Chapter Twenty-One
Caliana
W ELL, THE CLUB officially knows I’m working at the diner.
I wasn’t expecting them to find out so soon, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.
While I didn’t want them to find out so soon, it wasn’t like I was hiding it from them either.
Sam, Playboy, and Kreed know I’m here because they were at the house when I got ready to leave for my first shift.
Kreed will keep my secret because he’s used to keeping them for Caleb and myself.
He’s always been the keeper of our secrets and never once spilled anything.
Well, for the most part. Anyway, I honestly love working at the diner.
Especially knowing I get to work with Maysen.
She’s the young girl Luca can’t take his eyes off.
Honestly, she reminds me of myself when I was younger.
Hell, even now she reminds me of myself.
Maysen is only slightly taller than I am, but still short in comparison to the other women working with us today.
Her long brown hair is up in the usual bun I always see her wearing and she has to constantly push her glasses up her nose.
Again, she’s not wearing any make-up on her face and she looks beautiful without it.
Maysen always smiles at her customers and the waitresses talking to her, but it never reaches her eyes.
The only time it does is when she looks at Luca.
That’s when Maysen goes from beautiful to absolutely stunning.
Today, her clothing is way too big for her and covered in stains I don’t want to think about.
Luca doesn’t care though. When they were eating their lunch, I caught him staring at Maysen more than a few times.
Caught her watching him too. Matchmaker Cali is definitely coming out to play for these two.
“Maysen, how do you like working here?” I ask the young girl when we finally get a few minutes to ourselves.
Our tables have been on a constant rotation of emptying and filling back up with customers for hours now and our shift is almost over with.
Maysen and I are scoring with our tips while the other two waitresses are barely making a penny.
I’m glad we don’t have to split our tips here because it wouldn’t be fair to Maysen or me.
We’re busting our asses while they aren’t doing damn thing.
“I love it here. I’ve got a few regular customers who come in every time I’m working.
Mostly older couples during breakfast and lunch.
It’s always nice when the club comes in too.
They make me feel safe,” Maysen answers me and I know without a doubt she’s got trouble in her life and someone is hurting her.
“That’s really nice to hear. From what Reckless just said, you and I will be the club’s waitresses when we’re on shift. They don’t want anyone else. You good with that?” I ask her, needing to know how she feels about the club before I think about her and Luca.
“I’m okay with that. Those guys are so nice and always generous with their tips. Are you close to the club?” she asks me, her neck and cheeks turning pink and I know she’s thinking of Luca.
“I’m very close to the club. Reckless and Link are my best friends.
I’ve known them since I was eight years old.
I can tell you anything about either one of them.
The rest of the men I’m close to as well.
Most of them served with my husband, Reckless, and Link,” I answer her honestly since it’s only the two of us.
“I didn’t know you were married,” she says, smiling wistfully at me as I look at her with a sad smile of my own.
“I was married. I’m a widow now. My husband was killed while deployed.
It happened almost a year ago. On Halloween which was his favorite holiday.
He was trying to get to Link when he was killed.
We have two children together. A son who is almost nine years old now and a daughter who isn’t even one.
He never got the chance to meet his daughter before he lost his life,” I tell Maysen honestly because she won’t spread my business around to the other employees here.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, her smile vanishing completely as she looks anywhere but at me.
“It’s okay, Maysen. I loved Darren as my best friend.
In the end, things weren’t the best between the two of us.
I will always love him and mourn the loss of him.
Darren was also one of my best friends in school.
Things happened between us and we got married because I got pregnant with my son.
I am in love with someone, but nothing will ever happen between the two of us.
Eventually, I’ll find someone who will love me, but right now my focus is my children and a situation I have going on,” I tell her, because Maysen is very easy to talk to.
“Um, so you know that younger guy that was in here today. I think I’ve seen him in here with you before too,” she asks about Luca while looking at her nails instead of me.
“I do know him. Luca is his name. He just turned eighteen and is a Prospect for the club. I spend a lot of time with him because of my current situation. He loves my kids and is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met in my life.
I won’t go into detail, but he’s not had an easy life so far.
It’s only been since he was brought into the clubhouse that his life has changed in a positive way,” I inform Maysen as her face drops when I mention his hard life.
“He seems really sweet. And he’s cute,” she says, her face turning even redder than before at her admission.
“He is cute. I can give him your number if you want me to,” I tell her, not sure if they’ll ever approach one another without some help from me or someone else.
Luca and Maysen are both so shy and wouldn’t make the first move on someone they like.
They kind of remind me of Caleb and myself.
While I was too shy to say anything about my feelings for Caleb, he was confident but unsure if I felt the same way.
He didn’t want to ruin our friendship if things went bad between the two of us.
I can see Luca feeling the same way Caleb did.
If he knows Maysen likes him, it might make it easier for him to send her a message first.
“Oh, I can’t have you do that, Cali. Luca would never be interested in someone like me. I’m too shy and plain looking for a guy like him,” she says, making my heart break because someone has told her that and made her feel that way.
“Maysen, you are a beautiful girl. Any guy would be lucky to have you in their life. However, I have a feeling no one will appreciate you the way Luca will. Once you get to that stage, he’ll love you more than you ever dreamed possible.
Luca is slowly growing into a great young man and overcoming his own past trauma.
I have a feeling the two of you would be really good together and that’s not something I say lightly,” I tell Maysen honestly as I look at the young girl and wonder who’s hurt her this way.
“Thank you, Cali. I’ll think about it. That’s all I can say right now,” she says, standing and getting ready to go back to work.
I join her as we make our way back to the tables in our section.
It’s not long before we’re busy once more and don’t have time to breathe let alone have a conversation with anyone other than our customers.
I love being busy though because it makes the day go by faster and I don’t have time to think about anything other than what I’m doing at that moment.
M y shift is almost over with and today has been crazy.
With the haunted house open and several vendors selling goods in the center of town, people have been coming in the diner for a quick meal before they go about their night walking through town and enjoying the crisp night air.
It’s just cool enough out to be comfortable with a hoodie and pair of jeans.
Exactly the kind of night I love. When we were younger, this would be the time for a bonfire and laughs shared around the fire removing the chill from the air as memories are made.
We did that a lot growing up and those are some of my favorite memories.
Our bonfires were always held at the Phantom Bastards clubhouse. We
never had them at the beach because we could control everything at the compound.
Sam and Shy always made sure we had hot cocoa and all the ingredients for s’mores.
The guys would compete to see who could eat the most s’mores and the different ways they could make them.
I can’t even remember the disgusting things they chose to put between the graham crackers with marshmallows.
I always went with the standard chocolate bar, marshmallow, and graham crackers.
Every single guy on the compound would put so many different things on their s’more that it became a competition between all the kids.
Even some of the girls would join in and try so many combinations.
A favorite memory of mine from that time in my life.
It was one of the rare times Darren would open up and let everyone see the funnier side of himself.
Tonight is the first night of fall and to celebrate we’re having a bonfire at the compound.
My father won’t be home so I’ve already told my mom I won’t be home after school.
Tank and Maddie are in town so hanging out with Zoey is my reason for going to the compound tonight.
My mom loves Zoey and wouldn’t say a word to me.
She might not tell my dad I wasn’t home right after school.
It’s a wish I make all the time but it rarely comes true.