Page 6 of The Sidekick

“Yeah, I’m convinced they do it on purpose,” I snap back.

“So, calling her for the fiftieth time is as likely to go through now as it was ten seconds ago. Come lay down and get some sleep.”

I dial her number as Trevor glares at me. It goes straight to voicemail, and I hang up.

“What if she was hurt?”

“She wasn’t,” he tries to soothe me with his rational voice, but I feel even more frustrated the calmer he gets.

“We should go up there.”

“Max, lay down,” Trevor snaps and sits up straight as he finally loses his patience with me. “It is ten o’clock in the morning, and we haven’t slept. There is nothing we can do at the hospital. Her friends are with her now. Everything is going to be ok.”

He says that, but I have the worst feeling in my gut that nothing will be ok. Not for a long while. Her friends were acting shady as fuck when they showed up. I can’t believe he trusted them with her purse.

Maybe I can wait for him to fall asleep and steal the truck. I’ll deal with the consequences after I know that Tera is laughing it up at the hospital.

I crawl into the bed beside him, and he curls around me. I love being the little spoon, even if I’m taller than him, and he knows it. The bastard knows I’m planning on bailing out and is trying to get me to fall asleep, cuddle style.

My brain won’t shut off long enough for that to be possible. My mind wanders back and forth from the past to the present while I lay as still as I can so Trevor will fall asleep first.

When I first met Tera, she was bubbly, energetic, and ready to get to work when it was time. A little flirty but in such an innocent way that it confused me.

The first time she spoke to me, it felt like she was trying to angle her way into my bed. I was so used to all the waitresses shooting their shot that it seemed like another ploy. The best way to cut her off was not to speak, not respond, ignore her. She was obviously an attention hog, coming back over and over just to hear herself talk. Ignoring her, making her realize she won’t get attention from me, would make her go away.

My attitude changed after one night. This one made her real out of the millions of monologues she’d given me. A person instead of one of the vapid women surrounding me or an empty, shiny bubble just waiting to be popped. Always with a smile and so damn happy. Nobody is that peppy with their shitty life.

“You look sad today, Max.” Her voice wasn’t cautious or tiptoeing around the subject that night. She walked directly to me after clocking in and blurted it out with real concern on her face.

It had been a shit day. Trevor and I had argued over stupid bullshit I can’t remember, and I was too stubborn to say sorry. No one had said anything to me about my being a little off-kilter and more angry than usual. They’d been avoiding me as much as possible.

Not Tera. She marched right up to me and threw my emotions in my face. I waited for her to tell me to lighten up or get over it like anyone else here would, but she put her hand over mine as I reached for a dirty glass and stopped me.

“Go take a break. I’ve got this.”

Her voice was gentle as she moved my hand away and started clearing everything up, and I didn’t know what to do with the odd kindness.

I glared at her to get her to back off. I didn't need to be babied, but the effort was half-hearted at best, and she gave me a gentle smile that I’d never seen on her before. Something soothing and almost commiserating.

I realized that all I wanted right then was to go upstairs and back to bed to start this shit day over with a new attitude. Maybe I did need to be babied a little. I couldn’t tell her that, though.

“Just for a couple of minutes,” she took the rag from my other hand with a quick flick to wipe down the table. “Go outside and scream. Text someone who would get what you’re going through. Deep breathing helps me. You could try that. Or just take a second and be at peace with yourself. A change in scenery is what you need.”

What kind of hippie bullshit was she into? I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but for some reason, my feet forced me away, and before I knew it, I was outside in the cold, wondering why I obeyed one tiny optimistic girl. I barely listen to Trevor, and he’s my boyfriend. I do that out of pure joy, though. The look on his face when he catches me acting like an asshole usually gives me excited chills.

Her demands, if you could call it that, felt different. It was more coddling than threatening, which I usually hate, but it’s acceptable when it’s genuine.

It’s as if she saw me and cared that I was off-kilter tonight. Even with how I’ve treated her, she was still decent when I had no reason to ever expect her to be. The thought that I might have been wrong about her this entire time sat heavy in my gut.

I took several deep breaths and let them out slowly, convinced this crap would never work. After five minutes of watching a half-full parking lot stay half-full, I decided to go back inside. Then, I did something even farther out of my comfort zone.

I went to Trevor’s office, and I apologized before he could say a word. I didn’t wait for his reaction and marched right back out.

Then I took out my confused embarrassment on Tera by glaring extra hard and refusing to let her help me the rest of the night. Her response?

“Aw, that’s the grump I know and love. Welcome back, Max.”

I got a reward for being an ass. A fucking reward.

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