written by Shan R.K

In the acts of love, we should never reveal too much, because sometimes our hearts can be scary, and for others it can be short-lived, and undecided.

If you think I’m lying, then remember that first love, the one you felt would be your only true love. Most of you reading this would think, hmmm, what is she getting at, and others would be like yes, I do.

Do you recall how head over heels you were, only to fall short in the end? Maybe he dumped you, or she ran away, or left for a brighter future. Maybe they still see you, but now they’re holding Sally’s hand, and she has great tits. You go home crushed, and you cry it out over some wine, or ice-cream, depending on preference, and age of course, but sooner or later you meet another, and another, and it repeats. Now while some have dated a few, there are others who have dated a lot of Jakes and Connors.

Whichever way your story goes, let us know.

But for now — Charlie’s story was a complicated mess, because while Lyle Horton wasn’t her first in anything, he was still a juicy forbidden fruit and she knew it from the first time she met him at sixteen and she knew it years later, standing outside his restaurant, staring at the ‘Lyle’s Prawns and compliments.’

Chapter 1

Charlie

If there was another way to stock up my fridge, pay my rent, buy gas, and cover my three-months overdue student loan, I would take it.

I didn’t come here because I wanted to see him. Although the sudden rise of my beating heart told another version… I was sticking to the rehearsed one— I needed a job pronto. It’s not like I was offered my dream job, or my dream job was offered to me. In fact— These last few months were like stepping into a complex equation I didn’t know how to solve.

My landlord knocked like he was on a sitcom about to do a home raid because the cop part was the only thing real about him. And that said a lot. I couldn’t ignore the guy, or just not pay. He was a good guy until you didn’t pay. And I couldn’t pay.

Three years abroad for a degree that looked pretty on paper and was almost impossible to work with? Yeah, that was me. I checked all the broke-girl boxes.

“What are you doing out there? Come on before he changes his mind.” My brother’s very firm yet gentle push didn’t help my queasy stomach or sudden flushed cheeks.

God bless my brother for calling in a favour I didn’t ask for.

Lyle Adams. The favour I didn’t want to ever ask for but he did.

We walked inside the restaurant, the smell of seafood, though unmistakable, wasn’t as all-consuming as I thought. The place was packed— not your lunch time eighteen tables packed but two-layer floors, about sixty-two tables packed.

People sat with their laptops open, cellphones posted to their ears. It was utter chaos.

My eyes searched the area without moving my head as we walked closer to the back doors by the kitchen area.

“You just have to suck it up, until you get something more mainstream. I’ll pay for your student loans while you handle the rest. You got it?” Nolan rambled.

“Charlie.”

“Yes, I got it. I’m twenty-eight not eighty-two,” I retorted in a low mumble.

“You should be wishing you were eighty-two, at least you’d have a retirement plan.”

“Nolan.” That strong masculine voice, I would recognize from any area, any distance calling my brother’s name.

Lyle Adams.

Back then, he was just Lyle. No logo, no fancy seafood sign on glass, no staff members calling him “boss” like he could fire their asses at any given time.

He was my brother’s friend who could fix a broken grill with a fork and lie his way out of stealing a beer or, in his case, playing pranks on my dad.

Lyle was normal. Not the hottest guy on the quad, or the tallest. He had brown eyes, messy hair, glasses, and a cutish smile. But the guy’s voice, it made my nether regions quiver, my tendons twitch and my stomach flip multiple times. Because I swear to all that is holy, the guy had a man’s voice then and he had it now.

We both spun around, and there he stood. He was older, with a dusting of hair on his face, a new set of round glasses and short cropped hair.

“How are you Charlie? Heard you’d be working for us from today.” His way of greeting didn’t surprise me as I plastered my biggest smile on my face.

“Looks that way.”

“Shall we get started?” He didn’t look at me when he spoke. His eyes remained focused on the old guy sitting alone, eating and reading a newspaper.

After a good few minutes of him wandering around we finally made it to his office. It was on the second floor. There were receipts strewn across the floor, stacks of order documents, and some weird-looking utensil. It was a mess.

I remember the last time we saw each other. He was Twenty-something, two years older than my brother.

He told me to stop stealing olives from my dad’s pizza and I told him to stop talking to me like my dad. He called me a Menace. I called him Old Man just to piss him off. Now as I looked at him, he was exactly that — old man.

Twelve years later. I’m in his restaurant and everything smells like butter and ocean and a little bit of last night.

Only this time I’m not sixteen. I’m twenty-eight, and he doesn’t look like a way overgrown giant. He looks just like a thirty-nine-year-old man.

“Your job is simple. Once you done with all of this, you can build me a system. I’ll pay you $4000 a month. No overtime even though you’ll work it, no bonus until you six months in and no calling in sick cause your cat didn’t come home last night.”

I looked at the piles of paper like they’ve been breeding rats underneath them, or maybe roaches. “I don’t have a cat.”

“Good,” he says, deadpan. “They’re annoying, I have three.”

“A cat boss, nice.” I answered with a snipe of my own.

Nolan cleared his throat, hands in his pockets like he was holding himself back from saying the part where I should behave. “You good?”

“I’m fine,” I answered, which wasn’t true, but it was the only word that made people leave.

He squeezed my shoulder. When he looked at Lyle, a whole conversation filled the air. It said, thanks. It also said, don’t screw her. Don’t screw this up. I owe you. I owe you more. Lyle nodded like he heard all of it and then some.

“I’ll catch you later,” Nolan didn’t look back as he angled for the door.

Part 2, 3 and 4 will be published Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And the next Story will be begin next week, with the announcement of The Satan Sniper’s MC new book. Have a lovely day