Chapter 6
Elani
One week! One whole week! That’s how long it’d been since the hospital and that amazing kiss I shared with Ales. He didn’t have to convince me to stay with him. With all those memories of Alana, I missed him immensely. I wanted to spend so much time with him, yet the very next day, he was gone again. This time, staying away a whole week, and it made me mad. All the memories of Alana showed me he was also gone a lot. This was who he was. As Alana, I understood, but as Elani, it didn’t make sense to me. I missed him and wanted to be in his arms again. He made me feel so small in his arms and I loved how warm he was.
I sighed as I snapped out of it and went back to clean the bar. I couldn’t sit around and not do anything. I asked my manager to switch me over to daytime and I’d be a waitress instead. He didn’t seem to mind, knowing he wouldn’t have to hire anyone else. I smiled when Stacey came in for her evening shift while I got ready to clock out.
“Hey, love,” I greeted her.
“Hey.” She sounded like she wasn’t looking forward to the shift.
I was concerned for Stacey. I took a good look at her and her skin wasn’t glowing as it usually did. We barely saw each other this whole week due to working different shifts. I knew it had nothing to do with Patro; he was with Ales.
“What is it?” I stopped everything to give her my full attention.
She smiled weakly.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’ve just been tired. Also, Jace…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence. Jace came walking straight up to Stacey, pulling her in for a kiss.
My eyes widened. I was shocked. In all the years we’d worked together, Stacey had never once looked at Jace like that. The way her body stiffened when he kissed her made me curious. I didn’t like how Jace kissed her, and looked at me, as if it was my fault they were together. His glare held an accusatory look in them and it made me uncomfortable. I didn’t know if it was me, getting back all of Alana’s memories, or what, but the way he looked at me reminded me of Cyril. He let Stacey go and fully turned to look my way. He smiled as if he knew it was making me uncomfortable.
There was something in his smile I didn’t like. It reminded me of what I saw when Cyril killed Achilles’ mom. It made me shudder, and I looked over at Stacey who looked as uncomfortable as I did. I tried to communicate with her, but it appeared whatever hold he had over her trumped her telling me the truth. I watched her for a moment longer, deciding to behave as if I hadn’t seen a damn thing. I could come back to it later.
“So Stace? No more Patro?” I teased.
She chuckled. “No. It didn’t work out. Jace and I found each other and now I think I’m in love.”
That was a red flag. For as long as I’d known Stacey, she had never talked about love because of her family issues and her past. We joked around once and told each other, if we were ever in danger, we would use the term, ‘I think I’m in love’ as some sort of signal.
I had to help her.
I decided to stay a bit longer before the night crowd came in. I didn’t trust Jace, and for the first time in my life, he made my skin crawl. This had never happened before, but now I was aware of his presence. Even when he tried to convince Ales he was my boyfriend, my skin hadn’t crawled. But now, my gut was telling me I needed to see something, yet I couldn’t. I watched as Stacey stayed on her side of the bar and Jace on his. He wasn’t running from her, but she was running away from his touches. I bussed the last of the tables, and was cleaning the tables, when I heard someone clear their throat behind me.
I turned and looked up to find Ales glaring at me with his arms crossed. I smiled at him, and he looked to be wavering with that look on his face. I walked closer to him, and reached out, touching his bicep. It involuntarily flexed under my hand. I giggled and caught myself. Neither Alana, nor Elani, giggled. Yet, I seemed to be doing so now. I looked up at him again and his eyes softened.
“Don’t be mad at me,” I cooed. I wasn’t ashamed that I was acting like this so he wouldn’t be mad.
I wanted to laugh as he grunted and narrowed his eyes at me. He knew what I was doing as I continued to caress his bicep. He didn’t say anything. I moved my hand from his biceps and circled my arms around his waist. I looked up at him and rested my chin on his still crossed arms. This brought a smile to his face.
His eyes still narrowed, he asked, “Where did you learn to do this?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Alana… well you, didn’t do this,” he said.
I chuckled. “I know and that was a damn mistake on me. I should’ve done this to you in the past, so you would forgive me faster.”
He smirked, and his lids became hooded as he spoke.
“I remember what you did back then. I definitely forgave you much faster.”
I bit my bottom lip thinking of the old me. The method of dropping to my knees, and taking him into my mouth, draining his anger from him.
“You have to admit, it was a pretty good method.”
“I’m not complaining. If you want to do that next, love, I will always be for it.”
Before I could respond with how much I wanted his mouth all over me, a noise erupted behind us. We both turned toward the noise and Patro’s fist connected with Jace’s jaw. I gasped. Even from where I stood, I heard the impact of the hit.
Ales reacted fast and ran toward Patro, getting to him in less than a few steps. He grabbed Patro from behind and moved back with him. Patro let out a curling battle cry that spread goosebumps all over my body.
“Patro! Patrocleus! Calm down!” Ales yelled, but Patro was too far gone.
I almost stepped in but took a step back when Patro ran his back into the tables, so he could shake Ales off. Ales didn’t budge as they both broke the table. My eyes grew wide at the sight of Stacey in the corner crouched down. I didn’t care that we were causing a scene. I ran toward Stacey and got on my knees.
“Stace? Stace? What’s wrong?” I asked her.
She finally looked up at me, her left eye swelling up and marring her beautiful skin. Tears were in her eyes, and I felt like the worst friend ever for not seeing it.
“He hit me again, Lani… After he swore, he would never.” She started to cry, and I pulled her into my arms.
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but I heard Ales gruff voice call out to me.
“Let’s go, Elani. You too, Stacey,” he said to us.
I finally looked up and realized Jace was nowhere to be found. Patro stood at the door, fuming. He briefly looked in Stacey’s direction, but then looked away again as if it was too painful to look at her face.
Ales didn’t move until both Stacey and I stood up. He looked at me and Stacey with palpable anger.
“You call your boss and tell him you both quit. I’m not playing, Elani. I mean it!”
“We can’t just quit like that, Ales.”
“Choose then. Either you quit your job, or I kill that pathetic human being.”
I knew he was serious, so I nodded. “We’ll quit.” Then proceeded to walk toward Patro, knowing Ales would never let me walk behind him, unless he knew it was safe to do so.