I do not want to be here. I want to be curled up in bed, replaying my run with James from a week ago. Instead, I’m at Sharon’s for a “girls’ night.” Which is supposed to include gossiping about boys. But the boy I want to gossip about has to be kept a secret. Ugh. “Can you get me some mugs from the cabinet?” Sharon asks. I reach up and grab three from the shelf in front of me and hand them to Sharon. Just as she starts to pour the spiced hot cider she’s made, I hear the front door open.“It’s me! And I have cake!” The voice belongs to Lisa, a waitress Sharon and I used to work with at the diner until she left to start her own bakery. She races into the kitchen and wraps me in a hug before doing the same with Sharon. “It’s so good to see you both! I feel like it’s been forever since we last hung out,” she says as she takes off her jacket and throws it on a nearby chair.“I know! We’ve all been working so much,” Sharon says as she hands me a mug of cider and shepherds us
Broken plates, spilled coffee, eggs smeared on the floor. There’s butter on my boot and jam on my jams. Nearly dropping that container of maple syrup last week is nothing compared to the destruction that I just caused.I dropped an entire tray of breakfasts, and it’s all his fault.“What the hell, Izzy? You suddenly forget how to do your job?” Clyde asks, shaking his head as he grabs the broom and brush and shoves them into my hand. I stoop down and start sweeping the food into the pan, but my attention isn’t on the floor. It’s on him. James. He walked in, alone, and two seconds later, twenty dollars’ worth of food was on the floor. “Do it quickly. The rush is about to start, and I can’t have our customers slipping and breaking their neck. God knows we can’t afford a lawsuit,” Clyde grumbles to me as he passes by to greet another group of customers entering the diner.I nod and quicken my pace, managing to get the floor back to its semi-sparkling state in under five minu
“Izzy! Go home!” Clyde says, clapping me on the shoulder and taking my order pad out of my hands. “What? Why? Are you firing me? Is this about the coffee filters? I had no idea the box was going to fall apart like that, and I swear only ten of them were damaged. The rest are totally fine!” My words come out on a rushed exhale of anxious breath and my heart is beating so fast that for a second my vision goes blurry.It’s been a rough week. On Monday I messed up an order of burgers for a table of vegans who looked like they wanted to forgo their pacifist leanings and kill me with their butterknives when I put meat in front of them. Wednesday, I dropped a box of two hundred coffee filters all over the kitchen floor, which thankfully I had cleaned an hour before, so most were saved due to lack of dust and grime. And today I broke not one, not two, but four mugs in a thirty-minute period while filling coffees.To say I’m a wreck would be an understatement, and to declare me a crap w
Ben is totally back to normal on Saturday morning, but the swift change in mood has me suspicious, and I find myself looking for clues about what’s going on with him all weekend. By Sunday night, I’m exhausted and haven’t come up with anything. I decide to go to bed early, since I’m working the early shift the next day. I’ve just put on my coziest socks and cracked open a library book to read when I hear a noise outside. It can’t be. Can it?I’ve been willing James to come to my window all week, and now, the one night I need a decent night’s sleep, he decides to show up?I should punish him for how he treated me and ignored me, but my heightened senses mean I can hear him pacing back and forth in the yard, huffing his breath and cracking his knuckles.He sounds nervous, and that intrigues me. If he’s nervous, maybe it’s because he realizes he’s messed up.And he’s working up the courage to apologize. That alone has me interested enough to open the window. I unlatch it
I only get a few hours of sleep before my alarm goes off and it’s time for me to get ready for my shift. I manage to shower, dress and leave the house without disturbing Ben, who sleeps like a log. I’m thankful that he’s dead to the world, because if I bumped into him, I know he’d be able to tell something was up thanks to the goofy grin I can’t seem to wipe off my face.I’m in the best mood I’ve been in since I can remember, and the adrenaline and general happiness carry me through the first few hours of my shift better than all the espresso in the world. “Did you have some amphetamine with your Cheerios this morning? It’s like you’re the Blur,” Sharon says around eleven, just after I’ve finished bussing my tables and hers. “Ha. No, I just got a really good night’s sleep last night,” I say. And it isn’t even a lie, because even though I only got a short nap’s worth of shut eye, the sleep I did get was restful and deep. I woke up feeling like I could conquer the world. Of course
“She was so hot!” our Gamma Eric says. “If she’s so hot, then why’d you break up with her?” Fighter asks. I can’t remember his name, despite spending hours every day with him. He and the other fighter look so much alike that, despite not being related, everyone just refers to them as “Fighter,” and they’re either too dumb to care, or they’re just happy to have any attention at all.Because every time Eric walks into the room, he sucks up all the energy. His presence is loud and brash and immediately kills whatever calm I’ve managed to cultivate. I can’t stand him, but I’m stuck with him, not just for now, but for the rest of my life. He’s an indelible part of the pack.“Dude, there are so many girls in this town, I can’t waste all my time on just one,” Eric says with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah, like that waitress, What’s-Her-Name, the grumpy one at the diner. I’d love to kiss that frown right off her face.”My fists instinctually clench, but I relax them by reminding myself that
I’m such an idiot. What’s that saying, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? Well, I deserve some shame because here I am again, a week after my last run with James and I haven’t heard anything from him. Why do I keep falling for his half-assed apologies? He doesn’t even say sorry! He tries to communicate with runs and eye contact, and a relationship can’t be built on those alone.The worst part is that things are still weird between me and Ben, and I blame James. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have to keep secrets from the one person who has always been there for me.I’m so mad I feel like my head could explode. Thankfully, I’m so used to waitressing in a bad mood that it doesn’t affect my productivity. Sharon and I tackle the morning rush capably, and she’s nice enough not to mention that I look like someone ran over my cat and then threw the remains on my lawn.All she says is, “If ever and whenever you want to talk, I’m here.”I can’t take her up on th
I’m an idiot. I’m self-aware enough to know that.But it doesn’t make the way Isabel treated me at the diner any easier to swallow.She deserves better than me, but I’m what she’s got. You can’t fight against the mate instinct. It’s uncontrollable, and once that connection is established, it’s nearly impossible to break.So basically, we’re stuck with each other whether we like it or not. I like it.I like her.But I get the feeling she’s cooling on me. If I don’t get my act together, I’m going to lose her. And after everything else I’ve lost, I’m not sure I can handle that. The note I left said to meet me at the edge of the woods near her house at midnight. I know she read the note before she ripped it up. I hope she comes.Every twig snapped and leaf crushed has my heart racing, because it’s either her, or it’s the pack. I was careful when I left tonight, sneaking out through the small gap between what the back door and gates’ cameras can see. The guards were just changin