BenjiSaturday rolled around quickly. After my night with Charlie on Thursday all I wanted to do was spend more time with her, but I had to spend the day at the shelter on Friday and she had to work the night shift at Ascension. Our schedules were polar opposites, which seemed like a cruel and specific form of punishment, and when Rick and I pulled into the parking lot where the race was to start on Saturday the first thing I did after getting out of the Jeep was look around for her.For my girl.Rick rolled his eyes at me. “Jesus, you’re like a toddler looking for his mother.”There wasn’t a thing he could say that would dampen my spirits. I was more looking forward to seeing Charlie than I was to the race itself. And that said a lot.“Don’t be so bitter, Rick. It’s not a good look for you.”He snorted and shook his head at me.Mason and Laina pulled up and parked behind us. My sister hopped out of the passenger side of the car and hurried around the hood to greet me with a hug. “Hey
BenjiI walked away from her table feeling manipulated—though not in a bad way. Just a way that reminded me that Harley was smarter than me. She’d walked circles around me and got me to say something I actually meant and was glad for saying—she was a witch.Meeting back up with Rick and the others, I was happy to find Kevin had already joined them. He tossed me the keys to the Hellcat which I caught in one hand and pocketed. “Are you feeling ready for round two?” His eyes were bright with excitement like a child on Christmas morning.“Ready as I can be, I think,” I said with a nod.Kevin clapped his hands together then rubbed them back and forth. “Excellent. I got a good fucking feeling about this one, man. You know that last track wasn’t really your speed, anyway. You’re more of a city boy. Corners. Improvising. You’ve got this.”I wasn’t too sure about cornering, especially considering I had one of the biggest and heaviest cars of the fleet, but I knew what he was getting at: I thou
CharlieMy heart shot up into my throat when Benji came sliding around the corner at the end of the track. His headlights lit up the stretch of road and the people gathered at the front of the line in a glow of white. I clenched my fists so tight as I threw my hands up in the air, my nails dug right into my palms.“Yes!” I cried.Harley shot me a look, threw her head back and laughed, and then joined me in cheering as Benji maintained the lead down the final stretch. The Lancer he’d started beside rounded the corner not far behind him, but on open road like this with no corners, he had no shot of overtaking the Hellcat.Benji had the victory in the bag.My voice rang out through the crowd as I cried his name when Benji crossed the line. Others joined me in my chant, and by the time the other cars had finished the race and the drivers were opening their doors, the whole crowd echoed my cry.Benji was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning when he stepped out of his car. Mason and Ric
CharlieWe hadn’t been inside the bar for more than fifteen minutes when it started to feel way more crowded. As it turned out, some people from the race had followed us to the bar and filed in after us, and nearly all of them were drawn to Benji. Women glanced at him from the bar, where they tossed their hair over their shoulders and batted their eyelashes in his direction, resembling cartoon characters more than the sexy street racing mavens they were trying to project.He was oblivious to their subtle and not-so-subtle advances.Men were also vying for his attention, but in a different way. They wanted to pass by our group, pat him on the back, and tell him how well he had driven. They wanted to ask him questions, mostly about the Hellcat, and hear all the details of the race.It wasn’t as eventful as one would have thought.Benji had never lost the lead over the course of the race. He had maintained his position in first place from the second he left the line.After a good forty-f
BenjiWhen I got to work on Tuesday morning I was happy to find the place calm and quiet. Monday had been a shit show at the shelter and I needed a slower day. Time to see about typical housekeeping, general operations and business tasks. I also had to try and figure out how the hell I was going to use the money Charlie had raised at the fundraiser.There were priorities, luxuries, and competing interests, being the person to make the decisions brought more pressure than I anticipated. Choosing one thing from the list meant removing another—taking away from someone or something. If I wanted that punching bag for some of the kids to work through their anger, that meant I sacrificed the new sofas for the community room. If I wanted new beds that meant I was packing more kids into each room. If I wanted outdoor activities then we missed out on indoor activities for the kids who’d rather stay inside.Where there was a win there was a loss. And where kids were involved I didn’t like taking
Benji“Come in.”The door opened, but I didn’t look up right away. I kept on typing away before hitting send on the email, then looked up and let my hands rest across my stomach.“Julia,” I said in greeting.Julia gave me a small nod and looked around. “I can go if you’re busy.”“No. I’m not busy. Never too busy for you. What’s new? How’s your friend doing? Is she still crashing on my couch?”Julia shook her head.“No?” I asked, puzzled. “Where is she sleeping?”“In my bed with me.”“Oh.”“Not like that,” Julia said hurriedly.“I wasn’t thinking anything.”She licked her lips as her cheeks turned bright pink. Being a teenage girl seemed like it would be such a nightmare. So many things were inferred, assumed, supposed. All false things in my experience. “She sleeps in my bed because she’s afraid to be in here alone.”I frowned. “You both sleep in a single bed.”She nodded.“That must be cramped.”“We manage.”I pinched the bridge of my nose before rubbing my forehead. “Alright. Do you
CharlieFor a Thursday, Ascension was bumping. It was so busy that we had to close the doors and stop letting people in for a good forty five minutes or so to avoid going over maximum capacity. Once a good chunk of people left for the evening we were able to let more in, which was great, because the turnover meant fresh blood and fresh money for my girls.I’d spent my last two hours as a ‘floater.’ Basically, I was everyone’s bitch for the night. If the bartender needed help I’d slide behind the bar and mix the easy drinks—the ones with no more than four ingredients that involved no shaking or blending. If the servers were falling behind on bringing orders to their tables I’d grab a tray and hop in. I’d do my best to charm the pants off the customers to make sure my girls got good tips.I also ran back and forth between the bar and the red room so I could make sure all my dancers had fresh water at their vanity before and after their set.By the time midnight rolled around I was a not
CharlieThe man who’d been heckling Jasmine stood up. He was tall. Probably a couple inches over six feet. He took a step closer to me, forcing me to crane my neck to look up at him. I knew this move. He was trying to take the power from me by reminding me which one of us was smaller than the other.He was the one making the mistake. I didn’t back down from anyone regardless of their size.“How about you just go get me a drink, sweet lips?”Barf. Sweet lips? Who the fuck said ‘sweet lips’ anymore?People were looking at us now. The music had gotten a little quieter and the only people who weren’t looking at us were those deep in drunken conversations.I maintained my position with my arms crossed. “You have violated one of the very few rules at this establishment. I will not ask you again. Get out of my club.”“Your club?”“You heard me.”He scoffed and looked around. “Oh come on. There’s no way a pretty little thing like you runs a place like this.”“And why’s that?”He leaned in clo