Chapter 6: I’ll Talk Enough For Both of Us

—Kinny—

As I sat in my usual seat at Rusty's, I noticed that Twelve wasn't there, and upon my hopeful face, Rust laughed at me. "He's in a meeting with King. He'll be out soon, kiddo." That meant they were in the basement, and I wasn't one to push the subject further. I smiled brightly at Rusty and ushered for him to take his own tub of cookies. He was quick to swipe them away and tuck them under the bar. More than likely hiding them from Twelve.

There was more than enough people here this go around, and the conversations were buzzing about my ears, making it difficult to hear most of what Rusty was saying, but I kept my smile wide, and nodded along. "Club business, but he's back around for a good while, atleast." was the only thing I could really gather from his tangent. I wasn't going to question it any further anyway. My mouth had already begun it's rant about the new recipe I tried with this batch. I was determined to perfect my chocolate chip recipe.

It wasn't too much longer that Twelve came out from the doors leading to the basement of the bar. King, Broken Bridge's president, was next to him and they looked serious. I turned away and took a sip of my corona to steady my nerves. What if he wasn't in a good mood, and I made it worse? But he seemed like a promising friend, and I wanted more of those.

By the time Twelve had made it to the same seat as last time, Rusty already had a whisky glass ready, ice and scotch poured about a second after he settled. I kept my head down, not trying to seem like a stalker, and focused on the tub of cookies in front of me. I took a large breath, released all my energy into my smile, and made my way out of my seat.

With the tub in my hands, I made my way over to Twelve, and like last time, plopped the cookies infront of him. He seemed a bit shocked at my straightforwardness, but tore the lid open anyway. As he grabbed the first cookie in one of his large hands, he gave me a cautious side eye. I don't know why, but I held my breath, and gave him a lame thumbs up.

Then, with a swift wink in my direction, he shoved the whole thing in his mouth and turned back to Rusty. My cheeks instantly turned pink, and suddenly, the bartop was the most interesting thing on the planet. I recovered quick enough and turned my attention to Rusty. New topic. Now.

"Hey Rust, guess what?" I practically had to shout at him. Rusty motioned for me to go on. "I had the best shift tonight." I spilled out with excitement. I was bouncing up and down in my seat, and I subconsciously snuck a cookie from Twelve's tub.

I loved debriefing Rusty about my shifts, and what drama happened, he owned a bar, he just knew. "Oh, yeah? Why's that kiddo? Tanya no show again?" He asked as he started doing dishes at the sink behind the bar, luckily it was stationed in front of us. Twelve coughed and my attention turned to him.

"Yes?" I asked when I noticed that he was looking at me accusingly. He pointed to the half eaten cookie in my hand, and I mustered up the courage to laugh. "I made them, couldn't I be excused from stealing one?" I put on my best innocent face and slowly bit into the halved cookie. After clearing my throat, and him not having said anything, I spoke again. "Kind of like qualified immunity, right Rusty?"

Neither men seemed to have a voicebox, So I looked to Twelve again, and batted my eyelashes, finishing the cookie. "It's okay, Numbers, I'll talk enough for the both of us. You, however," I spoke turning towards Rusty. "I know your ass can speak." My joke seemed to do the trick and Rusty laughed. He nudged Twelve across the bar top, gave me a sly wink, and walked off.