by Ashlee Price
“I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“It’s okay, Mariah. I know that you don’t want to go back to your folks’ house. No one would blame you for not wanting to go. You always have a place here with me.”
“I’m lucky to have you as a friend.”
She waved me off. We’d been through a lot together, and she knew that I would be there for her if she ever needed it. But it was me that needed a friend at the moment, and I was happy that Kimmie was still around.
Kimmie asked if I was hungry, and I told her that I wasn’t. I was still upset about the argument with Greg, and the last thing on my mind was food. I didn’t want to do anything but sleep and cry at this point. She was right, though. I had to figure something out. The problem wasn’t going to solve itself, after all.
I told her my plans and she shook her head. “You’re not going to go to bed and be sad. I won’t allow it. The only choice that you really have, Mariah, is wine or liquor.”
It was the best choice that I could think of. I didn’t want to think about anything else. Leaving Greg had been harder than I would have imagined.
“I don’t think wine is going to do it.”
She brightened up, and the dark hair on her head shifted with her expression. The pixie cut was throwing me off, since it was the first time I’d seen it, but I was already getting used to it. It suited her for some reason, matching the tattoos that she’d started to collect. I liked to collect little glass eggs, but Kimmie collected tattoos that were slowly covering every empty spot of skin that she had left.
When she came back with a couple of shot glasses and a fifth of vodka, I was happier than ever that Kimmie was still here. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Kimmie.”
“Don’t worry about it. Really. You’ve been there for me more times than I can count, so let’s drink and think about it.”
“That’s the way it’s supposed to be, us here for each other. At least you didn’t take off like Sasha and Kallie did.”
Kimmie looked away for a minute, and I had a feeling it was because she didn’t want me to see that maybe that was about to change.
“What, you’re leaving Coloma too?”
She still couldn’t look at me, and now I really felt like drinking. If my best friend was leaving, I had to ask myself what was still here for me.
“When?”
“In a couple of weeks, maybe sooner.”
“Why?”
“I got a job offer, and since I can’t really find anything around here, I need to take it. I can’t live on the wages that I’m making at the diner, and if I move, I’ll be able to get into some digital editing. It’s what I want to do, and I can’t do it here.”
Sighing to myself, I was feeling the anxiety of the unknown coming back. “Where?”
“New Orleans.”
“Isn’t that where Sasha is?”
Kimmie nodded absently and made a face when she shot the drink in her hand. The vodka was warm, but the burn was already sidetracking me from everything.
“What is she doing down there?”
She made a giggling sound and told me that I didn’t want to know.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re the sensitive one and I don’t want to shock you.”
“Come on, Kimmie, it can’t be that bad.” Just because I’d never done it didn’t mean that I didn’t know all about it. I did freakier things than most people would ever guess. I wasn’t exactly straight and narrow, I just had limits.
“She’s working for some kind of kink club. Like fetishes and stuff.”
Many things came to mind when she told me that, but I could have almost guessed that I was wrong on all counts. There were so many things that could have been put into the kink category, and although I was trying to not seem like such a baby about it, I really didn’t want to know what all Sasha was doing. I loved my friend, and I didn’t like the idea of her doing something like that, even if she wanted to. She’d always been a little out there, but we all were in a way. That was why we were such good friends. We’d been through a lot together.
“As long as she’s happy.”
“She is. From the sound of it, I don’t think she’s ever been happier. She keeps inviting me down there, and then I started looking into jobs and it just all fell into place.”
“What are you going to do about, Charles?”
Kimmie took another shot, making less of a face this time. If they were anything like mine, her taste buds were long since gone.
“I don’t know. He can come or he can stay. I haven’t told him yet, but I’m going one way or another. I just can’t stay around here anymore, Mariah. It’s just a dead end. You should come with me. Then I wouldn’t have to go alone and you don’t have to be here without Sasha and me. Wouldn’t it be good if we could get the gang back together?”
“What about Kallie?”
“Kallie is in the wind right now. When I hear from her again, I’ll try to talk her into coming down. Come with me, Mariah, come on.”
It was tempting, and after a couple more shots and a little more talk, I felt like I had my next move made. I was going to New Orleans. It sounded like a good place to start over again. I knew that my mind might change when I sobered back up, but it really felt like it was the right thing to do. Nothing was ever going to happen in the small town of Coloma.
Chapter 2 – Mariah
“I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe this is all a mistake.”
Kimmie just sighed and kept driving. She didn’t slow down or anything else. She knew that I was freaking out and the best thing to do was to let me just chill out. I would work myself up, much like I had now, and I was close to a panic attack minutes later. What was I doing? I couldn’t just move across the country to somewhere I didn’t know but a couple of people. I didn’t even have a job. Greg had made sure that I didn’t have any money in my own account, and my ATM card for our joint account had stopped working. That left me with less than a thousand dollars and no idea what I was going to do.
Everything was brighter around me and even the beating of my heart in my chest was loud enough to be unsettling. Everything about this day was unsettling, and the further south we got, the more nervous and doubtful I became. I didn’t want to do this.
“I’m serious, Kimmie. Drop me off at a bus station. I’m going back.”
“What are you going to go back to, Mariah? Your cop boyfriend who’s pushy and will start a fight if he doesn’t get his way? Or do you want to go back to the parents it took you years to get away from? Kallie and Sasha were right when they left Coloma. There’s nothing left for us there, and I’m ready to find something new.
She was right, of course. I didn’t have any reason to be there. I already missed Greg, but it was a pain that I knew would subside daily until he was but a faint memory in the back of my mind. That was how I knew I was going to be okay, but the unknown scared me and I had to wonder if it was better to stay with the devil I knew.
“Why do you have to say it like that?”
“Because you’re freaking out and you’re packed and there are a hundred miles behind us. It’s too late to freak out, Mariah.”
Kimmie knew me too well, but she was wrong about one thing. It wasn’t too late to freak out, not for me. It wasn’t convenient, and I wished I wasn’t like this. But I was, and now I wanted to back out. What would I do when I went back, though? She was right about there not really being anything for me there. I could get another job at one of the town’s couple of restaurants, or at a gas station, but there was nothing else in Coloma for me.
“I’m not trying to.”
“I know, Mariah. That’s why I’m not going to listen to you about it right now. I know this is the fear talking and soon you’ll see it differently.”
“You seem pretty sure.”
“You like the water and the sun. It’s already getting warmer, can’t you feel it?”
I could feel the temperature differ
ence, but it wasn’t enough to make all of the nonsense in my head go away. “Yeah, but I don’t see why that matters.”
“Because it’s supposed to be seventy degrees today in New Orleans. It’s forty degrees right here. It’s going to start warming up, and then you’ll feel better. This doesn’t have to be forever. If we don’t like it we can leave and go back home.”
“You already have a job lined up. I don’t know what I’m going to do for money and a job.”
Kimmie shrugged it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “You’ll find something. Sasha says they are always hiring where she works.”
I gave my friend a look. I now knew what Sasha did for a living, and it wasn’t something that I really wanted to get involved in. She was far more liberal with her sexuality than I was. It was good money, I’d heard it a million times, but I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t even want to think about it.
“Yeah, I don’t know about that.”
Kimmie sighed and turned the radio back up. She wanted to end the conversation, and I welcomed the music loud enough to silence the thoughts in my head. It was just a trip with Kimmie. If I wanted to stay I could, but if not, I could always leave. That’s what I told myself to calm myself down a little bit. It didn’t have to be so dramatic. I just had to calm down. It was easier said than done, but I was working on it.
***
“Come on, Mariah, get up.”
“What, why?”
“Because we’re here.”
I opened my eyes. The sun was a lot brighter than I remembered. It felt like we’d been driving all day, and after hours in the car, my body was dying to unfold from its current position.
“Are you serious?”
I moved to get out of the car. I could tell that we were definitely not in Michigan anymore. It was a lot warmer, and I didn’t have to put on the jacket that I’d brought with me. The most amazing part of it, though, was the fact that it was February and instead of being cold, everything was green and it was warm and sunny outside.
“What do you think?”
Kimmie had gotten out and was next to me. I was looking at the house in front of us. It had a boat tied to the porch and a huge pond in the middle of the yard. The house was not too big, but the location didn’t leave anything to be desired. I could be happy here, I thought to myself. I don’t know why, but I did feel a bit of peace come over me. Maybe it was because of the place, or maybe it was because it wasn’t where I’d just come from. Either way, I was happy to be there, and I was more than a little glad that Kimmie hadn’t listened to me when I told her to drop me off.
“It’s so pretty here. I didn’t know it would be so different.”
Everything looked different. It wasn’t just the color of all of the plants, but the plants themselves were ones I hadn’t seen before. Everything from the trees to the bushes looked different.
“I know. Sasha sent me some pictures of this place and I’ve wanted to come down ever since.”
I didn’t blame her. I could see where the draw was. It really was a pretty place.
“So where is Sasha?”
“She’s at work. I guess she tried to get off early, but her boss is a bit of a prick, so she left the key under the mat and told us just to make ourselves at home. She will be home around two.”
“In the morning?”
Kimmie nodded and went to the trunk to get our bags. I grabbed mine and followed her to the door. The stairs up to the house were high, and it was only then I realized how far off the ground it was. I made a comment to Kimmie, but she seemed to think that it was normal.
“It floods here a lot. That’s why there’s a boat.”
I looked around the yard and tried to figure how it would be with water covering everything. It was really hard to imagine. I couldn’t see it full of water like that, but Kimmie said it so matter-of-factly that I knew she wasn’t making it up.
The key was where it was supposed to be and she opened the door. It was just like Sasha, and I did feel right at home immediately. The furniture was dark and she’d even painted the walls black. Sasha had brought the darkness inside. I had to giggle at the skull lamps.
“This is where we’re staying?”
Kimmie shrugged, but I could see the wisp of a smile on her face. “It’s quaint. Did you expect it to be any different?”
“No, I just wouldn’t have thought she’d had the time to do all of this.”
“Sasha has been down here almost a year.”
“Really? Where the hell was I at?”
“With Greg. You didn’t have time for us when you two were together.”
I wanted to deny it, but I sort of had melted into him for a while. Bringing him up made me think of him again, and I could feel the sadness come over me. Well, it was either that or all the black in the room. Was this a mistake?
“I have time now. What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know. I have a couple of days until I start the job. I think we should just go out. We could go to that club that Sasha works at.”
The idea was enough to make me shiver. “If you want to go, I’m going to stay here. I don’t think I’m ready for all of that.”
“You don’t have to do anything, it’s just like a themed place.”
There was a picture of it in my head, but I wasn’t sure how accurate it was. I saw women in nothing but leather and people chained up on the walls. Maybe it wasn’t like that, but that was definitely not the first thing that I wanted to do in a new place.
“I know, it’s just…”
“You’re a little uptight, I know, but think about how happy she would be if we popped in to say hi.”
I thought that if she wanted us to come, she would have invited us out. She hadn’t, and I was unsure if that was the right surprise. If I did something like that for a living, I probably wouldn’t want my friends even knowing about it, let alone seeing me do it. It just seemed a bit too iffy to me to get behind.
“Let’s just wait. If it’s the type of place that we can just go in and visit, we’ll go out tomorrow once she clears it. I don’t want to get her in trouble with her job. You already said her boss is kind of a jerk.”
“Yeah, but she’s dating him, I think.”
I was getting really confused about the whos and whats, but going out did sound good.
“Okay, I’m not getting into all of that. Let’s just go to the French Quarter and do some dancing?”
Kimmie agreed and I relaxed. I felt like I’d really dodged a bullet there.
To Read the Rest of the Story Click Here
Sneak Peek: Served
A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance
By Ashlee Price
Served Part 1: Serve
Prologue
Jesse Olson has a full plate. When her father dies suddenly of an aneurism, her whole world seems to come to a stop. But with a bistro to run by herself and one of her special coffee blends getting a lot of attention in the city, Jesse is busier than ever. She doesn’t have time to do much of anything except work and sleep, and she isn’t thinking about anything else – until she meets a rude businessman with flashing dark eyes and a wicked tongue.
Scott comes to the bistro for one reason, but changes his mind when he meets the young owner and decides that he can find something else that he wants there. When Jesse is quick to put him in his place, it leaves Scott baffled. It also leaves him wanting more. He’s used to being listened to, and Jesse hasn’t given him the time of day. Instead of discouraging Scott, though, this just makes him want to get to know the fiery redhead more. He has a feeling that he’s going to be needing a lot of coffee.
Chapter 1 – Jesse Olson
“Jesse, are you coming down?”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at the clock. It was already seven and I was trying to figure out where the time had gone. I was going through my father’s room, and I guess I’d just gotten sidetracked. I’d forgotten that I had a job to do.
“Coming down
now. Open the doors and I’ll be down there in just a minute.”
Melissa told me to take my time. She knew that it was a rough month for me, and I was thankful that she didn’t give me too much grief when I was having a day like today. It had only been two weeks since my father died from an aneurysm, and I was still trying to come to terms with it. When I’d woken up at two this morning, all I wanted to do was talk to him, so instead I’d started going through the closet that was jammed with his things.
Pushing the pile that I had in front of me back into the closet, I decided that I was going to come back after the bistro closed in the afternoon and finally go through it all. I wasn’t sure what was in there – I doubted that my father even knew what was all in there – but the things he left behind were all I had left of him. That and all of the memories that I would cherish forever were what was left of my dad, and it just didn’t seem like enough. The bistro was a part of both of us, and when I started down the stairs, it was my dad, Johnson, that I thought about.
The first customer came in and asked for the house blend. It was the most popular thing that we sold, and Melissa already had many to-go cups ready. It wasn’t long before there was a steady stream of customers filing through. Not all bought just the house blend coffee, but most people did. It was what we were known for, a recipe that my father had come up with five years ago when we opened the place. Now it was called Johnson’s Special Blend so that every time someone ordered it they would be reminded of who created it. Hearing his name all of the time seemed to comfort me as well. It was a win-win in my eyes.
By noon I was starting to get tired, but the line was out the door and had been since about thirty minutes after we opened. I don’t know why, but ever since my father had died, it seemed like everyone couldn’t get enough of the coffee. I don’t know what that meant, but I liked the idea of so many people getting to try something that my father had been passionate about. He loved coffee and he loved to cook. I hadn’t gotten the love for the dark drink that he had, but I did like to cook, and I was more than happy to be in the kitchen making food and pouring drinks. With Mellissa there, it was a two-person job that kept us rather busy from the start of the day until we closed the doors a little after three.
