(EVIE)
An hour and a half later, Evie trudges back into her apartment, tossing her fanny pack, shoes and clothes helter skelter as she heads straight to the bathroom.
After a two minute shower, that beat even her own record of three minutes,she wraps herself in a bathrobe and flops back into bed, making sure to set the alarm to 10 pm before she drifts off to sleep.
She has the graveyard shift at the bar.
LATER THAT NIGHT
She wakes up the same way she always does, slowly and gradually, her limbs coming awake individually, lazily stretching her arms, she opens one eye, looks at her cherry red alarm clock and yelps.
Of course, she slept through the alarm again. At this rate, why she even bothers to set an alarm is beyond her, she always sleeps through it.
Jumping out of bed, she foregoes her shower and slathers her body with lotion, she steps into her jeans, yanks a brush through her hair and hurriedly lines her eyes with mascara, she digs out her phone,. card and keys from her fanny pack and steps out of the apartment still buttoning her shirt, she's halfway down the stairs when she realizes she has forgotten her jacket, she runs back upstairs to get jacket while ordering a cab.
Twenty minutes later, she barrels through the bar's back door, a box of glazed donuts in one hand and two macchiato lattes in the other hand.
" You're late." Noel, her boss, says as soon as she steps into the backroom, he's standing in the middle of the room, his arms crossed across his chest.
" Sorry Noel." She beamed at him.
" Traffic was a bitch." She adds, holding out the box of donuts.
" Evie," he said with a heavy sigh.
" You live ten minutes away, traffic can't make you almost an hour late."
" It won't happen again." She assured him.
" Cross my heart and hope to die." She adds.
She attempts to cross her heart, but that's a lot harder to do when your hands are full.
"You said that yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, and the day before," Noel says.
" Donut?" Evie asked, batting her eyes at him, hoping to get him to change the topic.
" Stop trying to distract me." He snarls.
" And stop bribing me with sugar," he adds.
" I've grown a paunch since you started working here." He continues.
"Alright then." Evie said, trying her best to sound crestfallen and turning to drop the box on the small table by the door.
" I'll just have to eat all this by myself then." She says.
" No you don't." Noel snarled, grabbing her hand before she could set down the macchiatos. "After all the shit I put up with all day, I deserve a sugar rush." He added.
Evie smiles at him.
" I'll get the plates." She said,
" No need." Noel replies, pulling a bunch of napkins out of his pocket. " I brought napkins."
Fifteen minutes later, Evie has the last donut in her hands and Noel is ready to leave.
" Remember." He tells her as he shrugs into his jacket.
" You're the bartender, not the bouncer. You see a fight, you get Drew. Got it?" He asked.
" I only stepped in once," she says.
The glare he fixes on her is strong enough to melt glaciers in Antarctica. " Or twice." She admits under the force of his glare.
" Well, don't do it again." He admonishes.
" You have your flaws, but you're a damn good bartender, and wouldn't want you to get your hands broken in a fight." He adds.
" Ohh, thank you for being worried about me." She murmurs slyly. " I ain't worried about you." He tells her.
" I'm worried about myself. Who do you think is gonna get stuck paying your hospital bills?" He asked.
Evie smiles at him sweetly and shoves the last bit of donut into her mouth.
Noel may have to put up with a tough exterior, but he was all soft and cuddly inside, and she knew he worried about her.
The last time she sprained her ankle in a bar brawl, he took her home and burnt his hand making her dinner.
" Wipe that sugar off your face and get dressed for work." He says, throwing his pocket handkerchief at her.
See, that proves her point, what sort of hard-boiled, nail-chewing bar owner carries around a pocket handkerchief.
Opening the locker behind her, she takes out the tight black t-shirt with the bar's logo and replaces it with her shirt, taking off her flip-flops, she replaces them with a pair of black air Jordans from a garment bag on the floor of the closet.
" Good night boss." She says, stowing her phone in her pocket.
" If I don't get out there in the next ten seconds, Drew's gonna have my hide." She adds.
" Good night Evie." Noel tells her.
" It's more like good morning for me boss." She says before flouncing into the main bar, turning heads as soon as she walks in.
Noel watches her go with a smile on his face.
" She's going to lead a lucky man on a merry dance someday." He murmurs, before fishing out his keys and heading home to the woman who has led him on a merry dance every day for the past fifteen years of his life.
" I'm not a bartender." Drew tells Evie as soon as she takes her place behind the bar.
" Are you sure?" She asks slyly.
" You and your apron make quite the picture," she added.
Drew scowls at her.
" That's because I didn't want to ruin my new pants." He says, untying the apron and handing it to her to reveal a pair of new-looking, skin-hugging tan pants.
How he always manages to get such nice things on a bouncer's salary never ceases to amaze her.
This is LA though, the land where nobody is as they seem. Take her, for example. Who would ever guess that she was a werewolf?