Page 10 of Diners, Damsels & Wolves

A shiver ran over her, eyes filling with tears. Everything that happened came crashing down on her. Curling in on herself, she cried until she fell asleep.

Three

Clarissa

Faint orange peeked over the trees surrounding the lot. Gravel crunching under her feet was the only sound in the early morning. It felt grating on her ears, the headache from the night, working at The Barrel intensified by her bad night of sleep. After walking in a circle for more than twenty minutes, Clarissa gave up. The necklace wasn’t there.

Grumpy and tired, she made her way into Donna’s Diner. The comforting pale pink of the walls enveloped her as she stashed her purse away. Pausing, she took a moment to check her reflection. Bad idea.

The walk in the cool morning hadn’t woken her up as much as she hoped. The dark circles under her eyes were magnified against her skin, pink from the cold wind. She’d put some concealer on before leaving the house, but it only did so much. Sighing, she resolved this was as good as she was going to get today.

“Morning, Claire.” Sylvia walked in and Clarissa frowned at the nickname.

“Morning, how’s the kiddo?” she asked.

“Oh, he’s fine. Picked out green for his cast and drew aliens on it with a Sharpie. He’s staying at the grandparents’ today, then back to school on Monday. How was the rest of your shift after I left?”

“It was fine,” Clarissa lied. “Same old, same old.”

“Well, you ready for the same old one more time?”

“You betcha.”

They settled in to tackle the morning rush. She and Sylvia had been working mornings together for over three years now. They had a seamless system in place and knew how to work together without stepping on each other’s toes. Clarissa hadn’t even noticed the time or the fact that she’d mentally checked out, until Sylvia came up to her in the back room.

“Claire? Hellooo, you in there?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said there’s a gentleman sitting in my section who asked about you.” She smirked. “He’s not too bad looking, if a married lady is allowed to look. I told him I had to check if you were in today in case you didn’t actually know him because he didn’t have your name, just a description of you. Oh, please tell me you know him, preferably on the carnal level.”

“A man is asking for me?” The blood drained from her face and her skin went cold.

“Are you okay?”

“Does he have blonde hair?”

“No, his hair is red. Hey, did something happen? Why are you freaking out?” Sylvia asked.

“Oh, thank God, it’s not him.”

“Him who, did something happen?” Sylvia placed a hand on her shoulder, concern lining her face.

Reluctantly, Clarissa told her a brief and slightly edited version of her encounter with Alister.

“And you came into work today? What if he was waiting for you here? Claire, you should have told us, we’d have all kept an eye out for you. Those stalker types are serious business.”

“I know, I just … didn’t want to deal with it.”

Sylvia pursed her lips but didn’t press the issue. “Well, the guy asking for you definitely isn’t this creep who attacked you. Who do you think he is?”

“That’s a good question.” Clarissa frowned.

“You don’t think … maybe it’s the good Samaritan. Come to check on his damsel in distress.”

“Real life doesn’t work that way,” Clarissa said.

“No, but it could, they had to get the ideas for fairytales somewhere.”