the sleepless elite

xiii

 the sleepless elite

;;

chapter thirteen

;;

"Hi!" She greets enthusiastically at one of Chase Redford's co-workers, flashing a charming smile.

"Hey!" He says to her, dark eyes twinkling with amusement, friendly looking and somewhat mischievous. He doesn't stop walking though, and his clothes as stained with grease as he has this brief window of time to talk to her, before he says, "Good-bye!"

"Leaving so soon?"

"I have a few errands to run."

"Okay, see you later then!" Darling Charming calls as soon as he passes by her on the way out of Chase warehouse. She would have waved at him if not for the fact that her hands were occupied with her helmet and packed lunch.

He gives her a salute then goes off on his merry way.

Darling doesn't exactly remember his name, she's nicknamed him 'Bagel Guy' for obvious reasons, but he's been stopping by Chase's warehouse an awful lot. Honestly, Darling thinks Bagel Guy has just been coming around to geek out on motorcycle facts with her and Chase and, eat free leftover bagels.

"I like Bagel Guy, he seems cool." Darling says as she walks towards Chase with her helmet tucked under her arm.

Chase points out, wiping grease from his hands. "Just last week you thought he was mad for liking Math."

"Liking Math is maddening! How can you not think Bagel Guy isn't mad?"

"He has a name, Darling. You can't keep calling him 'Bagel Guy' forever." Chase remark, the sternness in a voice that makes Darling roll her eyes.

"Bagel guy –" Darling speaks as she places her helmet on the floor by an organized worktable.

"His name is Ace Spades." Chase corrects, moving in a way to he up a clean spot for them to eat lunch and chat. It's been almost clockwork since Chase had allowed Darling to spend time here many months ago.

"Really? Sounds fancy." Darling replies, juggling the lunch,

"Coming from a person named 'Darling Charming'?" Chase teases.

Ace Spades, the co-worker who told Chase the science of Darling's flirting lies in cream-cheese bagels, likes to drop by Chase's warehouse to geek out and swap information about the latest motorcycles with Darling while stealing some left-over food.

"Anyway, before you interrupted me." Darling says and then tossed Chase sandwiches packed in a brown paper bag. "Why did Ace come over and not stay?"

"Oh," Chase replies, pulling up a chair for her to sit like a gentleman. She utters a soft 'thank you' before he sits across her and unwraps his lunch. "Ace wanted to tell me about a job opportunity."

"A job opportunity?" Darling echoes, her blue eyes shining with interest. She doesn't reach for her food yet, she's too interested in the conversation to invest in anything else.

"Yeah, apparently Ace says I should take it."

"Really, now?"

"Hmm," Chase mutters and chews before talking again. "Apparently the company is giving out opportunities for us to test out bikes –"

Darling interrupts Chase this time like how he had with her earlier, "But you already do that," then she uncaps her thermos just to do something. She should really drink it though, considering it's January and the middle of a very cold Winter.