Page 42 of Risking it All

“Ask him nicely to disembark the ride,” I said. Actually, at this point, the lead ride operator would have already asked the rider to disembark.

“That not fair,” countered Lev to Melanie, even though she hadn’t said it yet. “I worked hard to jump the fence to get in here without paying. I even tore my favorite shirt. I’m not going quietly!” He jumped onto the seat of the train car. “This is a travesty! Unite with me, fellow riders! Speak out against the tyranny of seatbelts! Rise! Let’s show them who really is in charge!”

“In a calm and kind voice, ask him again to disembark the ride,” I instructed Melanie, but in real life, the ride operator would have already called me, security, and after that statement, possibly, the police. “And tell him you’re going to call security.”

“Yeah, you are,” said another employee in training watching the show. Giggles popped up about the classroom.

Lev’s eyes widened with joy. “Oh, can I do that? Can I be part of the security team?”

“No,” I cut that idea off immediately. “You’re going to be a ride assistant just like Melanie. Melanie, that was a good job. Our main priority is the safety of our guests, even if they aren’t concerned with their own safety. We handle all situations with calmness and kindness.”

Melanie beamed with the compliment.

“Lev, you were a very good and scarily accurate example of a difficult guest.”

Lev exited the car and bowed. The class broke out into timid applause and Lev ate it up. “I’d like to thank my freshman year theater teacher who told me I was born to play unique characters and told me I had done so well that I never needed to take her class again.”

I snorted to myself because Lev was unbelievably Lev. “Okay, everyone. That’s it for today. Tomorrow we will begin training on actual rides. Make sure you please clock out before you leave and check your lockers to make sure you take all your personal possessions home with you. Demarius,” I called to him as he rose from his seat. “Can you come here?”

He gathered the notes he had been taking through the safety course, possibly the only person who had done so, and came over to me. “Everything okay?”

“Everything is perfect,” I said as Lev and Melanie called “Bye” to us. Demarius and I waved at them and told them to have a good evening. As the rest of the group trickled out, I continued, “You marked on your application that you preferred to be in games. Games is a hard gig to land because everyone thinks it’s less work.”

“Is it less work?” he asked.

“You have to handle cash. Customers can still be rude, and you need to be a good salesperson, but you could do an amazing job. Personally, I think you’d be a fantastic ride operator, not just a ride assistant.”

“That sounds like a lot of responsibility.”

“That I totally believe you can handle. On the complicated rides, there’d be a lead operator with you. On the less complicated rides, like the kiddy ones, there would be a senior supe hanging in your area, but trust me, those rides are incredibly easy to run. Strap a toddler in, push a button, the ride goes around once.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Demarius surveyed the room like he didn’t want anyone to hear what he had to say. I shut the door to offer him the privacy I believed he craved.

“What’s up?” I asked.

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t want to be responsible for people’s safety. If I’m in charge and someonegets hurt…” He trailed off. The hurt on his face, in his eyes, caused the ache that constantly lived in me to pulse.

“There are built in precautions into the computers. We are there to help guests get on and get off. We are the last line and super extra line of defense. Yes, we need to take our jobs very seriously on the off chance that something with the computer—”

Demarius raised a finger. “That one off chance. That once-in-a-million-years chance will happen to me.”

I paused as I sensed something else brewing inside him. A lot like all the emotions brewing within me. “As much I hate losing you from the rides department because you would be phenomenal at it, I’ll get you on at games.”

Demarius gave me a hopeful smile. “You can do that?”

“There’s some people who owe me favors.”

Demarius gave me a huge grin as if he wanted to hug me, but instead he pointed both index fingers at me. “You the woman.”

Yes, I was, or rather, I used to be.

Demarius left, I put the room back in order, turned off the lights, and joy blossomed through me at the sight of Relic leaning against the wall waiting for me. Relic, of course, looked incredibly sexy in his jeans and white T-shirt, an ensemble he must have changed into after his shift. His blond hair had this right mixture of rebellious and tamed, and the muscles in his arms were so well-defined, it was difficult to quit staring.

My heart skipped a few beats at the idea of kissing Relic. Since the night of the party, we had kissed again and often. We had attended a few more parties just to have some time alone-ish together in the backyard. His lips lifted at the sight of me, and he drank me in as if he were memorizing the sway of my hips. Did he feel it? This heat building between us? This constant feeling like my skin needed his touch? Did he also think of us kissing as much as I did?

“How was training?” Relic asked as he dragged his eyes from my body to meet my gaze.

He was an operator in The Clover Patch, which was our kiddie section of the park. No one ever volunteered to operate rides there because, you know…small children who pee on rides and annoying parents who argued that their newborn infant really was tall enough to ride by themselves. But Relic told HR he loved working with children.

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