16. Cassie
CASSIE
I’ve calmed down a bit by the time I have to leave for work, but I’m taking bets with myself on whether I’ll have a job here in a few minutes, because if I pull into Chuck’s Chicken Shack and they have a tribute sign to Tim Walters or they’re passing out those bullshit armbands, I’m quitting on the spot.
My hackles go down a little when the sign comes into view and it’s just an ad for the family bucket we have on sale right now, but I won’t feel completely safe until I go inside.
My tummy flutters with nerves as I yank open the door, and the smell of the greasy chicken cooking in the back assaults my nostrils.
I wait for the assault on my sanity, but I see Josh working the front counter, and I don’t see a stack of blue armbands like that one I saw at the grocery store. Once I’m through the employee door and behind the counter myself, I still look underneath to make sure they’re not hiding there.
“What are you doing?” Josh asks, looking at me funny.
“Looking for armbands.”
I don’t expect him to know what I’m talking about. Maybe it was just the grocery store doing it. The owner of the store was a sponsor for Tim’s little league baseball team when we were eight years old—but at the mention of the blue armbands, his expression changes.
“Oh, no. We’re not doing the armband thing. Dying sucks and all, but fuck that guy.”
Relief hits me like a wave, and the chip falls right off my shoulder as I sigh. “I love you.”
He cracks a smile, and I head to the manager’s office so I can put my purse away and get ready to start my shift.
Shaley is standing inside the office talking to the general manager, Denise, when I get there. Now that I see her, I vaguely remember we’re closing together tonight. They stop talking when I come in, but not in the awkward way that sometimes happens when I walk into a space.
Shaley flashes me a smile. “Hey.”
“Hi,” I return, offering a weak smile.
“How are you feeling?” she asks.
I frown. “Fine?”
“Oh. I got the call to cover for you last night, and I thought you must be sick.”
So much has been going on that it completely slipped my mind that I called off last night. “Oh, right. No, it was a… family emergency.”
Concern flickers across her face. “Is everything okay?”
“It will be,” I say vaguely, not wanting to get into it. “Thank you for covering for me.”
“No problem. I could use the extra money, anyway,” she says with a pleasant smile. “I was just hoping you wouldn’t need covered tonight since we both work, so I wouldn’t be able to fill in for you.”
Denise interrupts, her gaze on me. “The Walters girl came in here with a box full of those armbands to pass out.”
That must be Tessa. I guess she’s not in Paris anymore. “Did you light them on fire?”
“No, but I couldn’t believe they had the audacity to bring them here. They know you work here.”
It’s true, they do.
They don’t come in often, but when they do, I go hide out in the back until they’re gone so I don’t have to be around them.
“Grief makes people dumb,” Shaley says, her tone kind and understanding despite her words.
“They must experience a lot of grief then,” I murmur.
She smiles faintly, then reaches over and gives me a hug I’m unprepared for. “Are you okay? Like, mentally. With everything going on, I figured stuff is probably getting stirred up.”
“I’m living in hell,” I tell her, patting her arm. “But surely they’ll run out of fire soon.”
___
I’m supposed to work the front counter tonight, but it only takes around a half hour for enough people to come in wearing armbands that I switch with Shaley and take drive-thru.
It works out better anyway since the dining room closes before the drive-thru does.
Considering Shaley covered for me yesterday, I’m sure she won’t mind getting out a half hour early tonight.
About two hours into my shift, as I’m turning toward the counter to grab a dessert from the refrigerated case, my heart nearly stops when I see the customer standing at the front register.
Tor’s gaze finds mine, and a slow smirk tugs at his lips as he looks me over in my work uniform. “I like the hat,” he tells me.
My tone is a bit frosty when I recover from the surprise of seeing him and open the dessert case. “Well, some of us have to work for a living.”
“I wasn’t being facetious. You look cute.”
I close the case and head back to the drive-thru window to finish handing out my order.
Once the screen is cleared, I have a quick debate with myself about how I should handle him being here.
He’s alone, so I don’t need to hide in the back, but I find my gaze drifting to the paper products to see what needs restocking, anyway.
I don’t know if I can get away with ignoring him. He didn’t exactly respond well in my garage, but we’re not alone here. There are witnesses. He can’t get away with pinning me to a door and choking me until I forgive him.
At least, not right this second, he can’t. It’s not like we’ll never be alone again.
I need more time to decide, so I tell Shaley I’m grabbing side dish containers and head for the back. I don’t stay back there, though. I return a moment later with a sleeve of them, putting half of the sleeve on my side of the counter, and bringing the other half around to stock Shaley’s side.
Since I’m not doing anything and she has a family meal to pack, I grab a container and start scooping in the corn they ordered. Shaley is picking chicken out of the display, and she shoots me a sideways glance as she does.
“You don’t have to help me,” she says, knowing I usually avoid this family. “If you have restocking to do, I can handle it.”
I push down on the lid to seal it, then I reach for a paper bag and put the corn inside.
I can feel Tor’s gaze on me, as well as the tension in my shoulders from the stress of ignoring him.
I know he won’t like it, but it feels like a collision of worlds having him here after everything that has happened.
There’s a whole reality only we know about, and his presence here makes me nervous just like it did before, but for a different reason.
I can’t deal with him publicly, so I finally make a decision. I turn around, point to the little hall outside the employee entrance door, then start walking that way.
He follows at a leisurely pace, so I’m waiting outside the door for him to get there with my arms crossed.
Tor catalogs my stance and my facial expression, but he doesn’t say a word, so I do.
“I’m working right now. This is my job.”
Shrugging, he says, “And I’m ordering dinner. Family’s sad. No one feels much like cooking.”
“Yeah, I’m sure the entire town hasn’t delivered more food than you could possibly eat in the wake of the death of the most popular guy in existence, apparently.”
Noting my irritation, he says, “I’m guessing you’ve seen the armbands.”
“I don’t even want to talk about the fucking armbands. And your sister brought them here? Are you serious?”
“Sorry about that. She’s… Tessa.”
Before I can stop myself, the question I’ve contemplated for hours now comes flying out of my mouth. “Are you passing them out, too?”
“No,” he says, holding my gaze.
I can’t help it; my eyes narrow suspiciously.
His eyebrows shoot up. “I’m not. My mom gave me a box of them. It’s sitting unopened in my trunk. You can go look if you don’t believe me.”
I do believe him, but my imagination has been getting the best of me, and I had to ask.
I open my mouth to speak, but the drive-thru beeps in my ear, alerting me to a customer.
Sighing, I tell him, “I have an order.” Then I press the button on my headset and say, “Welcome to Chuck’s Chicken Shack, what can I get for you today? ”
I have to go back behind the counter to ring up my order.
Thankfully, it’s just an individual meal, so I can process it quickly.
Once the customer pulls away from the drive-thru speaker and approaches the window, I turn around to pack the order, but I see Josh has already come up front and started packing it for me.
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” I say, grabbing a plastic bag and opening it, then grabbing a packet of utensils to stick inside.
“No problem,” he says, his gaze warily registering the Walters twin standing at the front counter. A week ago, he probably wouldn’t have known which one it was, but now there’s obviously no question. “You need anything, Shaley?”
“Nope,” she chirps, grabbing the handles and turning to give Tor his food.
I watch as Tor gets the food but doesn’t leave.
My customer is at the window, so I paste on a polite smile and repeat their total. They hand me a credit card, so I go to the credit card machine.
Josh raises his voice a little, asking, “You need something else?” from my side of the counter.
My stomach sinks as I realize he’s talking to Tor.
“Nope,” Tor answers evenly. “Just waiting for Cassie.”
“Why?” Josh asks.
Nerves getting the best of me, I glance at Josh over my shoulder as the credit card machine processes. “I got it, don’t worry.”
“We aren’t taking any of those armbands,” he tells Tor.
“It’s not about the armbands,” I say, wishing Josh would just go in the back.
He shoots me a scowl as he closes the steel lid over the side dishes.
I finish my customer’s order as quickly as possible, and as soon as the window slides shut, I go back to the counter and lean over it. “I have to work,” I tell Tor.
He nods, but his gaze isn’t on me—it’s on Josh. “I see that.”
I don’t know why my stomach sinks. I don’t know why I feel compelled to reassure him… reassure him about what? That Josh is just a friend who has seen me have panic attacks in the back room because Tor’s family caught me unaware at my place of work, so he really doesn’t want him here?
I don’t even know what to say, so I don’t say anything—but I still feel like I should.
Tor’s gaze shifts to mine. “What are you doing after work?”
“Shower. Sleep?”
“Why don’t you come over to my place? You can do all that just as easily there.”
“I don’t have clothes there, and… I’m not going to your parents’ house.”
“Not their house. The lake house. I was planning to go back for the first time tonight, and I don’t really want to go alone.”
I don’t really want to go back there, either, but I can’t ignore the slight softening of my guard at the vulnerability inherent in what he just said. Instead of saying that, I ask quietly, “Do you really think I’m the best person to comfort you in that situation?”
“I don’t know,” he says smoothly, leaning over the counter so he’s closer, his eyes locked with mine. “You want me to invite someone else?”
It’s his tone more than his words that makes my stomach twist.
It’s not a question. It’s a threat.
“Nina’s passing out armbands with my sister all day,” he adds. “She’d probably be up for it.”
My jaw unhinges before I can stop it.
My eyebrows shoot up.
If there’s one girl in this town that I can’t stand, it’s Nina Cortez—and I have a feeling he knows that.
But I’ll be damned if he manipulates me into coming over with a threat like that.
“If you want Nina there, then yes. I think you should invite her.”
“I don’t. I want you there. But I don’t plan to spend the night alone.”
I stop leaning over the counter and straighten up. “You should do what you want.” I point at my headset. “I have an order.”
It’s not true, but I’m done talking to him, so I float over to the drive-thru register, hoping he leaves before it becomes clear I’m lying.
He does, but he also drives around the building to leave—past the drive-thru, where there is definitely no car sitting at the speaker. Past my window, where he can certainly see me standing inside.
Discomfort fills me, but I try to ignore it as I turn away from the drive-thru area.
“What was that about?” Josh asks, lingering up front instead of heading to the back to talk with the guys like he usually does when the drive-thru isn’t busy.
I have no idea how to explain my association with Tor Walters, and after handling Tor, I don’t really have the mental energy to handle someone else.
Thankfully, a car actually does pull up to the drive-thru speaker with a big order, and I’m saved from having to answer.