I BELONG WITH YOU

CHAPTER 1

ZED

I stand at the bar counter doing what I know best, making cocktails for my customers. Mindlessly. I usually enjoy doing these kinds of things, they keep my mind busy and at ease. But today is the total opposite. Today my head is all over the place. I can't seem to maintain my focus at all.

Today marks four years since that dreadful incident occurred and no matter how much I try to forget, it keeps haunting me in my dreams in the name of nightmares. I never had a real nice sleep since that day, always waking up from nightmares. Nightmares so torturous. And today was no different, actually today was more painful than ever. How my life got so fucked up remains a mystery to me.....or maybe not.

"Hey Zed, snap out of it man," Nick, my buddy tells me gaining my attention coming from the other end of the counter.

I sigh, mentally shrugging off my thoughts, "sorry, got a lot on my plate. You were saying something?"

"What's up with you today man? you've been mentally absent since you arrived here," he goes on, "is there something that's bothering you?"

I shake my head saying no, brushing off his concern.

"Are you sure?" I stare at him hard and he stares back, "you've been working on that drink for a very long time." Nick tells me quietly without taking his eyes off me.

I look down to see that he is saying the truth. It was a huge glass that I usually use to try mixing new drinks just to taste if it's edible. But I didn't get that far before my thoughts took a hold of me.

"Yeah, right, sorry." I grumble to Nick.

He stares at me for a little longer then shrugs and proceeds, "I got a new order, cocktails for the ladies," he snorts, placing the order pad on the counter, "it's like they are tasting every alcohol available, I can tell they are celebrating something. Don't know what, but they're getting drunk. What shall we do?"

I shrug my shoulders, "It is not our problem with what they do with their cash, so long as we're getting paid."

"They seem rich so money isn't what matters, just worried they might be trouble though. But you can deal with that, right?" the fucker is smirking while giving me a funny look.

But then Nick's expression changes, concern masking his face, "but, are you sure you're okay? You know you can always take a break. I'll call Nel to take over." Nel is my employer who covers for me at the counter when I'm not around.

I shake my head even before Nick finishes his sentence cutting him off. He watches me for almost a minute, then finally sighs. He knows I won't say a thing so he chooses not to push the buttons.

Nick and I have a history. I met him after I left the army. Back then I had nothing just some cash in my bank account. I saw Nick outside a certain night club. He told me he just got fired, left with no cash at all. How brutal.

We became good friends. He gave me business ideas. It turns out he knew a lot about business. He told me the dos and don'ts in a business and how to profit from a business etc.

I listened to him and opened my first business, tested my ability on how to handle it but I failed terribly. It got shut down before the end of the first month. My comrades laughed at me, telling me it was a bad idea leaving the military because I knew nothing about business. They were right! But I had Nick, they didn't know that though. Nick told me not to give up when the people I knew turned their backs against me. Even Nyssa.....my deceased wife.