Chapter 11 #2
I really couldn’t tell with Thaeros. Was he trying to talk about Dwayne behind his back? Was he trying to get me to say stuff behind Dwayne’s back that they could then use?
I decided to keep it neutral. “Dwayne’s like family.”
Thaeros looked surprised yet again. “Really? You’re lucky. What I wouldn’t give to return my blood family and exchange them for someone like him.”
That didn’t just rub me the wrong way, it upset me.
Was he…trying to get on my good side by suggesting that we were alike?
The memory of the black-eyed kid was still fresh.
If he was trying to play nice now, maybe he had an ulterior motive.
Maybe, just like that black-eyed kid, he was working for someone. Maybe it was Cecil.
“Did you look into me?”
Thaeros looked genuinely confused. “Look into you? I mean, I looked at the Hawthorne announcement and asked around. Does that count? It’s not like people know you personally, and they know your vampire wouldn’t appreciate any gossip. I just know what was readily available.”
“You said that before about my vampire. You mean Elias? Elias Hawthorne?”
He snorted. “Who else? Why’re you still glaring at me? What did I do?”
That was a really good question, and unfortunately, I knew the answer.
He hadn’t done anything. Well, nothing that couldn’t have been coincidence and me overreacting, and even then…
Soyer had hired them. I had a very hard time believing that Soyer would hire anyone that was this blunt while being malicious.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes, my hands smelling of onion.
“Sorry, I just… It was a long day, and I guess we got off on the wrong foot. Thanks for getting these.” I held my hands up with the napkins in them.
“I’ll send Ant home for the day, or Levi.
Maybe both of them. Then we can finish out the rest of the shift. Sound good?”
“Works for me. Anything else back here that I should know about?”
“Ah. Hold these.” I handed him the napkins and tapped the shelf that had most of the stuff we used back behind the counter.
“Salt, pepper, the sweetener. Cream. The cherries. Oh, plates are in those boxes at the bottom, and I think Soyer ordered more. We have a security system, but I don’t have an extra key for the back door to give you. ”
Thaeros nodded. “The Black Shuck mentioned that. He said he was going to walk me through that himself. Said security was a priority.”
“That makes sense.” Soyer had been very insistent that the system was necessary, that it have a double lock, and that only he, Dwayne, Ben, and I should have keys. It was over-the-top, but very much typical Soyer behavior. “I’ll show you where to put the napkins.”
Thaeros nodded and followed me back out to the front of the diner where none other than “my vampire” had just walked in, a big, tall guy with a stony face following him.
“Amory! Amoryyyy!” Instead of finding himself a seat, Elias jogged around the counter to meet me, falling around my neck in a display of affection. The tall guy behind him narrowed his eyes and tensed his jaw muscles, but kept trailing Elias.
I patted his shoulder. “Hey, easy there.”
He sniffled. “Yes, I’m easy, so easy. Too easy. Amory, I was hurt.”
I tipped my head back, unable to break Elias’s hold. I nodded at Thaeros to let him know it was okay to let me handle this, and he headed back behind the counter to restock.
I did my best to whisper into Elias’s ear. “Are you okay? The guy with you—”
Elias turned. “Oh, Ambrose? Ambrose didn’t hurt me. Ambrose is a darling. Think of him as a big fluffy bunny, one of those ones with the cute long ears and the adorably fluffy tails.”
Ambrose, very much not a bunny, fluffy or otherwise, had closed the distance between us. Ben was at this end of the counter and had turned when Elias had come running. I saw him and Ambrose exchange a nod. It was all very macho, but it connected the dots for me. Ambrose was Elias’s Ben.
“How about I find you a seat?” I patted Elias on the shoulder again.
He sniffled some more. “Oh, would you? I’d be ever so grateful.
Amory, I don’t know that I have the energy to do even that anymore.
Do you think… If it’s not too much of a bother, maybe we could find a seat for Ambrose too?
In fact, Ambrose, wouldn’t you be very comfortable sitting with Ben, rubbing shoulders and such? ”
Ambrose crossed his arms. “I’ll take the table by the door.”
Elias finally released me from his hug. “Of course. I only meant to make you feel comfortable, Ambrose. Please don’t hold it against me. I do care about you so very much.”
Elias was wringing his hands. Ambrose kept his arms crossed. “I’ll be at the table. Behave.” He looked at me. “Mr. Saintclair, thank you for having us.”
Elias clicked his tongue. “Why, of course Amory would have me. We are the bestest of friends, Ambrose, please understand.”
“Yeah, right.” He walked off, leaving me to handle Elias.
I pointed at a chair at the counter. “Come on, sit over there.”
I managed to get Elias a few seats away from Ben, mostly to make sure Ben wasn’t pulled into whatever Elias had planned for this visit. Which, knowing him, probably involved a chocolate milkshake he wasn’t going to get.
More sniffling. “Yes, I should sit. I’m not feeling very well.
It’s been such a trying day, and it started so well, so promising.
Fernando is out sick, and Simeon forced me to temp for him on account of that, you see, only he said it wasn’t temping but actual work, which was less fun, but how hard could that be, a little clicking with the mouse, a little filing of the files?
Oh, I had no idea of the terrible turn the day would take! ”
He was gearing up for more. I could feel it like a brewing storm behind cloud cover. The last time I’d seen anything like it was when our go-to juice place had changed their menu and slimmed it down by a few items.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “How about I make you a milkshake?”
As if on cue, he gave me the biggest puppy eyes ever. “Could I please get a chocolate one?”
“Just vanilla. You know that.”
Elias would’ve been great on stage. Or in movies, except that was probably a no-no for vampires. He made his bottom lip quiver before saying, “Amory, please.”
I nearly broke then. He was convincing in a visceral way. But intellectually, I knew I was being played.
“I’ll dust it with cocoa powder, how about that?”
“And you’ll put chocolate sprinkles on too? And I get extra cream on the side? You know how much I like my cream. I kept telling Simeon when he let me have a break how much I like to take cream, but he just wouldn’t hear of it. Downright ignored me.”
“Uh-huh. Let me get you that milkshake.”
Big eyes again. “That chocolate milkshake?”
“Afraid not.”
I left Elias to mope while I started on his milkshake. I really wanted to send Ant and Levi home, because we didn’t need four people to run this place, but with Elias here, it was probably wise to wait until he had calmed down. With any luck, the cream on the side would do that for him.
The diner was starting to fill up again too.
We were just getting into that sweet spot for dinner, which would continue well into Rae’s and my shift.
Thaeros was taking care of the corner table, and I caught him saying something that had the guys sitting there breaking out in laughter.
They were werewolves, and one of them ran a yoga studio.
I felt silly proud of myself for recognizing him, if only because Soyer had shared that information with me a while back.
I ran the blender, picked out one of our milkshake glasses, and poured right in front of Elias, who was still putting his best effort into being a dramatic, pitiable puddle of big eyes and sighs at the counter.
“It’s been such a day, you know? I don’t know how you’re always this calm, but your demeanor soothes me,” he said. “You’re the only one who will listen to me, Amory. Everyone else ignores me.”
“Okay.” I quickly rinsed the blender jug and got the cream from the fridge, the extra plate and toppings too. “So, what, you were forced to work at Simeon’s law firm? I’ve never seen that place.”
The latter was probably not normal, given that Simeon had taken it upon himself to take me on as a client.
He’d dropped by our place last month and asked me to sign a few things.
I hadn’t been curious about his office then, but now that Elias was here, moping all over the counter, I sort of wanted to see it.
But Elias made a dismissive gesture. “It’s terribly gauche. And there are all these rules, Amory.”
“Uh-huh.” I topped his milkshake with a nice cone that I managed to get very symmetrical—picture perfect. The extra cream on the little saucer was only decent in terms of symmetry, so I made sure to add double extra sprinkles to it.
“There’s all this ugly kitschy stuff there, and I don’t like the furniture.”
I looked at the milkshake, almost sad to put the sprinkles all over it. “Not ergonomic?”
Elias gave me a flat look. “Who cares whether things are ergonomic? Let them be beautiful, Amory.” He patted the free chair next to him. “Like this old barstool. It’s beautiful.”
I sighed and went about sprinkling the milkshake, then dusting it with cocoa and adding the extra cream. “Are you telling me you don’t like our vintage chairs?”
He unleashed the low-grade puppy eyes. “I didn’t say that. Ben, I didn’t say that, did I?”
Ben, who apparently wasn’t safe despite my best efforts, frowned. “I wasn’t listening, sir.”
Elias clicked his tongue. “Benjamin, you’re asked to pay attention.”
I cleared my throat while putting Elias’s milkshake and extra cream in front of him. “He’s not, actually. I made him start work early, so cut him some slack and leave him be. You wanted to tell me about your day anyway?”
He looked at me over the chocolate-dusted vanilla milkshake.
“Oh, yes. Amory, it was quite bad. Quite bad indeed.”
I leaned on the counter. “Tell me all about it, then.”