A hundred dollar bill sat next to the empty wine glass.
My eyes grew wide at the tip lying crumpled on the table. The man who had broken into my house to drink my blood yesterday had just left me a hundred-dollar tip on a fifty-dollar meal. I blinked down at the wrinkled Benjamin. He might be a supernatural neck-rapist, I thought, but at least he wasn’t a cheapskate on top of it. I picked up the bill and put it carefully away, along with the signed receipt.
“I can do this,” I repeated, turning my attention toward cleaning off the table. I had about two and a half hours left to convince myself that I wasn’t lying through my teeth.
* * *
Six p.m. came and went. I clocked out, changing clothes in the restroom and putting my uniform in my backpack to be washed before my shift tomorrow. The last couple of hours hadn’t been enough time to convince myself that what I was about to do wasn’t the dumbest idea I’d ever had. That wouldn’t stop me from doing it, though.
Sometimes, you just had to live dangerously. I mean, how else was I going to find out what the hell was going on here? I’d been bemoaning my inability to track this guy down. Then he had quite literally walked into my restaurant and sat down at one of my tables. On the one hand, it seemed impossible that it could be a coincidence in a city of three hundred thousand people. On the other hand, I’d have to be nuts not to jump on the opportunity it presented.
I tossed my bag on the counter by one of the sinks while I scrolled my phone for a safety call. Although I didn’t have a ton of close friends, I at least had a couple of people I could turn to in a pinch. Like Vonnie. She was one of the few people I spent any significant amount of time with whom I both liked and trusted. She was also a volunteer at MMHA, which was how I’d met her.
Honestly, we didn’t have a whole lot in common beyond that. Vonnie was a single mom, and I was just... single. But we got along well enough. Enough for me to trust her with something like this.
“Hey, Zorah,” Vonnie answered on the third ring, a bit of surprise coloring her tone. “What’s up?”
“I need a favor,” I said, trying one-handed to get my hair under some semblance of control.
“Sure,” she said amiably.
“So, I met this guy...” My voice trailed off as I tried to figure out what I would actually say. Possibly I should have put a bit more forward planning into this call—not that Vonnie really needed to know the details of how I met Rans. “Anyway, he wants to meet at a bar on the Landing in a few minutes. But of course, I don’t know him that well, so... can you be my safety call tonight?”
“Happy to,” Vonnie said. She sounded overly cheery, probably excited at the idea that I had a date.
If only it were that simple, I thought. Hell, I could hardly remember the last time I had a date. Or even a one-night stand, for that matter.
Okay... that was a lie. I did remember, as much as I tried to forget.
It was two months ago, with Dan. Things were going well between us, actually. We’d been seeing each other for about a month. As per usual when I was pursuing a serious relationship, I’d refrained from sleeping with the guy until I thought things were solid between us. We had several things in common, and I was feeling confident that we had a future together.
Of course, it only took two sexcapades for things to turn south. He stopped meeting me at work. Stopped texting. Stopped calling. Didn’t return my texts or calls. Finally, I got a single text telling me that he just didn’t feel like we were compatible, and would I please not contact him anymore. The sad part was, it had been one of the more civil breakups I’d had over the past ten years.
At this point, I was starting to wonder if I was just really bad at the horizontal mambo, or if something was wrong with me mentally, or what. I always felt better when I had a sex partner. I was happier. I even felt physically healthier. And most of the time, I could find a guy to date easily enough when I put my mind to it. Hell, half the time I seemed to attract men even when I didn’t want to.
But as soon as I slept with them?
Bam.
Dumped.
The universe was obviously trying to tell me something. But unless the message was ‘LOL, you suck,’ I just wasn’t getting it so far. One of these days, though, it’d be nice to find someone who didn’t run for the hills the moment after they shagged me.
“Zorah?” Vonnie’s voice broke through my haze.
“Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?” I asked.
“I asked, who’s the hunk?” Vonnie’s smile could be heard right through the damned phone speaker.
Focus, girl. “Oh. Just a guy I met, um, at work.”
“Awesome. If all goes well, I expect a full report, all right? Have pity on the single mother. I’m dying for juicy gossip.”
“Deal,” I said. “Here’s hoping I won’t need your rescue services this evening. I’ll be at Studio 88 on the Landing. I’ll check in every ten minutes, and let you know when I’m leaving the bar.”
“Wow, you’re not kidding around, are you?” Vonnie said, laughing. “I’m sure it will be fine. Okay—you’re running out of time. Go get him, tiger. If you miss a text, I’ll text you and give you a minute to reply before I panic. Talk to you later.”
I took a deep, steadying breath. “Thanks, Vonnie. You’re the best.”
We hung up. I slipped the phone in my pocket for easy access, and started a list in my
