Liquid Lucidity (A Novella)

Chapter Three

Although Hannah was still awake, David closed the door as quietly as possible behind him before heading down the steps and back to the bar. 

A girl that that didn't belong in this type of neighborhood. Any other part of town she'd blend in and probably adapt just fine, but this area was about as rough as Portland got and there was no way in hell she'd be blending in. People around here were the lowest in the city and he didn't want her history to repeat itself. 

At least Meggie held her own. She might of been sex on two legs, but she put every man in his place; either under her heel, in her bed or out in the streets. Sometimes a combination. No one fucked with her and in the off chance they did, she made damn sure they regretted it.

When she came to work for him not long after he opened the doors, she'd been tempting and let him know that if he made a move, she wouldn't be turning him down. But David didn't fool around with employees and didn't get mixed up with her kind of crazy, as tempting as it once was. 

While he heard she was phenomenal in the sack, not finding that out for himself was probably the best decision he ever made.

Meggie fit right in which was probably why she got on his damn nerves all the fucking time. How her and Hannah ever ended up being friends was beyond him and a straight up mind blow. They were polar opposites. 

"What's going on?" Meggie asked when David approached the bar and sat on one of the stools rather than getting back to work. 

He wasn't really needed anyhow. He had a cook there and there weren't enough people to help Meggie bartend, not that she wanted his help. They couldn't share the same small space for more than a couple of minutes before biting each other's heads off. 

"Left her upstairs to rest." 

Meggie sat a tumbler glass in front of him and poured him a bourbon. "You guys talk? You were up there a while?"

David glanced up at the clock above the bar and saw he'd been up there for nearly an hour, about twice the amount of time he thought. "Woulda been weird if we hadn't."

That comment earned him one of Meggie's signature glares, the kind you felt the heat of hell from. "Jesus, just tell me what you talked about and stop being a dick."

"She don't belong here, Meggie. Seriously, I don't know how the hell you talked her into coming here, but she needs to turn around and go back to where she came from." 

"You don't like her?" Meggie asked as she set the bottle down and leaned against the bar, given him an eye full of the cleavage that earned her the best tips in a six block radius.

"I like her plenty." Too much, he thought; a thought he'd be keeping to his damn self. "A hell of a lot more than I like you. But craziness overwhelms her and there's enough crazy around her to fill a damn football stadium. When she gets overwhelmed, she gets dizzy and has mood swings and her symptoms get worse. I don't doubt that starting over was the right choice for her, but this is the wrong fucking place."

"Well, what is the right fucking place?"

David thought for a moment. He'd gotten to know Hannah a fair amount in the hour he'd been up there, but he'd still only known her for that one hour.

"Somewhere quiet with nice scenery, maybe by a small town but close enough to a city where she can enjoy it without havin' to live in it. A place that doesn't give her a damn nervous breakdown as soon as she steps foot out the front door. Where she can find a job that can work around her quirks."

Her quirks were very real symptoms, but those symptoms didn't make him think any less of her. Hell, they probably made him think more of her thinking about everything she's overcome. He could tell how much effort it took her to speak without drawing too much attention to herself, but David liked the way she spoke; slow and with every word having a purpose. 

When he thought back to the laundry list he'd just listed, David got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that he foolishly tried to get rid of by downing his entire drink. "Fuck me."

Meggie pushed herself upright and grabbed the bottle. "First off," she began as she poured him another drink. "You only get one offer from me and you blew that sky high. And second, you better tell me what the hell's goin' on in your head right now."

David turned the glass around and around between his fingers. It was stupid just to think it, but bat shit fucking crazy to say it out loud. Yet no matter how crazy it was, the words still came out of his mouth. "With me. The right place for her would be with me."

He'd felt the second wind of her signature glare before looked up and saw it for himself.  "With you? One hour with her and you're already talking about her moving in with you?"

"You haven't seen her since high school and you were ready to have her move in with you," David fired back even though he knew they were two completely different situations, his being the most ridiculous. "And not into my home, just the guesthouse." 

"A guest house? Who the hell has a guesthouse around here?"

This was a part about his life he didn't like talking about and had zero intention of getting into it with Meggie right now. He wanted people to see the guy he was raised as; the son of a man who trained horses and a woman who owned and ran a hardware store and substituted at an elementary school. He didn't want anyone digging into his past as a soldier or the fact that he'd inherited a small fortune, though he guessed the soldier in him came out in his attitude and his need to keep everything clean and organized.

If Hannah decided to stay by him, Meggie would find out about one of those things, or just assume that he earned that small fortune in illegal activities like most did in this neighborhood. This was assuming he'd make the offer to Hannah at all.

He didn't know her that well and she knew jack shit about him, minus what she'd learned from Meggie. It would be ideal for her though. No one would fuck with her if they saw her hanging around him at the bar and she'd be plenty safe from that shit where he lived. He'd be able to keep an eye on her, look after her. She'd have help close by if she needed but still be able to live independently. No, they didn't know each other, but how well would they have to if he was just going to be her landlord?

And he didn't need the money so, assuming she received disability checks, he'd be able to come up with a fair price for her so she wouldn't have to rush out to find a job.

It still wasn't an ideal situation for himself. He built a house on fifteen acres so he wouldn't have people around. David didn't like people poking around his business and after a night at the bar, all he wanted was to surround himself with some damn peace and quiet. That's why he soundproofed the shit out of the upstairs.

David picked up his drink and brought up to his lips, speaking into his glass before taking a swig. "I don't live around here. And it's not really a guesthouse, just a livin' space above the garage."

He didn't want to come off as too eager about this scenario since it sucked for him. But he also didn't want Hannah to go back home with her tail between her legs because Meggie was too stupid to ask more about her issues before extending the invitation. "Hell, maybe she'll be fine livin' with you, I don't know. Just throwin' an option out there if she aint."

As he finished his second drink, he watched through the bottom of it as Meggie nodded slowly at him, clearly a skeptic with his motives.