Songs for this chapter are:
Pushing Away- Kevin Garrett
Hurricane- Halsey
Perfectly Lonely- John Mayer
Nora is walking toward me. Her dark hair shadows her face. She looks like a villain under the fluorescent lighting in the subway terminal. She's wearing tight black jeans with a rip in one knee and her black bra is showing through the meshy fabric of her tank top. Is she even allowed to have a rip in her jeans while baking things for customers to consume? More importantly, why am I thinking about this right now?
I stand still as she approaches me, her prey, in the empty subway terminal. To be honest, the subway still freaks me out. I can't read the signs, I can't stand people piling around me like sardines, and I hate being trapped underground. How the hell am I going to get back if I can't even read the signs? Where the hell is Scarsdale anyway?
Nora waits for me to walk out from behind the sign. "You didn't think I knew you were following me since Lookout?" She raises a brow, studying me.
I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled out a whip, or a sword, with the way she's commanding her surroundings. She's not timid, she's enchanting and being down here with her adds to the mystery of her. I feel like I'm in a movie and her dark green eyes look nearly black, instead of their normal brown-green.
Nora stops two feet in front of me and pulls her cellphone out of her back pocket. Not a sword. She quickly checks the screen and puts it away.
"I've taken two self-defense classes," she begins to explain how terrible my spy skills are. "I saw you as soon as we turned on Nostrand. I was waiting for you to approach me," she pauses and her full lips turn up into a smile.
"But you just kept following me, what's up with that?" Her hand touches my arm briefly.
She officially thinks I'm insane, or maybe she's a little insane herself.
I rub my hand over the back of my neck and try to think of an explanation. "Well," I nervously clear my throat, "Well, I wanted to talk to you after your shift."
"Then why didn't you stop me? Instead of following me?" She questions my claim.
"I don't know."
She smiles. "Yes, you do. Just say it. Just say why you followed me. I have this special ability to tell when people are lying. It's my greatest talent, really."
Her eyes square with mine. "So, let me ask you again. Why did you follow me an hour and a half to Scarsdale?"
Without hesitation, or so much as even a second thought, I begin speaking.
"I wanted to talk to you hours ago when I was at your work and I know you know I was there, but you didn't say hi or anything. You haven't come by in a week, you haven't called me or anything."
"I don't have your number."
She licks her lips and I remember what she tastes like. Her hands on me, her tongue gently caressing mine. I'm glad she can't read my mind.
"You text me the day we went out,"
"Oh yeah. I forgot," she contemplates. Her fingers are steady as she tucks her hair behind her ear. "Okay, so what did you want to talk about?"
Nora leans her back against the wall and bends her knee. She's getting comfortable before she calls me out for being creepy.
What exactly did I want to talk about? Should I tell her that I wanted to check on her? That I missed her? She claims that she will know if I lie.
"I missed you," the words tumble from my mouth and Nora's back straightens up against the wall.
"Where were you going? Where are we?" I ask her after a few seconds of silence pass.
Before she can respond, she tenses. Nora looks over at me, then past me. When I turn around, I spot a guy in a suit walking toward us.
"Ms. Crawford," the man says. He's a massive man, a real life giant.
Okay, maybe not a giant, but he looks huge next to Nora.
"Chase," she smiles. Her smile is weird, as if it's not real. "I'm coming. I was just saying bye to my friend. He helped me get here all the way from Brooklyn. Such a nice guy, he is." Her eyes dart to his and then back to mine.
I have no idea what's going on.
Nora gives me a small wave and follows behind the man who I assume is the driver she mentioned a few minutes ago on her phone call.
"That's it? You're not going to talk to me after I came all the way here?" I lift my hands in the air.
I stare at Nora's back. She doesn't turn to face me. "I appreciate you coming!" Nora calls to me. She disappears up the staircase and I groan in frustration.
Why the heck did I come here? Now I have to find my way back to Brooklyn at close to midnight. I should have gone after her instead of just standing here and letting her walk away with her bodyguard friend.
Who the heck was that guy anyway? She changed her shirt and took her hair down, why?
Does she have a secret boyfriend here?
Is she a stripper? I don't freaking know.
I scan my stupid card on the stupid reader and push through the stupid turnstile and wait for the stupid subway. When I sit down in my stupid seat, I try to google the route back to my apartment. It's going to take at least an hour and a half.
By the time I'm back on my street, I'm exhausted and frustrated as hell. Why didn't Nora at least talk to me?
My door is locked and I gave Hardin my key when I sent him back to my apartment alone. I knock gently and a few seconds later Hardin opens the door, shirtless and half asleep.
"I thought you were in your room this whole time," he rubs his hands over his eyes.
"I was with Nora." I save the pathetic details for later.
Hardin raises a brow and flops his body back onto the couch. It looks so small with his long body laying on it. His feet hang over the edge. I'm surprised he's on the couch and not in Tessa's room, but I don't have the energy to ask about it and it doesn't look like he does either.
"Goodnight," I tell him and go straight into my room. My head is pounding as I try to sleep.
I wake up ten minutes before my alarm goes off and I have to force myself to get out of bed. I can't believe I slept until eleven. I have to work at noon and get off at four. Not too long of a shift. Six a.m to two is my usual shift on Saturday morning, so today will be a breeze. I hope I work with Posey instead of Aiden.
One can only hope.
Working with Aiden for four hours will feel like four hours, and with Posey, four hours will feel like thirty minutes.
During my shower, I force myself to put on my happy face. I can't mope around work all day. I go through the motions of my morning routine. Shower, lotion, face lotion that Tessa tells me I need. Clothes: a white t-shirt and black jeans. Coffee: black and strong.
During my walk to the kitchen I notice Hardin isn't on the couch anymore. I'm not one bit surprised. I scan the living room, no damage. That's a good sign.
I need to eat something small before work, but I don't want to wake either of them up. The bananas on the counter look rotten and I really shouldn't try to cook anything. I open the cabinet and grab the first box of cereal I see.
Just when I stick my entire hand into the cereal box, I hear Tessa's bedroom door open. It must have been the coffee machine that woke her, or the crunching of the bag of Frosted Flakes. I don't remember the box being here yesterday, but anyone who comes into our place has to know food is fair game. I chomp on the dry cereal quickly. I probably shouldn't have eaten a fistful of cereal in one bite.
I grab my coffee from the counter and walk out into the hallway. It's Tessa who I find. As my smile grows, her cheeks bloom a deep red.
"What?" Tessa asks, not meeting my eyes.
I lift my coffee to my face, "Nooooo-thing." I take a sip of my coffee and Tessa gives me a signature eye roll and retreats back to her room, back to Hardin.
.....
When I get to work, Aiden is behind the counter. Great.
"Hey man, rough night?" He bro-fives me and I cringe.
"You can say that."
I clock in, wishing I had one of those remotes from that Adam Sandler movie that freezes time. I'm not saying I would punch him or anything, but I'm also not saying I wouldn't.
"Me too, man. Me too." The bell on the door rings and I look away from the hickey on his neck. Why does he always have a hickey? Who does that anymore?
"Woah. Look." Aiden's bro-voice whispers and I look toward the door.
Nora is walking in. Her hair is down and messy around her shoulders and she's wearing a light denim shirt tucked into white pants. She looks stunning.
"Hey," she smiles at me and I hear Aiden suck in a surprised breath.
"Hey." I wipe my hands on my apron and turn to her.
Aiden moves quickly to ask Nora if she wants anything to drink.
She smiles at him and I can see him straighten his back, tuck his shirt in. Just for her. Never mind that he has a hickey on his neck, that must not bother him.
"What do you recommend?" She asks him and it annoys me.
It shouldn't annoy me.
"Hmm, well you look like an experienced coffee cond-i-saur," he tries to impress her with big words and I hope she recognizes that he said it wrong. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume he meant connoisseur.
"What is that, like a dinosaur?" My voice says.
Why did I say that? What's wrong with me? I even did the awkward chuckle at my own lame attempt at a joke.
Nora smiles, her fingers pressed to her lips. Aiden laughs, but I have a feeling he's annoyed.
"I would recommend trying our new coconut milk latte." Aiden says, grabbing a paper cup and his sharpie.
Nora steps forward, toward the counter. "I don't like coconut milk."
I bite back a smile.
Aiden pauses and Nora looks at me.
"What's that drink you make Tessa? The one with banana," she asks.
I can literally feel Aiden's ego deflating next to me. The breeze feels awesome.
"It's a macchiato with hazelnut and banana. I can make you one," I take the cup from Aiden's hand and the sharpie and scribble Nora's name on the cup.
Nora pays for her coffee and Aiden continues to try to make small talk with her while I pump the flavoring into the cup.
"When does your shift end?" Nora asks me when I hand her the custom drink.
"Four. I just got here a few minutes ago."
Nora takes a cautious drink, blowing into the cup first. "Okay. I'll wait here."
"Wait here? It's four hours from now."
Maybe she heard me wrong?
"Yeah I know. It's not that busy, I'm sure it's fine if I take a table in the back?" Nora stares at me, without even glancing toward Aiden.
The way she's looking at me makes me feel important and I think I like knowing that this is driving him crazy that someone like Nora would choose to stare at me and not him.
"Yeah. It's fine." I tell her and she smiles, knowing damn well that I wasn't going to send her away.
She nods and walks back to the corner of the empty shop and takes a seat.
(Author's note: I'll update again tomorrow! I'm getting a tattoo tomorrow with my friend and I'm pretty excited! It's the parabatai rune from Cassandra Clare's books! Do you have any tattoos?)