He's a Wildcard

Chapter 3 - The Key to Freedom

Trix held her hands up in surrender, “just promise me you’ll think about it?”

“Okay, I will.” She looked at me with a pointed look. “I promise! Now stop looking at me like that.”

She held up her arms in surrender. “Okay, okay. Can you mind the booth? Boss just texted me, I need to get this dress inside, apparently someone wants it.”

“Sure, I’ll be your guard dog,” I said and got out of the chair to stand by the entry of the small tent booth.

“So you actually are a dog,” Trix winked at me and I smiled.

“Oh god,” Annoyance was clear in my voice and I turned my back as I recognised the guy further down the line of booths.

“What? I was joking!”

“No, not you! See that guy down there, coming this way on the bike?”

“Yeah he’s been here all day, apparently he’s a friend of Austin’s, why?”

I gave her a pointed look. “He’s the nice guy who gave me a make over,” I said and gestured to my stained shorts.

“You should’ve given me a description, I’ve been drooling over him all day,” Trix said, “he’s coming this way. Enjoy!” She skipped off and I peaked my head out from the booth and sure enough, there he was.

“Didn’t know you worked here, tiny smurf, did I ruin your work clothes?” His obnoxious grin proved he was anything but sorry.

I crossed my arms across my chest. “I don’t work here,” I said pointedly.

“The name’s Chase Dugan,” he said with an air or superiority.

“Am I supposed to be impressed?” Who introduced themselves with their full name anyway? Unless they were a hotshot in the business world.

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Some people would be.”

“Poor people,” I said and shook my head as if to convey the pain I felt for them.

“I think they might argue with you there,” Chase grinned as if I was missing some private joke. “How about you and your friend come by Area tonight? I’ll leave your names at the door, yeah?”

“Uhm, no thank you,” I said, I didn’t know what I was doing tonight, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t that. No need to tell the stranger that I was underage, not that it’d stopped me before. I craned my head around the corner and saw Austin, whom I’d gone to high school with for the last few years. “

Hey Austin,” I said a little loudly so he’d hear me. He turned around. “This belong to you?” I asked and pointed at Chase.

Austin chuckled and shook his head as he walked over and slapped Chase on the back. “Come on man, leave the poor girl alone.”

“Thank you,” I said to Austin.

Chase saluted me as Austin led him away towards a set of bikes. I huffed and blew some hair out of my face before fetching my phone from the table and scrolled down to find my sister’s number.

“Hello?” Kourtney’s voice answered.

“Hi, hey, hello,” I chirped, “mom said you’d called.”

I could hear her tapping away on a keyboard in the background. “Yeah, I wondered if you wanted to have dinner with me tonight. I’m leaving for Milan in tomorrow, they moved up my departure and I really want to see you before I go.”

I grinned at the thought. “Yeah, that’d be great!”

“Okay, so I’ll get us a reservation at that Italian restaurant at seven?” She asked.