Several people recognize Tan as we push our way through. Someone grabs him as I push my way through to Liz. "Hey Liz," I say, "Buy me a drink?"

"Old!" she hollers at the bartender, a tall, thin man with a short beard and glasses. He looks like a college professor, not a hog farmer. She holds up two fingers and yells, "Tequila!"

"Tequila!" shouts a group of young men on the other end of the bar.

Liz grins. "How goes it, mi amiga? To what are we drinking?"

Old leans over the bar to set down the shot glasses, some lemon wedges and holds up the bottle. "Is this her?" he asks.

"Old, Jill Price," says Liz.

He extends his hand and I reach across to shake it.

"Nice to meet you, Jill," he says. "And so?"

"I signed the offer," I say to Liz. "I'm in."

She hugs me and then holds up her shot glass. I hold up mine. We slam them back and suck lemon.

No sooner have we set them down than Old fills them again. "Congratulations!" he yells. Then he grins and moves away, holding the bottle aloft.

She pulls me close and says in my ear, "When do you start?"

"October first," I say in her ear, and then add, "I have a flight to Salt Lake at seven, so I'd better get going. See you in a couple weeks."

"Great," she says. "You want Old to call a cab?"

"Saw three parked up the street." Wave at her and then at Old, who waves back, along with all the young guys on the other side of the bar.

On the way back out, I see Tan, sitting on a chair against the wall. A slinky blonde sits on his lap, sucking his tonsils and grinding her pelvis into his. That makes me grin. Outside, I take a deep breath, looking at the lights in the cool air.

"Hey lady, lookin' for a cab?" calls a driver, waving at me. Sit in back and relax, closing my eyes. Why am I so relieved and happy? Oh yeah, I feel as though I've ducked into the underbrush again because I have a job, which makes me look normal. I'm no longer exposed, at least for another eighteen months.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License