"I do need the cash, my experiments are expensive." She tilted her head at me with a don’t-doubt-me face.
She's lying. She has to be.
“What the hell are you experimenting with? Uranium?” As soon as I said it, I prayed she wasn’t messing around with radioactive shit in the house. I could slap myself for letting this whole experimentation thing get out of hand. If she was gushing money on experiments then I should have noticed, right? There would be equipment and beakers and whatever else scientists used. Oh, lasers! There would definitely be a laser or something, I was sure of it.
Settled with the fact that she was fibbing about the experiments, I was one hundred percent not ready to entertain her little birthday wish to get her a part time job with her crush. Then again, maybe she needed to learn a lesson.
"Are you telling me you want to apply, or…" I raise an eyebrow to see if she wants me to use my magic to get her the job.
She chews on her bottom lip and I try not to roll my eyes. But then her cheeks get a little pink and I am amused with her shyness once more.
I wouldn’t expect Cory to date like normal people, not when she was so socially clueless. I mean, she was actually cute and smart and had a good job. By all means she was a bloody catch!
"I want us both to work at The Amber Line on the weekends. I saw an ad and they're looking for waitresses and bartenders."
Everything paused for a moment. "You want me to give up my weekends? To work at a bar?"
Unbelievable. My sister must be drinking one of her concoctions.
Cory fumbles with the coffee lid again for a moment before she answers with more resolve than I ever have heard from the little trickster, "Yes."
My jaw drops slightly, “No. Hell no!”
Cory holds up her index finger as she raises her eyebrows. I know whatever comes after that look is going to be so bad I may end up taking her voice away for a week. “I did some research while you were out running last night. And I am pretty sure that my information is worth working a few weekends with me.”
I lean back against the door and cross my arms over my chest, “Mmhhm?”
“Don’t look at me like that. I know what I’m doing. I even know why Dar is in town. And I know that you will want to know.” The charlatan took a small sip of the coffee, making a loud sucking noise on purpose. “In fact, I would say that you will-”
My nose flares as I get a clear mental picture of her vocal cords, and silence them.
“Nope. Nope. No. Not going to happen Cory,” I say with my eyebrows raised in a perfect horizontal line. Cory touches her throat and I could hear heavy breaths rushing out of her mouth as if she was trying to yell, but no other sounds could be heard.
I had to take away her voice. I had to. She pushed me too far this time.
With lips tightly smashed on top of one another, turning them white as ivory, Cory puts her coffee down and starts fumbling through her purse. A second later she pulls out a small 3x5 notepad and pen. She holds up the pen and shakes it at me, as if she is threatening me.
I wiggle back on the door and close my eyes, longingly, “I don’t care what you researched. I don’t care what you found. And even if I were the tiniest bit interested, I wouldn’t ask, so if this is your way of getting me to work on the weekends at a bar, you have crossed into delusional city.”
I can hear her writing but I keep my eyes closed. I am breathing slow and even, so that she can’t tell how much I am on edge here.
I hear the pad of paper whizzing through the air. The mini note pad hits the window with a loud clank, and then falls down the side in between the seat and door. I huff at my sister and reach down to see what she wrote.
You have three seconds!
I turned to her and I saw her holding out her index finger. Then added her middle finger.
“You don’t scare me,” I mocked.
She held up her phone, typed a message and pushed send, and then smiled maliciously.
“What did you do?” I swallow hard. What could she do?
Cory started appraising her nails and I could feel my stomach begin to squeeze with uncertainty. I gave back her voice and then waved my hand at her throat.
“Cory?” My voice was steady even though my insides were not.
“Are you going to get us jobs at the Amber line?” She said sweetly, as if she were not blackmailing me.
Carefully I answered her “I will get you the job at Amber Line. And I promise to be there every weekend, but I don’t need the job. Now,” I pause, waiting for her to look at me, “what did you do?”
Cory bites the inside of her lip and studies me for a moment before tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’ll tell you what I did if you work for a month, with me, on the weekends, and then you can quit. I just need a month.” I opened my mouth to interject, but she cuts me off. “Wait. If you agree to work for a month and get us jobs, I will tell you what I did. And then I will promise that this is my last birthday wish for today. And, I will tell you what I found out for free.”
I slap my hand on the steering wheel. “Why would I care to hear about someone who doesn’t even know I exist?” I push back and rest my head against the headrest. “Why the hell would I care? He’s nothing to me. He’s just some guy I knew in school who I crossed paths with at a bar. It’s nothing. It means nothing. He means nothing.” I closed my eyes tight, begging for my words to come true, but the hollow feeling in my chest was still there like it has been since I was seventeen. “If you want to work at Amber Line, fine. But don’t wrap me into your crazy schemes.”
“You’re wrong,” Cory said lightly, as if she could make the words hurt less if she said them softly. “He does know who you are. I checked.”
The knot in my throat would not let me talk with a straight voice, so I remained quiet not willing to show that kind of weakness.
“I’m sorry I pushed,” she whispered. I felt her hand on my arm and I wanted to snatch my hand back, but the warmth in her firm squeeze made me feel connected. It made some of the rigidness ease. “I didn’t know.”
Then I heard the click clack of Cory on her phone. I peer over and watch her vigorously typing on her phone.
“What are you doing now?”
Her maleficent smile was creeping up her face. “Confirming with Sal that we can start tonight. And you can bet that he will be there tonight and I promise to make him pay for all the pain he has caused you.”
“Who do you think you are, Lex Luther? You can’t plot out my revenge. That’s not fair,” I said half-heartedly, amused and half grateful to her because I knew she meant it. And I knew that even though I was going to hate working every weekend for a month, someone has to look out for her.
“You’re not going to kill him are you?” I ask while pulling the car into reverse.
With a light chuckle Cory answers, “Nope, it will be even better.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SHANE
It's mid-day on Saturday when I walk into work. I like to arrive a little early before my shift so I can stock up on as much alcohol as I can. Saturday nights are busy and I don’t like having to restock during my shift if we get slammed.
Danny, one of Amber Line's waiters, is wiping down a table when a soft female voice calls out, "Danny, I can do that. It's my area anyway."
Curious about a voice I don’t know, I turn to see the shy blonde from last night. Intrigued, I watch her completely ignore me as she walks by and pats Danny on the shoulder, then wipes down the table as if Danny didn’t just do that. Cory, that’s the name she gave the douche last night, but her driver's license read Charlene. I didn’t register her error until later that night when I was driving home.
Danny cleared his throat. He gives me the chin lift acknowledging that he approves of the new girl and her slim figure, with a petite waist, perfect legs, bending over the table. Her black button-up blouse was snuggly tucked into tight black jeans and she is wearing grey
flats. Somehow the flats made her feet look so itty bitty that I swear it reminded me of a fairy. Noticing her lightness of foot, and the flittering way she walks to another table, almost has me flashing back to a fairy I dated several years ago. Cory even had a small dusting of freckles.
Inwardly I groaned.
Everything about her was calling to me and begging me to take notice. I did take notice. But I am not going to do anything. I won’t. I have rules. No humans – ever. I couldn’t even fathom more than a friendship with the few guys I knew, but I couldn’t be friends with someone like Cory. It just wouldn’t work. I would expose myself magically. I couldn’t ever be myself around her. There was no point in getting into a relationship with anyone if I already knew it wouldn’t work out.
That’s why I only dated fairies. They were magical, and the only ones I could deal with that had the least amount of character flaws. Werewolves were far too rude and edgy. Vampires are too sensitive and have a tendency to wallow. Witches, ugh, don’t get me started. I could spend all day listing what I hate about witches, starting with how they are pretty much humans that can do a few parlor tricks. They’re not even immortal. They are like humans in the way in which they fall in love to marry, start a family, and die.
Fairies were polite and didn’t ask too many personal questions. They do have a bad habit of keeping secrets and plotting your demise with a big smile on their face, but I can work with that. I mean come on, like I would date a person who didn’t go out of their way to be my nemesis.
Also, fairies were smart and vegetarian. I am a vegetarian and so it just… works. Humans? Don’t. Cory… wouldn’t work out. And just because my body is hot for her doesn’t mean I can give in.
I don’t want to have to break it off later, after I grew tired of her. And I would, because after a while all the excitement of getting to know her would diminish. Eventually I would find that she really wasn’t that interesting, and I would find something I couldn’t stand about her. There is always something that I can’t stand with everyone I meet. And Cory would only be a passing thing, but in the end it wouldn’t be worth it.
I have seen it all; working at a bar really gives insight into how humans hook up and break up. So no, I am not interested in Cory. Not even a little bit.
I scan the room for Sal, the owner. Usually he is in the office or talking to the cooks about his new ideas for an appetizer, but when there is a pretty girl around, he can always be found near her, giving her the “I’ll take care of you” talk.
I see him walking my way with the brunette beside him.
Oh hell.
I should have known. It’s not like one thing in my life could possible go my way.
I rub my temple and watch as impassively as possible as Sal pulls the brunette forward, with his hand on her back and one hand extended to me. "And this is Shane. You'll be working with him tonight," he smiles up at me and adds, "this is Beth, our new, beautiful bartender. She will be working weekends to help out."
I hold out my hand to Beth, Cory’s sister, "Hi."
She responds in the same unenthusiastic tone, "Hey."
I peer down at Sal and ask rhetorically “Want me to show her the bar? I can show her what to prep and the list of drinks.” He nods and drops his hand from her back, telling her that if she has any questions to ask me.
We both watch him walk away, then turn to each other with a similar cold, calculating stare. I speak first, "Didn't know you were looking for a job?"
"I wasn't," she says, eyebrows raised.
"Then what are you doing here?" I fold my arms over my chest and make sure my back is straight.
Her face tilts to the side as she answers, "Does it matter? You need help, and I have the time," her tone is clipped, and she looks at the bar for a half a second before cutting her eyes to the other side of the room, where I know Cory is wiping down tables. Not that I am keeping tabs. I’m not.
"Are you always this cheerful?"
She curls her lips, still not looking at me. "For you? Yes."
I glance up to the roof wondering why everyone I meet I have to hold back the urge to stuff them in a trunk and leave it in the middle of a demolition site.
"Thanks Sal," I hear Cory call out and my eyes dart to see what she is thanking Sal for. Sal was fixing her collar? What the hell?
Beth asked beside me, "Did you just growl?"
I could feel my hands clenching into a fist. I'm not interested in her sister. She can trust me on that one. "I know she has a fake ID." I turn to Beth hoping to see her squirm. Even though it took me a month to notice the fake name, but that’s beside the point. I should tell Sal so they both get canned and then maybe, just maybe, I can get some peace in my life.
"And yet you kept selling her drinks. What does that say about you?" Beth says in a tone I can't really decipher.
"What does it say about you? You’re making your under aged sister work at a bar." I say accusingly, while leaving her before she has time to answer.
Beth jabs my shoulder as I step up into the bar corral, I almost stumble forward, which pisses me off. I turn around at the same time I feel the fire inside me begin to burn, bringing my magic to the forefront of my mind, waiting for me to give it a command. Beth narrows her eyes but does not move back or look in the least intimidated. The idiot steps up to me and now we are nose to nose. "What it says, is, that you’re about to get slapped, open palmed, in the mouth, because Cory is none of your business." The muscle in her jaw twitched, “And, had you been a better bartender you would have noticed her fake ID a month ago, and if you were a better nosey-ass-bartender you would have found out that today’s her 25th birthday.” Then the smart-mouthed, arrogant, pain in my ass walks away, but not before she pushes past me with a shoulder bump and says under her breath, “I don’t care who you are, or what you are. If you mess with her, I will kill you.”
I run my hand through my blonde, curly mess and grab hold of the hair at the back of my neck and squeeze.
“You look tired.” A sweet, soft voice spirals in my ears and my body responds favorably.
Calmer than before, I look down to the sweetest, shy girl blushing lightly. I rub my eyebrow before answering, “I’ve had better days.”
“Want me to make you some coffee before your shift?” Her voice sounds hopeful. “Plus it would be great to get some practice before everyone comes in.” Well how could I turn that down? I mean, she probably really needs to practice. She probably doesn’t know how to do much, let alone serve people with a smile all day. Yeah, I guess I could let her practice on me.
“Sure.”
The corner of her eyes crinkle as she says, “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
I watch her walk to the coffee pot and look curiously at the machine. Instead of doing her work for her, I wait to see if she will figure it out.
“Hey. Eyes off my sister,” I hear beside me.
The pugnacious brat standing behind me with her arms folded in a silly attempt to intimidate me. I cock my head to the side. “First, you don’t scare me, so acting like you are some bad ass, that only makes you look stupid and is irritating the hell out of me.” I pause to accent my point. “Second, I am helping Cory to do her job so back up and go finish cutting the oranges and limes.”
Beth’s eyes burned with hatred.
I held her eyes and set my jaw.
“Here you go, Shane,” Cory says.
Beth looks down and frowns. “What is that?”
“Shane looked tired so I made him – HEY!”
Beth had grabbed the coffee and tossed the paper cup in trash and pointed at Cory. “No!”
“Very grown up of you Beth.” I mutter, because I had been looking forward to the coffee.
Beth ignores me all together because she lowered her head so she is in Cory’s face speaking fast and low. Cory is speaking back in the same quick pissy-whisper thing girls do.
Beth leans back and holds out her hand. “
Now Cory! I mean it. Give it to me now or we leave.”
Rolling her eyes, Cory pulls out a vile of clear liquid and places it in her sister’s palm.
What the hell?
Cory looks over to me “It’s caffeine mix. You know like the five-hour energy drinks?”
Oh.
Beth grabs the vile and stuffs it in her pants pocket and walks away mumbling something about strangling someone.
Cory pushes stray pieces of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry, I was just trying to help.”
She looks so sincere that I can’t believe I am not about to yell at her for trying to juice up my coffee. I let out a slow breath in an attempt to at least look displeased. “Yeah well next time just get a regular coffee. Okay?” I can see her face lighten. It bothers me how much it affects me that she is smiling like that. I wipe my hands down my face, “I gotta go.” And with that I walk around the bar as far away from Cory as I can get, which also means I am, once more, too close to her sister.
It’s not like I need this job, per se. I just need something to keep me occupied. I’m a minimalist and I don’t need much to be content. I don’t need to spend money on traveling because I can do that anytime I want, and I have already seen most of the world. I don’t make huge investments or worry about the stock market because I really, truly, do not care about money. It pays the few bills I have, but the rest I can use my magic for. For example, my new car was all magic.
I am not out to impress anyone. I don’t want to be seen with a big belt buckle, shiny watch, or flashy chain around my neck. I don’t need to have my hair slathered in gel or have my nails buffed and shined. I am a man, with little to no need for most of the materials the world has to offer. I wear dark brown boots that have scuff marks I put there, not purchased. I have faded jeans because I wear them in, not purchase them half-faded with holes. I wear plain, solid color shirts because the thought of wearing anything swirly makes me want to vomit. Yes my hair is curly, but it’s kept short so it’s not ragged. Yes I grow hair on my face and it looks like I have a five o’clock shadow four hours later, but I shave it every day because I have good hygiene. Yes I have hair on my body because shaving it makes me feel like a twelve year old boy whose balls have not dropped. This is how I am, and I will not excuse myself for it.
The Carver's Magic Page 5
