AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“AtlasFalls”—Shinedown
When Dirk asked me out, I had gotten a strange sense of dejá vù that sent chills skating down my spine. Despite that, for a brief moment, I considered saying yes because the truth of the matter was, I was lonely.
Then there was an odd sense of innate reluctance—fear, almost. It was weird.
“You get used to it,” Faith assured me in a whisper as the guys walked back in and down the hall.
“Huh?”
“Customers hitting on you,” she explained. “But I promise you, the guys won’t let anything inappropriate fly. If you’re not interested and someone persists or gets stupid, Chains, Price, Leo, or Devlin will handle it without hesitation.”
I nodded, and we started looking through food options.
We decided on Chinese for lunch and used Sabre’s app on his phone to order it like he told us. Faith cackled with evil glee when she ordered enough food to feed an army on Sabre’s dime. He and Chains had gone into the back room, and after Price left, they closed the door.
“Do you think everything’s okay?” I asked Faith, my brow wrinkled in worry.
“Listen, I’m not sure how much you know about these guys, but they can handle their own. It’s not my place to say anything else, but don’t worry,” Faith reassured me with a hug that almost made me cry. In the short time we’d been working together, I already considered her a friend.
The food arrived and Sabre gawked at the spread before he shook his head and stared at Faith. “Planning for your midnight snack, are you?”
She shrugged as she smiled around her huge bite of egg roll.
Mira took a break to snag some sweet and sour chicken, then popped a mint and returned to her customer.
No one said much while we ate. During cleanup time, Sabre stepped out front where I could see him talking on his phone as he paced. Things had seemed tense since Dirk left and Sabre went running after him. They didn’t say what it was about, but I knew I heard Dirk call Sabre “Aros” before he walked out. It was odd because I was sure someone had said his real name was Roscoe or something like that. The way Dirk said it made it seem like he knew Sabre, yet not once had Sabre acted like he recognized the man.
“What’s the deal with you two?” Faith startled me by asking.
“Who?”
“You and the Easter Bunny, who do you think?” she deadpanned.
“Not much of anything,” I finally muttered.
“Why not? Holy shit, girl, if I wasn’t happily married and about to pop, I’d climb that man like a tree. He’s fine as fuck. Why don’t you go after him? He obviously finds you attractive,” she teased with a waggle of her brows.
“I can’t,” I argued.
“Why the fuck not?” Faith sat on the tall stool and patiently waited for my response.
“How can I? I have no idea who I am. What if I’m married? And what will I ever have to bring to the table? I have no birth certificate or social security card, therefore I can never get a driver’s license or a passport. In turn, that means I can’t go to college or have a career. It’s like I’m in limbo—a purgatory of the worst kind.” My shoulders slouched at the unfairness of my situation.
“Well, did they find you with a ring on?” she hounded, obviously not willing to let this go. I’d told her my story on our third day together when she’d asked about my past.
“Um, do you remember me telling you that they found me butt-ass naked? Any jewelry I might’ve had on was taken from me,” I explained.
“Okay, well, it’s been how long?” she continued, tapping her lips.
“Months,” I replied with a sigh.
“This is how I look at it. If you had a husband, fiancé, or boyfriend that gave two shits about you, he would’ve scoured the earth for you. He would’ve had a missing persons case initiated, made flyers,something. None of that has shown up anywhere, right?”
I nodded.
“Exactly. Which tells me there is no man in your past pining for his lost love. Therefore, you have no need to be a miserable cat lady who lives alone for the rest of her life. You might not know who you are, but that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to be happy or have fun. Be bold. Tell the man you’re interested—I guaran-damn-tee he’ll work out the rest,” she insisted with a smug little grin that made me laugh.
“So just walk up to him and blurt out, ‘Sabre, I think you’re hot. I may never know who I am, but I know I want to fuck your brains out?’” I rolled my eyes, then jumped when I heard a choking sound behind us. I gasped and spun to see Devlin coughing and thumping himself on the chest. Mortification bloomed in my guts and burned through my veins to my fingertips.
