Danny’s shift had been a little longer than it normally was. One of his coworkers ended up calling in sick, and he was already there. His manager asked if he could spend a few more hours working, and Danny agreed. He didn’t have the money that some of the other people that he knew had, and even if overtime mostly went into the taxes come payday, the tips he would amass were always tax free. A few bucks here and there was a few bucks here and there. That money had gotten him his replacement strap from the tattoo place, so it wasn’t like the money was without its practical use.
The extended shift did end, however, when another one of his coworkers came in a little bit earlier and they basically divided up the work that their errant and ill coworker would have left to the void. Danny spent no time getting out of there. Just because he worked there didn’t mean that he wanted to spend all of his time there. Far from it. Sarah’s Place was but an impasse. One that he would eventually put behind him. At least he hoped.
Danny found himself in such a rush to get out that he had neglected to grab his phone from where it was behind the counter. Nobody would steal it. The people who ate there couldn’t even see it. Others could. Danny trusted his coworkers not to take his phone, but he did not trust them not to grab it and see what it had inside. If he wouldn’t have reached into his pocket for his phone, Danny wouldn’t have even noticed that it was gone. His compulsions, that need to check his phone, was what saved him.
Before he got into his car, Danny turned around and started to walk towards the entrance. He didn’t mind the rain so much. He was a swimmer. Water was kind of his thing. Though that didn’t mean he enjoyed being peppered with droplets at random. “Watch it!” He stated with annoyance in his voice.
A moment later, he saw who the culprit was. A little girl. Yelling at children was not something that he did. Danny didn’t like kids, though. He really, truly did not. Maybe because kids signaled something in his past. A kid (in this case him) had derailed his father. They were a telling sign of mistakes that could be made.
His attention turned to the other voice and he looked over. The guy looked vaguely familiar to him. “No, it’s okay… you don’t need to give me paper towels or anything. It’s not like she dropped a bucket of water on my head.” What the hell was a person doing carrying around paper towels anyway? Seriously…