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Ming stands with the staff and has a giant cake with sparkler candles going off. They sing, “Happy Birthday” to me, and I blow out the candles. I look at the beautifully decorated cake and wish for more out of life.
I’d have to unpack that later.
I stick around, catching up with the staff who watched me grow up, but I don’t eat anything. I wasn’t in the mood for Chinese, but not going in on my usual day just didn’t feel right.
“How’s the birthday girl doing?” Ming asks, coming out from the back.
“I’m good, Ming. You really didn’t have to do all that, but I’m so touched,” I say, pulling him into a bear hug, even though he’s more bearlike than I am.
He wraps his big arms around me. “Nonsense. You come here so much you practically pay the bills. Do you have any fun plans this weekend?”
Hopefully meeting a handsome stranger and having hot birthday sex. It’s time. I had ended things with this guy I’d been seeing six months ago after he expressed his feelings of wanting more. However, I need this dry spell to end, and hopefully, this is the weekend.
Cutting myself out of my thoughts, I say, “Maya is taking me out Saturday night. She has a whole day planned for us.”
“That makes me nervous.”
“You and me both.” I laugh.
Maya was trouble—a good time but trouble.
“But she assured me it’d be low-key. Spa day and dinner with her and Donna, then a club where Dom will meet us. She said she’s getting too old.” I rolled my eyes.
We were just heading into our prime, for crying out loud!
“Well, I hope you meet a nice man soon so you can settle down and stop getting into trouble. You’re too smart to get involved in all that nonsense.”
“I don’t need a man, Ming. Besides, something tells me, man or no man, trouble will always find me,” I joke.
I thought I heard him say “you have no idea,” but it’s so quiet that maybe it was all in my head.
“Anyway, I’m exhausted, and I have a long day tomorrow, so I’ll see you next week. Thanks for the cake,” I say as I get up and grab my purse.
“You, too. Happy birthday,Natalie.”
He’s always said my name like it was foreign on his tongue or from some inside joke I wasn’t in on.
After hailing a taxi, one comes out of nowhere. Thank God. I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing.
The taxi driver rolls in the wrong direction before I can give him my address, so I blurt it out. He doesn’t listen.
“Hey, I said my address is the other way.”
Unease settled in my stomach.
He doesn’t respond. Just as I’m about to poke his shoulder, he floors the gas and makes a sharp right turn, whipping me back into the seat.
“What the hell are you doing?” I yell. “Let me out right now!”
He swerves through traffic and makes another sharp right turn, then slams on his brakes.
We’re in an empty alley. Shit.
Tires screech, and I look for the source. Two black SUVs with tinted windows pull up. Chills covered my body. They found me.
My ears grow foggy, as they always do, when a wave of adrenaline rushes over me. But something new takes over, too. My mind flips a switch. Everything slows as the sound drowns out. I tap my smart watch to alert Dom that something is wrong. He had a panic button installed on my watch and phone in case of an emergency.
I snatch my Beretta out of my purse. I usually don’t carry weapons on me, but with the attacks going on, Dom said I need to protect myself. Thank God I listened to him this time.
