Chapter 1

Cameron Andrews sat on the last stool at the back of the bar. She’d come in here for a drink each evening for the past week. Her newly found apartment was just a block and a half away, so she brought a book or newspaper with her and tried to keep a low profile. She wanted to get her face known without attracting too much attention. She needed to be just another neighborhood face. That was what she hopedto accomplish.

“Can I freshen that up for you?” The young bartender broke into her thoughts as she read the help-wanted section of the daily newspaper.

“Yeah, sure.” Cam pushed her almost empty glass toward him. He took it and dumped the old ice cubes and watered-down scotch into the sink, then proceeded to refill it.

“You looking for a job?” he asked, eyeing her newspaper. His shiny black hair curled forward over one eye.

“Looks like it,” Cam answered in her friendliest manner. “I’ve gotta find something soon. It’s just been so long since I’ve had to look for a job, I’m a little rusty.”

“Yeah, job hunting can be a bitch,” the bartender, Ralphie, agreed, placing the glass on a clean cardboard coaster. “What kind of work do you do?”

“That’s a good question.” Cam smiled, as she ran her fingers through her short brunette hair; a habit that she didn’t even know she had. “I don’t really know. I haven’t had to look for a job in years.”

“I hear that.” Ralphie grinned. A warm smile covered his face. He was short and thin for a man but his exuberance made up for his lack of bulk. “Now, bartendingwill never go out of style. Someone will always need a drink.”

Cam raised her glass to toast him. “You can say that again!”

“You just moved to the area?” he asked.

Cam nodded. “I was upstate for a while. Before that I lived over on Bolton Hill.”

“Fancy neighborhood; Bolton Hill!” he was impressed. “What brought you to our part of town?”

“You go where you can afford.” Cam admitted. She folded the newspaper and leaned over the bar to toss it into the trash barrel. Then she fell back into the explanation she and Maggie had perfected: “I got in trouble a couple years ago. I did some time in prison.”

Ralphie stepped back. “No!” he exclaimed. “You look too smart for that.”

“Not smart enough, I guess.”

Just then, a customer at the other end of the bar called for Ralphie’s attention and he went to open a few more bottles of beer and pour some drinks

He hadn’t been gone but a minute when Talia, a young waitress, stood beside Cam at the service station, obviously waiting for Ralphie to fill some orders. Cam smiled at her and was smiled at in return.

“Come on, Ralphie. Don’t take all night.” Talia shouted in a loud whisper.

Cam chuckled to herself.

“I really want to get out of here. Ten more minutes and I’m on my way home,” Talia grumbled to Cam as she waited for Ralphie. “I don’t have to close tonight. I get to go home to my kids.”

“That’s great. How many kids you got?” Cam asked as she took another sip of scotch.

Talia started to respond, but Ralphie interrupted her and she placed her order with him.

“I’ve got two kids. Seven and three.” Then she was gone with the tray of beers.

Cam sat back and sipped her drink. Across the room were tables of couples, talking, holding hands, all in quiet conversation. Men and women together, never men with men or women with women. If one wanted to feel comfortable sitting with someone of their own gender for a late evening, romantic chat, they went just a few blocks further west to the one gay bar in the district, but not to a place like this.

Cam noticed one dark-haired woman at the back of the restaurant sitting with two men. She looked so familiar that Cam stared at her for a moment before she focused her attention back into her scotch. Where had she seen that woman before? She couldn’t figure it out. Maybe she really didn’t know her at all. After all, she wasn’t Cam’s type. It seemed in the past few years that Cam had only dated blondes. But this woman was striking; a beautiful woman with deep dark eyes, the kind of woman Cam looked at but never had the nerve to approach. She took a deep breath, then downed the rest of her drink.

“Can I get you another?” Ralphie asked, taking the empty glass from in front of her.