Transition - Delta's Triad

[ 6 ]

[ Rain ]

“So, what do you think?” I glanced over at Adam and shrugged. “Come on, Rain…it’s just dinner,” I threw him a quick thumbs up and went back to the board. “Is that a, yes?” he asked, and I nodded. I wasn’t sure why he wanted to have dinner with me. “Great…when is your next off?” he asked as he came and stood next to me. I pointed at the schedule and hid my smile. I already knew that I didn’t have an ‘off’ for at least two more weeks. “Oh,” he muttered, and his face fell with disappointment. “Well, what’s the point of being the boss, if I can’t change it, hmm?” he walked away, and I rolled my eyes before I turned to see him sitting down behind the desk. I already knew what he was going to do so I put up my hand to stop him as I picked up my discarded phone from the desk. I quickly opened up the note app and typed out my suggestion before showing it to him.

✎How about lunch instead?

“Now that is a great idea,” he said with a smile. “How about tomorrow?” I simply nodded as I shoved my phone into my pocket. “Great,” I wish the man would leave already. I had a ton of work to do, and he wasn’t helping. “How is the move going?” he then asked casually and I internally groaned as I shrugged. “This communication thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be,” I heard him whisper and I silently agreed. “I guess…well, I guess I could ask Wyatt to teach me how to sign,” I left the office, pretending to not have heard him. The music coming from the front was loud, but I ignored the beat as I poked my head around the corner. The coffee bar was closed but the non-alcoholic bar was open and quite busy. Both Noah and James were working hard to help all of the customers. The dance floor was packed, and I watched the moving bodies for a moment before I headed to the kitchen. Harper – the sous chef – was yelling out orders while Ben and William did their best to keep up. Harper was the only one – other than Wyatt – that could communicate with me via sign. She spotted me and waved me over.

“Don’t these kids have something better to do on a weeknight?” she asked me, and I shrugged. King’s Apple was most popular for teenagers, but I had to admit, it was always chaotic, no matter what day of the week it was.

“Do you need a hand with anything?” I asked her and she quickly looked around the kitchen.

“Not at the moment…but I’ll call if I need you,” I nodded at that and left them to it. I didn’t bother going back to the office because I knew Adam hadn’t left yet and that in itself was annoying. So, I went back to the front and squeezed my way past the crowd to get outside. I knew that within the next hour or so, the crowd would slowly head on home.

“Rain?” I turned to see Wyatt coming up the sidewalk. I smiled warmly at him, but he barely returned the gesture. “Busy tonight?” he asked when he stopped in front of me, his eyes glued to the busy café. I simply nodded as I glanced toward the ocean. I breathed in the smell of the sea and closed my eyes for a moment. “Everything alright?” I was surprised by his question, so when I looked at him, I half expected him to be looking at me. He wasn’t. I reached out to touch his arm and then signed.

“Adam asked me out,” Wyatt paled, and a small glimmer of hope grew inside of me.

“He did…hmm, well, what did you say?” his question was asked carefully, so I wasn’t sure what to think.

“I said yes,” Wyatt didn’t say anything after that and the two of us stood together in silence.

“I’m going to pick up my order…have a good night,” he then said before he went inside. The man was just so secretive that I had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. He had mastered the art of the ‘blank expression’. I shrugged and headed back in to finish up my shift.

[[ ]]

I glanced at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and sighed. I suppose this was as good as it was going to get. My lunch date with Adam wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I had already said yes, and I couldn’t think of any excuse to get out of it. I fixed my hair one more time and then headed out of the bathroom to grab my jacket, keys, and phone before I headed out. Adam had sent me a text earlier that he would pick me up from the café, so after I had locked up, I made the short walk to the café. I didn’t see his car anywhere, but I was also a bit early. Instead of going inside, I took a seat at one of the outside tables and took out my phone.

“Would you like to order anything, Rain?” Chasity asked me as she came out and I quickly shook my head before throwing her a smile. My phone suddenly went off and I glanced down to see a message from Kevin – a friend from back home.

✉Kevin: Have you spoken to Gareth or Seff yet?

I frowned at his message and looked around. After seeing that Adam still hadn’t arrived, I texted him back.

✉Rain: No, not yet.

Kevin’s response was instantaneous.

✉Kevin: Well, why not? You’ve been there for almost a month, Rain!

✉Rain: I know, but it isn’t easy to explain my situation to either of them. What makes you think they will even help me?

✉Kevin: Why wouldn’t they?

✉Rain: I have a place of my own already. What is the point of bothering them?

It was a fair question. I was well aware that Seff had built a place for those needing shelter, but I wasn’t a wolf. I wasn’t even supernatural. That meant my problems had nothing to do with them. I didn’t belong in their world.

“Rain! I am so sorry I am late,” I heard his voice and I looked up to see Adam rushing toward me. I smiled at him as I watched him sit down across from me. As far as I knew, he was taking me someplace else for lunch. “Something came up, would you mind if we had lunch here instead?” I gave him a thumbs up and then he was waving at someone. I had to assume that it was either Chasity or Isabella.

“Hey, Adam,” Chasity greeted as she looked between the two of us.

“Ah…what would you like to drink?” Adam then asked me, and I turned to Chasity.

“Strawberry milkshake,” I signed to her. I was surprised to hear Adam grunt in irritation, but I ignored him. It had been just two days ago that I had given some of the staff some sign knowledge. Chasity had been one of them.

“That’s a milkshake,” she said slowly, and I nodded encouragingly. “Um…chocolate?” I shook my head no. “Strawberry?” I quickly nodded and she relaxed as she wrote down my order. “And for you, Adam?”

“I’ll have a vanilla latte with extra cream and a dash of cinnamon,” he said so coldly that it made me feel uncomfortable.

“Ok, I’ll be back with your drinks and then I’ll take your food order,” and with that Chasity rushed back inside. I peeked over at Adam, who had taken out his phone and was busy with whatever. When he finally looked at me, he at least had the decency to look apologetic.

“Sorry, I got a call from this investor that I had been waiting on, and…you know timing is everything,” I simply nodded at his statement, and he smiled. “What would you like to eat?” he asked and, despite not having the menu in front of me, I already knew. The problem was, how was I going to tell him? I quickly took out my phone and opened up my notes.

✎Roast chicken salad with extra mayo

“They do make the best salad, don’t they?” he said after reading my note. I nodded and leaned back in my seat. Chasity came back with our drinks and carefully set them down in front of us.

“Ready to order?” she asked as she looked between us.

“Yes, Rain will have the roast chicken salad and I’ll have toasted cheese and tomato,” I waited for him to add the fact that I wanted extra mayo, but when Chasity left, I huffed out in annoyance. “So, how was your night?” he asked but I could see that he was distracted. I shrugged in response, but he missed the action when his phone rang. He didn’t even excuse himself as he jumped up and walked away to take the call.

“Is this a date?” Chasity asked me softly and I was startled by her sudden appearance. “Sorry,” she looked over to where Adam was now standing – across the street in the parking lot – and shook her head. “What a d**k,” I reached out and touched her arm to grab her attention.

“Yes,” I signed, and she laughed.

“You need to teach us more of that,” she remarked. “Anyway, is this a date?” she asked, and I nodded. “Girl…why?”

“I don’t know,” I signed as I shook my head and Chasity looked grim.

“I did tell Mia that you wanted extra mayo,” I couldn’t help but smile at that but before I could do anything else, Adam returned.

“Everything alright?” he asked as he looked at her.

“Yes, I just saw you leave so I thought I would just ask Rain about my shift,” the lie fell so easily from her lips, and I frowned as I diverted my attention to the milkshake in front of me.

“Work issues can be discussed another time, Chasity,” he scolded. “Rain and I are on a lunch date,” I wanted to desperately run away at the sound of him boasting to a fellow employee.

“Sorry…anyway, let me go check on your order,” she left us alone and I just somehow knew that this whole lunch date had been a mistake.

“I’m sorry, Rain,” Adam whispered, and I glanced over at him in surprise. “This wasn’t at all how I had planned for this to go,” he admitted, and I shrugged. “Would you please give me another chance? This whole investor business threw me off because I hadn’t been expecting them to get back to me…not at least for another week and this is important to me,” he looked apologetic and torn and my resolve pushed at me a little bit. “You are important to me too, so please, can we try this again?”

“It’s ok. We can try again another time,” I signed to him, and I didn’t miss the look of frustration on his face. However, he did see the ‘ok’ sign and relaxed a tiny bit.

“And would you teach me some of that?” he asked, and I simply nodded. I didn’t want to teach him anything. “How about on that off night of yours, I take you out?” I froze at his suggestion for our next date and before I could come up with an excuse, Chasity had returned with our order.

“Here you go, roast chicken salad with extra mayo,” she said with a wink as she placed the plate down in front of me. “Toasted cheese and tomato for you,” she almost threw the plate at him, but luckily, he didn’t notice as he was once again looking at his phone.

“Thanks,” he muttered before he finally looked at me again. I avoided his gaze as I dug into the salad. Worst first date ever.