When we leave the diner, every man at the table leaves a huge tip for Cali.It’s way more than what we’d leave anyone else.Cali is gonna give us all shit for it, but we won’t take the money back from her.She deserves every single penny of the money we gave her and no one will tell us otherwise.To make sure I don’t get in trouble with her, I head to the clubhouse long enough to grab my costume for the haunted house before heading over there to go over everything.I want to make sure it’s all still in perfect order for tonight’s crowd to walk through.
Chapter Twenty-One
Caliana
WELL, THE CLUB officiallyknows I’m working at the diner.I wasn’t expecting them to find out so soon, but there’s nothing I can do about it now.While I didn’t want them to find out so soon, it wasn’t like I was hiding it from them either.Sam, Playboy, and Kreed know I’m here because they were at the house when I got ready to leave for my first shift.Kreed will keep my secret because he’s used to keeping them for Caleb and myself.He’s always been the keeper of our secrets and never once spilled anything.Well, for the most part.Anyway, I honestly love working at the diner.Especially knowing I get to work with Maysen.She’s the young girl Luca can’t take his eyes off.Honestly, she reminds me of myself when I was younger.Hell, even now she reminds me of myself.
Maysen is only slightly taller than I am, but still short in comparison to the other women working with us today.Her long brown hair is up in the usual bun I always see her wearing and she has to constantly push her glasses up her nose.Again, she’s not wearing any make-up on her face and she looks beautiful without it.Maysen always smiles at her customers and the waitresses talking to her, but it never reaches her eyes.The only time it does is when she looks at Luca.That’s when Maysen goes from beautiful to absolutely stunning.Today, her clothing is way too big for her and covered in stains I don’t want to think about.Luca doesn’t care though.When they were eating their lunch, I caught him staring at Maysen more than a few times.Caught her watching him too.Matchmaker Cali is definitely coming out to play for these two.
“Maysen, how do you like working here?”I ask the young girl when we finally get a few minutes to ourselves.
Our tables have been on a constant rotation of emptying and filling back up with customers for hours now and our shift is almost over with.Maysen and I are scoring with our tips while the other two waitresses are barely making a penny.I’m glad we don’t have to split our tips here because it wouldn’t be fair to Maysen or me.We’re busting our asses while they aren’t doing damn thing.
“I love it here.I’ve got a few regular customers who come in every time I’m working.Mostly older couples during breakfast and lunch.It’s always nice when the club comes in too.They make me feel safe,” Maysen answers me and I know without a doubt she’s got trouble in her life and someone is hurting her.
“That’s really nice to hear.From what Reckless just said, you and I will be the club’s waitresses when we’re on shift.They don’t want anyone else.You good with that?”I ask her, needing to know how she feels about the club before I think about her and Luca.
“I’m okay with that.Those guys are so nice and always generous with their tips.Are you close to the club?”she asks me, her neck and cheeks turning pink and I know she’s thinking of Luca.
“I’m very close to the club.Reckless and Link are my best friends.I’ve known them since I was eight years old.I can tell you anything about either one of them.The rest of the men I’m close to as well.Most of them served with my husband, Reckless, and Link,” I answer her honestly since it’s only the two of us.
“I didn’t know you were married,” she says, smiling wistfully at me as I look at her with a sad smile of my own.
“Iwasmarried.I’m a widow now.My husband was killed while deployed.It happened almost a year ago.On Halloween which was his favorite holiday.He was trying to get to Link when he was killed.We have two children together.A son who is almost nine years old now and a daughter who isn’t even one.He never got the chance to meet his daughter before he lost his life,” I tell Maysen honestly because she won’t spread my business around to the other employees here.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, her smile vanishing completely as she looks anywhere but at me.
“It’s okay, Maysen.I loved Darren as my best friend.In the end, things weren’t the best between the two of us.I will always love him and mourn the loss of him.Darren was also one of my best friends in school.Things happened between us and we got married because I got pregnant with my son.I am in love with someone, but nothing will ever happen between the two of us.Eventually, I’ll find someone who will love me, but right now my focus is my children and a situation I have going on,” I tell her, because Maysen is very easy to talk to.
“Um, so you know that younger guy that was in here today.I think I’ve seen him in here with you before too,” she asks about Luca while looking at her nails instead of me.
“I do know him.Luca is his name.He just turned eighteen and is a Prospect for the club.I spend a lot of time with him because of my current situation.He loves my kids and is one of the sweetest guys I’ve ever met in my life.I won’t go into detail, but he’s not had an easy life so far.It’s only been since he was brought into the clubhouse that his life has changed in a positive way,” I inform Maysen as her face drops when I mention his hard life.
“He seems really sweet.And he’s cute,” she says, her face turning even redder than before at her admission.
“He is cute.I can give him your number if you want me to,” I tell her, not sure if they’ll ever approach one another without some help from me or someone else.
