My Heart be Damned (5 page)

Damn, this girl knew me too well. “No...”

Mercy shook her head, leaning back in her seat. “I give up on you,
Amerie
Sara Carter.”

“Was using my whole name really necessary?”

“Yes! What was wrong with Sam? Come on, I’m intrigued to know what the problem was this time.”

“There was nothing wrong with him...”

“Stop lying.”

I looked over to the teacher, silently begging him to start the class already, but he was rummaging around in his briefcase, his face indicating that he’d forgotten something important. Of all days...

“There’s nothing wrong with Sam,” I said again. “He’s...nice.”

Mercy groaned. “You mean he was too nice, don’t you?”

“I’m not used to people being so nice to me. It was
kinda
creepy.”

“I’m gonna offer you some advice,” Mercy said, leaning in closer to me. “When a boy is a gentleman to you and is actually nice,
Amerie
, you don’t shoot him down. You don’t call them creepy and chase them away! God, I don’t know what to do with you.”

“Stop trying?” I offered hopefully.

“Not a chance.”

I groaned in frustration. “Okay, whatever. Our main focus right now should be Chuck. Not my new job. Not my inability to get a date. Thank you and good day.”

Mercy shook her head at me, bemused. “I hate it when you say that. Thank you and good day. I mean, what does it even mean? Are you being sarcastic? Are you really saying it like you mean it?”

“I think you should be the journalist around here,” I answered. “You ask too many questions.”

Our teacher, Mr.
Woodsen
, finally seemed to find what he had been looking for. He silenced the class and began the lesson on the banana trade in St. Lucia. As he droned on, I turned my head slightly to peek at Sam. He had all three witches circled around him, trapping him in their evil cage,   but he didn’t look as though it was too much of a chore.

Had I been wrong about him? Nice people didn’t hang out with people like Sarah White. My people reading skills were obviously way off. I didn’t
realize
Mercy had feelings for Chuck. I also didn’t
realize
that the blonde girl at The Hut yesterday was bad news, and preyed on guys for a bit of fun on her boyfriend’s part. Last but not least, there was the guy with the pool cue. The guy whose blue eyes I couldn’t stop thinking about on my journey home last night.

Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe I didn’t know my friends as well as I’d always thought. Maybe the guy from last night was a perfectly normal sexy guy, and I was being paranoid.

I was a psychologist’s dream that was for sure.

After school, I changed for my first day of work at the Hut. I slipped into a pair of skinny jeans, a vest top, and a blazer but kept my school shoes.

Maxwell Academy was situated in the middle of nothing but fields. There was one road. It ran right along one side, and only one bus that took you into the nearest town situated in the suburbs around the main city. My old town. The buses were small and came by the hour, then after that, a Tube took me the rest of the way. I skipped down the stone steps outside my school’s entrance, just as the bus pulled away from the bus stop and tore down the narrow road.

“No!” I groaned.

I flopped down on the bottom step and buried my head in my hands. An hour. I’d have to wait a
fricking
hour until another bus. I wouldn’t get to The Hut for ages now. Not that I cared about what kind of impression I gave, but I didn’t want John to think I bailed and call the police.

“You okay?” Sam asked.

I looked up to see that he was staring down at me.

“What’re you still doing here?” I asked accusingly.

“Checking out books from the library,” he answered, lifting a bulging rucksack. “Looks like I’ve got a lot to catch up on. Thought I best get reading.”

“Oh.”

“You miss the bus?” he guessed.

“Yup.”

“You want a ride?”

I bit down on my lip, contemplating the offer. On the one hand, it would mean getting to work comfortably and in a shorter time. On the other hand, that meant sitting in a car – alone – with a person I barely knew. Good thing I could defend myself if he tried anything.

“That would be great.” I stood up and followed him around the school to the car park. Most of the cars were gone, and I spotted his black Mercedes easily.

“Nice car.” I ran my hand along the door.

“Thanks. It was a present for agreeing to move here without kicking and screaming…much.”

“Your parents are decent. I’d be made to do it, argument or not.” I slid onto the leather seat, breathing in the new car smell. My
favorite
of all smells.

He pulled out of the school grounds and began to speed down the tiny road towards town.

“Where to?”

“The Hut. You remember the way?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Why there? It’s a bit early to be going, right? Or did I not get the vibe right? I do that sometimes.”

“I work there,” I answered.

“Oh. Right.”

I turned to face the window, staring out at the plush green fields filled with cows. Maxwell had its own stables with its own Polo team. A team I’d been a part of until I quit last year. I wasn’t about to admit to anyone how much I missed it. There was no other feeling quite as exhilarating as the wind rushing past your face while on horseback.

Obviously, competitiveness was in my blood, and there weren’t many other sports I could excel at without standing out too much. With Polo, it was less obvious and more about control than strength. It helped I’d been honing my control since I was six.

However, it had been my mother, who’d encouraged me to join the Polo team, and now I couldn’t compete in a game without thinking about her and then becoming consumed with grief. I was no good to the team like that.

“So,” I started, still not facing him. “How was hanging out with Sarah White and her clan today? Didn’t see you much...”

“
Awww
, did you miss me?”

I shot him a warning look. “Not really.”

His face fell. “Oh. Well, I got a bit lost, and they found me. Started showing me around, and I felt like I owed it to them to hang with them for the day. It wouldn’t look good if I just ran off to sit with you after letting them help.”

“A hello or a wave would’ve been nice,” I said. I was only teasing...mostly. It was amusing to see him squirm.

“Oh. I’m...I’m sorry.”

I laughed, unable to hold a straight face anymore. “Don’t worry about it, Sam. I’m not gonna go home and cry about it.”

“That’s good. I think.”

For the rest of the journey, Sam and I volleyed questions back and forth at each other.
Favorite
movies, foods we liked and hated, or we were of two minds about, depending on how they were served. He never really had a bad word to say about anything.

“Here we are,” Sam declared, pulling up outside The Hut.

I grabbed my bag from the floor. “Thanks a lot for this, Sam. It,
erm
, it means a lot that you’d do this for nothing in return.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing. I’d like to hang out more.”

“Yeah, definitely!”

He smiled, looking down at the steering wheel. “Okay cool. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“You coming down to see me tonight?”

“Of course. Gotta be there to support your first day. You excited?”

I shrugged. “Let’s put it this way, I’m not here by choice.” I glanced over at the time illuminated on the dashboard. “Better get in there. See
ya
later.”

“Bye,
Amerie
.”

I climbed out of the car and into the chilly air, sucking in a deep breath. I could do this. Plenty people had after school jobs. How hard could waitressing be? Compared to battling Damned, this should be a piece of cake.

Reluctantly, I pushed open the door and headed inside. The Hut looked like a totally different place when it was empty, and all the lights were up. It was open for business, but not many people were there. A couple sat in one of the booths, and there were a few people playing pool. There was no one on the dance floor and only soft radio music playing overhead.

“Good, you’re here,” John said, appearing beside me. “Thought you weren’t gonna show.”

“Didn’t really have a choice, did I?”

He slapped a hand on my back, chuckling. “Yeah, well, let’s move past that. It doesn’t matter how you got the job. Point is... you’re here.” He looked down at my bag and coat. “Put that stuff in the staff room. Should be a couple empty lockers. You can use whichever you like. Then come back out and meet me at the bar. We’ll go for a tour, and I’ll get you shadowing someone for the day.”

He pointed to a side door marked ‘staff only’ and I dutifully headed towards it. The staff room was small and shabby. A few beat-up sofas sat against the left and right walls. The wall opposite the door held lockers, and a large, wooden table pressed holding a microwave and a kettle. A mini fridge squatted underneath.

I screwed up my nose. The room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. The microwave had started out white but was now a murky brown
color
. The time was frozen on a permanent midnight. I mean, it wasn’t bad enough to be unsafe, but it didn’t look too clean either.

Finding a spare locker was easy. Finding a spare locker with a key that worked was slightly harder. When I finally managed to turn the key, I shoved my bag and coat inside and slammed the door.

Spinning around, I came face to face with a pale brunette. Her thick hair was tied back away from her face, but strands had come loose, and, in the few moments that it took for me to assess her, she had blown the loose hair out of her eyes three times.

“You
Amerie
?” Her voice was husky. Sexy. I wanted a voice like that.

I nodded once. “Yeah.”

“I’m Emily. John asked me to show you the ropes. So you’ll be shadowing me for the day,” she explained. I couldn’t decide whether she was happy about our arrangement, or not.

“Oh, okay. Cool.”

She led the way out of the staff room and over to another door in the restaurant area.

“This is the door to the kitchen. Usually, we keep it open. That way when our hands are full, we don’t have to stop, and wait for someone to hold it open for us. The quicker we can get multiple plates over to a table, the less likely we’ll drop it. It’s all about speed here.”

“Yeah, makes sense.”

We walked into the kitchen and Emily introduced me to the three chefs, playing a game of poker at one of the side tables. She showed me where to put the order slips, how to check on the food, and whether it was ready to go out, and how to take orders quickly, but write legibly. Then she sat me at an empty table back in the main room and told me to
familiarize
myself with the menu, even though I practically knew everything on it.

I think she forgot about me because an hour later, I was still sitting at the table, staring at the plastic menu. I’d have burgers and ribs floating around in my mind when I fell asleep later.

“
Amerie
,” Emily called.

I let out a thankful sigh, stood up, and wiped my hands on my jeans. “I think I got a pretty good handle on the menu.”

“Good,” she said, “Because we have a customer.” She pointed to the back of someone’s head sitting alone in a booth. “Go take their order.”

I gaped at Emily, repeating her words in my head, making sure I properly understood her.

“You want me to serve a customer? A real live customer?”

She nodded. “The best way to learn is to experience it for yourself. You learn by mistakes and by asking questions. But you’re not gonna know what questions to ask if you don’t get stuck in.” She gave me a little shove, and I stumbled forward.

“But...”