The rest of Rylee's week went by as usual. The majority of her time was spent at home, Rubys, the gym, RCC, or Alexa's.

She tried talking with Sebastian when she could, but it was incredible how shoddy the service in his area was. You'd think a big company like Marvel could fork out some money to get something working out there.

At this point it was early Thursday evening and she was getting ready for a shift she picked up out of sheer boredom. Sebastian was supposed to come home today because they got shooting done early, but one of the few texts that actually made it through said he kept getting delays and cancellations because of a storm surge that was cutting through the area. Last she heard, he was supposed to be coming back Saturday afternoon now.

So, here she was, on her way to work. She didn't honestly mind much. Johnny, the owner, was going to be there tonight and only had two other bartenders on hand. Thursday's usually aren't busy, but only having two other people there would've made it difficult to run the ship.

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Rylee's night was going super smooth. No rowdy crowds or overly drunken crazies. Just a steady flow of work to do. The bar usually closed earlier on Thursdays, around 2 instead of 4. So when Rylee looked at the clock and saw it was midnight, she was relieved that there was only two hours to go.

She started washing glasses in the back of the bar. It wasn't her favorite part of the job, but it was an easy way to step away from the bar for a minute if you wanted a change of pace. Rylee was spraying a glass in her hand when Johnny appeared through the door, holding something in his hand. "Hey Ry, some guy just came through. Told me this was yours."

Rylee looked at him quizzically. She couldn't think of anything anyone would have that she had lost or left somewhere recently. She set down her glass and grabbed a towel to dry her hands. Johnny handed the object to her and her blood ran cold.

It was a simple thing, an iPhone charger. But it was older, and had her initials, RAS, written on both the chord and the charging port. She hadn't seen it in a long time.

"Is he still here?"

"Uh, he was. He was on the left side of the bar when I came back just now."

Rylee rushed out the swinging bar door to see who had brought this here, but the only people down at the left end of the bar were a group of six young girls celebrating their friends 21st birthday. She scoped out the rest of the bar but didn't see anyone suspicious looking.

Johnny had followed her out, confused. "Rylee, are you okay?"

"Do you know what this guy looked like? It wasn't Sebastian was it?" Rylee asked.

"No, I would've known if it was him. I couldn't really see him well, he had a Pirates baseball cap on.. probably like six foot? Some muscle but nothing crazy."

Rylee tried not to get worked up. It was probably just a fluke. Maybe she had left this charger in her gym bag before she moved to New York. And it fell out when she went to the gym earlier today. She knew some people at the gym now, friendly acquaintances, who knew about where she worked. And Pittsburgh Pirates hats were popular attire even if the team was shitty.

"Rylee." Johnny said, putting his hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her thoughts, "Seriously. What's going on? You know you can talk to me."

"I know I can, thanks." She smiled at him, though it lacked its usual genuine wideness, "I'm just trying to figure out when I lost this, because I haven't seen it in quite some time."

"Hmm. Well lucky someone found it then, huh." Johnny said, still confused.

"Yeah...lucky."

She went back through the swinging door and tucked the charger into her bag. She went back to wear she was cleaning glasses, extremely deep in thought about what was happening. The last time she saw that charger was when...she didn't even want to think about it.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and picked up a glass and continued where she left off, though the thoughts consumed the rest of her night.

Soon enough two o'clock rolled around and the bell was rung for stragglers to head out. Rylee finished up her cleaning and at 2:15 her and the rest of the Ruby's crew were heading out the door. Rylee was about to head down the street when Johnny pulled her aside, "Are you sure you're alright? You still seem kinda spooked."

"Yeah I'm good. Thanks Johnny." Rylee faked a smile.

"Can I at least give you a ride home? If it doesn't make you feel better, it will at least help me feel better." Johnny tried to laugh.

"Sure, I appreciate it." Rylee normally would've turned down he offer because she genuinely enjoyed the subway, but she didn't want Johnny to worry. They walked to the parking lot beside Ruby's and got into Johnny's Honda Civic and made their way towards Rylee's apartment. The two made easy small talk over the fifteen minute ride since the two of them had been friends for three or four years now. He was her boss, but at the end of the day, she knew he had her back about anything.

As they pulled up to Rylee's apartment, Johnny reminded her again to call if she needed anything. She thanked him not only for the kind gesture but also for the ride before she got out of the car and went inside. As soon as she got inside her apartment she fell to her knees on the floor trying to steady her breathing. She had had two hours to try and process what happened at work, but it still wasn't enough. How did this thing magically show up? Was it really already shoved in a bag of hers and she just didn't remember? Or was this something else. Something far worse. Just calm down. There's got to be a logical reason.

She tried to shake off the awful feeling she had in her stomach and went to take a shower. By then she had relaxed a bit and decided to go straight to bed. Before she laid down, she saw a text from Sebastian. It's like he could sense her anxiety peaking

Hope you're having a good day ☺️

There's no need to worry him. Not yet. She thought to herself.

You too 😘

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Rylee didn't set any alarms and ended up waking up at 2:00 pm. She couldn't remember the last time she slept that long or that late. She rolled out of bed and checked her phone, finding a surprising notification for one new voicemail and two missed calls. She was shocked that she missed them. Her phone ringing always woke her up, she must've been more drained from yesterday than she thought.

First she clicked the phone button to get rid of the two missed call notifications, both of which were from Sebastian, one right after the other as though he had called the first time, hung up and then called again deciding to leave a message.

The first call was at 10:04, and the next was 10:06. She clicked the voicemail tab and saw the message was around 30 seconds long. She hit play and listened.

"Hey sweetheart. Sorry, I forgot you mentioned you picked up an extra shift last night..so you're probably asleep. Anywho, so far my flights are still set for me to be back Saturday afternoon. No more delays, otherwise I'm walking home. Iiiii hope you have a good day, just wanted to say hello. I'll talk to you later, bye."

She smiled listening to his message, playing it one more time, especially appreciating his little laugh after he said he'd walk home.

She tried to call him back, but his phone immediately went to voicemail. She decided to leave him a message, something she didn't normally do.

"Hey babe, sorry, I was exhausted yesterday and slept right through your call. I miss you. I can't wait to see you. Have a great rest of the day! Bye!"

She hung up, a small smile on her face. She put her phone down and tried to decide what to do with her day. She had a little over four hours to kill. After much internal debate she decided to go for a jog around the city. She put on a pair of leggings, a tight tank top, and slipped into her Nikes. She grabbed her AirPods, her phone, and her key and made her way down to the lobby.

Rylee greeted Theo and chatted with him for a few minutes, asking how he's been, and soon enough she found her self waving good bye, inserting her headphones and making her way to the sunny warm street. She started up the playlist that she was listening to at the gym, and started her jog.

A half hour or so passed and she eventually made it to Central Park. She decided to cut through it and take in the scenery as she went. She passed where her and Sebastian had their first date, and the bench they sat on after the movie was over. She loved that she had such fond memories with such a lovely person in this beautiful city.

She looped back around and decided to run back in the direction of Round Corner Cafe. It took her some time to get there as she took the scenic route, but after another hour she was walking through the door, the bell ringing above her.

Lisa popped out and gave her a sweet little hello, already starting to prepare her coffee without asking. They made small talk about family and the kids. Lisa asked about Sebastian and mentioned how she was so happy that him and Rylee were together, causing Rylee to blush.

Her coffee and scone were ready and she thanked Lisa as she walked out the door. She slowly walked her way home, strolling along listening to the music in her headphones. She took a sip of her coffee as she walked, taking in the beauty of the city as she went.

She eventually made it back home, far more relaxed than she had been over the last 24 hours. She hopped in the shower and got ready for work.

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She got to work at 7:00, as she usually did for her Friday shift. As she walked in and put her things away, she saw Alexa and said hi, stopping to chat with her since they hadn't seen each other since Wednesday morning at breakfast.

"So, how was working yesterday. Regretting it yet?"

Rylee didn't want to tell Alexa about how yesterday ended, she didn't want to worry her prematurely. So she stuck with the basics.

"Oh yah know, the Thursday crowd, always getting wild and crazy." Rylee said sarcastically.

Alexa laughed, "Well, let's get the show on the road here tonight I guess." She pushed up her bra even more than it already was, her breasts practically spilling out of her shirt, and her shorts as short as ever. She tousled her auburn hair and yelped, "Let's make that money girl!" as she slapped Rylee's ass and strutted through the door back to the bar. Rylee laughed and followed her out, ready to start the night.

The night had been going fairly decent. The girls behind the bar flowed perfectly together like a well oiled machine. There were six of them working tonight. But they all knew when to duck and dodge or bob and weave around the others without causing mass hysteria. It was like watching a ballet, beautiful even.

It was around 1:30 when Rylee, Alexa, and another bartender named Jill were finishing up their break together in the back corner of the kitchen. Jill was talking about a hilarious couple that had come through that she could have swore were John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Rylee and Alexa laughed, doubting the two made an appearance but as Rylee said "Hey, yah never know."

The girls hopped off the table and out of the chairs to start heading back to their duties. "I'm gonna go take this trash out so we don't have to do twice as much during close." Rylee stated as she grabbed the bags and headed for the back door by the dumpster.

Alexa nodded, "Good call, see yah out there in a bit." She pranced back out to the bar floor along with Jill.

Alexa began pouring a vodka cranberry and a rum and Coke for her next customers in line, who left her an extra lovely tip of five dollars on the counter.

She started helping the next customer, who ordered three Bud Lights. She cracked open each one with the shiny copper bottle opener she kept in her back pocket. She tossed the lids in the trash and handed over the bottles, leaning a good bit over the counter for the man buying them. She was surprised to get a five dollar tip from him as well.

She looked up after he left to take the next order but looked over the mans shoulder out the window to see Rylee walking quickly past outside. It was dark out, but she could tell by her posture she looked upset.

Alexa apologized and asked Jill to help her customers and ran back through the kitchen, grabbed her purse and found Johnny.

"I just saw Rylee walking outside in a hurry. I'm gonna go check on her. I'll text you."

"Okay, go. Quick. Be safe." Johnny said with no hesitation. He wondered if it had any correlation with yesterday, but brushed it off.

Alexa ran out the door and made her way to the one thing in the direction that Rylee was going that she probably wanted, the subway.