Black Rose

Chapter 5

    Rapidly, I made the strawberry shortcakes avoiding April’s smile the entire time. “There you go.” I told Jamie, sliding the two plates in front of him. “You need anything else?”

    With his index finger, he tapped the table several times. “Yeah.” He then pointed at the empty chair in front of him. “I need you to sit there.”

    I leaned closer to him. “Wait, what?”

    Jamie nodded, “Sit there.” I looked around the diner almost as if expecting someone to have heard him. “Just two minutes.”

    Sighing deeply, I slid into the seat. Jamie sat with his hands clasped together resting on the table. “Why are you smiling so hard?” I asked, sitting on the edge of my seat.

    A sniffle came from Jamie’s nose as he slid one of the plates in my direction. “I just think it’s funny how you were faking your kindness earlier. Do you do this with all your customers?” Slowly, he unraveled the napkin and pulled out a fork.

    “No, I just gave you that special service.”

    “Oh yeah?”

    “Yeah.”

    Staring at me with a slight smile, he pressed the fork into a strawberry. Suddenly feeling insecure, I looked away. “You can go right now if you do one thing.” My hands squeezed my knees. “Eat this strawberry.” I stared at the red fruit that sat on the edge of the fork.

    “You’re kidding me?”

    Unexpectedly, Jamie began to make plane noises as he moved the fork in front of him. Rolling my eyes, I reached out to take the fork.

    “Nu uh.” He tsked at me, shaking his head. I stared at the curls that shook along his forehead. “Say, ‘Ah.’”

    I tilted my head to show him how annoyed I was but deliberately widened my mouth. Within seconds, he slipped the strawberry inside. There was no time to respond when music suddenly began playing.

    We quickly made eye contact before he looked down and pulled a phone from his pocket. “Ooh,” He moaned squinting his eyes after checking the number. “I have to go, sweetcakes.”

    Jamie’s eyebrows lifted at me. “You’ll eat these for me?”

    “Jamie, you literally came here to harass me.” As I spoke, he pulled a bundle of dollar bills from the same pocket he took his phone from.

    “Mhm,” Standing from his seat, he took the fork he fed me with and popped a strawberry into his own mouth. My eyes grew as I realized what he had just done. “Catch you later.” Giving me one last smile, he placed the money on the table and exited the diner.