11. Chapter 11 #2
At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to draft.
If I came here for inspiration, then maybe I should have tried sketching a bridge or structure.
However, my mind wandered to something else.
I started to sketch the outline of a building instead.
One with ornate details, a live roof and enough space for a couple hundred people.
Not a house or a hotel. It would be better fit for something else. Something more important.
The screech of a seagull dive-bombing a group of picnickers nearby shook me back to the present.
As I watched the scene, that unpleasant yet familiar feeling crept over me.
I pulled back my pencil and started glancing around.
A man flew a kite with two children. A woman jogged by with a large black labrador.
A group of teens were filming a dance routine on the grass.
There was lots of activity, but nothing that seemed out of the normal.
Despite this, the tingling on the back of my neck told me something was wrong.
The longer I looked around though, the more I was starting to convince myself I was going crazy.
Nobody was watching me. Everything was fine. Perfectly safe.
I took a few deep breaths and leaned back into the grass. I pulled out my phone to check the time, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw I had an unread text from Tara.
Tara: Hey, do you have a minute to talk?
Immediately, I dialed her number. It rang only once before she picked up.
“Lucy, Hi.” Tara’s voice sounded hushed on the other end of the line.
“Tara, I’ve been so worried about you—”
“Lucy,” she interrupted, “I don’t have much time to talk. My parents are in the other room, and I don’t want them to hear me.” The urgency in her voice sent my heart for another loop.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry I haven’t reached out. I’ve just been trying to come to terms with everything that happened, and I…I don’t know. I just wanted to forget that entire night happened.”
Guilt rose in my chest. She had no idea about what I had been up to for the past week. That I had taken it upon myself to seek vengeance for something that happened to her. Maybe by doing all of this, I was another person who was making a choice for her without consent…
“You don’t need to explain anything, Tara.” My voice broke on her name. I debated coming clean to her right then.
“No, I do. I just needed to call you and tell you thanks for being such a good friend to me. I know you didn’t understand why I didn't want to go to the police or the hospital. I just…didn’t want to have to relive that night so soon.
So much of it’s a haze, but these little moments keep coming back to me like a waking nightmare.
I just…I don’t know. I want to move on. I’m thinking about going to this retreat for the summer to try to get away from it all, try to take some time for myself, apart from my family… ”
I looked up and noticed a deep layer of fog starting to roll in across the bay. The gleaming Golden Gate Bridge was becoming swallowed by the mist, the warm breeze now an ominous chill against my arms.
We should teach that stuck up little slut a lesson.
We will. Just not tonight.
They could come for Tara again—they could come for me too. There was still so much we didn’t know about them. What if they targeted us before we even had the chance to take them down? I took a deep breath in.
“I think that sounds like a good idea,” I told her.
I felt terrible about hiding everything from her, but the last thing I wanted to do was worry her more when she was already going through so much.
Maybe it would be better for her to get away for a while, a chance for her to take some time to heal while I figured things out here.
When I arrived at Bellissima, Dax wasn’t there.
“He said he had to take care of something, so Mateo is running dinner service tonight,” Ricky told me as he polished a champagne flute to perfection behind the bar.
“Did he say when he’d be back?” I tried to mask the disappointment in my tone with indifference. Apparently, it didn’t work because Ricky lifted an eyebrow at my question. Today his eyeshadow was hot pink with a golden liner making his hazel irises sparkle.
“He did not. But it is a little weird because I can’t remember the last time he wasn’t here for the Saturday rush. Maybe he’s on a date or something.”
It felt like an icy bucket of water had just been dumped over my head. A surge of jealousy gripped my throat.
“Oh my god, you should see the look on your face. I knew it! There’s something going on between the two of you, isn’t there?” Ricky pointed one of the glasses at me in accusation.
“No! Of course not! I just need to give him back the paperwork he asked me to fill out. You know, new employee stuff.”
Ricky grimaced in a way that made me sure he didn’t believe me, but I was grateful when he decided to drop it anyway. “Whatever you say. Everything should be ready for you in the dish-pit. Feel free to come and find me if you need anything.”