Resilience: Puerto Rico by Sasha L. Miller

Author:Sasha L. Miller [(Editor), Sasha L. Miller]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA, Romance, Anthology
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2018-01-31T00:00:00+00:00

Sleepwalking and the

Single Girl

STEPHANIE RABIG

Tamara and Amber

He was definitely following her.

Tamara swallowed hard and ducked her head, picking up her pace. She glanced from side to side, looking for a store that might be able to provide temporary sanctuary. To the left, across the street, was her favorite used bookstore, but it was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place and the owner was in her eighties. If this was going to turn into trouble, she couldn't bring it in there.

Glancing back, Tamara saw that the man was closing the distance between them. Desperate, she swerved into the Starbucks on the corner.

There was a line of three people waiting to get coffee; seven people sat at the tables around the building, talking with their companions or typing on their phones or laptops.

If she was braver, she wouldn't have come in here. She'd turn and confront the jerk, make some snappy comment that'd get him to back off and just go about her day.

But she remembered her sister Georgie's words— "What a lot of people call 'brave' just means 'no common sense'"— and scurried up to the counter. There were two workers there; a young man who was currently taking orders, and a woman about her age who was preparing drinks.

"Hey," she hissed. "There's a guy following me. What do I—"

She hesitated, taken aback by the fury in the woman's eyes. She had seen the rainbow pin on Tamara's shirt, the same as the man had. Was she…?

Then the woman grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side, where the counter opened up to let the employees in and out. "Get down."

The rage hadn't been directed at her, Tamara realized, as the door opened again. She sat with her back pressed to the counter, silently counting backwards from fifty the way Georgie had taught her to do when she was upset or frightened.

"Hello, sir," the woman said, her voice bright and sharp as a well-tended blade. "Welcome to Starbucks."

He grunted something in reply, and Tamara could imagine him standing there, wondering if she was in the bathroom and debating about waiting her out.

Waiting her out. Oh god, what if he sat down at a table and waited?

She heard the door close again and looked up at the woman in a panic, silently asking if he'd been the one to leave. The woman nodded, a reassuring smile on her face. Tamara waited another moment before getting to her feet, just to make sure she wouldn't drop back down again now that the sudden relief had made her bones saggy.

"Everything okay?" the young man asked, stepping back to start making drinks now that the current orders were taken.

"Yeah. I'm gonna take my break a few minutes early; you all right here?"

"I'll wave if it gets bad."

"Thanks, Jeremy." The woman— Amber, her nametag said— walked over to a table and sat down, motioning across from her.

Tamara sat, letting out a sigh.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I think so. Freaked me out."

Amber nodded. "Had a guy circle the block four or five times when I was walking home in high school so he could honk and yell at me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.