Chapter Six
Lux
I was good at what I did. I got packages where they needed to be on time. I built relationships with my customers. And I didn’t drop and break large boxes of glasses, despite almost doing so my first week.
At least that had been true until today.
I was messing everything up. Every. Single.
Order. I was turning down wrong roads. I was bringing somebody else’s item in and only noting it when they did.
I forgot to close the back of my truck…twice.
You name a mistake, I made it, and it was one million percent because of how I treated my mate.
When I went into the diner, I scented him immediately. He was mine, and he was definitely human. There were a million things I should have done, but what did I do? I ran.
I was an embarrassment to foxes everywhere.
He probably thought I hated him, or that I thought he stank, or that I was one of the locals who didn’t like new people.
One thing for certain, he wasn’t going to walk away from that interaction thinking he was the one I’d been waiting for and I couldn’t wait to see him again.
I’d be lucky if he saw me again and didn’t turn the other way.
I kept trying to tell myself it hadn’t been that bad. That I was overthinking every move and word spoken. But the reality remained, I fucked up. The question remained—what should I do about it?
Apparently, the current answer was to mess up my job and think about him nonstop. I deserved an A-plus for both of those.
He’d been working when I walked in, and I wondered what his job was. Was he making websites? Was he doing coding? Was he in sales? Was he a spreadsheet kind of guy? I could have sat there and asked him. That had been a very real, very decent decision I could’ve made.
But did I? Nope.
Nothing in my truck was so imperative that taking a lunch break was going to ruin people’s day. If anything, by me not taking that lunch break, their days were pretty shot because of all my mistakes. At least, work was nearly over. I could only mess up one more delivery.
It was my last stop of the day at Fred’s Fried Chicken.
It was a case of straws, and when I carried them in, Maggie, the owner, grabbed them from me.
I never did learn why it was called Fred’s.
It was rumored that they just liked alliteration, but I suspected there was a story there from long before my lifetime.
It was the oldest hole-in-the-wall in town and delicious.
“No offense, Rain, but you look like shit.” Maggie never minced words.
“That’s probably accurate.” I hadn’t looked in the mirror, but I had a theory stress made you ugly, and I was filled with stress, all of my own making.
“You sick? You don’t look sick. I can never tell with you shifters.”
Maggie was one of the few humans in town who knew about us, but she was adopted into a family of bears. According to town gossip, they found her at the side of the highway as a toddler and took her in. One thing this town had a lot of: gossip.
“I’m not sick. I just… I did something stupid today.”
“Sounds about right.” She set the case of straws down.
“Hey. I usually have my head on my shoulders.”
“Yeah, but from the looks of you, this has to do with love. And no offense, but alphas are kind of dumb when it comes to love.”
I’d have argued with her, but my only experience was this, and I’d done nothing to disprove her point since scenting Rain.
I told her the story of how I scented him at the Mates Motel, and how I then saw him at the diner, and what I’d done.
“Well, go to the motel and try to fix things.” She said it as if it was as simple as that.
“Really? You think a human wants some random alpha showing up at their motel room? A room at a motel that sounds like a horror movie? You think that’s a good idea?” I could picture the sheriff showing up looking for the sketchy weirdo who wouldn’t leave. Not the way to win a heart.
“Fine, go back to the diner and wait till he comes again.”
It was a ridiculous idea, said out of sarcasm. That didn’t stop me from thanking her and racing over to the diner. Of course, he wasn’t going to be there. Who stays at the diner for hours?
“Wait,” Maggie hollered to me.
I froze in the doorway. “Yes?”
“I hate to be ‘that’ person, but don’t you have another box for me?”
Did I? I hadn’t thought so, but I promised her I would check and ran to the truck. It was empty, but then I checked my clipboard. Suck. She did have a second box.
“Hey, Maggie, I need to go back and grab it. Somehow it didn’t get on the truck.” Could at least one thing go right today?
That wasn’t fair, something did go right…better than right. I’d met my mate. I now had a face for the magnificent scent. He was gorgeous and, even if he wasn’t mine, I’d have noticed him.
“I’d tell you not to worry about it, but it’s the sanitizer for the dishes, and I’m about out. Health codes and all.”
I could see she felt horrible, and it wasn’t as if she was asking me to go above and beyond my position. She was asking for the bare minimum, to get her delivery.
“I got you.” It wasn’t as if my mate was still going to be at the diner.
It didn’t take but a half an hour to grab her box and get it to her. I apologized again.
“Want some chicken?”
Normally, there wouldn’t have been anything between me and her chicken, but I had plans.
“Thanks, but I’m going to the diner to see about a mate.”
“That’s my Lux. Go get him.”
That wasn’t exactly what I planned to do. If he was still there, which he most likely wouldn’t be. Gah, why was this mate thing so hard.
Because it was worth it.