Текст книги "Gemini"
Автор книги: Penelope Ward
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 1 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
GEMINI
Penelope Ward
Gemini
First Kindle Edition, May 2013
Copyright© 2013 by Penelope Ward All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
5/727
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
EPILOGUE
6/727
To the real Allison
7/727
CHAPTER 1
ALLISON
Your ruler, Mercury, is set to go forward motion, Gemini. You can sense you are coming out of a fog. Get Ready To Invite Romance Into Your Life!
How nice it would be if my horoscope actually came true today. Because something in the air shifted when he walked into the Stardust diner.
The feeling was indescribable.
Barry Manilow’s Mandy had been playing but the volume of the song seemed to fade with the feel of the brisk wind that blew in the door when the most gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on walked in and sat down in booth number three.
9/727
That table wasn’t in my section, so from behind the counter, my eyes and ears focused in on him as he ordered a salt bagel with butter and a side of coffee. Then his crystal blue eyes proceeded to find me and stare back at me…right through me.
Hot flashes permeated my body and I instinctively turned away immediately, but the pull to look back at him was stronger than I could control.
Whoever he was, he was dressed to kill. From the neck down, it was all business.
He wore a button down shirt that hugged his protruding muscles and tailored pants. From the neck up, he was ruggedly sexy with wavy hair that looked like it had just been messed with in bed. And he had just the right amount of chin scruff.
I tried my hardest not to stare, but the interest seemed to be mutual. Even when I wasn’t glancing in his direction, I could still feel his gaze following me when he thought I 10/727
wasn’t looking and every time he did it, it was like everything turned from black and white in here to color.
So, this was turning out to be a far from typical Monday.
Sure, nice looking guys walk in here all the time: cops…firefighters…but this guy was…well, there are no words to describe the level of utter beauty. He was drop-dead—not someone you typically found visiting a suburban diner, that’s for sure.
Why did I have to be wearing this dumb waitress uniform right now? Max, my boss and the owner, tried to give the diner a retro feel, so we waitresses wore dresses reminiscent of those worn by the characters Flo and Alice in Mel’s Diner from that seventies TV show. The light blue uniform had my name, Allison, stitched over the left breast pocket and everything.
The customers often give me the same line: “Someone as pretty as you shouldn’t be 11/727
waiting tables…you must be an actress too,right?” The truth was, this certainly wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life but for now, waiting tables was the only career I had.
I had dropped out of the special education graduate degree program at Simmons College because I couldn’t afford it anymore.
I had always wanted to major in something where I could eventually work with special needs kids and make a difference, but the Simmons program was intensive and expensive. Plus, certain life circumstances in the past year made it impossible for me to focus on my studies. So, I decided to give my brain a rest until the time felt right to go back. I make pretty good money at the diner, mainly because I put in so many hours and the patrons are generous with their tips. So, I would be more than able to get by and save up, so that someday I could do something I was passionate about. Max was my neighbor and when he offered me the job, I took it.
12/727
And today, with Blue Eyes here…I am really happy to be a waitress at the moment and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Even though Delores had taken the gorgeous man’s order, which I overheard since my ears and eyes were in tune to him from the moment he walked in, she gave it to me to serve. I didn’t know whether to thank her or kill her. She knew what she was doing.
Holy Shit.
My heart was really pounding and my throat seemed to close up. I placed his tray on the counter and hesitated before walking over.
At the moment, he was looking down at the Boston Herald the previous customer left on the table. This meant I could study him for a few seconds before having to face him.
He was truly stunning with a chiseled face and thick shiny chestnut brown hair, slightly parted in the front and long on the 13/727
sides curling just above his ears. And I mentioned the piercing blue eyes. He was tall too, at least six feet, I would guess.
Under the table, I saw he wore black argyle socks and shiny black dress shoes. I squinted my eyes to get a better view of the muscles trying to escape through the satiny blue dress shirt he wore and knew the form underneath had to be exquisite. This guy oozed sex but he was also definitely a professional of some sort, dressed like that. The combination meant he stood out like a sore thumb here.
His expensive looking navy suit jacket lay across the opposite booth and I was glad I had wiped down that greasy seat before he arrived.
A shiver ran down my spine when he licked his finger to turn the page of the newspaper.
That was one lucky finger.
14/727
I inhaled deeply, lifted the tray off the counter and walked over as my heart beat out of my chest. The fluttering of the butterflies in my stomach intensified with each step toward the booth.
After placing the bagel down in front of him, my hand trembled causing the coffee cup to clink against the spoon set on the sau-cer beneath it. I somehow managed to empty the tray without spilling anything and cleared my throat.
“Can I get you anything else?” I asked.
“No, thank you.” He smiled flashing beautiful white teeth. The combination of his smile, scent and smooth voice was so sexy it was painful not to reach out and touch him.
“Well, just let me know if you change your mind,” I replied.
“Will do,” he said, nodding slowly but continuing to look at me after he stopped speaking. His eyeballs briefly moved side to 15/727
side a few times as if he was trying to take a picture of my face with his translucent eyes.
There
was
an
awkward
silence
between us, but I could hear his breathing.
His eyes never left mine. I turned around suddenly without saying anything more, taking in his musky scent and feeling the weight of his heated stare on my back as I walked toward the kitchen. Sweat droplets trickled down my armpits and I hoped I remembered to wear deodorant.
In my haze, I bumped right into a customer who was getting ready to leave.
“Excuse me, I am so sorry ma’am,” I said nervously without making eye contact with the woman. Of course, Blue Eyes’ head was still turned in the direction of my mishap.
Back behind the counter, I snuck peaks at him as he bit heartily into the bagel and swallowed.
That was one lucky bagel.
16/727
He wiped his hands from the salt crumbs and took a sip of coffee, revealing what looked to be a Rolex watch wrapped around his sleeve.
When he turned his head in my direction again, I quickly turned away, focusing on a conversation between two elderly women who sat at the counter, as I refilled their coffee cups. One was talking to the other and when the woman on the left got up to go to the bathroom, the other one looked at me with lipstick on her teeth, and confessed, “I couldn’t hear one word she was saying to me.” I laughed and looked up when I heard chimes signaling the front door opening.
One of the regulars, Mr. Macchio, walked in. He came from Italy forty years ago, and still had the strongest accent. His loud voice snapped me out of my cologne-drunken stupor. He headed straight for his favorite seat in the corner, motioning to me.
“Hey, Bella…why-a don-cha get me a green-a 17/727
tea-ya today, eh? My wife, eh, she say, I should cut down on, eh the coffee, so I gonna try a green tea, o-key?”
I smiled. “Sure, honey.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see my mystery man turn around and look in Mr. Macchio’s direction as I went to the kitchen to put in the green tea order.
When I came back out, I nearly dropped the tea in a panic when I saw Blue Eyes suddenly get up from his table, plop money down, grab his jacket and quickly walk out. No…he practically ran out. The abrupt sound of the door chimes and wind that blasted through upon his exit were like a slap in the face.
So fast?
My heart was pounding harder upon his exit than it had been when he was here.
Panic quickly transformed into a feeling of emptiness that washed over me. I actually felt like crying, which was pathetic. I had 18/727
imagined him maybe striking up a conversation with me before he left or at least maybe getting his name off of a credit card.
As Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour played over the diner speaker, I had the urge to rip off my apron and follow him out the door. That, of course, would never happen…but I sure did want to.
Without saying more than a few words, this guy had managed to awaken something in me that had been dead…desire.
Not only that, but it was a level of want…of need… of lust…that I had never experienced in my entire life. He had such an effect on me and now, I could quite possibly never see him again.
I swear I felt the room swaying as I walked over to the table still smelling his amazing scent and noticed he left behind more than just his smell…fifty bucks on a bill that was under five-dollars. I almost wanted to chase after him (…again) in case this was a 19/727
mistake. Did he forget change? Who leaves that big of a tip to a flustered mediocre waitress, at that?
Faster than I could think of the answer, I remembered Mr. Macchio’s tea still sitting on the counter where I left it. After delivering it, I then went to the register and sniffed the fifty before depositing it and gave Delores half of the sizeable tip Blue Eyes left.
“What the—” Delores said as I handed her twenty-five dollars cash.
“I know. That gorgeous guy! He left us a fifty. There is your half,” I said walking sol-emnly into the bathroom where I tried to grab my bearings.
I locked the door and sat on the toilet with my head in my hands.
Silly girl…you really need to get some.
Every day in life, people we will likely never encounter a second time, pass us by.
20/727
For some unknown reason, I just couldn’t accept that he was one of them.
For the rest of that afternoon, I fantasized about the beautiful generous stranger and what it would have been like to thank him properly…with my lips.
21/727
CHAPTER 2
CEDRIC
Oh fuck…oh fuck.
Sweating profusely, I ran down Main Street as far away from the diner as I could get.
Where the fuck did I park my car?
I need to think. It’s over there.
I got in and slammed the door.
Silence.
She was so fucking beautiful.
My God.
I had an idea of what she would look like, but never could have imagined her to look as amazing as that. I was imagining a girl…but so much time had passed, I should have known that clearly, she would be a beautiful woman.
23/727
Those gigantic green eyes…
God, I hope my staring wasn’t that obvious. I just couldn’t look away.
Will do…WILL DO? That was the best I thing I could think of to say to her?
And why the hell did I leave a fifty-dollar bill? Way to slip under the radar. I was so flustered and it was all I had in my wallet; I just couldn’t stay for change and risk saying something stupid or unintelligible while I waited for that. I could tell by how fast my heart was beating in there, that if I had stayed, I would have fucked it all up.
My heart rate has yet to slow down.
I had to get out of there. It’s bad enough I have a forty-minute drive back to the agency in the city. Who travels forty minutes for a bagel? Crazy stalker men, that’s who.
I must have been doing eighty-five miles per hour down I-93 when I thought about her name: Allison. It’s pretty just like 24/727
her. But of course, I knew she would be more than pretty. And she smelled like green apples.
She seemed nervous.
Her hand
trembled and her cheeks turned rosy when she approached me and that made me want to rub her sweet face with my hand.
I wonder what her story is, why a girl that looks like that is waiting tables in a diner in the suburbs. Surely, she at least could do better at one of the trendy bars in Boston. She could have anything she wants with a face and eyes like that.
Not
to
mention
her
slamming
body…the way that tight uniform hugged her ass.
Fuck!
She’s the last woman I should be thinking like this about. Yet, all I can focus on now is whether she tastes as good as she smells.
25/727
Snap out of it, Callahan. She’s the one woman you can’t have.
Which is why I want her.
I need to control my thoughts, but I didn’t expect to be so fucking captivated liked this.
I have to see her again when I can calm the fuck down. I just don’t know how I am going to manage it. The next two weeks are jam packed with client meetings.
*** I get back to the office in record time, passing my assistant Julie who immediately points to my office.
“Karyn is waiting for you,” she said.
Karyn.
I had been in a relationship for six months with Karyn Keller, an attractive blonde television reporter I began representing after she walked into the agency and 26/727
demanded to be added to my client roster.
We were immediately attracted to each other and decided to ignore the agency’s non-frat-ernization policy.
D.N. Westock represents some of the biggest names in broadcast news and I was their highest grossing agent and rising star after nabbing one of the hosts of a national morning show as a client. Not bad for a kid from Dorchester.
To say I had humble beginnings is putting it lightly. I grew up on the third level of a triple-decker apartment house in one of the highest crime sections of Boston, the middle child of an Italian mother and Irish father. My parents, older brother Caleb and I and my sister, Callie, who’s ten years younger, shared the two small bedrooms in the apartment. My parents, Paul and Bettina, went with the whole ‘C’ name thing for the kids, which went even further because our last name is Callahan.
27/727
Money was tight, but our parents did the best they could to provide for us. My father worked as a steelworker and my mother was a maid. Even so, no one was surprised when I, the boy who survived an accidental drive-by shooting on my fifteenth birthday right outside our front door, left home as soon as I graduated from high school. Marked with a bullet hole on my left arm, I managed to get into Northwestern on a merit-based scholarship because studying and school came easy to me, plain and simple.
Northwestern was known for its Communications program and I knew that I wanted to major in something where I would be able to use my innate ability to write and speak publicly. Mostly, I was good at mouth-ing off and could have taught an AP class in Bullshitting 101.
It was there in Chicago, nearly twelve years ago, during my senior year that my life 28/727
fell apart. Even with what happened, though, somehow I managed to finish up and graduate.
Three years after the nightmare senior year, while working in Chicago, I began an affair with an older woman named Lana Ford, who happened to be a broadcasting agent. I had taken a position as her intern and even though Lana was fifteen years older, she taught me everything she knew—in the boardroom and the bedroom. I would follow Lana around during the day while she met with clients and then we’d head back to her loft at night. I was closed out emotionally after what happened to me back at Northwestern anyway, so the fact that she was using me for sex and I was using her to get ahead suited me just fine. I didn’t want to feel my heart break ever again. I didn’t want to feel anything at all, for that matter.
29/727
One day, Lana found out I took one of the other young female interns back to her loft, so she cut me loose. She had to know it wasn’t going anywhere romantically, but she was…understandably, very bitter. I thought she might try to sabotage me, but I immediately got another better internship, safely working under a male this time.
I eventually used the (non-sexual) experience I gained from watching Lana, to snag an actual junior agent job in the Chicago office of D.N. Westock. I worked my way up the ladder and began representing some major names in the Chicago area before being transferred to the Boston office. I requested the transfer to Boston four years ago after my father died suddenly of a heart attack.
I wish I could say the day my father died felt like was the worst day of my life, but I had already experienced that day eight years earlier.
30/727
After I moved back to Boston, I was more determined than ever to forget everything that happened in Chicago. That is, until now. Four years after arriving back home, I now have to face my past again. I just couldn’t believe out of everywhere in the country, she was so geographically close to me. I have to see her again, if nothing else, just to stare at her beautiful face.
For now, I’d have to see Karyn.
“Hi hon. What took you so long?” Karyn asked sitting with her high heels crossed over my desk, clutching her usual venti non-fat two-pump vanilla latte. She handed me a now cold tall coffee.
I lied. “I had a meeting with a potential client outside of the city.”
“Anyone good?” She batted her eyelashes and twisted her straight blonde hair into a bun.
God, yes, someone good, I thought.
31/727
“Yes, this one might have a lot of potential.” I immediately pictured Allison and lost all attention to what Karyn said in response. Allison was simply gorgeous and my girlfriend’s looks paled in comparison.
I thought about Allison’s features: small nose, full lips and straight long beautiful dark hair that landed in the middle of her back. She could easily pass for a model, except for her shorter height. And I mentioned her eyes… her eyes. They were unusually huge…a light green with speckles of gold.
There was something about those same eyes though that made me sad, sensing something in them that told me her life hasn’t been easy as of late. I couldn’t take my eyes of them, though. I did just long enough to glance down at that tight uniform that had her name stitched on the front of her perky breasts.
Karyn interrupted me from my stupor. “Where do you want to go eat 32/727
tonight…Sonsie?” She winked sarcastically.
She knew I hated going to those fancy places on Newbury Street. I was much more a takeout and Netflix kind of guy. Plus, I spent most afternoons wining and dining clients at frou-frou restaurants.
“Actually, I am thinking we should stay in tonight, I had a long day,” I said.
I was emotionally exhausted from the experience at the diner and wished I could just be alone tonight.
“Ok, whatever,” Karyn hissed, walking over to me to sit on my lap. Running her fingers through my hair, she asked, “Any word from WANY in New York? Didn’t you send my demo reel there last week?”
“Karyn, do you know how many agents are trying to get their clients that anchor gig? Believe me, if they are interested, we’ll hear from them. Personally, I think it’s a long shot for you. You have no desk experience, just street reporting. I think they are 33/727
looking for more of a bubbly type; it’s a morning show gig and babe…bubbly you are not.”
Karyn frowned, “Well, I want you to push for me anyway.”
Karyn was the I-team reporter for one of the Boston stations. While she was pretty, her tone on-air was serious and it pained her to smile. Not my usual type, she can be brass and cold, but deep down, I like to believe she is a good person. She came from a wealthy family in Darien, Connecticut and got her start based on the fact that her mother was a big broadcasting exec in New York. Her father was a brain surgeon and Karyn wanted for nothing growing up, having gone to private schools and private resorts her whole life…nothing like my childhood.
Dating Karyn was convenient, though.
She understood the industry and the demands of my job and she was available and attractive. She never seemed jealous when I 34/727
worked closely with young attractive wannabe TV stars, coaching them. Best of all, she didn’t push me to open up emotionally, something I haven’t done in years with a woman. Karyn didn’t seem to expect much, except keeping up appearances and sex. I was happy to oblige on the latter, but after a while with Karyn, the sex had become ordin-ary, without the chemistry that existed in the first months of dating. It was still good, just vanilla (like her predictable latte).
*** That night, Karyn and I got Thai food from the place on the corner of my street and later, she left to sleep at her apartment on the other side of Boston. She had to wake up early to work the morning show and introduce her exclusive investigative report on the rise in Chinatown massage parlors being used as fronts for prostitution. Just as well. I 35/727
wanted to be alone with my thoughts tonight.
It was bad enough that the entire time Karyn was going down on me, Allison was the only thing I could think about. How pathetic that I imagined it was her instead of Karyn and that it was the only way I could finish.
As I lay in bed, the moonlight was exquisite. Beacon Street was quieter than usual and that helped, because I had a lot on my mind tonight, namely deciding whether I would venture back to that diner ever again once I calmed down and whether I would open the can of worms that would emerge from that. I had to come up with a story if I were ever going to show my face again there.
I reached for my iPod and immediately searched for my smooth jazz play list, putting on some Diana Krall. I looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the woman who mesmerized me at the diner today, wishing I 36/727
could have met her under different circumstances and knowing that the truth would turn her world upside down.
CHAPTER 3
ALLISON
The train ride back to my apartment in Malden seemed to go by in a flash tonight.
Maybe it was all the fantasizing about Blue Eyes and his fifty-dollar bill. And of course, the number fifty leads to thoughts of the book I just read…which leads to thoughts of bondage and billionaires. That guy certainly could pass for a real-life Christian Grey.
Heck, he was better looking than the man I imagined when reading that delicious smut.
I blame my roommate Sonia for introducing me to my favorite pastime and escape: erotic romance novels. She knows I need a distraction from the year I have had.
Even a scandalous book could not keep my interest right now, though.
38/727
My mind was all over the place as the train went underground and the darkness of the tunnel matched my depressive state.
Thinking about him almost made me miss my stop. What is wrong with me? So, a good-looking guy comes into the diner, leaves a big tip and walks out. Why can’t I stop thinking about him? Maybe Sonia can analyze this for me.
My roommate was nothing like me.
She was from England, short with red hair, huge boobs and a fabulous personality. I, on the other hand, was thin, with long nearly black hair, average breasts and tended to be melancholy most of the time…at least lately.
Sonia was a good balance for me.
I arrived back to my apartment eager to tell her what happened.
“Hey, Sonia,” I said as I walked in the door and threw my keys on the table.
“Sup, bitch,” Sonia said.
39/727
She had the coolest British accent and
‘bitch’ was her term of endearment for me.
“Ugh…where do I even begin?” I sighed.
“Why…what
happened?”
Sonia
opened a bottle of, ironically, Bitch brand wine and took out two stemless glasses from the cupboard. Our kitchen was retro, with big black and white checkered laminate flooring and yellow painted cabinets. The apartment was dated, but the retro style could almost pass for hip. Between the bright sunny kitchen and old-fashioned dark wood moldings and built-in shelving, I loved our apartment.
“You are never going to believe what happened to me today,” I said as I sat down and grabbed one of the glasses she poured.
“Okay, so I am in the diner and the most beautiful man I have literally ever seen walks in—”
40/727
“Damn…why wasn’t I on shift? What did he look like?” Sonia asked as her eyes widened. She also worked at the diner part-time.
“Just…I don’t know…beautiful….tall, blue eyes, sexy hair…the whole nine…let me finish.”
Sonia nodded gulping down half her glass of red.
“This guy was staring at me for some reason. When I pretended to be busy, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was still following me. When I gave him his order, he barely said anything, just smiled and continued to look at me with these intense eyes.”
“Okay,” Sonia said as she poured more wine.
“The staring continued for a while and then I went into the kitchen and when I came out, he was abruptly booking it out of there. He didn’t even finish his bagel.” I took 41/727
a sip of wine, hoping for a quick buzz to calm my nerves.
“Hmn.” She poured me some more wine, even though I had barely had any yet.
It’s clear that this is becoming a “you had to be there” kind of story, since Sonia clearly wasn’t seeing the significance.
“There’s more. When I went to clean up his table and collect the money, there was a fifty-dollar bill. His check was only like five-bucks and he left me a fifty!”
“Wow.” Sonia’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah. I don’t know. I guess this kind of thing happens, but never to me. I don’t know why I can’t stop thinking about him. If he wasn’t so damn good looking, I might have
just
stopped
by
now,
but
he
was…so…ugh…” I sighed.
Sonia finished her wine and moved into the living room lying down on the couch. “Why is it so inconceivable that a handsome guy would walk into the diner, 42/727
take one look at you and want to leave you a nice tip? You’re gorgeous, luv. You know these encounters happen all of the time in the books we read.”
Sonia adjusted her bra and took another sip of wine. God, her boobs were huge.
The poor thing could barely stand up without tipping over. She was under five feet, which made the whole situation that much worse.
Sometimes, I couldn’t tell if she was tipsy from the wine or if her chest was defying gravity. I certainly didn’t have that problem.
“It’s not about the tip, Sonia…that only added to the mystery. What I can’t get over is the way I reacted when he was around, like a silly schoolgirl. My body was so aware of him. My uniform practically melted off of me.” I said.
Sonia smiled, “Hmn…I think you just need to get some. Well, maybe he’ll come in-to the diner again and you can find out more about him.”
43/727
“I don’t think so. He didn’t strike me as someone who would frequent Stardust.
Trust me, if he comes in again, I will just about die.”
Sonia paused and looked down at the floor, then abruptly changed the subject. “I wasn’t sure whether to tell you this, but I saw Nate today.”
“What? Where?” I asked, freaking out.
“He was coming off the Red Line when I was getting on at Alewife.” She stared at me looking for my reaction.
Nate and I dated for almost a year and broke up three months ago. I met him on the train back when I was commuting to Simmons College. At first, I thought he was the most handsome, sensitive, artistic guy I had ever met. You could tell Nate anything and he genuinely listened. Being with Nate was so easy…during the early days. I hadn’t been used to guys that had feelings and who seemed genuinely interested in what I had to 44/727
offer on the inside. We had a great first few months and in many ways, he really introduced me to Boston, even though I had grown up here, showing me all of the mu-seums and taking me to concerts. Nate taught guitar at Berkeley College of Music.
We had bonded over the fact that we were both adopted. Eventually, we moved in together in an apartment near Fenway Park. It was during that time, I discovered Nate was an alcoholic. The sensitive guy I met slowly shown himself as someone I felt I didn’t know anymore. He was very good at hiding it from me in the beginning, but eventually wasn’t able to.
“What did he say to you?” I asked.
Sonia never knew Nate when we were dating, since I met her after we broke up, but she encountered him the couple of times he came to the apartment looking for me when I wasn’t home. He had somehow gotten my new address here.
45/727
“He just said to tell you to call him.” Sonia handed me a card Nate had given her.
It was a new cell number on a Berkeley College of Music business card.
I stared at the card. “Hmn. Did he seem ok?”
“Yeah, I mean, he looked fine, just a little sad, maybe. He also said to tell you he was sorry about how everything turned out.” Sonia frowned.
“Well, I think it’s best to leave well enough alone don’t you?” I asked.
“Yes, I do. I never want you to have to go through that again.” Sonia didn’t say it, but we both knew what she meant.
One night when Nate was particularly hammered, he came home saw two empty wine glasses and accused me of having an affair with my friend Danny. Danny is gay, but Nate always insisted that he looked at me like he was interested, or that he could be bi, saying that Danny was pretending to be gay 46/727
just to be close to me. Danny and I did spend a lot of time together, enough for me to know he was definitely gay. When I continued to deny Nate’s accusations that night, he hit me so hard across the cheek that I had a bruise that lasted over a month. That was finally the straw that broke the camel’s back and I moved out a week later, staying with various friends, including Danny, until I found a place and met Sonia, who also helped me get the job at Max’s since she worked there part-time while going to nursing school.
Working at a diner was certainly not how I pictured my life at almost thirty. But I was lucky to have a good group of friends there and a place to bide my time while I figured out the next step. I have no real family guidance anymore and so my friends, like Sonia and Danny, were very important to me.
