Page 4 of Mocha Kisses

Nearly six years of selling off everything I own has barely made a dent in my father’s debt. The police can’t help without a face or a name. I’ve filed complaints over the years but nothing has come of them. What little investigation the police have attempted has brought a whole bunch of nothing. It doesn’t help that I’m pretty sure my father was using an alias of some kind when he met my mother. His name isn’t even on my birth certificate.

The only thing I have to go on is the name John Williamson and fuck if there aren’t a billion of those waltzing around the US.

Once I’m satisfied that I no longer look like a trash panda, I saunter back into the dining area, eyes falling on my boss who’s taken up residence at the table I was just at. His smile drops as he takes in my appearance and I realize I probably should have changed my clothes. The slight limp on my left is definitely not helping the matter.

“Hey…” I mumble as I slide back into my seat. Max’s brows are creased as he sits forward. His wide shoulders tower over my small form and for a moment, I forget that it’s Max sitting in front of me and not the demons I’m constantly running from. I do well to hide my terrified reaction and plaster a smile on instead. “What was so important that we had to meet up?”

“Luna, you look terrible.”

“I got into a little scuffle.”

He leans back, running a hand along his stubble, as he inspects every inch that he can see. “I want to believe you, Luna. I want to believe that you’ve got your shit handled. Unfortunately and maybe fortunately for you, I wasn’t born yesterday. I’ve also started receiving a few calls that don’t fit the woman I first hired.”

My expression sours as I pull my feet up onto the chair and wrap my arms around my legs. Max has always made me feel safe in a world I can’t count on but this conversation is making me feel anything but. My gaze darts to the door but the men aren’t there. Why would they be?

“Luna baby, look at me. I know you’re running from something. I’ve known that for a while and the only reason I didn’t bring it up was because you said everything was okay. This? This isn’t okay.”

“Are you firing me?” Tears prick my eyes.

“No, not at all. I’m offering you a warm bed and a shower and then tomorrow we’re going to talk about our options.”

“What?”

“I can’t have my best editor constantly on the run. Now, how about the motel down the road?”

I nod slowly, clutching myself a little tighter. “As long as they have hot water.”

Max chuckles. “Absolutely. I’m not a barbarian.”

If Max gives me a way out of this city, I’ll accept any job he passes my way. Otherwise? I’ll be on the same shit I always am, hopping into a rental or on a plane and picking a city I’ve never been to before. Eventually, my father’s choices won’t be my consequences to bear. Until then, I need to keep moving.

Griffin

“Fuck!”Ichuckmymanuscript across the living room, my gaze narrowing as a flurry of papers falls to the floor. The soundless sight angers me even more, the despair of not being able to finish this book settling in. Needing something with a little more oomph, I tear the lamp resting beside me out of the wall and chuck that too. It hits one of the cushions on the side of the couch and bounces softly onto the carpet, the light slowly dimming until there’s just darkness.

Well, that was anticlimactic.

The deadline is in three weeks and every ending to this book I write out isn’t working. I know why and it has nothing to do with crafting an imaginary world where four men fall in love with each other and everything to do with the sixth anniversary of losing my best friend and high school sweetheart closing in.

In two days, I’ll relive the moment my heart was ripped from my soul, the moment when she left thinking that I wasn’t there to catch her when she needed to fall. We might have been young and dumb but I imagined a forever with that sweet brown-eyed girl. I still have the letter she left on her bed, the one that merely just said goodbye in her soft handwriting.

“Hey man, you ready to graduate! We did it!”

A few of the other fraternity brothers clap me on the back but I don’t feel the same excitement for this day. My girlfriend just ran up to me and told me goodbye. She didn’t want me to see through her little lie but it was there, plain and simple. My heart hurt as I watched her leave, wondering where she would take off. Not far. She never did.

Her little stints usually had her wandering the little shops on the main street next to the university before ending up at mine. This time, however, her words have me on edge. Something is wrong.

“Griff! Get over here. We’re taking pics, man!”

I shake my head and take off down the very same street Luna did, intent on catching her before she leaves. I need to know what she meant and where that fearful look in her eyes came from. It’s not her mother. Luna has never been terrified of that piss-poor excuse of a parental figure.

Holding my breath, I take every shortcut I know to get to her house, grunting when her Toyota Camry isn’t parked across the street.

Shit, I’m too late.

I burst inside, growling at her mother sprawled on the couch, a few empty beer bottles scattered on the floor, as I take the steps by two and find the worst possible thing waiting for me. A letter and her phone beside it. Luna always leaves me a letter but it always says she’s coming back. She’s never gone more than a few hours before I find her curled up in my bed.

The words I find in that letter break my heart. She’s not coming back and I can’t help but feel that I wasn’t enough to protect her from whatever was chasing her.

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