Seventeen
“Y our boyfriend is sexy as fuck,” said Melanie, leaning back against the bar.
It was my first week after training working alongside her, and she was extremely blunt, to put it mildly. She was around my age, and she seemed like the social type. The second Marlena had introduced me to her, she wouldn’t leave me alone. I was sure it was because the other waitresses were double our age.
She stared at Carter from across the room, watching him discuss the band with Rome while biting her lower lip. The want was there in her pretty grey eyes.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I muttered, tapping my pen against the bar top, watching him too.
Melanie raised a dark brow. “Serious? I saw him touching your ass when you walked in.”
Shit.
He had, hadn’t he? He was normally very good about not touching me in public. That was one of the conditions about being friend-zoned with benefits, I guess. Whatever it was, it sucked ball sacks.
I avoided looking her in the eye and wiped off an imaginary piece of fluff on my black uniform. Maybe if I looked busy, she wouldn’t press for more info, but I could feel her stare burning holes in the side of my face. I didn’t want to tell her anything. I wasn’t sure I could trust her with that kind of information. She could be like the bitches from my school, using me to get close to him, or being an overall backstabber.
“So, he’s single?” she proceeded to ask, studying my reaction very carefully.
“I guess,” I answered with a shrug. I gripped the pen tightly, considering sticking it in her eye if she so much as insinuated she’d try him.
“And it wouldn’t bother you if I…”
I looked at her hard. “If you what?”
She motioned to him and wiggled her brows. “You know what.”
We just stared at one another for a long moment. Was she seriously intending on doing it? Did I have to really put a claim on him? I wouldn’t stop myself. Before I opened my mouth to speak, she burst out laughing. I frowned at her, wondering what the hell she was smoking to laugh out of nowhere like this. She leaned into me and rested a hand on my shoulder. I stared at the hand and then at her.
“Jesus, you should see your face!” she said. “I’m only kidding, babe. You’re obviously lusting after him, and I’d be the biggest bitch in the world to take a marked man from her friend. That shit’s wrong on too many levels. God, I can’t believe you’d think I’d do that! What’s wrong with you?”
I was so confused. Was she high? “What?”
“Anyway, you’re going to open up to me about it eventually. You obviously think I’m some big mouth or something. I’m not. I keep secrets just fine. I’m not those manipulative bitches vying for attention like I’ve been daddy-deprived my whole life. You’ll see.”
She left me alone after that and tormented Marlena. I shook my head and started to get ready for my shift. I hoped the other waitresses weren’t as intense as her. Even Marlena was a constant fly on the wall, wanting to hear and see everything going on. I had to be careful around her.
Having your boss also be your personal landlord was tricky.
“You’ll do fine,” Carter suddenly whispered in my ear.
I whipped around, a hand over my heart. “You scared me!”
“I wasn’t being quiet. You’re just freaking out inside your head.”
I slumped my shoulders. “I know. I’ve never worked before, Carter, and I don’t want to mess up.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed my fingers one by one. “You’re smart. You’re beautiful. The only thing I worry about are the drunks taking advantage of you, but you’re tough. So I know that won’t happen, and if I see it happen, I’ll beat them to the ground.”
I laughed lightly. “I know you will. How’s the band search going?”
He nodded. “Heading out now to meet some guys.”
“Settled on a name yet?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Rome’s suggestions are awful. If he didn’t know how to play drums, he’d be useless as tits on a bull. Once we get the guys together, we’ll figure it out in the end.”
“That’s good. You know, Rome may be bad with names, but he’s an excellent artist. He might be able to put together a design for the name for you guys once you figure one out. He’s good with computers, too, and he’s got a shit ton of knowledge on how to promote and pimp you guys out.”
“That shit’s not so important.”
“Of course it is! You need people to remember you. Visual things help. Well, actually, you’d be the visual part they’d remember, but all the other stuff might help too.”
He chuckled. “Right.”
He didn’t care, I knew. He was doing this because he wanted a roof over our heads. Carter wasn’t thinking of the big picture.
He continued holding my hand long after he’d squeezed it. Then he pulled me to him and gave me a warm hug that melted my insides. “Be confident,” he told me. “I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He pulled away and stared into my eyes, a soft smile on his face. “See ya, beautiful.”
He walked out with Rome after that, leaving me smiling to myself.
Until I saw Melanie’s face. She was giving me a thumbs up and a wink. I rolled my eyes and reluctantly laughed. It was so damn obvious.
I watched Harold turn the sign over and unlock the door. I held my breath, trying to get rid of the nerves that wracked my body.
After all that training, I would be on my own now.
I hoped I wouldn’t fuck it up.
*
Maybe Melanie wasn’t so bad after all.
She was helping me out loads without one single complaint. I would have kissed her feet if she’d let me.
I was flustered, running around, forgetting tables, getting orders wrong. Fuck, it was stressful, and had I been the owner, I would have fired my ass right there and then.
Fortunately, Marlena was extremely understanding, reassuring me that everyone starts off from the “very, very, very bottom.” I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or dismayed by her remark, so I just decided on being numb instead.
By the time we were done, I was exhausted and shaking. The adjustment from not working to working was damn hard. I had to sit down to collect my thoughts and fight the anxiety swirling around my stomach.
Carter and Rome picked me up that evening. Melanie stayed back, to my surprise, telling me she was picking up a second shift. When I raised my brows in surprise, she shrugged and said, “Bills, babe. Fucking bills are a killer, and I have a sister to look after.”
Yeah, she wasn’t so bad at all.
“Well, thanks for everything,” I told her sincerely. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
She winked. “You’ll get better and then you’ll make it up to me. That’s what we do around here. We look after each other.”
Okay, so she was awesome.
I felt so grateful, it was a foreign feeling.
I waved goodbye to her and climbed into the backseat of the waiting jeep out front. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Carter there, half-asleep.
“What’s going on?” I asked as Rome peeled out of the curb.
He shrugged. “He had a bit to drink.”
“A bit? He’s smashed!”
“Yeah, don’t know what happened. He made a call sometime and didn’t look happy when he got back. I thought he’d been talking to you and you guys started fighting or something.”
I shook my head slowly. “No, nothing like that happened.”
“Well… I don’t know. He got back, shitty like I’d done something wrong, and then he drank himself to oblivion. He’s been muttering nonsense since then, so I wouldn’t pay any attention to him. Honestly, he’s a fucking disaster, but the voice on him… Holy shit, that voice gave me goose bumps, Leah. I’ve got a good feeling about this.”
I put my hand against Carter’s forehead. He was sweaty and hot, and his eyes opened and looked at me. His lips flinched downwards in a frown and then he closed his eyes and kept them that way.
When we got to the house, Rome helped him into the suite. He crashed into his mattress, and I stared at him in worry, wondering who he’d made a call to and what had gotten him so worked up.
“You wanna go out for dinner or something?” Rome asked. “Or I can pick something up. Pizza?”
I nodded. “Pizza sounds good.”
“Cool. I’ll be back in twenty then.”
He left us after that, and I crawled into the bed. Straddling Carter, I grabbed at his arms and removed his jacket. Still exhausted from work, it took every ounce of my energy, and when I was at the second sleeve, he stirred again and mumbled.
“Don’t hate me.”
I paused and stared down at him. “Carter?”
“Don’t hate me, Leah.”
“Why would I hate you?”
He opened his mouth, and it stayed that way for what felt like forever, before he whispered, “Cause I killed her.”
My body tightened. I was so confused. I leaned over him and rested a hand against the side of his face. “Who, Carter?”
He was too out of it to respond.
I sighed heavily and removed his jacket, throwing it on the floor. Then I grabbed at his shoes and took them off. I stood by the edge of the bed, hovering over him, wondering what he wasn’t saying.
I didn’t leave until Rome returned, and even then I checked up on him every hour.