Just then, Sabrina struts toward me. I groan. The girl is clingy as shit.
“Yo, Rafe,” Jordy calls. “The wife is coming.”
I flip him off and ignore the annoyance Sabrina’s presence brings. Georgia is right beside her, making stupid eyes at Jordy. He lifts his chin at her in greeting and the girl swoons. Pathetic.
Meiying Liu walks by just then and sneers with a dramatic eye roll. “Getting desperate, boys,” she calls out before heading to the table Isa’s sitting at. I ignore her comment and throw my arm over Sabrina’s shoulder. As expected, she presses herself into me, her breasts and the inch-thick padding in her bra mashing up against my chest.
“Are we going to get to spend some time together this weekend, Rafe?” she asks, fluttering her lashes in what I’m sure she thinks is a seductive manner, but really she ends up looking like she’s got something stuck in her eyes.
I shrug my shoulders. “Dunno. I have Pack shit to take care of. We’ll see.”
Her bottom lip juts out and I know she’s not happy. Chick’s been trying to screw me all week. I’ve kissed her but that is as far as things have gone and only ever in public. If I’m going to lower my standards to a girl like her, there’s gotta be a reason for it, and ensuring it gets back to Isa is reason number one. Sabrina wants more. She wants to fuck. But the idea of screwing her makes my dick limper than a soft noodle.
I can barely manage to shove my tongue down her throat as it is.
Before Isa showed up, I’d have given in and fucked her by now. Sabrina’s got a tight ass, curves, and a decent rack. Her teeth are straight, and she’s got long, sleek hair I’d normally enjoy wrapping around my fist. But now, all I see when I look at her is a pathetic girl who can’t seem to understand just how uninterested I am in her.
She’s a means to an end. A way to pass the time which I suddenly seem to have a lot of. And I spend most of it thinking about creative ways to screw over the girl who decided to stomp on my fucking heart.
When Isa’s gaze turns my way, I lean into Sabrina’s touch and capture her lips with mine. She moans dramatically into the kiss and I force myself to close my eyes, pretending it’s Isa I’m kissing. Isa whose mouth I’m tasting.
Sabrina moans again, not bothered in the least that we’re in a crowded cafeteria and she sounds like a porn star. I wish she would shut the hell up. When she moans for the third time I pull away. Her pupils are dilated and her smile is wide as she struggles to catch her breath. I flick my gaze back to Isa’s table but it’s empty now. She’s gone.
34 Isabella
The week passes and before I know it, it’s Saturday night. I work the closing shift again at Suzy’s, only this time, Zheng has the night off so he can have dinner with Meiying and their mom.
I was originally given the night off too, and Zheng invited me to come, but I’m just not up to being around new people and faking that everything is okay. I’m constantly dragging, almost like I’m anemic, and I just don’t have the energy to deal with people today.
At Suzy’s I keep to myself. The diner is slow the first few hours I’m here, but I know as the night drags on that’ll change, so I take advantage of the reprieve and make sure all the dishes are clean and stacked so that when the rush hits, I’m ready.
Josué had to head back this morning. I was bummed to see him go, but I know Emmett needs him and I get that. I appreciate the week he gave me. I’ve only had one panic attack since Monday and true to his word, when Josué wasn’t around, Zheng did his best to step in and help make me comfortable. It’s not quite the same. I don’t feel one hundred percent safe the way I do with J but I feel safer and that helps.
The volume in the front of the diner increases and I chance a look at the clock, noting that it’s just after nine. Less than two hours until closing and we’re just now getting busy.
I keep myself occupied, scrubbing dishes down while I listen to some older My Chemical Romance songs. I’m bouncing to “Black Parade” a little over an hour later when Sú pops her head in the back and says, “I have to leave early. Julie will be the one closing up with you tonight.”
I nod. Julie’s one of the waitresses who works here full-time. She’s human and from what I’ve gathered, a close family friend so she’s trusted with a key and closing out the register.
Tonight’s cooks, Rodrick and Ben, let me know they’re heading out when they fulfill the last order of the night and I wave goodbye to them. They’ve mostly kept to themselves since I started working here and a part of me wonders if Zheng said anything to them about me. I wash the last of the dishes just as the double doors swing open and Julie bounces into the room.
“Are you almost done?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah, just a bit more.”
She eyes my stack of dishes with a frown. It’s not that big and should take ten minutes tops to get through. “I’m supposed to meet some friends at
