Chapter Sixteen

Cat

Before I left for work, I found my mum asleep on the sofa with an old movie playing on the tv. She'd clearly attempted to stay up waiting for either my dad or my sister to come home, which one was anyone's guess. I wrapped her in a blanket and shut off the television. Someone should get some rest in this house.

When I arrived at work, Addie is by herself at the door, she's talking to a young woman with a pink pixie-cut, and they seemed to be having a heated discussion, with the lady with the pixie-cut gesturing wildly at her. It was in that moment that I started to doubt whether Addie was capable of the job of being a bouncer, not because she was female but because she doesn't look at all athletic, more delicate and composed. I'd seen Kieran with customers, and he could go from smiling to uncompromising in two seconds flat. I really had to wonder if she had the athletic capability to apply physical force to unruly customers. Or even whether she even had the conviction to.

I had assumed that Addie was rejecting her from entering the club, but then see her reach out and touch Addie's arm. It's too personal for this person to be a customer of the club. I watch as Addie tried to brush her away, but she doesn't let go.

"Honey!" Addie looked relieved to see a familiar face, waving at me as I approached. She gave the pixie-cut lady a pointed look and said, "Bye Piper."

Piper looked me up and down, her eyes settling on my face with a grim stare. I felt my face go warm, uncomfortable with this much scrutiny. "Fine, but I still want to talk about this," she said, letting go of Addie's arm. As she walked back down the street I'd come down, she bumped my shoulder hard as she walked by, not even pretending like she hadn't meant to.

"Nice to meet you too," I called after her. Why were women so bitchy sometimes?

Addie let out a sigh. "Girl you don't even know how much you just saved me."

"You're welcome," I replied, glancing back over my shoulder to see if Piper had in fact left. I got a bad feeling about that girl and wasn't keen to get involved in whatever was going on between them. "You realise that one of Vickie's main rules is not bringing personal stuff to work, if she saw you, you'd be fired. She doesn't give second chances." Except when it came to me it seemed, but I wasn't about to let that secret out.

Addie cocked her head to one side. "Damn that's harsh. That woman really needs to calm the hell down."

I nodded. "Maybe. But she's really strict about her rules, so seriously, be careful with who you're seen chatting to out here."

"Yeah, I guess you're probably right, though I honestly don't know how Piper knew I was working here. I literally have just started here. Fingers crossed she'll take the hint and stay gone." She brushed her long braids back over her shoulder. "Thanks for the heads up though. And for saving me from that pain in the ass."

I nodded again. "So...how come you're out here alone?" I was hoping to move the conversation away from whatever had been going on when I arrived.

"Ah yes," she laughed showing me her perfect white teeth. Who even had teeth that perfect? "There was a cat incident inside."

I went rigid hearing my name. "Go on."

"Somehow it got inside and is now causing havoc in the bar."

I snorted, realising that she meant the fluffy kind of cat, not the human kind. There was a long awkward pause where she stared at me unblinking. Maybe she was waiting for me to speak. Uncomfortable, I moved toward the door. "Erm, well, I guess I better go inside then."

Addie sidestepped in front of it, blocking my path. "Wait," she said. "Aren't you going to ask me what that was about with the girl?"

"No, I wasn't planning on it," I replied, wondering why she was blocking the door. She may have been the bouncer, but I worked there so I kind of needed to get inside.

"Didn't it look super dramatic," she said, her eyes wide. I could really see the specks of gold in the irises when she did that. "Don't you want to know the story behind it and why she was here bothering me?"

I shrugged and placed a hesitant hand on her shoulder, shoving her a little so that she shuffled out of my way. "No, I really don't. It's none of my business and frankly I really don't want to get involved."

"Huh, that's strange."

I gave her a sidelong glance. "I think you're the strange one."

Addie hesitated, then laughed. "Maybe you're right."

"I'm always right." I reached for the door, ready to get the hell out of there.

"Hey what are you doing after work?"

"I'm going to bed, obviously." Who'd stay up longer than they had to. Crazy people, that's who.

"Do you think maybe you could come with me to a thing instead?"

I paused mid-stride and looked back at her; her eyes were pleading. "What kind of thing?" I asked curiously.

"It's a thing that I really don't want to go do alone. It's going to be fun though, you should definitely come." She pointed a finger at me. "You look like you could do with some fun, and besides its way better than sleep."

I gave her a look that said Not likely. What was with everyone today thinking I needed to have fun. I have fun. "I have to get up for a thing tomorrow. So I can't, sorry." I did have to get up, I needed to work on my submission. That was totally fun.

"I have a thing too, I still think you should come though."

"It sounds like you shouldn't go either then."

She wrinkled her nose. "I kind of have to, they're opening especially for me. I'm getting special treatment."

That piqued my interest, and she noticed too, quickly she said, "I'd owe you one, and having a favour from me is like gold dust. I promise you can ask for anything you want."

A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. "You literally know nothing about me, why on earth would you want a stranger to go somewhere with you in the middle of the night. I wouldn't want to hang out with someone I'd only spoken to a couple of times. Don't you have friends for this kind of thing?"

"Wow, I have friends, it's just that nobody is up at this time of night. Nobody else I know has work at such inconvenient hours." She huffed, but I could tell she was doing it jokingly. "Besides, I thought we were friends. I mean if you didn't want to be my friend, you could have just said that."

I exhaled in defeat. She was too Damsel in distress, and I wasn't one to turn down someone who needed me, and she was really sounding desperate now. "How long will it take?"

Addie did a little happy dance on the spot. I'd never actually seen anyone do that outside of a movie before. "An hour maybe two tops."

At that moment Kieran burst out through the club door with arms full of orange fluff. "Honey, Addie, meet Kitten," he said as the orange cat let out a gentle mreow. "You better get inside quick Honey, it's chaos in there."

Addie flashed her perfect teeth at me again, and that was that. No way to back out now.

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I think Addie has been around long enough now that I can ask what you guys think of her character? Also, yay a cat! Comment below!