August & Colin | WRU series | book 1
We take risks. We make mistakes. We lie. We love. We hurt. We lose total control.
I took a risk. I paid the price.
I made a mistake. I felt the guilt.
I lied. I lie.
I loved. I try not to.
I hurt. I still do.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Marcia looks up as I enter the restaurant, her smile immediately brightening my day. "Perfect timing." She claps her hand together, ready to shower me with tasks to ready the restaurant for the evening shift.
"Good afternoon to you too." She waves my mocking greeting away as if to say 'yeah, yeah, sure' before continuing whatever I interrupted.
"August's been in the basement for quite a while so I'm betting she can't find the bottles of wine I asked her to bring. I was just about to check on her but since you're here, you can spare my back from snapping in half. Kids give you grey hair but this job just wrecks your body."
I tilt my head sideways. "Grey hair? Hadn't noticed."
"Really?" Her joyful eyes land on my teasing grin. "You little bastard." She snaps the towel she's holding in my direction and I scurry away, laughing.
"Grey hair or not, you look good. I'm guessing the little one figured out how to sleep through the nights?" I ask as I hang my jacket on the coat rack.
"Thank god. I was about to lose my mind because of the sleep deprivation she caused me."
"I hear it. Pain in the ass like her mother."
She points her index finger at me and even though she angrily squints her eyes at me, I can see the humor in them. "Keep talking and the next time you babysit her I'll whisper in her ear to be one to you. See who'll laugh the last."
I hold up my hands in defense as I imagine her 5-month-old daughter crying at an ear-damaging volume throughout the evening. "You win."
"You bet I do. Now hurry up, I reckon she's staring herself blind down there."
I hop down the stairs and stop dead in my tracks when the basement comes into my view.
What. The. Fuck.
I blink a few times as I take in the scenery in front of me.
One of the tables in the basement of the restaurant is lying on the ground. One side up, one side down, two table legs still standing whilst the other two are helplessly lying next to its broken body. Everything that was standing on the table is now scattered on the ground and covered in frying oil that's slowly spreading across the floor. And amid this whole mess, August is sitting there, covered in oil and furiously narrowing her eyes at me.
"If you laugh I will kill you."
"I wouldn't dare to." I press my lips together trying my best to hold it in.
"Good." Even though her answer consists of only one word, the tone of her voice is harsh enough to declare the whole message.
Don't you fucking dare.
I wish I could take the warning more seriously so it'd be easier to push back the fit of laughter building up inside my chest but when her hands slip away in her attempt to crawl onto her feet, I lose it.
