Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) (14 page)

After I ring up their purchases, I make Cara’s- because only staff is allowed to use the latté machine lest anybody get burned messing up, and they stay a while to chat, marvelling at how awesome the café is, how cool it is that they can add whatever they want to their drinks and not get charged. Business begins to pick up not long after they leave half an hour later, albeit grudgingly since Cael ended up giving them free cake.

Close to closing, Cael’s watching the front counter while I’m clearing off the tables when I pick up Victoria’s familiar voice. I look in the direction of her voice and am shocked that she’s standing at the counter, smiling away like her and Cael are privy to a joke that nobody else is.

“Hey there
Cael
,” She says, sounding rather amused at something.

“
Victoria
,” he replies, using the same tone of voice. “What can I get for you today?”

“I need something strong. You know, like a double espresso or something.” She replies, smiling at him as if they were old friends. I guess it’s very possible, if he and Damien used to be friends; I mean, I’m sure they know each other by the way they sound so familiar with one another. I can’t help but wonder who would want to be friends with a snotty bit-I mean girl like her.

“Ah,” replies Cael, smiling at her with warmth that shocks me, “that I can definitely do.” He moves to ring up her order, but unfortunately (for me) catches my eye doing so and Victoria follows his gaze, frowning when she sees me.

“Oh,” she says in my direction, “I didn’t see you, Khiara”

I give the table closest to me a half-hearted wipe and mumble, “That’s okay I’ve been pretty busy.”

Her frown deepens and she walks over to me, her blue eyes looking suddenly troubled, “No, I should have noticed you sooner. Sorry about that. I was a little preoccupied myself though, I guess.”

“Right,” I say, not quite knowing what to say. I pull my hair up into a pony tail, and sigh, then awkwardly gesture back to the table. “Well, I have to get back to work.” She nods, satisfied –though her eyes remain troubled– and walks back towards Cael.

“Well,” she says to him, her tone less light-hearted and jokey than before, “I guess I’d better get my ass in gear. I’ve got
somebody
waiting for me.” I keep wiping the table like it’s my lifeline, and look anywhere but in their direction. I’m sure she’s talking about Damien. “Here’s your espresso,” I hear Cael say, and then he says something lower, something that I can’t quite catch; it almost doesn’t sound English, and has a beautiful lilt to it. I begin to wonder what it is he said to her, but try to ignore the pull of curiosity.

When about ten or so minutes pass, all of a sudden I feel a light tap on my shoulder. I turn to find Cael behind me smirking rather amusedly. His blue eyes sparkle with a laughter that he’s trying to rein in.

“What?”

“If you keep wiping that table,” he says, “you’re going to go straight through it.”

I look down and mumble, “To China. That was my plan.”

Cael lets his laughter out and takes the cloth from me, “How was your first day on the job? That was officially the last customer of opening day! ”

“It was great,” I say, “I absolutely love working here. And it helps that my boss isn’t a total asshole.”

“That does help,” he chuckles, but then stops and runs his fingers through his hair. “
Total
asshole? So does that mean I’m just a regular one then?”

“Let me take my foot out of my mouth and get back to you on that.” I don’t think it’s possible for my face to get any redder.

Cael chuckles, reaches out and strokes my cheek, sending a trail of goose bumps where his hand gently touches my skin. “It’s cute when you blush.”

“Is it?” I whisper.

He blushes himself, “Yeah, it is.”

“You know,” I say, “I feel like I’ve known you forever. Talking to you is so easy.”

Cael’s smile fades for just a second as his eyes roam my face, “Forever,” he says. He leans in real close and taps my nose. “You’re right.”

Eleven

As soon as I get home, Dad grills me about my new job (and about Cael) over dinner, but eventually he gives in and lets me go upstairs once he realizes that I’m not about to give away too much about my new relationship, if that’s even what it is. Pug runs ahead of me and jumps up onto my bed as I enter my room and I sit down next to him then pat him on the head. Pug growls playfully as he wags his little tail, all cheerful and ready to play.

“Do you wanna take a walk?” I ask, as I suddenly hop up off the bed. “I think somebody wants to take a walk!” He growls and jumps up and down in place, confirming that yes, he definitely wants a walk.

Walking backwards towards my door I gesture with my hands for Pug to follow, and he complies with full gusto practically flying off the bed and landing right in front of me. “Good boy, Puggles.”

He barks in response.

As we walk down the stairs – more like I stumble down the stairs as Pug tries to trip me – my phone vibrates from my back pocket and Cara’s ringtone echoes through the halls. Sighing, I pull out my phone.

“To what do I owe this phone call?”

She puffs out an overdramatic breath which sounds rather irritating over the phone. “I just wanted to call you to, you know, talk. But now that you mention it I do have something to ask you. I have to study this weekend at the library and I wanted to know if you were down to come. You could, you know, read and whatever while I plod through my Science textbook.”

A smile tugs at my lips as Pug stares up at me adorably. “I’ll come, yeah. What time do you want to meet up?”

“Pick me up for, shall we say, noon? My car has been doing weird things lately.”

“That means the rest of the week I have to drive you to school, doesn’t it? You realize I have to get to work in that thing, don’t you?”

Cara squeaks loudly in my ear, “I know. I’m sorry. But yay! Thank you.”

“Listen,” I say, “I have to get going. I’m taking Pug for a walk and his legs are crossed. Plus, it’s getting late. See you tomorrow, honeybun.”

“See you tomorrow!” She crows happily and hangs up.

~*~

The next weekend on Saturday as I wait outside Cara’s house in my old, beat up, yellow Rabbit, with the rain pounding on the roof of my car as I snack on a granola bar and Cara locks her door, my phone vibrates from my bag with a text. It’s from Damien.

Cara told me you guys were headed to the library. Care for one more in your party? I’m meeting Victoria there as well.

Instead of answering I just roll my eyes and put my phone back in my bag. I think about how this week has been pretty great; working for Cael is awesome, and we’ve already hung out at his house after work three times to get to know each other. I’ve learned so much about him this past week, and of course he’s learned a lot about me too. I think we’re really hitting it off, though I keep having to remind myself we’ve only been on
one
date, and we haven’t even made our relationship official boyfriend-girlfriend status or anything.

Still, I like where we’re headed. He’s even texted me every morning to let me know the day’s specials he’s whipped up and it amazes me how he gets up so early in the morning to bake everything himself. I wonder how he does it; he’s been looking for more employees but it’s been hard to find somebody up to his standards. I’d help if I wouldn’t burn the place down.

As I’m thinking about that, Cara gets into the car and says, “God is it ever getting colder and colder! Maine sucks, why on earth did my parents think this was the best place to raise a child? Anyway, I’m ready to study. I can do this. If I’ve been studying for that math test,
this
should be a piece of cake, right?”

Chuckling, I back out of the driveway and onto the road. “Totally, you can do this; it’s just science. Science is essentially math right?” From my peripheral I can see Cara nod but she remains silent.

Ten minutes later, we’re at the library and I’m curled up in a comfy chair reading a random horror book and Cara sits across from me at a study table, muttering to herself as she flips through her textbook.

I must fall asleep, because an hour later I wake up to the sound of my book slapping against the floor.

“Drop something?” asks a familiar voice. I look up to see Victoria holding my book out to me, her face rather neutral. She’s added blonde steaks to her black hair and I can’t help but notice that it looks really good on her, and as I take my book I say so.

She smirks slightly. “Thanks. I did it as a kind of rebirth, so to speak. I’m trying this new thing out, whenever I feel like I’m going to beat the shit out of someone I ignore it and do something nice for myself.”

I blink up at her, not sure if she’s being serious or not. Victoria laughs. “I’m kidding, kid. I just got tired of the same old black hair, boring as ever. Haven’t dyed it in a while, so I figured today was as good a day as any.”

Her hair reminds me of something…someone far off in a deep memory that I can’t quite recall. I shrug it off as a cough tickles my throat and works its way to the surface, catching Cara’s attention.

When Cara notices Victoria she sighs loudly, “I’m trying to study here.”

Victoria rolls her eyes, “We’ll try to keep it down, Tinkerbell.”

Cara sticks out her tongue and goes back to her textbook. I look over at Victoria to see that she’s sitting down in the chair next to me. “So,” she says, “we don’t talk much.”

I find myself chuckling at this. “That’s because you hate me.” She doesn’t deny it, but instead smiles slightly as if I’d told her a joke. Today she’s wearing a little yellow sundress, which is odd because it’s rather rainy out and pretty cold; I don’t even see a sweater anywhere near her. I’ve never really thought about it before, but she always wears the oddest clothing; I’ve seen her on the weekends and days off, wearing her school uniform, although with added accessories. But I have to admit, everything she wears seems to suit her, even if it’s not always appropriate for the day.

“Anyway,” she says, “you’re in my history class. I was just wondering, because you missed class the other day, if you needed any notes. I know, I know, why am I being such a Good Samaritan? I’m not always such a bitch, and I remember the time you took notes for me when I was sick, so I thought I’d repay the favour.”

I open my mouth to say no thank you but she simply hands me a small bundle of papers and says, “You’re welcome, kid.” This whole condescending kid nonsense is kind of annoying, but she’s being nice and I don’t want to ruin the moment. Unfortunately, it gets ruined anyway because Cara decides it’s the perfect moment to have a fit.