A Slave to Broken Hearts (A Slave to Love Sequel)

Chapter 48: Paranoia

"Guess who has a rare scheduled evening off?" Ace said the second I answered his call, before I could even say 'hello' or anything else for that matter. 

"Hmm, can't be you," I said, adjusting my bag and heading up the street from the bus stop to work, trying to hustle before I was late and ruined my reputation for being punctual and to get away from the blazing hot sun.

"It can, in fact, be me! At least for now and hopefully no one needs anything from me from now till this evening, which leads me to my question of; what are we doing tonight? And tell me quick before Jaime finds me and tells me I have something else to do." 

I laughed. "Sorry, unfortunately, you may be free tonight but I'm not. Blade is coming over for some one on one self defense after I finish work," I said, trying not to sound too disappointed by it. Hanging with Ace was way more fun than being stuck with Blade and I was seriously regretting agreeing to self defense without Lexi.

"One on one? Where's Lexi?" he asked, "Isn't she supposed to be there to make sure you don't kill each other accidentally?"

"Date night with Alek," I explained, "Katie's going out with Noah so we figured might as well spend some time at my apartment, then he can go off on his merry way till the next time we have to see each other."

"Sounds fun...for Lexi and Katie anyway."

"Right?" 

"I can't believe I have an actual scheduled evening off and my only friend is busy," he said with a sigh. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Take this opportunity to make new friends who have more flexible schedules and don't need to waste their evenings on ex-boyfriends?"

"That sounds like a lot of work."

"So five hundred years old is when you vamps start slowing down huh? Too old to party and socialize anymore? You just wanna curl up by the fire with your blood bag and a Sesame Street straw and be in bed by nine?"

"I know you're making fun of me, but damn that really does sound perfect right about now honestly." 

"Guess you found your plan for the evening then," I said, sighing in relief when I entered the airconditioned café finally, waving to Mike who was pouring out a fresh cup of coffee for the Havisham ladies. "Alright, I gotta go, I'm about to start work."

"Fine, leave me all by my lonesome." 

"I will, have a good night! Try to get some sleep for once."

"Yeah, yeah, bye," he said before hanging up and I flew to the back to get ready for work.

Another day at work, another day counting down the minutes till I'd see Blade and yet another day of wishing I could cancel and hide. At least Mike making fun of me and my bandages from my skateboarding incident and how busy it was had been a welcome distraction so far, but the closer it came to my shift being over, the more stressed I became.

Which only multiplied when the door chimed and in walked Abby.

Normally, that would put me in a good mood, but not today. My drunken girls night suddenly came screaming back to me and I had a split second of regret that I hadn't drank enough to obliterate the memory completely, because I may as well have been standing in Hell for how hot I suddenly felt.

There she was, all pretty and purple haired, smiling bigger when she caught my eye, waving enthusiastically and completely unaware of the utter crisis I was suddenly facing once more, the one that I had managed to successfully squash down until this very moment.

Shit, shit, shit. What had Lexi done to me? What in the stupid pretty vampire voodoo magical bullshit--

"You're drooling," Mike said, bumping me with his hip out of his way as he went to serve his customers. "Get to work before I have to break out the mop."