Cal was true to his word about finding me another job. It wasn't as white collar or as well paying as the one I'd had with Helena. But it was still money in the pocket and the company wasn't bad. It was the all the hours on my feet, carrying trays of food on heavy plates that was really doing a number on me. To go from curator to personal assistant to waitress--well it was definitely a change of pace.
"I could really use a deep tissue massage," I said as I plopped down on a bar stool, kneading the muscles in my shoulder. All the tension that sat between my shoulder blades was turning into a pulsing, radiating ache the shot down my back and into my tired feet.
Paige's laugh was soft, like most things about her I was learning. "You and me both."
I dropped my hand into my lap. "As if Auggie isn't giving you nightly rub downs."
Her lips turned up in a secret smile, her eyes never meeting mine. I pretended that wasn't a twinge of jealousy I felt. She shrugged a shoulder and said, "I'm sure Cal would rub you down if you asked nicely."
Blush stained my cheeks at the images her suggestion brought to mind. I gave a shake of my head, hoping to clear my mind. "Just tell me that it gets easier."
"It gets easier," she said, looking in my direction.
"You're not just saying that right?"
"No I'm not just saying that." Paige grabbed two shot glasses and set them down on the bar in front of us. I watched as she filled them with whiskey. "Winter time is the busiest around here cause people don't have much else to do other than drink."
She passed me one to me and took the other for herself. I grabbed mine and clinked it gently to hers with a grateful smile. We shot them back, the burn started in my throat, spread through my chest and settled in my stomach. I wheezed out a fiery breath, eyes watering. Paige looked amused by my reaction.
"Whoa." I laughed through the headiness of the liquor. "That will put hair on your chest."
"How do you think we all stay warm around here?" she asked rather straight faced, which only set me laughing again.
It had been a long time since I had a girlfriend. Hanging around Paige the last couple of weeks I felt the promise of kinship and normalcy. We were around the same age. And it helped that she was in on the werewolf secret.
"Just wait until summer comes then this place becomes a ghost town. most of the locals are gone on family vacations cause the kiddie's are free from school."
"A vacation sounds nice, honestly."
She smiled. "Auggie and I usually take a week and head out to the coast. Sun, sand, and ocean as far as the eye can see. It's a nice change of pace from all this."
"I miss the beach. I hope I get to see it again," I said, allowing myself a small pity party.
Paige's sympathetic gaze lingered on me for a moment, before she poured me another shot. I took it without a word. What more was there to say? The reality was that I was trapped in an uncertain situation headed in a very tragic direction. Most days I could push that thought to the back of my mind, but at night when I laid in bed it was all I thought about.
"Looks like the party's over." Paige grabbed the dirty shot glasses and nodded her head in the direction of the front door.
I spun around knowing exactly who I would find. Cal had invaded every area of my life after the confrontation with the Vandervilles. Nothing had happened, mind you. In fact, Mary-Beth served her time and life had grown quiet. But It was obvious that Cal didn't trust Bradford. And if I was being honest, the quietness made me nervous too. I knew they were planning their next move and I hoped that he had been planning his. Though currently he looked like he was in need of rescuing.
He hadn't made too far past the entrance before he was cornered into conversation by Casey Jones and her husband. That woman could talk a person's ear off on a good day when she was sober. And tonight I'd served her a couple glasses of wine on the account that it was the couple's anniversary. I tried to hold in my amusement as I watched the situation progress. I couldn't hear what they were discussing, but Cal was doing his best to look engaged and interested. But his body was too stiff and his lips were caught somewhere between a smile and a grimace.
His gaze strayed in my direction as if he could feel me watching him. Our eyes connected across the room. In his eyes I saw wild desire and suffocating devotion. My skin was suddenly warm all over and my mouth went dry. I looked away.
This physical reaction I always had to him was more than a little disconcerting. I thought the upside to being around him so much would be some kind of tolerance to his effect on me, but nothing like that had come of it yet. Quite the opposite actually. Being around him was only making it harder to resist my own urges. I had given in once before. I knew the taste of him and it was unforgettable--and too dangerous.
"Uh-oh, I know that look," Paige whispered.
"There definitely wasn't a look," I replied with more a hiss.
She held up a hand, looking rather unconvinced. "Whatever you say."
"Evening," Cal greeted us, interrupting the defensive argument that had begun to build in my chest. He obviously had found a way to escape the unwanted social entanglement he had been caught up in.
"What did Casey want?" I asked, wanting to fill the tension with something--anything.
"God knows, the woman was drunker than sailor."
"You can blame that on this one," Paige replied with a nod in my direction. Cal lifted a brow as he stared down at me, but I saw the twitch of lips and knew he was trying to hide his amusement. "She was feeding the woman wine all night long."
I shrugged. "What? It was their anniversary. They needed to celebrate properly."
Cal leaned forward into my space, the heat of his body radiating into mine. "You and I have different opinions about how to properly celebrate something like that, I think."
My ears grew hot at the implication of his words, and he had certain meant for there to be implications behind them. I cleared my throat and rose up from the stool, forcing him to make more space between our bodies. "I guess we should go. Mary-Beth is--"
"With my cousin," he finished my sentence.
My brows lifted. "Why isn't she at home? She has school tomorrow."
"Which is why she will be staying with Tamara while we are away."
I held his gaze now, worry and curiosity warring within me. "I can't just up and leave on your whims, Cal. I've got work--"
"I'll cover your shifts while you're away." Paige interjected.
"There you go." He wasn't even a little sorry that he was asking his friend to pick up my slack. It must have been great to have so much power that people simply did whatever you wanted without question.
I glanced over my shoulder at her, feeling a bit like she was working against me. She gave me an innocent smile before walking away pretending to be interested in one of the patrons on the other end of the bar. I turned back to Cal with a defeated sigh.
"And where are we going so suddenly?"
"Not here."
"I know that, which is why I asked you where. Now are you going to tell me?" I asked. He was the king of deflection. At this point I think he didn't give me straight answers simply because he knew it got under my skin.
"Can't you do anything without fighting me at every turn?"
I arched a brow and crossed my arms. If he thought I was just going to drive off into the night with him with no clue where we were going, he hadn't learned anything in the time we had spent together. With a roll of his eyes and a light tap of his finger under my chin. "Trust me, Luce. It's part of the plan."
Understanding struck me fast. If this was going to be the solution to our current problems than I didn't need to be asked twice. I was all in, no matter what it was. "You really should have lead with that part."