As she moved through the casino toward the employee’s break room, a woman in her seventies or eighties breezed right in front of Julie as if she hadn’t even seen her. The woman headed to a slot machine and settled herself in a chair for what would probably be a few hours of her retirement money being lost. In a way, the woman reminded Julie of Margaret, the old woman who owned the house where Julie rented a room. Margaret was a bit older and more fragile. And Margaret wouldn’t be caught dead in a casino. Julie still remembered Margaret’s reaction when Julie had told her where she worked.
“Now you take care of yourself, little girl. You’ll get no future with one of those men you meet in the casino. They’re probably married and cheating on their wives or they’re drowning their sorrows in their whiskey so they don’t have to go home and tell their wife they lost all the money to pay the mortgage.”
Julie smiled at the memory. She wasn’t interested in meeting men. Especially not here. But Margaret reminded Julie of a worldly old aunt with stories of the great depression and “the good ole’ days.” There was always a story with Margaret. Of all the places she’d lived, Julie had enjoyed living there the best.
She punched the time clock quickly and then deposited her purse in her locker. Glancing at her watch, she saw she had a minute to get to the bar before Gary, the other bartender she worked with most nights, noticed. And he would notice, Julie thought.
“Hey,” she said, walking behind the bar. Gary, a heavyset man in his mid-forties, could move faster than she could. Customers liked him. Right now he had a long line of cocktail waitresses at his end of the bar waiting for their orders to be filled.
He nodded to her. Then she went to work filling drinks for a few of the people who sat at the bar. They were easy enough; a few beers, a brandy neat, and a whiskey sour. She filled the unmixed drinks first and then headed to the ice machine to grab some ice for the whiskey sour.
“Whoa. The ice machine is almost empty again.” She grabbed what little ice was left in the machine, knowing the rest would be gone in the next five minutes given how busy the room looked, and poured it into a mixing cup.
“It broke this afternoon,” Gary said.
“Again?”
Gary shrugged. “It won’t be fixed until tomorrow. We have bags of ice in the freezer in the restaurant.”
“Oh, that is going to make things real convenient tonight.”
“I’ll get a few after I finish these drinks.”
“Nah, finish what you’re doing,” Julie said, as she quickly mixed the whiskey sour and dropped it in front of the woman sitting next to the man with the brandy neat. He handed her some bills and lifted his hand to indicate she should keep the rest.
After ringing up the sale and dropping the extra in the tip jar Gary and her would split at the end of the evening, she said, “I’ll grab two bags. You can get the next round.”
Gary nodded and went back to the long line of cocktail waitresses at the bar while Julie quickly darted through the casino toward the neighboring restaurant. With every step, the smell of steak and burgers filled her head, making her stomach growl. She walked up to the hostess and said, “I hear you guys are keeping bags of ice for us in your freezer.”
“For the bar? Yeah, Drew mentioned something about that. Just go into the kitchen. You’ll find Drew back there.”
Julie did as she was told and found the manager who helped place two bags of ice in Julie’s arms.
“I have a cart in the back,” Drew said. “I’ll bring it up so it’ll make the next few trips easier.”
Julie chuckled, and teased, “Sure, make it easier for Gary. Thanks for these.”
“No problem.”
She headed back through the restaurant and weaved around the casino patrons on her way back to the bar area. She nearly dropped both bags of ice when she spotted who stood in front of her as a group of people dispersed.
“Caleb,” she whispered. Her bottom lip wobbled a little even though she fought to keep her composure. It had been over twelve years since she’d seen her brother. She’d been in high school when he’d joined the military and went overseas. Two years after that, she’d left home and had never gone back.
Caleb’s expression registered shock. “Julie!”
He looked down at her with a mixture of surprise, relief and anger all rolled into one. For a second, Julie wanted to shrink down as she used to when she was a kid and her big brother was angry with her. She wasn’t a kid anymore. She was a woman, and she had all the scars to prove it.
“Caleb. What are you doing here?”
Her arms and chest felt numb from holding the two ice bags against her body. But the sudden glacial stare he cast on her made her shudder.
“Me? Where the hell have you been all these years?”
He’d raised his voice, and a few people turned to look in their direction, including Gary who frowned and motioned with his head in concern toward Caleb. Julie shook her head quickly to let him know she was okay, and not being harassed by some crazy person.
She drew in a deep breath. “I wasn’t aware that I needed your permission to do anything.”
Caleb frowned. “We’re not talking about permission, Julie. We’re talking about decency. I’m your brother, for cripes’ sake, and you disappeared from the face of the earth years ago.”
“You found me, didn’t you?”
“If I hadn’t seen you pass by while I was having dinner with Katie, I wouldn’t have seen you at all. So don’t get cute with me.”
“Why not? You always said
