Page 18 of Virago

“You don’t owe me anything, but I won’t say no to a free beer.”

With a nod, she turned and grabbed the door handle. Zaxx followed her into No Place.

~oOo~

It was still early for a Saturday night, and Zaxx was the first patch in the place. He’d known that already; most of the patches were still at the clubhouse, as usual. At least a few got here eventually every Saturday night, and two were scheduled to be here as crowd control, but there wasn’t much to control until around ten, so they hung at the clubhouse and partied there first.

Zaxx wasn’t on the job tonight, and he hadn’t been in the mood for the clubhouse. Zelda’s problems had his head in knots. He’d decided to call it early and head home, but then as he’d come up on No Place on the way, he’d felt like he’d stew even more all by himself with only Doof for company, so he’d swung in for a couple beers and some good bar food. And immediately found himself in Gia’s situation.

So now ... was he here with Gia? No idea. For the moment, he was only following her to the bar to collect his free beer.

Though it was still early, the place was typically busy. The band—The Wild Bunch, a regional act that played here once a month—was still in their first set, and nobody was dancing yet. Most but not all of the tables and the stools at the bar were occupied, and most tables were laden with food as well as drink. No Place had a small but decent kitchen and ran a limited menu of bar-food staples: burgers, chicken strips, an array of fried sides. Their bacon cheeseburger was even better than Marie’s.

“THERE YOU ARE!” screeched a feminine voice behind him, and Zaxx swung around to discover Hilary and Mindy Jasper charging toward him, both of them dressed like they’d come off the stage at a pageant: sequins and rhinestones, glitter on their shoulders, hair and makeup arriving five seconds before the rest of them.

Fuck.

A few years back, Zaxx had made the mistake of spending some time with Mindy, the older and fairer of the sisters. Under all that PICK ME sparkle, she was actually pretty. He’d met her at Doug Sinclair Harley-Davidson, where she was a clerk in their merch shop. She was much more subdued on the clock. For a few weeks, they’d had a good time. She liked to party, and she wasn’t a bad lay.

He wasn’t actively looking for anything serious, but he was never closed to the possibility. His philosophy was to have fun and let things be what they wanted to be. Neither push things to be more than they were or reject something because it was what it was. So far, he hadn’t found anything that rose to the level of a serious relationship, but he’d had plenty of good times. And some not-so-great times.

Mindy had started out as the former and ended up the latter. They’d had fun, but she was not very bright and, much worse in his mind, she wasn’t at all curious about anything in the world. All she cared about was clothes and makeup and partying and the reality shows she loved. Surely that would be enough for another guy, but Zaxx needed more.

When he expressed any kind of boredom or restlessness, her answer was always sex. She’d drop between his legs almost anywhere if she thought she needed to redirect his attention toward her. She’d been a club girl for a few years, so she didn’t have a lot of need for privacy.

Zaxx had made it about a month before he could no longer take their entire lack of anything to talk about, then he’d broken things off as gently as he could. Telling her she was too stupid to be with was the opposite of gentle, so he’d instead told her he ‘wasn’t feeling it’—a copout, and not exactly nice, but the best he could do.

Mindy had taken that to mean she hadn’t been paying him enough attention, and she’d spent months trying to rectify that until Zaxx finally told her the truth. Now she despised him.

In the months immediately following that explosive conversation, Mindy had keyed the letter ‘J’ into the door of his truck (he figured she’d been going for ‘jerk’ or ‘jackass’ but had chickened out when she recalled what it meant that he was with the Horde). She’d sent him an envelope full of fabric confetti—formerly the hoodie she’d commandeered. She’d poured bleach over the little garden he’d planted in front of his trailer. She’d posted endless videos on social media crying about assholes with inflated egos. And so on. All annoying but ignorable, for the most part.

The crescendo had come when she’d stomped into the Hall and tried to make a huge scene in front of most of the Horde. Then Badger had gotten involved, and after that, she’d retreated. Zaxx and Mindy had kept their distance since.

But here she was, coming right at him, with her little sister in her wake. It was all he could do not to flinch, waiting to get slapped or drenched with the pink drink in her hand. That would probably be sticky as fuck.

Instead, she shoved past him like he was an inconveniently placed houseplant and went to Gia. “You’re back! Finally!”

Gia’s smile in response was subdued. “Hey, Mindy. Hey, Hil.”

Both sisters had put themselves between Zaxx and Gia, as if he weren’t there.

“Hi, girly!” said Hilary. When she made a gesture like she wanted to hug, Gia took a subtle step back, and Hilary let her arms drop.

As a trio, they made an interesting set. Mindy in skin-tight, royal blue spangles, brassy yellow hair done big. Hilary in skin-tight, cherry red spangles, coal-black hair slicked severely into a huge ponytail, showing coaster-size fuck-me hoops in her ears. Both in ridiculously high stripper heels. Then Gia, all in black leather, towering above them both despite their platform shoes.

How was this accomplished woman friends with these vapid girls?

Okay, this was very much not his moment. As soon as he made eye contact with Gia over Hilary’s bare shoulder, he said, “I’m gonna take a raincheck on that beer.”

“You sure?” she asked, frowning a little.

“Very. Have a good night.” He made his way to the opposite side of the bar.

So far, this weekend sucked.

“Hey, Zaxx!” Chet, the head bartender, stood at the taps, drawing Michelob into a pint glass. “I’ll be right with ya.”

Zaxx nodded and shifted his attention to the chalkboard above the kitchen door—the only menu in the place was painted on that black slate in a Day-Glo rainbow. It never changed, so they didn’t need chalk.

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