“Stan,” she gasped.
“What did he do?” My words sounded like a snarl. I was trying really hard not to yell, but if she didn’t come out with it, I was going to beat his ass. I reached out and grasped her by both shoulders, making her turn to face me.
“He…he…he fired me!” Tria cried.
She was completely hysterical, and I couldn’t make out a single syllable after that. I eventually gave up trying to understand her, bent down, and picked her up in my arms. She squealed at first but then just let me carry her all the way home while she soaked the shoulder of my shirt. Once I got her into her apartment with a glass of apple juice in her hand, she calmed down enough so I could understand her words.
“There was a new girl there,” Tria told me. “I think he called her Jessica. I’ve never seen her before, but she had huge tits that were practically hanging out of her top, and…and…”
She sniffed loudly and rummaged around in Hagrid’s Haversack, grabbing a whole mess of tissues out of it. She wiped her eyes and nose before continuing.
“He said she had more experience, and he didn’t need me there anymore,” she said. “He said he was sorry, and he’d keep my number just in case someone quit or something.”
She turned toward me, and the look in her eyes tore right through my chest.
“What am I going to do?” she asked. “I can’t survive here without a job. I just barely have enough to make rent. I have books I still need to buy for one of my classes, and they’re over a hundred dollars! I can’t pass the class without the books!”
“Can’t you find them at the library or something?”
“They’re all checked out,” she said. “And I’m fourth on the waiting list.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. I wanted to be able to tell her the perfect solution, but I was nearly as stunned as she was. I wasn’t shocked that Stan Fin made such a shitty move—that didn’t surprise me because most bar owners were assholes—but that she had gone from having everything in order to being totally screwed in a matter of minutes.
“I’ll have to move back,” Tria said quietly. “There’s no way I’ll be able to make it without that job. Rent is due the day after tomorrow, and I barely have enough to pay it. I won’t have enough for food, or the electric, or anything if I don’t get tip money. But if I don’t pay, I’ll get thrown out.”
One thing about our landlord—he didn’t put up with late payments, and he didn’t have any sympathy for anyone’s sob story. She was completely right thinking that he’d throw her out, and he wouldn’t give her any thirty days’ notice, either. Leases were month-to-month, and anyone who didn’t pay by the second was out on the street by noon.
“They were right,” Tria said. Her voice cracked a little. “They were all right. I never should have come here. I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can,” I corrected. “Look how well you have already done.”
“I probably would have been killed in the street the second week I was here if it weren’t for you.” Tria scoffed as she wiped at her eyes. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Yes,” I said emphatically, “you have. You’ve been going to school, and I bet you are spending a whole lot of time studying, and you are probably getting great grades, aren’t you?”
She looked at me through her lashes, then lowered her head a bit and nodded.
“So you can do it, and it’s not like you got fired for doing a shitty job. You got fired because Fin is an asshole, and I just might have to give him a coupon to amateur night in the cage.”
Actually, I kind of liked that idea. I wondered if he could be coaxed into it. The thought was really, really intriguing, but Tria’s words took me in a completely different direction.
“I can’t keep doing this, Liam,” she said so softly I could barely hear her. “Not without a job, and I don’t have time to find one. I’m pretty much screwed here. I have to move back to Beals.”
Knowing what she said was absolutely true, and also knowing how few and far between decent jobs were around here, I couldn’t really argue with her. The very idea that she would have to give up on her dream so quickly was bad enough, but adding that to knowing that if she moved back home, I’d probably never see her again was more than I could take.
I didn’t think. I didn’t consider. I didn’t even realize what I was saying.
“Move in with me.”
I was never one for impulsiveness, but the words just leaped from my mouth.
Chapter 9—Clean the Mess
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
I was starting to hate that phrase.