SatM: Thief
“Order up!”
The heat and noise of Ronnie’s was a presence less than an environment, even when I left with my tips every day I swore I could still hear the ringing of the register, the sizzle of the stove, the clatter of the plates in the sink. My hair was pulled back from my face in a long ponytail and my shirt was soaked with sweat. My sensible shoes hurt my feet with every step and my mind was blank of all thoughts but that of the next table, the next customer, the next order, next next next, a seething mass of panic that churned inside my skull.
“Here we are, enjoy!” I smiled as disarmingly as I could at the table of young women in the corner. I tried not to let my eyes linger on any of them, I was working and had too much to do to be distracted by one or four pretty faces. It didn’t keep the blush from my cheeks though.
“Excuse me, can I get some utensils over here?” The wheedling tones came from a sharp faced girl with billowing golden hair. She was leaning over the table wearing a tube top and designer sunglasses that she was now using to peer imperiously at me. There was a rolled napkin with a fork and knife sitting in front of her. Her lips peeled back as she unrolled the napkin languidly and let its contents spill to the ground with a clatter.
I felt fury boil inside me but obligingly smiled back and left for a replacement. If it hadn’t been so loud, I might have sworn to hear titters of laughter behind me. Once the offending utensils were replaced, and her drink and one plate of fries with an alleged hair, I settled back behind the bar, trying not to show my fury as I did some work for the actual bartender on duty, just to avoid them for a few minutes.
“They seem like fun.” I glanced up and into the deep brown eyes of a beauty queen. Skies above she was radiant, lips that urged to smile and perfectly sculpted features. Her hair was buzzed close to her head and her figure was lightly muscled, she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. She took a sip from her drink and I felt my gaze still on the intricate lines inked onto her fingers, catching on the jewelry I had largely glossed over. “I’m not much a fan of girls like them.”
Her eyes flashed gold for a moment and I heard the shriek within a single heartbeat. I spun to see the leader of the pack of wolves covered in the tray of drinks a waiter had been carrying past. The manager practically materialized from thin air to calm the harpy and her flock, doing his best to sooth her into not suing the restaurant.
“When do you get off?”
I didn’t realize it until we were several hours into our walk around the park at midnight, but that was the night Mira Ward stole my heart.