Leo

"Leo! It's been a minute," Emilio exclaimed the moment I walked inside the crowded bar, rushing around the bar island to greet me with a hug. His familiar spicy, bourbon cologne stung my nose and I hid my smile as we embraced long and hard. He was as warm as I was cold and I relaxed in his overbearing hug, my head resting easily over the crown of his hair as he squeezed me to death.

If I had an older brother, it would be him, even though we looked nothing alike.

While I was taller than his average five feet five and thinner, he was short and adorably pudgy with flawless, ginger-blonde hair and the warmest, brown eyes known to humankind. I met him one day while I was smoking outside the bar at a tender age of fifteen and he made it his mission to make my troublemaking, shit-stirring street rat tendencies cease at once. It took a lot of patience, a lot of non-stop scolding and endless kindness from him over the years but I probably would have ended up in jail if it wasn't for him.

Emilio Peralto kept me straight since then and I have been working in his bar as both a bartender and waitress as soon as I turned sixteen. I worked part time since I was still in school, but I stopped to focus on school when my grades started dropping. It wasn't my choice to stop working, but when Em had practically forced me to attend college, even though I was two years later.

"Em," I said, patting him gingerly on the back until he pulled away, ignoring his misty eyes. He held me at arm's length and checked me up and down, as if to make sure I was in one piece.

"It's good to see you, why haven't you come back to visit since? I told you to stop working but at least you could have come to see me during the weekends. It's been a couple months now," he commented slowly. His hazel eyes squinted at me closely. "Girl, you had time to get another piercing but not to see your favorite boss?"

I shrugged, waving him off as he muttered indignantly under his breath. "You know this already–if I come back before the semester is over, I might not even go back to class. And what's wrong with the piercing?"

"Nothing," he grumbled, returning quickly behind the door as a customer called over for another beer. "It's good to see you, though!"

I sat on an empty stool in front of him, watching as he pressed down the nozzle and glided the mug to the customer sitting beside me. Before I could ask him my question, he moved to the end of the bar, tending to another customer. I waited for a couple of minutes, tapping my nails idly on the greasy table before he returned.

"Em, it's busy today," I remarked casually. "When can I start?"

"I thought you would never ask," he chortled, wiping over the surface with a rag. "I have tried to hire a few peeps when you were gone, but they weren't you. If you want, you can start right now."

"What happened to Sally?" I said with a grin, moving off the stool and joining him side by side.

He shot me a displeased look, looking disgruntled by my question. "We don't talk about Sally. I must have replaced at least five glasses before I fired her ass," he scoffed, rolling his eyes dramatically.

"And Arnold?"

"Drinking on the job. Can't even serve a proper jack and coke right."

I chortled in response. Jack and coke was the easiest drink to make, how could someone even mess that up?

"Jason?"

Emilio shot me a glare. "That prissy boy quit the moment it got too rowdy for him."

"Sounds like a bunch of lame pussies to me," I announced, laughing gleefully.

Then again, considering where I worked, it was no joke. Em owned the biker's bar for years now and working the night hours were not for the fainthearted. Not when brawling fights broke out faster than I could pour drinks and the grizzled gang of men became wild and obnoxiously aggressive. They left me alone for the most part, mainly because of Emilio, who would fuck them up the moment they tried to mess with me but it didn't stop the oblivious or occasional horny stragglers who took me as an easy ticket to their beds. It was mainly guys, of course, but once they saw me, their tongues would go wagging like dogs in heat.

Unfortunately for them, I swung for the other side, and the regular girls that I usually revolved in were usually in the clubs in the middle of Bainbridge Town. Which reminded me–I would have to see if Rufina was still in town. Maybe she would still be available for a good, ol' roll in the bed.

I worked alongside Emilio for the entire midnight shift, up until two in the morning, shivering in the cold as he closed the bar, scheduled to be reopened at four in the afternoon. He glanced over at me and frowned when I refused to accept his jacket, swatting away his offering with my hand.

"Do you want me to drop you off? Are you still rooming with the meth heads?" He asked as we walked around the bar and into the small parking lot.

"Yeah, I don't think the buses are running around this time. And yeah, they agreed to let me stay there if I paid an extra hundred to reserve the room while I was away," I answered, hopping into his truck. My fingers itched for a smoke but I knew that Emilio hated the smell of cigarettes in his car so I tucked my numb hands in my hoodie, my fingers touching the glasses.

Emilio glanced over at me sideways as I pulled out the smudged, goofy-looking glasses, playing with the ear handles carefully. He started his truck, still looking at me sideways.

"You're wearing glasses now?" He snickered in amusement as he watched me play with the glasses.

"Nope," I replied, hiding my smile as I imagined how livid the little rich brat would be when she realized that she no longer had her glasses. Maybe they were just for show, just to make her look smarter, I mused as I peered into the thick lenses. Or maybe not.

"Leona Marchetti, why are you grinning like that? Whose glasses are those?" Emilio demanded, as he began to drive out of the parking lot. He shot me a look that told me that he was not pleased by my antics. Such a big brother behavior–it was cute and annoying at the same time.

"Not mine," I sang out loud, trying to stop myself from smiling.

"Don't tell me you stole them. I thought you were done being a kleptomaniac," he muttered disapprovingly.

I had a history of stealing things when I was younger and it had gotten me expelled more from school and arrested for petty theft more times than I could count. It was a nasty little habit of mine that Emilio had tried to get rid off, after threatening to fire me so I stopped it completely. He was the only friend I had, the only one who cared enough to make sure I was alive and doing well and I would hate to see the only person in my life run away because of my bad habits. Since then, my urge to steal erratically and randomly had died down but just because of that rude, snobby bitch, I couldn't help myself.

Maybe it was because I wanted to see if she would be smart enough to realize who stole her glasses, unless she didn't care–after all, she was a rich bitch and one pair of glasses missing might not be anything for her. Or maybe because I wanted to see her again, after winter break was over.

"I'm done being a klepto," I promised solemnly as he huffed under his breath, side eyeing me as he drove down the empty road. I felt obligated to explain to him about my interaction with that girl at the bus stop and he listened carefully, rolling his eyes when I emphasized the details regarding her behavior.

"She sounds like a bitch," he agreed softly, rolling to a stop in front of the shabby, grimy apartment building. "But, still, what made you do that?"

I shrugged, still toying with the glasses absentmindedly.

"I don't know...maybe she brings the worst out of me."