Page 134 of Bite Marks

But being with Ren?

That was as easy as breathing.

There’s no one I would’ve rather been with when Kaylee called. Her presence had felt like a balm on my frayed, overly sensitive nerves.

I made a mental note as we crossed the faded carpet to check in with Kaylee when we got back to the club. She probably wasn’t thrilled to be reduced to living in whatever clothes we’d managed to salvage from her ruined closet instead of her usual near-infinite selection of designer pieces.

Fashion problems made her grouchy. And a grouchy Kaylee was… Well, actually, grouchy Kaylee was sort of an everyday Juniper.

Which is not so bad at all.

The teller typed away crisply at the keyboard, half-moon-shaped bifocals perched at the end of her wide nose. Despite the claw clip, a few strands of hair had escaped as she steadfastly refused to look up at us.

“Um, hi?” I called, finally making the woman stop her clicking. She sighed as her eyes took in Ren’s short hair and tattooed neck, lip curling subtly in a way that made me bristle. No wonder my tone got a little more brusque as I said,“I got a call about a safety deposit box.”

Her eyes quickly returned to the computer as she used her mouse to click through a few screens. “Identification.”

“The… Um… The account isn’t in my name,” I explained, reaching into my bag to pull out my license and hand it over.

She took it quickly, brows furrowed as she looked over the information. “Do you have the key?”

There was something melancholy in the monotony of doing whatever you needed to do to make a buck. Surely, whoever this woman was, she hadn’t dreamed of becoming a bank teller. So, and even though I could have done without the blatant disdain and rudeness, I sort of felt for her.

Just a few months ago, I had been in her shoes at a company where I was just a number and needed to comply with a corporate dress code. But now, nothing would make me want to open Monstra again.

It was hard for an assigned parking space to compete with the workplace perks of dancing on bar tops and pouring shots into open mouths at O.

Honestly… I couldn’t remember the last time I’d bothered to doomscroll job listings.Somewhere along the line, I’d fit. And now there was no going back.

I cursed internally, realizing that Isoowed Kaylee a thank you card and some flowers.

She was going to be insufferable. She’d always been a sore winner, but with this? Might as well start planning her a parade and just get it over with.

No, too small.

A national holiday.

“The key?” the teller prompted again dryly.

“Uh…” I hesitated, looking up at Ren with my face feeling warm. “I don’t…”

Ren’s hand found the small of my back and rubbed small, comforting circles there, likely hearing the embarrassed uptick of my heartbeat. Her other elbow leaned on the raised wicket effortlessly. “Unfortunately, we weren’t aware of the box before now. The bank called Vi about it—something about it lapsing due to non-payment?”

“Oh,” the teller said, a glimmer of interest in her eyes now as she handed me back my ID. “You’re box 317. I’ve already pulled the spares. If you’ll follow me.”

She stood, grey skirt swishing around her knees as she walked along the empty wickets and out through a small gate, the click of her heels dulling as she stepped into the carpeted hall, motioning for us to follow.

We trailed her, passing by glass-walled offices full of financial advisors with curious eyes until we reached the opaque gate that led to the vault.

“We’ve been trying to get a hold of you for ages,” the teller said while she opened the gate with a key from her comically large keyring. She breezed inside, motioning for us to join her inthe cramped room.“You were about to forfeit its contents, you know?”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of little doors lined the walls, their sizes varying from the thickness of a short novel to big enough to hold a case of wine. Little silver rectangles and squares, their golden locks and etched numbered plates the only things distinguishing one from the other.

She located the correct box effortlessly, inserting one key from her large ring into one of the locks and one she had in her hand into the other and twisted, opening it.

“Uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly as she pulled out a metal tin about the size of a family-sized box of cereal. “Sorry about that. Honestly, I had no idea this was here.”

The teller rolled her eyes like she thought that was some sort of rich person bullshit problem. I didn’t bother telling her I had been dodging their calls because I thought she was trying to collect on an overdue credit card.

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