Chapter 2
LIZ
“What does a customer need to do to get some coffee around here?”
The voice was grumpy and sounded like it was about to get grumpier any minute now. Without pausing, I delivered the plate of piping-hot food to the customer I was currently serving before hustling over to get the coffee pot on the counter and hustling some more to get to the grumpy customer. I pasted a smile on my face—perhaps the nth insincere smile that I tried my best to make look as sincere as possible.
“Good morning, Mr. Jones,” I greeted cheerfully, turning down my wrist to pour him that hot coffee he wanted—well, more like needed, considering his mood this morning. “Sorry about that; the crowd’s pretty huge today. Is there anything else other than coffee we can get you? Would you like a slice of our apple pie? It’s freshly baked, and the fruits the farmer picked out yesterday were as sweet as they came.”
Mr. Jones, one of our regular and oldest customers, shot me a look. “Coffee for now.” He took a couple of sips—and just like that, I watched in amusement as the furrowed brows cleared. I made sure the amusement wasn’t visible on my face, as he was pretty sensitive to that. Then I waited for a few more seconds.
“Apple pie, you said?” he asked.
“It’s very delicious,” I cajoled.
He made grumbling noises at first. Finally, he reluctantly said he’d like a piece along with some ice cream, and I thanked him and got to the counter to place the order note. Then I hustled back to the other waiting customers.
I was practically floating on my feet due to lack of sleep, but you wouldn’t know it with how efficient I was. It was out of necessity more than anything, because I was pretty sure I’d collapse on the floor and never stand up if I thought too much about how tired I was.
And boy, was I tired.
Three hours of sleep a night were slowly wreaking havoc on my system. But there were just too many things to do and too little time, so I ignored every screaming muscle and went about my job like a pro.
Miracle of miracles, I lasted the whole shift and finally got to place the last tray on the counter as soon as the next waitress came in and started taking orders. The woman wiping the counters, a fellow waitress named Debra, eyed me watchfully.
“How many hours of sleep did you get last night? You look like hell.”
“Thanks Deb. It’s not important because I got through it,” I chirped.
She frowned. “You should really get some rest.”
“Can’t. Need to sell those newspapers.”
“Liz,” she said warningly.
“Debra,” I shot back pointedly. “I’m fine. Stop worrying.”
“You know I always worry.”
“And that’s mighty sweet of you, but I’m a big girl, and I know what I’m doing.”
“At least go take a cat nap.”
“I will,” I promised.
Then, because I simply didn’t have time to linger any longer, I got to the locker room as fast as I could, changed out of my uniform and slipped out the back of the diner. My next job at the newspaper station started in an hour, but the commute was pretty brutal, and I didn’t want to be late again. I needed to eat.
For now, I was just going to have to settle for an energy drink.
* * *
Delivering newspapers to all our contracted stores sounded like the easiest job in the world…if you were a well-rested physically fit person. Despite being pretty strong and in general good health, it still put a strain on my back as I carried the stacks inside the stores and took my time to give the owners or managers a short greeting. As usual, I ignored the strain and waited patiently as the newspaper station’s secretary took note of my delivery report and handed me an envelope.
“Thank you,” I said as sincerely as I could. We didn’t really talk, but she smiled like she usually did whenever I said that, and I guess I found it nice. When I was out of her sight, I counted the money inside the envelope and calculated it and my waitressing tips in my head, totaling the amount I’d earned so far and balancing it with my expenses for the day. Food, the rent that is due today, and medicine for my brother who was currently sick with the flu.
My face fell when I realized I was still short. Shit, I didn’t even have enough to buy food.
Thinking it over, I called my brother up from the payphone and waited as he answered on the third ring.
“How are you?”
“I’m doing okay,” he said, his voice strained. He tried to cover the speaker when he coughed, but I could still hear how deep it was and could already imagine how it wracked his frail, lanky body. Worry slid over me.
“Have you had dinner? There’s some tomato soup in the fridge, and you can just heat it up.”
“I was waiting for you. What time are you coming home?”
That he was waiting for me when he was probably very hungry was sweet. I regretted that we wouldn’t have dinner together tonight, but I took a deep breath at what I had to do.
“There’s a last-minute thing I really need to do, Kyle. Can you heat up the soup on your own and go ahead and eat? There’s bread in the pantry, too. And some cheese.”
There was a sneeze on the other line before Kyle spoke, his voice muffled. “Sure. Where are you going?”
“Just some errands,” I said hastily. I didn’t elaborate, knowing he wasn’t going to like me working a third job tonight just for his medicine. Kyle had this thing about right versus wrong and owing a person too much, even his own sister, and it was fascinating, really. But that wasn’t going to fly, not when he really needed to get well as soon as possible.
Besides, a little white lie didn’t hurt.
“I promise to be back before midnight. Will you rest while I’m gone?”
“Okay. Love you, sis.”
“Love you, Kyle.”
We hung up on a positive note, and I took another deep breath as I tried to gather whatever strength I had left. Then, because standing still was just pointless, I got out of there and went out of the newspaper station, knowing every second was precious.
* * *
The weariness hit me on my second hour selling watches, but I pushed through as crowds and some tourists roamed the city’s busy area. It was summertime, and the heat wasn’t really heat, but a cozy warmth that made it the perfect night to go out. I admired everyone who walked by in their fancy clothes, tried to cajole everyone I could to check out the accessories I was selling. I also tried not to acknowledge my achy exhausted body that told me I really, really needed to get to bed.
Thank God it was the weekend soon.
Gritting my teeth, I stubbornly ignored it all and kept sweet-talking and selling, happy when I convinced a tourist to buy some cheap but fancy looking necklace for his girlfriend—my eighth sell for the day. My stomach growled from all the food odors permeating the air from the night market, but I resisted temptation. I didn’t have enough to buy a meal on top of the bills, and there was already food waiting for me at home, anyway.
By the time the fourth hour hit, my feet hurt from all the standing, and I was pretty sure I was going to fall over sometime soon if I didn’t stop. I counted my earnings in my head and sighed in relief when I realized it was more than enough, and I even had some to spare to buy Kyle and I a piece of dessert.
A piece of cheesecake would hit the spot.
Excitement surged through me as I returned the remaining jewelry and watches to the pawnshop, then took the long walk home. My excitement warred with my tiredness, a push and pull as my mind conjured up images of my bed. To distract myself, I let my eyes wander around my surroundings, thinking up this little game in my head of counting how many couples I spotted along the way. It was too late in the night to buy our favorite store cheesecake, so I was just going to have to do that tomorrow.
I was already on my fifth couple count and in a dimly-lit area when I spotted it—a glint in an alleyway, followed by grunts. My first amused thought was some couple had decided to head in the dark and quench whatever hunger they had for each other, and that thought remained as I drew nearer—not out of curiosity, but because I really needed to pass by that alley, anyway. I heard more grunts that sounded manly with different tones, and my grin only slid up when I realized the potential that it was a male couple getting it on.
Just as I nearly passed the alley, a man slipped out of there—tall, gangly, wearing ragged clothes. He didn’t turn my way, instead running in the other direction with that glinting thing I spotted earlier in his hand.
My smile froze, then dropped when I realized that it was a knife.
With a start, comprehension dawned as I realized the grunts weren’t sex but something else entirely. I ran over to the alley just as the mugger disappeared on the other end of the street. Then I started searching around the dark corners until I found what I was looking for behind the huge garbage bin.
It was a man, he was blond and looked tall wearing some of the finest clothes I’d seen. They weren’t really flashy, but I knew enough about clothes to know that these were high end. Heart in my throat, I looked around to make sure the mugger had indeed fled, then knelt down beside him, I spoke with no response, already dreading the thought of that knife puncturing a hole through some vital organ.
To my relief, I only spotted what looked like a flesh wound on his stomach area, which was bleeding slightly. I looked over his body and determined that the mugger didn’t slice through him anywhere else, then checked his heartbeat and found that it was beating regularly. He was unconscious, which meant he was probably knocked out before the mugger took whatever he could from him—in this case, a wallet and any sort of ID, because I couldn’t find anything on him. He didn’t even have any shoes on, and worry slid over me as I realized that there was no way the private hospital nearby would accept this guy without any form of payment on him.
And I couldn’t afford to pay for him, either.
The decision played in my mind. My place wasn’t far off—two minutes away, to be exact. I wondered if my neighbor was still up and about and if I could ask him for a favor without having to return one anytime soon, considering I really didn’t have anything to return. I had some background in first aid due to my stint being an assistant in hospital ambulance calls, and really, it wasn’t like I could leave him alone here.
I sighed, suddenly forgetting my own weariness at the thought of the long night ahead of me.
Then I whispered for the guy to hang on and rushed over to my neighbor, hoping he would be okay.