Whiskey in the Jar

A few hours had passed since the incident at Brian’s house and Jordan was making herself a sandwich in her small apartment when she got a phone call from Matt. She deeply wanted to ignore the call and have a quiet day to herself but the relentless ringing was anything but quiet.

“Jordan, we need you at the hospital. You know which one.” Matt’s voice was urgent and he hung up before giving Jordan a chance to say anything. With that Jordan headed straight for the door and to her car, she never had a client die on her before and the lack of explanation made her very nervous. That resulted in her blasting rap music as loud as her car would allow to try and keep her nerves to a minimum.

As she pulled up at the massive hospital, she saw Matt standing outside with a shorter man by his side. It was obvious that they were having a serious discussion as the closer Jordan got to them, the more arms she saw flailing about and their voices were stone cold.

“How much longer, Zack?!” was all that Jordan could catch.

“What’s happened Matt, is Brian okay?”

“Right here’s the plan, you are going to move into Brian’s house and make sure that he stops getting into trouble and that he stops drinking. Are you on board?” In that moment Jordan was confused beyond and above. It’s not like she’s never done this before but it took a lot of thought and planning. It’s not that simple to just move in with a stranger and considering the fact she thought she came to see his dying breath this was not what she expected.

“You do realise that just five hours ago, he literally kicked me out of his house? And now you want me to move in with him?” Jordan laughed in his face.

“Then what the fuck am I paying you for?” That shut Jordan up, she look down at her shoes all embarrassed. In that instant Zacky choked back laughter which made Jordan and Matt glare at him in unison.

“Fine, I’ll do it but he has to want to do this because, honestly, I don’t wanna be kicked out again. You still haven’t even told me if he’s okay!”

“He’s fine, just banged up a bit. He started a bar fight with some big bastards and now looks like a potato” Matt’s voice softened as he began to walk into the hospital with Zacky and Jordan following behind him. It’s been a long time since Jordan was at this hospital. Once again she clung onto her necklace for dear life. It was hard seeing the halls that she used to walk down regularly and the people that she would say hi to everyday, the people that she would laugh and save lives with. She knew this hospital and the people in it very well and Matt was fully aware of her background.

The journey to Brian’s room was very awkward, not only was Jordan too ashamed to look up to see anyone she used to work with but she felt Zack’s eyes on her ass. Finally they get to Brian’s room, he was flipping the channels with his left hand while his right hand and forearm was bandaged. His face was puffy, and he had an eyepatch on his right eye, his left eye looked bloodshot and lifeless. When he saw the three walk in, he glared at them all and turned the television off.

“I thought you all fucked off” his voice was weaker than he intended it to be.

“This dickwad over here decided to bust his right hand, so not only can he not play a simple riff because he’s pissed off his head all the time but now we gotta put recording off because he can’t even hold a guitar anymore.” Matt lightly punched Brian as he informed Jordan.

“Shit man you need to get a grip” Zack added with a short laugh. Jordan didn’t understand how they could make fun of the situation that their best friend was in but at least they didn’t give up on him.

“I’m trying, Zack” no one believed this, not even Brian himself.

“Bullshit” Jordan couldn’t help herself.

“Matthew seriously where did you find this woman?”

“This woman has a name, shitbag!” Jordan defended herself whilst Zack was once again choking back laughter “and you shut the fuck up!” she shouted at Zack who threw his arms up in defense. This time it was Matt that laughed.

“Okay, everyone calm down. Brian here’s the plan, you’re gonna get discharged in a bit and we’re gonna drop you off at home and make sure you’re not gonna find someone to fight you. Then Jordan is going go home and pack her things so she can come live with you and be your personal nurse/sponsor so you can get your ass back into gear.”

“What the fuck man?! I don’t need a baby sitter!”

“Bitch, did I say she was gonna be your baby sitter? Jesus Christ, Haner, why don’t you think of Becca for once and what she would want you to do?!” Matt was not backing down until he agreed to the plan. Mentioning Becca seemed to do the trick as Brian looked defeated and as usual immaculately depressed. “Do you want to end up in a ditch? Is that what you want? Is that what Becca would want? I swear to god, Brian, don’t fucking do this.” Matt carried on pestering him.

“Fine.” Was all that Brian could get out.

“Great now can we all just get some burgers? Man, I’m fucking starving!” Zack the genius added.

====

That night, Jordan had packed her bags and had driven to Brian’s house. She was very nervous because she had only done this with one other client who was a very wealthy woman in her 40’s. She was a compliant woman, Brian not so much. For preparation she had written down a set of rules for them to both follow that she wanted to give to Brian. She wanted to be professional but she thought to herself she can always leave if he’s too much trouble.

Jordan rang the bell to his door and waited for Brian to open. As a nurse she had taken care of people before and as an alcoholic she has a sponsor looking out for her so she knew what to do but that didn’t stop her body from being all jittery with anxiety.

“Finally you’re here. Took you long enough. I could’ve drank myself to death by now.” She rolled her eyes as his sarcasm as she dragged her suitcase into his house.

“Thanks for the help. Asshole.” Jordan retorted.

“Upstairs on the far right is your bedroom. Don’t touch the master bedroom or you’re out of here and the downstairs bedroom is mine so don’t go in there either unless you want to see my naked ass.” Instantly after making that comment Brian felt like he betrayed Becca in some way.

“Do you have any other rules?” Jordan asked as they awkwardly stood in the hallway of Brian’s mansion.

“That’s pretty much it for now. If I think of anything else I’ll let you know.”

“Okay that’s fair. Here’s a set of rules that I would like you to follow.” With that she gave Brian a folded piece of paper and quickly ran off upstairs before he could say anything.

He opened the paper which read the following guidelines:

Rules:

1. Don’t be an asshole
2. Be honest with me otherwise this won’t work
3. I am not your maid so do not make me clean your mess
4. Keep the relationship professional

The last rule kept playing on his mind. There was no way in hell that he would want to sleep with the woman occupying his home right now. Not because she wasn’t attractive but he would never to do this to Becca. The two women were complete opposites. Jordan had shoulder length straight dark brown hair, she stood at an average 5’5 with a slender body type and had piercing green eyes. However, Becca had long wavy blonde hair, she was tall and had all the right curves, she had a million dollar smile and brown eyes that made anyone fall in love with her.

Since the rules said to be honest Brian felt the need to inform Jordan of his thoughts on the last rule. Walking up the spiral staircase he started shouting.

“Are you serious with this last rule?” he arrived at the door of the bedroom where Jordan stood over an open suitcase “If you’re here after anything else other than helping me get sober then you might as well get out now because there is no way in hell that I will ever fuck you. You got that?” Jordan’s jaw might as well hit the floor with the shock that she just encountered.

“That’s not what I meant!” Even though deep down she knew that’s what she meant “I just mean I don’t want to complicate things by getting too close in a friendly way or just any way but that!” she fumbled over words not knowing exactly what to say. She couldn’t help but feel hurt that he could say that to her as if she was some monster. She tried to convince herself that it was only because he’s still hurting from losing his wife but it didn’t really work.

Brian simply nodded and went back downstairs to the living room where he started flipping through channels. He heard footsteps around the house which made him feel on edge as it’s been such a long time since he spent so much time with anyone. The distraction made him turn the tv down and put his head in his hands.

Brian was beginning to crave a drink. His throat was dry. His breath quickened. He was losing his train of thought. His body was moving. His foot kept tapping the floor. He needed a drink. He needed one now. As if on cue Jordan entered the living room only to see him shaking. She ran to his side and she hugged him tightly.

“My father used to be an aggressive man,” her voice and body began to soothe Brian and he was beginning to calm down, “he was always angry and he always took it out on my mom. I’d come home from school and every day she had a new bruise somewhere on her body or her face. Eventually I couldn’t handle it and when I turned 18 I went to college as far away as I could.” Brian’s breath had slowed down and the sweat that had collected on his forehead had dried down. “I pretended that my family never existed but when I went home the summer before my gradation I had discovered that my father was so angry that he beat my mom up so bad that she never saw another sunrise again.” By then Jordan had tears rolling down her cheek. “I never told her how much I love her and I never said goodbye.”

Brian and Jordan were sitting on the couch holding each other both wanting to drink but both finding some inner strength to fight the addiction. This was going to be a tough journey but in that moment Jordan vowed she would do anything to help Brian.