Page 5 of Midsummer Phoenixes
The werewolf was in a tee and jeans, his ballcap shading his eyes, almost blending in with everyone else if it hadn’t been for his bouncer’s build. I waved at him, then pushed past people to get to him, their annoyed grumbles making me feel guilty for making a fuss.
“Hey, Ben. How’ve you been?”
“Uh. Fine, sir. You?”
“Excited to get back to work. We’re having the reopening today. But I guess you know that.”
He nodded, looking down.
“Were you headed there too?” I asked.
Ben looked at me, seeming relieved. “Yes, actually. Thank you, sir.”
Which was when things clicked for me. “Wait. Oh, wait. Have you been following me?”
“Uh…”
“Did Soyer tell you to follow me?”
“Well, Mr. Bennet is very private, but he cares about you a great deal.”
I groaned. “For real?”
Ben had the decency to look guilty.
I pulled out my phone—the fancy phone Soyer had given me—and called him.
“What is it? Work boring you already?”
“Did you tell—” I looked around, lowered my voice. “Did you make Ben follow me?”
He responded with a few seconds of silence, then said, “Did you see Ben on your way to work?”
“We’re on the subway together. I met him on the subway. He’s right here.”
“Ah. Well, yes, I did hire him on for bodyguard duty. Didn’t hire him to be seen filling that duty.”
Ben bit his lip. His hearing had to be good enough to pick this up, even on the subway with all that background noise.
“Don’t be mean. You could’ve told me. He doesn’t need to hide and stalk me like some creep.”
“I could have told you. Chose not to. I’ll not apologize, my heart. I care for you greatly. We’ll discuss how Ben is to discharge his duty later.”
He said that so softly that the anger went right out of me. “Well, it’s fine, but—honestly. Were you going to make him stand outside the diner all night? He’s coming inside where he can have, I don’t know, dinner if he wants to.”
“That will be fine. Ben, I will be in touch. My heart, I’ll see you later. I love you.”
“Love you too,” I said. When we had hung up, I stared at my screen. “Such a micromanager. Guess you’ll get to be part of the reopening, Ben.”
The werewolf smiled. “Happy to. Thank you, sir.”
Now, all I had to do was get him to not call me “sir” for the rest of the night.
“Dwayne told me you’d show me the ropes,” Rae said.
They wore the guys’ uniform, but their eyeshadow was spectacular, shades of blues and glitter, the lashes so long they had to be fake. They had their dark blond hair up in a chignon decorated with rainbow ribbon flowers, and their nails were painted a bluish white and very glittery.
“Yeah, right.” I tied my new apron in the back. Our shift hadn’t started yet, and Kelly and Gwen still made their rounds.
