"Drinks are on me!" Brynn declared, for the first time ever.
She felt like it had been months since she'd hung out with the whole gang: Chase, Ashley, Nick, and Kayla. Life got so busy after school, it was tough to get everyone together. But when Brynn texted them all to meet her at Marley's and she was going to buy them drinks, well, nothing gets some people out the door like the promise of free alcohol.
The five of them stood around a narrow bar table with shots of vodka to start. Brynn smiled at seeing them all so happy, or at least happy to partake. She'd done a poor job of keeping up with them these past few years. Social media didn't really tell you everything--sometimes it told you less than nothing.
She'd dated Chase for about five minutes when they were at SAIC. That hadn't ended well, but fortunately it hadn't ended their friendship. "I've got some sculptures going up in a gallery in a few weeks," he told the group. "Not a really nice gallery, but it's something."
"I sold a book," Ashley followed up. Suddenly, this had become a competition. "I spent a couple years trying to write something 'meaningful' but it turned out if I made some steamy trash and showed it around to my writer friends, you can sell that pretty quickly. Maybe the next bar trip will be on me?"
Nick was busy with his Jägerbomb so it took him a moment to chime in. Once he cleared his throat, he said: "My dad got me an analyst job at Robert Half. The job sucks but the pay is alright. I'm good with numbers, I guess that's all you really need."
Kayla rounded out the group with her own accomplishments: "So, that set I did on the Floyd protests, went over huge in Paris. I'm working with a publisher to do a photo book. If you want to write some commentary, Ashley, I could probably get you some space in it."
"I'll think about it," Ashley said apprehensively. Brynn detected a little tension, as if Ashley didn't like being offered a spot to write in that she didn't fight for or seize herself.
"What about you?" Nick asked, staring at Brynn from across the table. "You sold any sculptures or anything? Had a show?"
Brynn shook her head. "No, I'm still working at Cosimo's."
"Didn't he die?" Chase wondered.
Brynn bobbed her head. "Yeah, his son is running it now. It's not really any different, just Jake is more of a pushover than his dad was."
"I hope the pay's good," Kayla said. "Can we get another round?"
"By all means," Brynn said. "This is on my dime. Get anything you want."
"On barista wages?" Chase cocked an eyebrow with the question.
Brynn sighed. "Yeah, you got me. I didn't call you all together to tell you about slinging coffee. You won't believe the crazy job I have right now."
"Oh, the suspense," Ashley giggled.
"So, there's this old guy who lives above Cosimo's, right? I think he's ex-military or something. He runs a locksmith out of there, too, but I can't tell that he ever has any customers. One day, Jake sent me up with this guy's order because the usual girl was out sick. All of a sudden he offers me a job: listen to him tell his war stories and he'll pay me sixty an hour."
Chase whistled. "Not bad! But aren't you taking advantage of an old man?"
"Trust me, he's perfectly lucid," Brynn insisted. "I think he's just a lonely guy with an overactive imagination and too much money. I don't feel too bad taking it, you know? Otherwise he might be in a nursing home telling it to nurses who don't give a shit and wouldn't even listen. I do actively listen to the guy."
"Sounds like the stuff he tells you is made up?" Kayla guessed.
Brynn stifled a laugh. "Oh my god, yeah. He says he was born in Chicago but not until like, 2050. And that he lived through a world war, was a spaceship captain, fought aliens, and that's not even the craziest stuff. He also says he's a time traveler, which is why he's here and now. Like, come on. It's obviously batshit. But he pays cash and he's taking care of himself otherwise. He doesn't live in filth or stay in dirty clothes. He seems to feed himself just fine. I know he sounds like he must be crazy but he functions perfectly fine in every other way that I can see. I feel like maybe he wanted to be a pulp novelist or something, and it just didn't work out and he can't bring himself to admit it, so spins his stuff into epic stories that are about himself."
"Some ego," Kayla snorted. "Are they good stories, at least?"
"Eh," Brynn shrugged. "Some are better than others. There's kind of a tragic love story at the center of it, which I admit is part of what keeps me going."
"I gotta hear this," Ashley said, leaning in closer.
"There's this girl, June. They grew up together in 'the future,' as he tells it. He had a huge crush on her. She actually dated their other friend, Mark, and I guess Robert--sorry, that's the guy's name--was a little jealous. He didn't say a whole lot about how that went, just that Mark and June split after not too long, but Robert was still too anxious to ask her out directly. He was worried about messing up their friendship, and you know, they were 16. All hormones and no brains, right? He was just trying not to be stupid. But then the war broke out and she got killed. So, that was that. Or so he thought, until he had the chance to travel back in time. OK, so the first time, it was by accident. But he later got his hands on a 'time ship' and used that to gradually change the past so the war wouldn't happen and June wouldn't die."
"That is kind of romantic," Ashley admitted.
"Also insane," Chase added. "And obviously made up. But if I took it seriously for a second, the idea of fucking around with history just to save one person, like, that's fucking bananas."
"Absolutely," Nick agreed.
"I don't know," Kayla said. "I'd be pretty impressed by a guy who was like 'I'd rewrite history for you, baby.'"
Brynn and Kayla shared a laugh at that. "OK, OK," Brynn said, catching her breath. "Like I said, I don't think any of it is true, but there's a gleam in his eyes when he talks about June that I feel like something in there is true. Like, maybe there was a real June and something happened to her and he never got over it."
"That's what therapy is for," Chase scoffed. "Have you suggested that to him?"
"If I did that, he might stop paying me!"
"So, you'll take advantage of him instead?"
Brynn rolled her eyes. "Please. Nobody is taking advantage of anybody here. Frankly, I think half the reason he keeps me around is because he wants some eye candy. And don't look at me like you don't see me that way, Chase. You've never been good at keeping your eyes to yourself! He probably doesn't get hot young women walking into his office every other day, so he'll pay one. I don't see a problem with that."
"Work it, honestly," Kayla said, nodding her head. "It sounds like a good deal to me. I'd take it."
"Hard same," Ashley concurred. "You guys don't get it. Sometimes a man will pay you just for your presence. Doesn't even want anything sexual, or won't say so, at least. Women gotta make up the gender pay gap somehow!"
"Oh, come on," Nick protested. "You know there's no actual 'gender pay gap,' right? That's just a result of women taking time off to have kids. If they didn't do that, they'd be paid exactly the same. It's a personal choice, not society discriminating against women as a whole."
Ashley smacked the table. "Bullshit! Women earn the same until they have kids, then employers preemptively punish them by assuming they'll be the ones to take off work when the kid is sick. Like, nobody puts that penalty on men when they start raising kids. Even if he's the one taking time off work, his pay isn't cut, his raises aren't sacrificed. It's like the second you get pregnant, your value to the labor force is slashed. It's bullshit."
"Bullshit that hasn't even happened to you," Nick rebutted. "You're complaining about something that doesn't affect you at all."
"But it might in the future. I'm allowed to be mad about things that are likely to happen to me."
"I think you both need to drink until you can't talk anymore," Brynn grumbled. "Now, no more politics at this fucking table!"
"Tell us more weird old time traveler guy stories," Chase said.
"Yeah, so he claims once he went back in time, he joined up with this company that's almost like a cult. It's a real company, from what I can tell. I can't verify any of the really nutty stuff he said about them, which means that they're just as good at covering things up as he says--or he just conveniently made that up to suit his narrative. But you wouldn't believe some of these characters..."