Chapter Two
1320 Words
Jade
It wasn’t like I hadn’t appreciated the knight in shining armour, or in his case Jeans act. It was just that I didn’t need it. I didn’t need anyone. I hadn’t for a long time. And it hurt my female pride that he had thought I couldn’t handle the situation with Stephen.
That I was some weak female.
But maybe… just maybe I should have said thank you instead of giving him some serious stink eye and yelling at him.
Bristol.
What kind of name was Bristol anyway, it was almost as if his parents had hated him. Maybe that’s why he had grown up to be …. So big? Maybe he had been bullied as a kid so lifted weights to compensate as an adult.
Still, I had been rude and that wasn’t me. I might be a hard ass but my parents had raised me to have manners.
“Hey.” Shrugging myself behind the cramped counter, I reached for the apron we were forced to wear. Like we were from some nineteen fifties diner and not a whole in the wall café. Today at least I was glad of it. It would protect my clothes. And I had somewhere to be after my shift.
Somewhere important.
Like life changing important, and the last thing I needed was to get something down the front of me.
My boss turned his face slightly but as usual, he didn’t really look at me. “Hey.”
Rolling my eyes at his utter lack of interest in my arrival. I went in search of someone who would be.
“The hottie is back.” I turned as the only other waitress who had been longer than me whispered theatrically. A woman her age should not be using terms like hottie.
Who was I kidding? I so wanted to be like her in my fifties. “Who?” I didn’t turn from my stuffing paper napkins in the pocket of my apron.
“He came in earlier, was actually waiting outside before we opened. Asked for you by name.”
I turned sharply at that. Asked for me? “Wait, he asked for me?”
“Yep.” She nodded. “Told him what time you were due to start work and now he’s back.” She levelled her brown eyes at me. Her look accusing. “Have you been holding out on me, Jade? I thought you weren’t dating anymore after the whole Stephen incident.”
Bristol.
His back was to the counter, but I was almost positive it was him. His shoulders were so broad. He seemed to fill the whole space.
“I’m not dating anyone.” I threw over my shoulder, grabbing at the little pad by the cash register I made my way over to his table.
“Bristol?” I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and call his name too loudly just in case it wasn’t him.
“Hello, Jade.” His voice was soft. Softer then it had been last night. He also seemed to be less a giant, but that might because he was seated and not towering over me. “I…”
I cut him off. “Look about last night, I didn’t mean to jump down your throat like that. I know you meant well.”
His copper eyes, because that’s the nearest colour I could describe them as, lifted to mine and his dark eyebrow arched.
He was even more handsome in the cold light of day if that was possible. Everything about him was rugged but perfectly well-groomed at the same time, from the dark hair, which caught the light and glinted with streaks the same colour as his eyes to his neatly trimmed beard. He waved away my apology, but his eyes narrowed, and I shivered under his scrutiny. I was fully dressed and yet the way he ran his eyes over me, I might as well have been naked.
“You look ….” He trailed off.
Pretty.
Say I look pretty. I willed him silently. I wasn’t usually one to fish for compliments but for some reason from this man I wanted them.
I wanted him to like what he saw when he looked at me.
“Can I just have a coffee to go please Jade.?”
Wait. What?
The confusion must have shown on my face, or maybe it was disappointment, but I was so confused as to why he had just done a total three-sixty on me. Why come in and ask for me at all if he just wanted a take out?
“Nothing else?”
For a second his eyes glinted. “Oh, there’s plenty else I want Jade. But for now, the coffee will do. I have a meeting to get to.”
Smoothing my hand down the front of my blouse, the best one I owned, I pushed it back into the waistband of my black jeans. Again the best ones I owned. Or at least the only ones that didn’t have either paint on or artistically ripped holes in.
I dressed the way I wanted and that for the most part, meant comfort. And of course, my slight quirkiness shone out in what I decided to put on my body.
I was an artist, after all.
Still, this meeting was important, and I had donned my most conservative clothes for it.
It wasn’t every day you had a call from someone who lived in the neighbourhood, for a specially commissioned piece. I wasn’t even sure how they had gotten my number or seen my work for that matter. But it didn’t matter. I was excited. And the money would not go amiss either.
Sure I wasn’t exactly a starving artist, I managed to have the essentials, but if I could stop doing even a few double shifts, it would give me so much more time to actually do what I loved.
Eyes straining upwards at the bank of windows above me I gave myself a final once over, my hand tightening my ponytail. Sniffing I grimaced. I could smell grease on me, it was faint under the perfume I had sprayed myself with on the bus, but it was still there. Not that there was anything I could do about it now. There had been no time to go home for a shower if I had wanted to be on time.
My arm clutching my portfolio, I scanned the buzzers. No names just numbers. So I was None the wiser who exactly my potential client was. The call had come from an old tutor, and I knew full well she didn’t have the kind of cash to live in this area.
The door clicked almost the moment the pad of my thumb had brushed over the buzzer, and I gave a shaky breath.
I had no reason to feel nervous, except for the fact I really really needed this commission. It didn’t even matter to me what they wanted. Although I was hoping it was something cool.
Knowing my luck, it would be a landscape or something I sucked at…pulling my finger from my mouth. I had been chewing on my nail the entire time the elevator took to reach the top floor. I glanced around.
There was only one door in this wide hallway which meant whoever lived here was rich. Their apartment taking up the entire floor of the building. And that just made me even more nervous.
Wealth always made me nervous.
“Come on in.” The voice was male, a lilting accent I couldn’t place making it sounded exotic. It was only then that I realised the door was open.
Straightening my spine, I plastered my face with what I called my work smile. The one that was all white teeth. “Good evening….” I called politely as I pushed the door closed behind me. “Mr….” my voice faltered as a man stepped from what I was guessing was he living room.
Tall, well over six foot with shoulders that seemed to fill the doorway. Dark, tousled hair and the strong jaw covered in the shadow of a beard.
And the most beautiful copper coloured eyes I had ever seen.
“Hello, Jade.”
- Writer
