“You could work here,” Silver offered.

I raised my eyes and smiled. “I appreciate it, old man, but this is my place of relaxation. If I worked here, I’d no longer be able to relax here.”

He nodded. “I can understand that.”

“What about your mom and pop’s? I know the twins have been working for them, but I’m sure you could be of assistance as well,” Theo suggested.

She wasn’t wrong, but …

“I don’t like taking money from them.”

Silver and Theo sighed and shook their heads.

I sat up and glared at them. “Wow, double doses of disappointment. Rude.”

Silver set down my new drink and asked, “What do you plan to do if not work for them?”

“She’s going to work for me,” Gina said as she sat on the barstool next to me.

We all turned to look at the sea witch.

“What?” I asked.

She smiled. “I need good help and you know how to handle the jerks in this town. Really, you’d be doing me a favor by coming and working for me.”

“I don’t know the first thing about working in a pizza shop.” Not that I didn’t want the job, but I also didn’t just want charity or to cause her issues.

“It’s easy. Come by tomorrow and I’ll give you the run down. We can do a week trial and you can let me know if you want to continue or not at that point. What do you say?”

It was the best option I had at the moment, plus, it would mean free pizza. Who didn’t love free pizza?

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I don’t want you to do this just because you feel bad or something.”

She smirked. “Kass, dear, haven’t you heard the expression to never look a gift horse in the mouth? Just come by tomorrow at ten o’clock, okay?”

“Silver, put her drinks on my tab,” I said quickly and hugged her. “Thank you.”

Gina smiled wide and clinked her glass against mine. “Can I join you in drinking the night away to mourn the loss of your job?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said, smiling wide.

Two hours later, once Reed and Grant had gotten off of work, they joined us at Silver’s bar.

“How long have you been drinking?” Reed asked me, stepping up behind me so that my ungraceful flail didn’t cause me to fall off my barstool and just caused me to fall against his warm, firm, delicious chest.

Spinning on the barstool, I looked up at the frowning male and said, “I started when I got fired by that bitch.”

“You need food,” he commented and held up a bag of delicious smelling takeout. “I’ve got your favorite chicken noodles in here.”

“You know the rules,” Silver said. “No food in here.”

“I know, I just needed the smell to entice her to go outside to eat it,” Reed explained.

Silver snorted. “Smart man.”

Grant draped an arm around my shoulders and kissed the side of my head as we left the bar.

Following Reed, eyes focused on the bag of food he was swinging as he walked, we headed out of the bar and down the street to the park, so I could sit at a table to eat.

I sat and quickly opened the takeout container, drooling at the scent, and quickly opened the plastic wrapper around the spork.

Reed sat across from me and Grant sat beside me, both frowning and looking worried.

“How are you doing?” Reed asked, watching as I shoveled a huge bite of chicken and noodles into my mouth.

I shrugged. “I’m annoyed, but Gina offered me a job, pending a one week trial period.”

His eyes widened. “Wow, that was fast.”

Chuckling, I nodded. “I was pretty surprised by the offer. Honestly, I’m just glad I won’t be losing much income.”

“I’m more worried about your mental status than money,” Grant said.

Sighing, I set my fork down and looked at them fully. “I’m pretty bummed, I liked my job, and I’m going to miss the kids. I’m also upset that the kids will be upset thinking I’m dead, but there’s not much I can do. I shouldn’t have been working there to begin with, they could get in a lot of trouble if they admitted that they’d hired a shifter to act as an aquarium exhibit. I had it pretty easy up until now, and I’m worried I won’t be able to handle a real job.”

“You underestimate yourself, babe. You’re going to do great, and it won’t be harder than when you help your parents at their restaurant,” Reed said and squeezed my hand.

“Speaking of your parents,” Grant said. “You still going to visit them tomorrow?”

I nodded. “Yep, which works pretty well since Gina’s is right by their place.”

Reed’s phone beeped and he opened it to read the message he’d received. “The twins are headed to the bar.”

“I better eat fast, then!” Picking the spork back up, I ate my food quickly, but not quick enough to make myself sick or give myself indigestion.

I didn’t finish it all, but Grant quickly tipped the container up and ate the rest of it with ease.

After throwing the trash away in the cans, we headed back to the bar to meet the twins.

We ran into them outside, arguing with a man who looked similar to the twins, though a bit older.

“Hey!” I greeted as I skipped up to them.

The man turned and glared at me.

“We’ll meet you inside in a minute,” Jong-min told me.

“Okay,” I said and turned to head inside, high-fiving Tonka, the half-troll half-orc bouncer who had become a friend after I’d saved the city from Bastian.

“Is this whore the reason you’ve been ignoring our letters?” the man asked loudly.