given her reason to destroy me; so her deceitful little mind hatched a clever plan that was to prove all too effective. Sadly, I wasn’t to be aware of it until it was far too late to do a thing about it.

Several weeks later Elliott called me into his office. He appeared more irritable than usual and nervously ran his hand through a shock of graying hair that liked to fall forward over his brow.

“It’s come to my attention that you’ve been selling drugs from behind the bar,” he began, attempting to maintain some sort of composure. “As of now, you are fired and are no longer welcome on the premises.”

I was dumbfounded. How had I gone from being a model employee to a drug dealer in the matter of a couple weeks?

“What!,” I sputtered. “Where did you get that idea?”

“I have my sources,” he answered, edging nervously behind the desk and putting his hand on the phone.

“Well, your sources are screwed! I’ve never sold anything out of here, but your alcohol- and anyone who says anything else is a liar. You have absolutely no proof. You can’t fire me for something that I didn’t do."

“I don’t have proof that you’re dealing drugs, but Serena tells me that you hang out with the biggest drug dealer in town. I’ve seen him in here. I know he’s not here for the drinks.”

“No. You don’t know that. If you want to ban this person from the bar that’s fine with me, but as far as I’ve been told, I’m the bar tender here and I’m supposed to serve the customers that come in.”

“You’ve been serving under age customers, too. And that is something that I can prove.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Some acquaintances of mine came in tonight. One of them was underage and you didn’t card her. You served her alcohol without carding her.”

“I know who your acquaintances are. Table four, at around eight thirty, right? I told Serena to card them. She said they were okay.”

“That’s not what she told me,” Elliott answered smugly. “So even if a drug test wouldn’t hold up, there is this matter. I’m going to have to let you go.”

“Drug test? I’ll take a drug test. I don’t see any specimen cups handy. Why don’t you hold out your hand and I’ll piss in it.”

This last bit impressed Elliot quite a bit. “Pack up your stuff and get out of here before I call the police.”

I grabbed my helmet and riding leathers and left the place. The ride cleared my head some, but I was still fuming. Things had taken a bad and unexpected turn. At the time, I remember thinking that at least things couldn’t get worse. I was way off base on that one, too.

I decided to drown my troubles in the way that I always had- a bottle of Jose Cuervo. Without a job to hold down, I could devote full time to partying. With that singular goal in mind, I ran through my cash reserve at an unprecedented pace. Soon, I was back at Sebastian's house, drinking with a group of his associates. Although Sebastian and his buddies had unwittingly contributed to my demise at Redd's, by my mere association with them, I couldn’t really blame them. If they hadn’t been around, Serena would have fabricated some other equally clever tale, and began whispering it into Elliott’s ear- and Elliott, evidently, was far too gullible to