We hear a knock at the door, and Lacey walks over to open it.
“Lacey, my dear, what is the meaning of all this?” says a large man with a big stomach and a white hat.
“Jim, this is Chastity, our new waitress. Chastity, this is Jim, the owner.” She gestures from one of us to the other. I square my shoulders, there in bare feet, and open my mouth.
“Hello sir,” I say quickly. “Nice to meet you. I quit.”
Twenty-One
Chastity
I push past the owner, as he stares at me with his mouth open.
“That was one of the quickest turnarounds I’ve ever had in this place,” I hear him say wonderingly. Lacey’s quickly saying something back to him but I’m too far gone to be able to distinguish her words.
I’m still in my slutty outfit, and I’m carrying my comfortable shoes in my hands and my purse over my shoulder. I just want to get out of here and away from the embarrassment as soon as possible. Nothing has ever sounded sweeter to me than the click of the door as it shuts behind me. Shielding my eyes from the sunlight, I look for my car in the lot.
Right beside it is a big yellow truck.
Oh, shit.
I pad over intending to go to my car, and halfway there I realize the pavement isn’t getting any cooler and my keys are lost somewhere in my purse. Wrecker’s truck is my only hope. I’m in immediate panic mode. I run the rest of the way to the passenger door, yelling, “Ouch ouch ouch,” the whole time. Did I say something about having a shred of dignity? Because I think I just gave that up.
I knock on the door frantically, dancing around to try to protect my poor tortured feet. Kanen opens it up for me and I jump in.
“Why you dancing around like that, Chastity?” he says, puzzled, until I hold up my shoes. “Oh that’s not such a good idea,” he says softly. “The pavement gets pretty hot this time of year in the Texas sun.”
“So I’ve realized,” I say. “It gets hot in Canada too, but that was unreal. Jeepers that hurts.”
“Let me see your feet,” he says. I cross one leg over the other and I see it’s all angry-looking and burned. He looks at it doubtfully. “That’s not good, Chastity. You’re going to be laid up for a little while.”
“Well that should be no problem. After all, I don’t have a job to go to anymore!” I say with false brightness. My family’s always been into dry humor to deal with problems. “Perfect!”
He looks at me with concern in his eyes. “Oh, Chastity, I’m so sorry.”
His voice is filled with such sincerity and concern that I realize how much feeling I’ve been pushing down while pretending to be okay. I fight back the tears again. His hand goes on my shoulder, and this time, even with the electrical charge between us, the dominant feeling that comes through his hand is concern, and dare I say it? Love.
“It’s okay,” I blubber. “I’ll be fine!” This last ends up as a wail, and Kanen pulls me in his arms and rubs my shoulder as I wet the front of his T-shirt with my tears. “Really, I’m fine!” I say, as his hands stroke my back through the thin fabric of my slutty waitressing shirt. “I’m okay-ay-ay,” I cry.
“Everything’s going to be all right, Canada,” he whispers, softly kissing my hair and holding me tightly but gently in his arms. “Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart.”
Where did he learn to be so supportive, I wonder as he whispers and strokes and kisses me. I completely relax in his arms, just happy to be taken care of for once. I’ve never felt this kind of togetherness with a man before. He just gives me love without pretense. I look up at him, and he wipes underneath my eyes with his thumb, and I realize my eyeliner must be everywhere. I see that it’s made a big black splotch on his shirt, and I start crying again.
“I’ve ruined your shirt!” I choke out. “Goddamn it.” It feels like the last straw. Can’t I do anything right? Gah! I try to pull away in frustration but he pulls me close again. I can feel by the way his body i
s shaking that he’s laughing.
“Oh Chastity,” he says. “It’s just a T-shirt, and you’re my sweet little raccoon...” Oh man, I must look a treat. I start laughing too. If there’s anything I wasn’t hoping for it’s to lose all my dignity and to look like a complete ass in front of the man I love.
Love? Oh no, Chastity, you’re in for it now. I freeze in his arms. Did I really think that? Oh man.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, pulling away a bit to look at me and then holding me close again. The kisses begin on my head, and then he bends and kisses my cheek, and soon he’s kissing away the tears that are falling, as I realize I’m in further than I thought. Please, treat me right, Kanen, I think as I look into his eyes through the tears that are sitting on my lashes.
“Nothing,” I finally say, and then start laughing again. When he stops kissing me, I realize that my feet really hurt, and it is bad.
“Yeah,” he says. “Those look like second, maybe third degree burns, Chas,” he says, looking again. “Maybe we should go to the hospital.”
“The hospital,” I say slowly. “But my health insurance is pretty terrible. It’s travel insurance, and the deductible is ridiculous. I think I should just go home and take care of it myself. Maybe go to the drugstore and grab something for burns?”