the sleepless elite

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the sleepless elite

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chapter five

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You're the magician's assistant in their dreams

– Vance Joy, Riptide

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Can we meet up? Chase Redford reads the question several hours later. Hours and hours and hours later then he would have liked because he's a busy man, testing bikes for a living.

But when he does get to the message, he feels his mouth drop. Because, holy shit! Holy heck!

He never thought no-man's-land would be the one reaching out to see him. He never thought he'd be worth such a question from someone so cool. But now that it's happened, Chase was determined to impress the guy, the owner of the White Knight.

Racking his brain for a good spot to meet, Chase goes through a mental list of places where two guys can casually hang out and talk about motorcycles until someone gets tired.

A light bulb flickers above his head and Chase's fingers fly across the screen. He replies with lightning speed, Sure! Let's meet at the Rabbit Hole.

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With a nicely iron shirt on, jeans and polished shoes, Chase sits at the Rabbit Hole bar, waiting. His mind is all over the place. Did he over-dress? Was the shirt too much? Wait, what if he under-dressed? He was wearing his work shoes after all, the ones with steeled-toe shoes just in case someone backs up and crushes his feet.

Chase chews the inside of his cheek, nursing his beer. He's early. Way too early – ten minutes actually. He's so tempted to take out his phone and browse social media but he also doesn't want to accidentally miss no-man's-land and let the guy walk pass him.

His head is still filled with worrying thoughts when Chase feels someone tap him on the shoulder.

He turns and is met, face to face, with a girl with long silver-ish blonde hair. She was dressed in jeans, a Leatherman jacket thrown over a plain shirt and silver wedges. He's taken aback by her beauty.

She's pretty. Chase thinks to himself.

"You're early." She says then places a hand on her heart. "Phew, I thought I was going to wait here forever. I got too excited and couldn't wait."

"Um, what?" He hums then frowns, suddenly remembering why he came to the Rabbit Hole to begin with. He convinces himself he doesn't have time to chat with this girl. He came here to meet no-man's-land and see the White Knight in person, not flirt.

"What?" She echoes back then she sees how conflicted he is.

He shakes his head at her. "I'm sorry, I can't buy you a drink."

"Oh." She says and blinks then offers him a smile. "Then at least let me buy you a drink."

So not only was she pretty, apparently, she was charming too. But Chase is determined to not let himself get pulled into other engagements.

"Sorry, but, I think we should stop this. I'm meeting someone here. Please, leave me be." Chase says as politely as he can when rejecting someone.

Her smile drops and her blue eyes filled with confusion. "But you agreed to meet up with me. You can't just cancel the moment I show up."