The Nymph's Saviour

3. Marinara Sauce is the Best

Whenever I feel better enough to wake up and stand from my bed, I take a long shower and dress for work. The work that I admittingly take for granted, but thanks to Gray I have been given so many chances because of it. I don’t like relying on her too much, but it’s Gray, she’ll do what she wants. I manage to convince her that I’m happy with my waitressing job at minimum wage.

“Order on table 8” Rina shouts from the counter.

I move my legs and took the tray of food towards my side of the diner. Me and Mirana, a coworker, decided to split the tables and mine was on the left side and hers on the right. Moving as fast as I can, I place their orders on the table and went back to put the tray on Rina’s counter.

“Hey, you okay?” Rina says while touching my arm. Her red hair is tied tightly in a ponytail and I always admired how shiny her hair is without any product. “you’ve been on leave for a week”

I tried smiling and I hope it looks convincing. “I’m sorry for that I’ve been dealing with a lot”

“I understand, my son is the same as you.” Rina pats my hand in comfort.

“I doubt Mirana appreciated me being gone for a while”

“Oh, she’s always in a sour mood. Nothing we can do about that”

Mirana is the beautiful Latina waitress that I’ve been working with in the diner for a while now. She’s always mad at something but she means well, she used to rant about how I’ve wasted my college degree by working here and I’m giving her more work for missing so much in the first place. Even if she rants and bitches a lot, she’s a good person who once helped me back to my apartment when I couldn’t, there are just days where I malfunction in work too.

The shift today is a Monday, which means lunch would be busier than any other. The diner is located near a corporate building and a lot of office workers come by even in the morning for coffee or tea since the local Starbucks is miles away and local cafés often start late for some odd reason.

Mirana is busy taking orders from people who clearly didn’t live here and they’re not in corporate attire. I concentrate on the menial work in front of me, which is cleaning empty tables and answering people who calls for me, but I could still feel the cold looming inside my chest. Ready to keep me stuck in my apartment all over again.

Shaking myself, I smile at the woman with her teenage daughter in my part of the diner. She gives me their orders and I nodded with a smile and asked her to wait. My days revolve around the usual dialogue and routine. My past therapist told me that routines help, and they work, but that was when I could afford our sessions. I hardly think of that anymore.

My phone remains silent. No messages from Gray or even calls from her, she is dead silent and that’s not really unusual. She does that from time to time since she’s our town’s socialite. She goes to parties that girls my age would dream for. Yacht parties and such. I’m just her poor childhood best friend that she tows with her. Never the one being hit on or gotten anyone’s attention when I’m beside her.

There was a time that I let myself get bombarded with her wealthy and luxurious life, but after every party, I would still go home to an empty apartment and it would all come rushing back to me then I decided to not fight it anymore. I surrendered to it.

Here I am. Busting tables and being a mess where my friend is my lifeline at times. She’s the one who was there with me when I was suffering the most. The countless attacks and attempts for my life. To this day, I still wonder why she stuck around. No one would’ve, not even my parents.

It was after lunch when it slowed so much to the point that there were only two or three sets of customers in the diner. Most of them were sitting on Mirana’s side, so I was left with cleaning the cups in the bar and waiting for my customers to ask for a check.

“Hey” Rina says from the register. “look at those”

I look at her then towards where she’s pointing. On the corner on Mirana’s side are three men huddled towards their food as they’ve starved themselves. I caught their eyes when I looked, and they quickly looked away and straightened their backs.

“What about them?” I snap my gaze back to the cups and put them away. Not in the least interested in anything else.

“They don’t look from around here and it seems they’re really interested in you” Rina shifts her lollipop in her mouth.

“hmm” was my only answer. It’s time to merry the bottles of ketchup.

“Girl take this seriously. They’re good-looking boys and they don’t look like trouble either.” Rina urges with a grin. “My, if I was a decade younger and Sal wasn’t in the picture”

“I heard that” Sal, our chef and Rina’s husband, says from the kitchen.

I grin but shake my head. “Not for me.”

“Perhaps it’s what you need” Rina lightly elbows me, leaving it to her to make that gesture affectionate. “You’re a catch dear”

She would never give that up. For months, she keeps sending me pictures of boys that might interest me or setting me on blind dates, but I’m just not really interested. I’m a mess and I don’t want to add another mess like a relationship in it.

“You’re a dear, but no” I smile at her. “I’m not ready”

“If we waited to be ready then we’ll be waiting for forever”

I give her a strange look and she just replies with a smile. Not saying anything else since what else could I say to convince her when I already tried everything.

“hey” Mirana all of a sudden says from beside me, her thick dark hair tied in a bun that looks incredibly painful at how tight it is. “Could you cover for me?”

“Sure, but why?” I ask.

“My son’s dad isn’t picking him up from daycare so guess who is going to have to take him” She unties her apron and throws it on an empty counter. Her face was in a permanent scowl. “That i***t isn’t worth s**t when it comes to things like this.”

“Then no problem” I quickly say. “It’s the least that I could do for covering the whole diner on your own”

She nods. “Thanks, I’ll tell Rina and also table 9 needs a cup of coffee and table 2 is an ass”

With that in mind, I take a cup to pour freshly brewed coffee for table 9 and avoided looking at table 2 with the so-called ass-like customers. Table two just consists of a mom with a toddler and she looks like she hasn’t slept in days. I’ve already felt sorry for her, but I trust Mirana when she says someone’s an ass.

“here’s your coffee,” I say to the group of men on the table. They’re the same men that I and Rina were talking about. Up close, I’ve noticed they are attractive, but I really have nothing in me that wants anything to do with them

“Thanks” one man says. He gives me a smirk before pulling the cup of coffee towards him. All of them were built massively like they’ve lived in the gym and they look pretty tall too.

“You’re welcome” I gave them my rehearsed work smile and went back to the counter.

The door rings, which means another new customer. It’s a hooded tall figure that walks towards my side of the diner and he decides to sit on the far corner. I quickly take the menu from the stacks beside the register and follow him there

“Welcome to Sal’s Diner. Here is a menu and I’d—” the words froze in my mouth. He lowered his hood the moment I started talking and I can’t believe that he’s here, it took me a while to clamp my mouth shut.

He smirks so effortlessly and charmingly that anyone would’ve folded over and fallen for him. “Hello miss sad girl”

I raise my brows at him. “What was your name again?”

He sighs. Frowning a bit “I can’t believe none of my charms ever work on you”

“Again, I keep forgetting people’s names, so would you please tell me. I’m sorry for being rude”

“Ragna” he scoffs. Clearly insulted and his frown goes deeper. “And here I thought I should come to visit you, but you’ve already forgotten about me”

I think it’s been days since I’ve last seen him. He quickly went away when I drove him away, but then again, my concept of time isn’t all that great. I don’t even remember what I did yesterday at times. There are marks on his wrist, which reminds me why I helped him that night.

“You’re healing” I smile. Putting the menu in front of him. “That’s great to see”

“Hmm” His stare bothers me a bit. “I like it when you smile. I didn’t know that you had it in you”

Pursing my lips, I stop myself to react to his flirting. “So, did you have any help when you got home?”

“Yes, and fed on some people and such. Everything is great.”

“That’s good to hear. I’ll come back with your order”

“No need. I want anything with marinara sauce” He slides the menu back towards me with such a smile that Rina would call panty-dropping. His hair looks like he bleached it and is blindingly blonde.

I nodded. “So, pasta then”

He winks at me. “And I wouldn’t mind having you eat with me”

“I’m on my shift” was all I tell him before turning away from him and towards the counter. Escaping him sounded safer because for some reason that man makes me self-conscious, whether it’s because I’ve helped him escape or this is just me feeling sorry for him.

It reminds me how horrible I’ve treated him the next morning. I practically threw him out just when he escaped a hell like that. But I was more jealous than angry really, he gets to escape the hell he came from while I’m stuck in mine.

“just the number 18 for him” I tell Sal in the kitchen and sat on one of the stools beside Rina. The way she’s looking at me is already obvious that she wants to talk about something.

“He’s one charming Fella” Rina raises her brows suggestively. “Seems like you know him”

I smile at her. Thinking of what to say to dampen her interest, but thankfully more people came in and I’m dancing around the floor asking for orders or giving it. No more prying questions from Rina throughout my work as she only wants to talk when there isn’t any.

It’s hard to keep my head down and not notice Ragna on the corner looking at me, because for some reason I notice his looks no matter what like a searing hole onto my body. He hasn’t called me since his order and when his pasta is finally on the counter, I feel my whole body hesitate.

Sighing, I take the plate and stoically walk towards him. He’s not even hiding that he’s been looking at me as he meets my eyes all the way. I place his pasta in front of him and gave him my work smile.

“Here’s your order. Enjoy” I say to him. I was about to move back when I feel a hand on my arm from getting away. His hand is so warm that I could feel it radiate through my skin, but I don’t dare look at him.

“I’m not here to torture you and make you remember horrible things” he says.

“Then what? I’ve set you free already”

“I don’t…feel free” the sound of voice made me turn to him. It sounds incredibly familiar and it struck a chord in me because he sounds like me. Looking at him now, he looks as if he hadn’t much sleep and his eyes weren’t the usual glint of charm anymore. What remains is a haunted look

I didn’t know I was holding my breath until my lungs felt like it was burning. I breathe in and breathed deeply before letting out a heavy sigh and looking around. There wasn’t anyone making any orders. I see Rina’s look when our eyes met from across the room.

She c***s her head as if to encourage me, and I can’t help but be thankful and sigh. I slide in the booth with him.

“Then why are you here?”

“Because I think you know what this feels like” he ruffles his really blonde hair that literally looks like a yellow crayon. “a nymph has a habit of going back to the person who rescued him”

“That again. You’re using that word to describe yourself again” I push his plate even further towards him. “Eat”

He smiles at me with those haunted eyes that made me feel the familiar cold clutches of my own. “Marinara sauce is the best!”

“Uh-huh,” I lean towards him even more. “You haven’t had any decent sleep, have you?”

“On the nose on that one. Are you this observant when you’re not cranky from waking up?”

“Something like that” I put a fork in his hand. His warm and calloused hand held on to the fork loosely. I try to ignore how he somehow caught one of my fingers as he curled onto the material. I sit on my hand. “I’m sorry”

He raises his brows just as he digs in. a question in his expression

“I’m not usually like that, I swear. I’m quite decent, you just caught me at the wrong time, and I’m glad that you are home now.”

“It’s okay, not all of us can be a hundred percent all the time,” he says after swallowing a mouthful of pasta. He wipes his lips with a napkin on the side. “Honestly, I didn’t know you work around here”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t! that’s what I’m saying! I was just walking by and saw you then I got in” He smirks. trying to exude charm. “I think its fate, isn’t it? all of our encounters are pointing to something”

I frown. I can’t even pretend to smile right now. “I’m not one to believe in fate. I don’t think an adult-like you should believe in such things.”

He mirrors my frown. “I’m a nymph with Werewolves and demons as relatives. We all believe in fate”

“Sounds as makeup as you are” I knock on the table to transfer his attention. “Oh, look at that, I think I should go back to work. You don’t have to pay, it’s on the house” I retreat from him and busy myself over the smallest things in the diner.

Dusting the floors behind the counter or wiping the counter till it mirrors my face. Cleaning the spouts of all the condiments till the dried ketchup or mustard was gone. I even clean the dishes in the kitchen as soon as it landed on the counter. Quick and methodic, I do my job and I’m good at it.

Anything tedious to occupy my body and mind from the emptiness that I fee from rewinding back to that conversation. Fate? Ha! I could only laugh at its face. Fate is stupid and cruel something that should never exist. I throw the rag on the counter. My knuckles feel sore, perhaps from the cleaning liquid, I used to wipe the counters with.

Rina looks at me with gentle eyes, the same soft expression she gave me when I stumbled into this apartment, soaked and lost. Her kindness knows no bounds as nosy as she is, she repays the world with concern and compassion. She takes my hand and squeezes.

“Your friend left, he paid for his food and gave you a twenty-dollar tip” I feel the paper crunch inside my palm. She smoothed my hair with her other free hand and smiled. “You’ve done more than enough here, I think an early break would do us all good”

“No, I’ll work overtime today”

“We’re closing early today” Sal suddenly says from the kitchen. Rubbing his stomach. “I need a break and a smoke”

“You will not smoke!” Rina chastises.

“I will not” he agrees

I smile. These lovely couple. “I…okay”

She smiles and pats my back. “If you want, you could spend time with us at the house”

“No, no” I smile. “I’m okay. I have something to do anyway”

She nods. “We’re here for you”

I stuck around till the last customer. We closed early around three then I find myself wearing my coat towards the flower shop. The twenty-dollar was still stuck in my hand. I don’t know why I took it, I know it’s mine, but it doesn’t feel right to take a tip that large for one meal.

He is stubborn. He looks stubborn. I smile. It must be nice to have that much will left in a person. He’s going to be fine. I bought lilies and went to the local cemetery. Feeling truly lonely as I visit my little brother.

My mother was adamant to plant a rose bush on his plot of land. It has bloomed before but as I walk closer, there were none right now, just dying leaves. I put the lilies over his headstone and sat beside the bush.

“I’m tired” I said to the sky.