“Yo! Earth to the world’s worst waitress!” the Gamma says, breaking me out of my reverie. “Are you deaf? My boy said he wanted a veggie burger, sweet potato fries and a soy strawberry milkshake.”“No, I’m not deaf,” I retort. “I’m just surprised one of you is ordering something besides a giant hunk of beef,” I say. “It’s refreshing to see someone in your pack is open to new things.”I direct this second comment at James, hoping he’s smart enough to read between the lines. Please be open. Please accept me. Please don’t hate me just because I’m a rogue. It’s pathetic, but I can’t help it. “Anything else?” I ask. “Yeah,” one of the fighters says. “You suck at your job.”A small part of me hopes my mate will jump to my defense, but when I glance over at him, he’s still staring past me rather than at me, like I’m nothing to him, not worth a glance. So much for being able to read my thoughts. “Great. Thanks. Your criticism is greatly appreciated,” I say, forcing myself to maint
“How was work?” Ben asks as soon as I get home. I’m rushing because it’s already 5:30 and I don’t want to be late meeting James. “Fine! Good!” I yell back at him over my shoulder as I take the stairs two at a time. I don’t know if we’re meeting in human or wolf form, so I err on the side of caution and put on the cutest outfit I can find at short notice: black tights, a black velvet dress, heavy silver boots and a leather jacket. Washing my face and reapplying my makeup takes a few minutes, and after some swipes of my hairbrush, I think I look as presentable as I’m going to get without a shower.Checking my phone for the time, I see it’s 5:50. I need to head to the woods if I’m going to make it on time. Ben is still engrossed in the video game he was playing when I got home, so I pat him on the head, tell him I’ll be home later and leave, thankful that he was too distracted to ask me where I’m going. I hardly ever have plans on a Saturday night so it wouldn’t be out of the questio
“And where have you been, young lady?” Ben asks as soon as I walk in the door. His arms are crossed and he’s glaring at me, but there’s a grin tickling the corners of his mouth because hard as he tries, he can’t even fake-reprimand me.“Out gallivanting with ne’er do-wells, of course,” I say as I shut the door and toe off my boots. My feet are sore and my legs are tired, but those sensations pale in comparison to the happy glow I feel. “Of course,” Ben says.I flop down on the couch next to him and steal the last piece of pizza from the box sitting in front of him on the coffee table. All that running made me hungry.“Seriously Bel, where were you? You don’t normally stay out past midnight,” Ben says, and I look at the clock and realize that it’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. James and I were running for eight hours together.I guess time flies when you’re spending time it with a beautiful werewolf. However, I feel bad because even though I’m a twenty-year old adult, I’
I do not want to be here. I want to be curled up in bed, replaying my run with James from a week ago. Instead, I’m at Sharon’s for a “girls’ night.” Which is supposed to include gossiping about boys. But the boy I want to gossip about has to be kept a secret. Ugh. “Can you get me some mugs from the cabinet?” Sharon asks. I reach up and grab three from the shelf in front of me and hand them to Sharon. Just as she starts to pour the spiced hot cider she’s made, I hear the front door open.“It’s me! And I have cake!” The voice belongs to Lisa, a waitress Sharon and I used to work with at the diner until she left to start her own bakery. She races into the kitchen and wraps me in a hug before doing the same with Sharon. “It’s so good to see you both! I feel like it’s been forever since we last hung out,” she says as she takes off her jacket and throws it on a nearby chair.“I know! We’ve all been working so much,” Sharon says as she hands me a mug of cider and shepherds us
Broken plates, spilled coffee, eggs smeared on the floor. There’s butter on my boot and jam on my jams. Nearly dropping that container of maple syrup last week is nothing compared to the destruction that I just caused.I dropped an entire tray of breakfasts, and it’s all his fault.“What the hell, Izzy? You suddenly forget how to do your job?” Clyde asks, shaking his head as he grabs the broom and brush and shoves them into my hand. I stoop down and start sweeping the food into the pan, but my attention isn’t on the floor. It’s on him. James. He walked in, alone, and two seconds later, twenty dollars’ worth of food was on the floor. “Do it quickly. The rush is about to start, and I can’t have our customers slipping and breaking their neck. God knows we can’t afford a lawsuit,” Clyde grumbles to me as he passes by to greet another group of customers entering the diner.I nod and quicken my pace, managing to get the floor back to its semi-sparkling state in under five minu
“Izzy! Go home!” Clyde says, clapping me on the shoulder and taking my order pad out of my hands. “What? Why? Are you firing me? Is this about the coffee filters? I had no idea the box was going to fall apart like that, and I swear only ten of them were damaged. The rest are totally fine!” My words come out on a rushed exhale of anxious breath and my heart is beating so fast that for a second my vision goes blurry.It’s been a rough week. On Monday I messed up an order of burgers for a table of vegans who looked like they wanted to forgo their pacifist leanings and kill me with their butterknives when I put meat in front of them. Wednesday, I dropped a box of two hundred coffee filters all over the kitchen floor, which thankfully I had cleaned an hour before, so most were saved due to lack of dust and grime. And today I broke not one, not two, but four mugs in a thirty-minute period while filling coffees.To say I’m a wreck would be an understatement, and to declare me a crap w
Ben is totally back to normal on Saturday morning, but the swift change in mood has me suspicious, and I find myself looking for clues about what’s going on with him all weekend. By Sunday night, I’m exhausted and haven’t come up with anything. I decide to go to bed early, since I’m working the early shift the next day. I’ve just put on my coziest socks and cracked open a library book to read when I hear a noise outside. It can’t be. Can it?I’ve been willing James to come to my window all week, and now, the one night I need a decent night’s sleep, he decides to show up?I should punish him for how he treated me and ignored me, but my heightened senses mean I can hear him pacing back and forth in the yard, huffing his breath and cracking his knuckles.He sounds nervous, and that intrigues me. If he’s nervous, maybe it’s because he realizes he’s messed up.And he’s working up the courage to apologize. That alone has me interested enough to open the window. I unlatch it
I only get a few hours of sleep before my alarm goes off and it’s time for me to get ready for my shift. I manage to shower, dress and leave the house without disturbing Ben, who sleeps like a log. I’m thankful that he’s dead to the world, because if I bumped into him, I know he’d be able to tell something was up thanks to the goofy grin I can’t seem to wipe off my face.I’m in the best mood I’ve been in since I can remember, and the adrenaline and general happiness carry me through the first few hours of my shift better than all the espresso in the world. “Did you have some amphetamine with your Cheerios this morning? It’s like you’re the Blur,” Sharon says around eleven, just after I’ve finished bussing my tables and hers. “Ha. No, I just got a really good night’s sleep last night,” I say. And it isn’t even a lie, because even though I only got a short nap’s worth of shut eye, the sleep I did get was restful and deep. I woke up feeling like I could conquer the world. Of course