Bottle Caps, Pop Tabs, & Other Unmentionables

“Yeah Mom, I’m just pulling in now, I’ll talk to you later,” Tyler said shifting gears and placing the car into park.

Gathering his gear from the trunk, he headed to unlock the door when he heard scattered feet racing just on the other side. As the door opened, what Tyler found wasn’t a surprise, but it was his favourite part of the day. Cash and Marshall stood in front of Tyler, tongues out, tails wagging back and forth in excitement, and paws prancing in place.

“Boys,” Tyler nodded and reached each hand out to give them a scratch behind their ears “c’mon let’s go!”

The two followed their owner into the kitchen after dropping off his bag at the staircase and made a beeline for the fridge. It had been about a week since Tyler had been home and any chance of food being either a) good or b) there at all, was slim. An apple that was slightly bruised was the snack of choice, and with a little wash and the apple cut into quarters, with a side of peanut butter, Tyler was set.

There was only one slice left when he reached for the lid to twist back onto the peanut butter jar, and at that same moment was when his eyes caught sight of the stray tab and can of Diet Coke. Tyler didn’t drink Diet Coke and he knew Joanne, his next-door neighbour who looked after Cash and Marshall while he was away, didn’t leave it.

“I thought the purpose was for the maids to clean, not to leave a mess,” he mumbled to Cash and Marshall, who sat at his feet, hoping that there was still something left of that apple he had been eating.

//\\

“You’re assignment for this week,” Magnolia’s professor called out to the class “I want for you to choose and re-read a book you read while in high school. I want a five page paper, and all the details you need to know are on this piece of paper that you are going to pick up on your way out.”

After quickly packing up, Magnolia rushed to the front and swiped a copy of the assignment from the pile and booked it out of the building. She only had ten minutes to run back home, change into a pair of her Maid Masters scrubs and head off to work.

It was only her fifth week in working for the Maid Masters, but yet Magnolia had a system in place, which gave her at least an extra half hour of free time. Instead of heading back to the office, she would make use of the time and get some homework done. Starting with the first three houses which were smaller, she’d do a quick run through, get everything spick and span, then she’d head over to meet May at the oversized mansion that they cleaned together. To make life simpler they’d divide and conquer with May taking the main level and Magnolia taking the second level, this way they found they always had time left over. With the first two weeks, the two would spend their free time gossiping about random things, as they were still getting to know one another, but then Magnolia realized that she was wasting valuable time, and decided that she could be doing homework while she was getting paid.

May had started taking off early, depending on the day, but usually Magnolia stuck around and pulled out the books she had brought along with her. That was her routine and it was nice to have a different spot to do work sometimes, a different view gave her different perspectives. Thus plugging her ears with a pair of headphones was how Magnolia spent the remainder of her half hour.

On todays agenda Magnolia was editing a piece for her creative writing class, and adding some final touches. She had her notebook and a hard copy, which was covered in red marker as she made her way through the twenty-five pages telling her that mistakes needed to be fixed and thoughts that should be reassessed.

Her mind was so engrossed that she didn’t notice anyone standing in front of her until she reached her hand forward to grasp the bottle of Diet Coke that sat beside her notebook and unscrewed the lid.

“Jesus!” she squealed, slightly jumping off the barstool she had been occupying and spilling a bit of the drink on her scrubs.

Magnolia’s heart was pounding as a girl stood in front of her, and the only thing she could think of was how they were going to fire her.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized, hoping that the girl wasn’t too mad “I finished, the house is clean. I was just finishing up some homework.”

She hurriedly began shoving books into her bag, wanting to make a quick escape, but the girl just waved her hand nonchalantly.

“Don’t worry about it,” she laughed “if the place is clean isn’t that all that matters?”
“I guess,” Magnolia replied, but continued to pile the last of her books into her bag.

In a rush, she slung the bag over her shoulder and grasped the handle of the bucket that held the cleaning supplies, and headed out the door.

//\\

“I think your maid is scared of me,” were the first words Tyler heard when he answered his phone.
“What did you do? And why were you even there in the first place? I told you when they were coming and for you to be gone,” he added.
“I got back earlier than planned, your welcome for taking your dogs by the way,” Tyler internally groaned when she said this, knowing that he should be grateful. With that he uttered a quick thank you, and hung up the phone, but not before telling her that he’d be home soon.

//\\

“We need to get out!” Charlotte practically yelled as the two girls left class Friday afternoon.
“There’s so much work to do,” Magnolia complained, just thinking of all the assignments that had yet to be started and their due dates approaching quickly.
“It will just be for a couple hours, please,” Charlotte begged “I just want to go dance, then Saturday we can meet at the library and get started on everything.”
“Fine,” Magnolia agreed and decided on a time and place before the two parted ways.

The Goat was the place to be on a Friday night, or at least for Magnolia and Charlotte it was. The drinks were somewhat affordable and Friday’s were karaoke night, which meant lots of singing and lots of dancing.

It was only 10:45 pm when the two girls met a block away from The Goat, but for Charlotte the walk felt like miles.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have worn heels,” Magnolia mumbled and received a slap to the arm in return for her comment.
“Not everyone can pull off your outfit,” Charlotte grumbled in response.

Magnolia looked down at her outfit and shrugged because it was nothing special. She was just smart enough to wear a pair of Vans instead of heels that she would definitely regret wearing at two in the morning.
When the two finally made it, the line-up was extended around the building, as everyone waited their turn. Unbeknownst to the crowd that waited in line, Charlotte was a regular, dropping quite a bit of cash at this place, and was well known by the employees, therefore making the wait for the two girls nonexistent.

The dance floor was bursting with people dancing along to some unknown song as the two made their way to the bar.

“What can I get you ladies?” the bartender asked.
“One tequila shot and a Diet Coke please,” Magnolia shouted over the music and dug down into the pocket of her shorts to retrieve some cash.
“Diet Coke? Really?” Charlotte scoffed at her drink of choice.
“I order a shot,” Magnolia defended and stuck out her tongue at Charlotte.

The tequila went down smoothly as they walked around the crowd of dancing bodies to find a booth so they could witness those brave enough to sing. The two were enjoying each person brave enough to step on the stage, when an older gentleman took the stage and waited patiently for the music to begin. The opening notes sent Magnolia into a tizzy, gulping down her Diet Coke and tugging on Charlotte’s hand as the man belted out about Eileen’s red dress. Arms were flailing every which way, they shook, and shimmed around in the crowd as they sang along and as the song came to an end, headed back to the booth to settle their beating hearts.

“This is the last performance of the night, next is DJ Hammertimez,” a man said speaking into the microphone.

“I’m getting another drink,” Magnolia shouted over to Charlotte and pushed her way through the crowd.

She waited at the middle of the bar, hoping that she’d get a drink faster that way. Once the couple in front of her had received their drinks she stepped up and waited to be served.

“Diet Coke please,” she said to the bartender that stood awaiting her order.
“Are you the DD tonight?” A voice asked from beside Magnolia.

She looked over at the voice and saw a tall male, with inked arms and a beard, leaning up against the bar.

“Nope,” she graced him with a smile and turned back around to see if her drink was ready.

The bartender made his way back over with her drink in hand, and once again Magnolia began digging in her pockets for the change she knew she had, but was stopped when the male spoke up and told the bartender to put it on his tab.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Magnolia said as she grabbed her drink “but thank you.”
“You straight edge?” he asked, smiling down at her.
“Nope, just prefer Diet Coke over alcohol,” she shrugged and walked back over to where Charlotte was sat.

It was no surprise that once Magnolia had gotten back to Charlotte, she pounced immediately, asking whom the guy was. Muttering a quick “no one” and taking her first sip of the Diet Coke, the subject was quickly dropped.

After Charlotte had added a few more shots into her system, she insisted that they get up and finish their night off dancing. Within what felt like seconds Charlotte had attached herself to a man that looked twice their age, leaving Magnolia to herself and from there she edged back off the dance floor. She was close enough to leaving when a pair of hands gripped her waist and a firm chest was pressed up against her back.

Not in the mood for grabby hands, she began peeling the hands away from her waist and turned to face to whom the aforementioned hands belonged to. She stopped halfway when she noticed it was the guy who bought her the Diet Coke.

“You don’t want to dance?” he leaned in to speak into her ear.
“No, we can dance,” Magnolia nodded, all prior judgement about his grabby hands vanished.

Turning back around, the man placed his hands back on her waist, holding them there as Magnolia began moving her hips to the music. Together their gyrations were smooth and effortless against one another and soon enough there were facing each other, faces inches apart.

The room had become hot, Magnolia could feel the sweat collect in the dip of her back, she could feel it gather across the top of her lip, and yet as she danced with this person, his hands gave her chills. Magnolia wanted another look at him and after stealing a glance, she found him already looking down at her. His eyesight travelled from her eyes to her lips, out of habit she swiped her tongue across her lips, and for him that was all he needed as he leaned down to connect their lips.

His lips were chapped and Magnolia could taste a mix of salt and alcohol. She pulled away sooner than she would have liked, but only because PDA wasn’t her thing.

“I’m Magnolia by the way,” she said, taking a step back from him and offering her hand.
“Tyler,” he replied and took her hand in his.
“It was nice to meet you Tyler,” Magnolia smiled as she took another step back.

Although she would have been willing to spend more time attached to Tyler’s lips, she turned and went to find Charlotte, who was still engrossed in dancing with the older man. Grabbing Charlotte’s attention, Magnolia pointed in the direction of the door, indicating that they should be heading out and within a minute Charlotte was standing by her side after she had finished giving the man she was dancing with her phone number.

“You do realize that guy is like fifty,” Magnolia said as the two girls walked back to the block where they started their night.
“He is not!” Charlotte laughed, playfully slapping her arm “anyway what about that guy you were dancing with huh?”
“What about him?” she asked “his name is Tyler, can’t say much else about him.”
“Well he was a hottie,” Charlotte smirked.

Magnolia waved her off, and said their goodbyes for the night, making their way back to the beds until they would see each other the next morning.

//\\

Tyler tossed his keys onto their usual place on the kitchen island, but instead of a smooth slide, they hit a bottle, causing it to tip and the contents to spill out.

“Jesus Christ,” he mumbled to himself.

As he went to grab the paper towel to clean up the mess, he noticed the Diet Coke and the lid that sat a ways from the bottle. Not bothering to deal with the issue that night, he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and headed for the stairs, where Cash and Marshall had been waiting patiently.

Notes

Hey hey hey!!! So here's chapter 2 and I know, things are definitely starting off slow, but hey not everyone can be the rabbit, sometimes ya gotta be the turtle. Please let me know what you're thinking, any thoughts are appreciated!! Thank you for reading!!

Chapter Outfit