A Life Beyond Yesterday by Clara LaVeaux

Author:Clara LaVeaux
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary, romance, women, romantic, Clara LaVeaux, Eternal Press, Venice Beach, California, summer, suspense, love, actress, man, actor
Publisher: Damnation Books
Published: 2012-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

It had been close to three weeks since I’d spent my first night in Dustin’s bedroom. I had successfully dodged the dangerous territory of “Love” for the time being, and I was finding myself blissful in the current fluid motion of our relationship. We had settled into near daily phone calls and took every free chance we had to immerse ourselves in each other.

Maybe I’ll sneak over to his set after work.

“Miss? Coffee?” The customer’s sharp request jolted me back to reality. I tucked my daydreaming into my pocket for later rescue.

“Comin’ right up,” I said, turning to slide behind the counter where the coffee pots were kept. Did he have decaf or regular? Whatever. A little caffeine never hurt anyone. Not like he’ll be able to tell the difference. I topped off his cup and returned it to his table.

Business was slowing down by mid-morning when I hopped onto one of the barstools at the counter and checked my phone. I was hoping to find a picture of some goings-on from the stage of Dustin’s movie that he would sometimes send me. Instead, my heart fell heavy when I read, “Missed Call, Liz Gauge”. My former Mother-in-law was the last person I wanted to speak to.

My most recent conversation with my brother had revealed that Liz was complaining all over town about how I was out in California flaunting about, practically celebrating her beloved son’s death.

I snapped my cell closed and shoved it back inside the pocket of my apron. I startled at the sound of Natalie cursing into her phone, her back to me and a hand over the ear opposite her phone.

“No. Tonight. You said it’d be tonight. It has to be tonight.” She closed her phone and slid it in her pocket. Still turned away from me, her back began to jump in unison with what I attributed to silent sobs.

I slid behind the bar, wrapped my arm around her, and led her out the back door. She turned and buried her face into my shoulder. Her wet cheeks left dark smudges of deteriorating mascara on my white shirt. With my arms around her, I realized that she’d lost weight since my first day at Duke’s. She’d been thin to begin with, but now her shoulder blades pushed against her skin.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” She spun, pushed through the swinging doors, jogged down the narrow hallway and out the back door. I followed, tight on her heels.

“Natalie, how can I help? I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

She pulled away from me, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“Nothing. I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Her expression blanked, the way a person’s does when they‘d had too much practice at hiding emotions. She turned away and walked past me as if I wasn’t there and went inside, closing the door before I could follow her.

I stood behind the café, staring at the closed door. What was that? Natalie’s behavior had been strange for a few weeks now, but we weren’t close friends, and she didn’t seem to want my help.

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