I Found You. Jane Lark

out again a couple of minutes later. I had nothing else to do while I waited, so I found my eyes following her about the room as she took orders and then delivered meals.

      She looked completely calm, happy even, I’d never have guessed the state I’d found her in two nights before, if I didn’t know it had happened. It had happened though. She couldn’t be as confident and happy on the inside as she appeared on the outside tonight.

      She brought my burger over.

      “It looks good, thanks.”

      “I hope you enjoy it.”

      She disappeared again, while I ate, but popped back after a little while, to ask if it was okay––in that trying-to-please waitress way.

      It was good though, really succulent and filling, and with my adrenaline still in hyper-drive from my run, I felt my body absorbing and burning off the calories in a gluttonous rush.

      Once I’d eaten I called her over to order another beer. She came across with a big grin on her face. She looked like she was really enjoying herself.

      “Did you like it?”

      “Yeah, it was great. Can I have another beer?”

      “Sure I’ll get you one.”

      It was with me in a moment, and she hovered for a little bit as no one else was waiting.

      “It’s a good place isn’t it,” she commented.

      “Yeah.”

      “Have you eaten here before?”

      “No, I don’t normally go out in the evening, other than to run.”

      “Oh, do you know what you are, Jason Macinlay?”

      “No.”

      “Old before your time … You need to get some excitement in your life and have a little fun. You know far too much about caring for people, and nothing about enjoying life.”

      She was probably right. I smiled.

      “I’m going to change that,” she said to me with a sharp nod, like she vowed it to herself, as well as me. Then she whispered, “I’d better get back to work.”

      I drank my beer watching her again, wondering what sort of life she’d led before the bridge, and wondering again what had sent her there.

      Would she ever trust me enough to tell me? Probably not.

      It didn’t really matter though, as long as she could pick up her life again. As soon as she did, she’d move on, and leave me behind. I didn’t have the same fears Lindy and Mom did. I knew Rachel Shears wasn’t fleecing me.

      I had to stop thinking like I knew her though. I didn’t know her.

      ~

      Jason was watching me. I liked him watching. It felt comforting having him around, like a security blanket.

      The restaurant owner, Joe, had already asked me if that was my boyfriend within five minutes of Jason arriving. I’d said no he was just a friend, but more than half of me wished he was my boyfriend.

      Funny really, because I wasn’t even sure I should call him a friend, we weren’t even that, not really. I was merely his damsel in distress and he was my knight in shining armor. He’d saved me from the monsters in my head two nights ago. I smiled as I caught him watching me across the room, and he smiled back lifting his beer to his mouth again, blushing a little.

      He did look good. He was the best looking guy I’d seen all day, in fact probably all year, and he was so not my usual type––dark, brooding, malicious and older. I chose men who had an ulterior motive and would treat me like crap, because I had this fucking self-destruct button I couldn’t switch off.

      What would it be like to go with a nice, good-looking guy like him. A young good-looking guy.

      God, I really did think we could have fun together. I could make him laugh and smile more often, and forget work, and Lindy, and… Lindy. Of course she was the sticking point. He wasn’t available.

      Life was crap. Sometimes it held everything against you.

      Why couldn’t I have been rescued by a kind, good-looking, single guy? My palms tingled and sensation stirred low in my belly. I wanted sex. Good hard, all-out, sweaty, marathon sex. I shoved the urge aside. Sex always got me into trouble.

      As I carried on serving, feeling his eyes on my back, and my ass, I wondered what he’d said to Lindy tonight, and what she’d said to him. He would have rung. He’d probably called her on the way over here. He wasn’t the sort of guy to let a girl down––too bad.

      I imagined Lindy was one of those girls who’d say, I trust you, it’s her I don’t trust. My mind ran ahead then, with all sorts of cutting phrases she might have said about me.

      She didn’t know me, how could she judge me? By the fact Jason had found me half naked, about to jump off a bridge.

      Of course, he’d had to tell her that.

      Yet I doubted he’d mentioned that he’d treated my hand while I sat naked in his bath. I doubted he’d told her we were sharing a bed either. But I wasn’t giving up sharing his bed. I liked being in it, lying warm near him and listening to his breathing and smelling his smell.

      There was another lull in customers. I was only fifteen minutes off the end of my first shift. I got him another beer and took it over.

      “I thought you might like another.”

      “Thanks, I’m just sat here quietly getting tipsy.”

      “On three beers? You seriously do need to get a life.”

      He laughed.

      His brown eyes looked up at my eyes, and there was a real depth and warmth in them. I don’t remember ever seeing that in any other man’s eyes. There was a slight complimentary smile on his lips, too.

      I couldn’t stop myself, I just wanted to know. I leaned forward and rested my hands on the table, so he’d have a view down my blouse, where my breasts would now be hanging into the lace and satin bra I’d waved at him last night.

      “So what do you say to a long walk home, and taking a detour round Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the way back?”

      His eyes held mine for a moment then glanced down, only for an instant, but even so, when his gaze returned to mine, it was more heated, and his lips had tightened as the muscle in his jaw clenched. It seemed my interest was definitely returned. No matter, there was the small town opinionated Lindy in his life.

      “I’ll say I’m up for that, seeing as you just accused me of being boring.”

      I laughed. “Sorry, a night-time walk round the park ain’t gonna break that boundary. You need to do something more exciting and reckless than that to start living on the wild side, Jason Macinlay.”

      He stuck his tongue out at me, which only gave me an urge to play tonsil hockey with him, but instead I returned to the bar and asked the manager if he wanted me to start cleaning up.

      When the other customers left, Jason went outside too. I told him where the backdoor was, and to wait for me there.

      He was standing there when I came out, and he smiled at me, a broad happy-to-see-you smile. The chef came out after me, looked at Jason and then winked at me. I screwed my face up at him.

      Jason’s hands were firmly in the pockets of his leather jacket and he wore the woolen hat that he’d loaned me last night. His breath came out into the dark night air as steam. It was way below freezing again. Certainly a bit chilly to be walking in a park, but I just fancied doing something with him. I’d enjoyed last night.

      I slotted my arm through his and hugged in tight to him, pretending it was for warmth; it wasn’t.

      We began walking, and