Page 34 of Kitten Kisses

The rows of candy and chips blurred together on the shelves, and the gas pumps outside looked like menacing metal monsters in the dim light.

Holy crap. He really needed some sleep if the pumps resembled monsters. Aside from those three hours, when was the last time he’d slept? His brain was too sluggish to figure it out.

“Wake up,” he muttered to himself. “You have seven hours left.”

Seven painfully long hours.

When you were exhausted, seven minutes was too long. By the end of his shift, he might have to smack himself around to stay awake.

As he passed by the coffee station, his nose twitched with the lingering smell of stale coffee from earlier.

You’re telling me you would choose gas station coffee over freshly ground and brewed coffee?

Alex grinned as he remembered Slater’s lecture. The guy had been so passionate about it.

You can smell how fresh the grounds are as it brews.

What Alex wouldn’t give for a cup or ten of Slater’s coffee right now.

“No,” Alex scolded himself. “Stop thinking about your mate and focus on work.”

Slater had asked Alex to think of him that way. His mate. While they lay cuddled earlier, he’d kept asking Alex to say “my mate” over and over again, and every single time, Slater’s eyes filled with happiness.

Alex rubbed his chest. He didn’t want to be at work. He wanted to be with Slater. Since that wasn’t possible, he dumped the old pots of coffee, rinsed the carafes, then went to work cleaning the Slushy machine.

When he pulled the tray out, Alex jumped back as the liquid sloshed toward him. “I hate this goddamn machine. Everyone always lets the Slushy mix run into the freaking tray,” Alex huffed. “Some people are just pigs. I bet they wouldn’t do this if they had a machine at home.”

His exhaustion was turning him into Mr. Cranky Pants.

Carefully holding the tray, Alex walked it to the sink in the back, but the side of the tray caught the lip of the utility sink and splashed some on his work shirt.

“Gah! Gross.” He dropped the tray in the sink and quickly grabbed some blue paper towels off the stack on the shelf to his left.

He could wipe until the planets aligned and he wasn’t getting the sugary mess out of his shirt until he washed it.

“I hate this night,” Alex groaned as he looked toward the ceiling.

Snatching the tray out of the sink like it was the piece of metal’s fault, Alex returned it to the machine then wiped up the spilled liquid that managed to splash on the floor and counter.

Just as he tossed the paper towels into the trash, he heard someone enter the store. At least helping a customer would kill two minutes of his time.

As he headed toward the front, his steps slowed and his heart pounded when he saw who was standing by the counter. The metallic tang of fear flooded his mouth, making it difficult to swallow.

“Hello, Alex.”

The man who had caused so much trouble just a few nights ago was now standing before him, his presence casting a dark cloud over the store.

“What do you want, Mike?” Alex asked, trying to hide the fear in his voice. He wished he was still behind the counter, where he could have hit the panic alarm or the switch that would have engaged the magnetic locks on the doors before Mike even had a chance to enter.

Mike reached into his back pocket, causing Alex to tense up until he realized it was just an ID. “I wanted to show you this so I can prove I’m old enough to buy that beer.”

Alex didn’t like the sinister smile on Mike’s face.

“I don’t want to see your ID,” he managed to say firmly, despite the fear crawling over him. “You should have shown it three nights ago when you tried to buy that case of beer.”

Mike stood in front of the counter, rotating his ID between his fingers, tapping the card on the surface with each flip, as he radiated pure hatred toward Alex. “And you refused to sell it to me,” he said in an eerily calm tone.

The Mike from the other night had been an entitled brat, but this version was so much scarier. “You even rejected my friends’ driver’s licenses.

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