Frowning as if looking for the right words, Julie glanced over Sapphire’s shoulder, looking beyond her to the street before looking back at her. "I kind of overheard the other day that…I mean…do you really live in the motel?"
Sapphire tensed. "Yeah," she answered, a little quicker than she intended.
"Oh, well…It's just that I can see why Joel and Hayden offered you a room upstairs." Julie's eyes darted from the ground and back to hers. "The motel isn't that safe of a place," she said softly, almost apologetically.
Sapphire wasn't sure why she felt compelled to defend the rundown motel. "I haven't had any problems there, and the owners are really nice."
"Of course, of course," Julie rushed to assure her. "Blanche and Herman are great, super nice people. It's just that the clientele aren't so nice."
Sapphire frowned in confusion.
"You see, Holter hasn't always been all that decent." Julie shifted from one foot to the other, her car keys jingling in her fidgeting hands. "Before Sheriff Owens came to town with his brother and cousins, Holter was run by the LeBlanc gang. It was some big gang that came from Louisiana after a big hurricane and settled back in the woods on the far side of Holter. It was really bad back then, and though it's nowhere near like it used to be, there are still some…rough elements that lingered. Especially around the motel." She sighed. "I don't know. I'm not trying to scare you, I just wanted you to be aware."
Not sure what to say to that, Sapphire just nodded numbly. "Okay, thanks," she whispered.
Turning toward her car parked on the side of the building, Julie waved at her. "Be careful, and I'll see you tomorrow."
For a moment, Sapphire just stood there and watched as Julie drove off. Looking back to the café and its darkened windows, she tilted her head back. Two more floors of darkened windows loomed overhead. Turning on her heel, she looked down and around the street. Besides two other buildings, one directly across the street and one on the opposite end of the street, there were no other buildings in historic downtown that were three stories tall like this building. The rest, including the gift shop next door, varied between one and two-story buildings.
Beginning her walk, Sapphire peered into the storefront windows as she passed. Most of the businesses didn't close for another two to three hours. Soon that would be her too, she thought. Once she was trained, she would be closing the store a little later by herself.
She lifted her face just as a chilled wind rushed past her. Far off in the distance, the receding light of the sun bathed the sky in purples and pink while the dark blue of the night above her raced to swallow it up. Thinking of what Julie said about Holter's rough history and lingering threats, Sapphire picked up the pace as she cut across a short field toward the two-lane highway that led to the motel. Every now and then, the headlights of passing cars shone past her as she walked along the side of the road. People no doubt rushing home from Stardust or from the factories that sat on the far side of town to get back to their families waiting for them at home. The thought only made her frown. Her only family was no doubt sitting on the beach drinking some ridiculous fruity concoction or partying her way through Mexican night clubs.
Crossing the road, Sapphire pushed the images of her partying mother out of her head and unlocked the door to her room. She was setting down her bag just as the phone rang.
Picking up the phone, she answered hesitantly. "Hello?"
"Good, you’re back. Thought I heard you," Herman's rough bark of a voice scratched through the receiver. "I told Joel, or was it Hayden…hell if I know, one of them jokers, that I would call them when you got home. Good thing you didn't dawdle, girl. It ain't safe for you to be wandering all over the town at night."
"Oh, okay, then I-" she didn't even get a chance to finish her attempt to thank him when he cut her off.
With a brusque "All right then, g'night," Herman hung up.
Lowering the now mute receiver back to its base, Sapphire sat on the bed and thought about what just happened and then smiled.
Over the next few days, a comfortable routine began to form. Sapphire would wake up, do the classwork her teachers emailed her, and send it back in. Once she was done with that, she usually just relaxed on her bed and played on her phone until it was time to walk to the café.
After three days of working there, Sapphire was starting to understand the two bikers a bit better—well, their schedules at least. Each morning they would drive back from the bar and go upstairs to their apartment and go to sleep and then wake up by three or four to leave and go back to the bar to get it ready to open for the night.
It was nuts. Sapphire couldn’t imagine living solely in the night like that. Sleeping all day and serving drinks all night, most likely partaking in a few said drinks. No, she thought with a shake of her head and a little grimace, it reminded her far too much of her reckless mother. No thanks.
Walking into the café under the familiar jingle of bells, Sapphire spotted Julie at the counter. Hearing the door, Julie turned and gave her a smile before turning back to what she was doing.
Sapphire walked around the counter and stowed her bag away and slipped on her apron as Julie continued to pour the prepared coffee into one of their cold-brew pitchers for the refrigerator.
"Man the front, I’m going to put this pitcher in the back refrigerator and maybe make a few more while I'm back there," Julie announced before going through the swing doors.
Leaning her hip on the counter, Sapphire pulled her phone from her apron pocket and was checking a few notifications when she heard the familiar thump from above, followed by heavy descending thuds. Inwardly, she counted the twenty-two thuds right down to one just as the door to the upstairs opened.
She braced herself.
As usual, Hayden appeared first. His dark mop of hair practically hanging over his eyes. Piercing eyes that always found her gaze holding it for the briefest moment before releasing it and turning away as he pushed through the front door and stomped around the building toward his parked bike.
Sapphire let out a held breath.
She could not get used to her daily glare from the man. She was positive he hated her, which only made her hate him even more. She had no idea what his problem was, but she promised herself she was going to glare at him first tomorrow. She would have her eyes already set at the door and give him silent hellfire. See how he liked it. Or maybe she would just turn her back to him first. That thought made her stomach drop a little. For some reason, she had the suspicion the hulking biker wouldn't appreciate the outright snub. He would probably just march across the dining area and forcibly turn her around, pinning her down to endure his even harder glare.
She was biting her lip, engrossed in her revenge-inspired calculations, when she heard the second set of thuds. Sapphire watched as the door opened once again, this time producing the blond biker. With no product in his hair, the long golden locks were swept to one side as if he just run a hasty hand through it to get it out of his face.
