So this idea popped into my head this weekend, and I wanted to try it out. I hope you guys enjoy it.
All I ask is that you be kind in your feedback.
Happy reading!
"Name?"
It was such a simple question, really. The guy sitting across from her was looking for an answer. He appeared almost impatient, but she really had caught him at a bad time, it being the lunch hour and all. Emily opened her mouth, hesitating only for a fraction of a second.
"Emily Ch-West."
"Chwest?"
"West," she corrected. "Sorry."
He raised a brow slightly, but he didn't comment. Emily winced inside. He had to know it was a fake last name. The slip up had definitely given that away.
"Have you ever done this kind of work before?" he asked, moving the interview along.
Emily looked around them at the bustle of the diner. There was one woman working, and she looked frazzled. Emily swallowed. No. She had never done this before. Once upon a time, this job would have been very beneath her, but she was desperate, and she had learned very quickly that her standards needed to be lowered if she was going to survive in this world. She caught sight of Nathan sitting in the booth near the door, their two duffel bags at his feet. He gave her an encouraging smile. For a teenage boy, he was more of an adult these days. Emily felt bad. He deserved to be a kid, especially at fifteen.
The guy cleared his throat, bringing her gaze back to him.
"No," she said honestly. "I have not."
He gave a chuckle at this. He looked out the window briefly and rubbed his hand over his closely shaved head before looking back at her.
"Then what makes you think I'll hire you?" he asked.
"Because I learn very fast," she said quickly. "I've done other work close to it. It's not that hard, I'm sure."
"It's very demanding, and you gotta be fast," he pointed out. "Not to mention have a good memory."
"I can be fast," she nodded firmly. "My memory is excellent. I used to be an assistant to..." She stopped short. Revealing Miranda Priestly's name would give away her identity, and that she could not do. Her life, and Nathan's, depended on it.
"To?" he prompted.
"Someone really demanding," she finished carefully. "I won't disappoint you."
The guy sighed and sat back, tapping his pen on the table. Emily flicked her eyes at Nathan again, who looked a little worried now. She shot up a quick, silent prayer and waited.
...
Luke Wright had started his day like any other. He got up, made coffee, checked to see that Mei was awake, and threw together a breakfast for her to eat when she got up. Then he went down the stairs to the empty diner and unlocked the door for his cook.
"I still don't know why you can't just give me a key, man," Tito huffed as Luke shut the door behind him and locked it again.
"It all comes down to trust, Tito," Luke shrugged.
"And you don't trust me?"
"Not yet."
Tito shook his head as he made his way to the kitchen where he started to prep. He said something in Spanish, which Luke understood but didn't comment on. He already knew he was annoying anyway. Luke would join him in a bit once Lucy got there. She was his only server, and she was a bit dimwitted at times, not to mention clumsy, but she had just enough talent to not lose her job. He glanced at the Help Wanted sign in the window and wondered if he was wasting his time with it. No one wanted to do this kind of work these days. He also had a hard time letting new people into his life.
He went back upstairs to find Mei still not up, so he banged on her door with his fist, hearing a groan and some form of cuss word in Mandarin thrown at him. She was becoming a bit of a moody teenager at fifteen. Then again, she was doing university level school work, which would stress out anyone.
He remembered the first time he had met Mei three years earlier. She had been on the run from both the Russian Mafia and the Chinese Triads, who wanted her memorization skill for a safe they wanted to get into. Luke had rescued her, and together they had put a stop to everything. They left New York, leaving behind five copies of a disc everyone had been after that had incriminating information on it. It was their insurance policy, one that would ensure no one would bother them again. Luke still looked over his shoulder at times, though, the familiar words echoing in his head often.
Are we safe?
One day at a time, Mei.
They had tried out Seattle for a while only to find they didn't like it there. After some moving around, they found a small town that seemed to their liking. Luke had run into an older gentleman desperate to sell his diner and retire somewhere sunny, and before he knew it, he agreed to taking it off the man's hands (for a very decent price), and he and Mei moved into the apartment above it. There was an apartment off the back too, and Luke had been fixing it up the past year. He was cautious about renting it out, though. He had trust issues, which came from the line of work he used to do plus the fact he knew people couldn't be trusted.
"This sucks," Mei said as she came out of her room finally. She was in her high school uniform. She had asked to stay there while doing the university work as she wanted some kind of normalcy in her life. Luke didn't blame her. She had been trafficked from China to New York at age 11 where she was put to work counting for the casinos owned by the Triads. Her mother had died, and she said she didn't have a father. After she met Luke, she asked for a friend, not another father, but sometimes Luke had to pull rank as the adult.
Like right now.
"No," he said, looking at her. She stopped walking, looking back at him.
"No, what?"
"Untuck that," he ordered, gesturing at her skirt, which he knew was to go to her knees and not just below her thighs.
"I can't," Mei tried.
"Don't make me do it for you," Luke warned. Mei sighed. She knew he would too. She unrolled the skirt so that it went the full length.
"Pull that down," he said after, eyeing the rolled up shirt that showed about two inches of her stomach.
"But," she started.
"Down," he said firmly. She grumbled but obeyed.
"The other girls wear it that way," she muttered.
"Do you really want to attract the wrong attention?" Luke challenged.
"No..."
"Then wear it properly," he cut her off. End of discussion. She grabbed her toast and said nothing more as she tromped down the stairs. He heard the ding of the bell as she went out the door to school.
He sighed before dumping the rest of his coffee and going down to work where he alternated between taking the money, cooking, and serving. He knew he needed to hire another member of kitchen staff as well as another server, but one thing at a time. It got busy in no time, and Lucy had two spills before noon. When Luke had been approached by a timid looking woman asking about the job, he felt like he was being set up for some kind of comedy episode. This suspicion grew when she gave a blatantly obvious fake last name, said she had zero experience in working at a diner, and wouldn't share her former boss's name.
Looking at her now, he noticed she kept looking between him and the skinny, knobby kneed boy sitting with two bags at his feet by the door, and he knew they were together. The desperation in her eyes as she waited to hear his answer was what really made him come to a decision that surprised both of them.
"All right," he said. "But if you don't figure things out in a week, you're out of here."
"Thank you!" she said, the relief in her face very evident. "Um...?"
"Luke," he answered. She'd already forgotten his name. That wasn't promising.
"Right."
"And don't thank me yet," he warned, getting to his feet. He could hear Tito hollering about something and needed to deal with it. Lucy managed to catch the pop bottle mid-air this time, avoiding a third spill. She averted her eyes when he glared at her.
"Um, one more thing," Emily said, scrambling to her feet as well.
"Yes?"
"Do you know of anyone renting?" she asked. "We just got here, and we haven't found a place yet. We're probably going to stay at the motel until we find something."
Luke hesitated. His mind went to the empty apartment he had just finished two weeks ago. He took her in as she stood in front of him, her hands twisting and the way she was biting the inside of her cheek making him feel sorry for her almost.
"How long are you planning on staying?" he asked.
"Until we have to leave," she answered. He gave her a funny look, and she cringed a little as though she knew it was the wrong thing to say.
"I mean," she stuttered. "I don't have plans of leaving unless something happens, which it shouldn't. Not this time. We're good. We...we're good." She finished rather awkwardly, and he could tell she was hoping he wouldn't pry. He had no intention to, but he had a very strong feeling she was running from something, which made him feel a tiny bit of connection with her since he and Mei had run from New York and landed there.
"All right," he said, digging into his pocket for the key to the apartment and wondering if he'd lost his mind. It had it's own separate entrance at the back. He had locked the door that connected it to the diner as a safety measure. He found the key and presented it to her.
"What's this?" she asked, looking at it.
"You can stay in the apartment around back," he said. "I'll take some rent off since you're working here."
She looked like she was about to cry, which he hoped not. He wasn't good with criers. Mei could attest to that.
"That would be amazing. Thank you," she said, taking the key from him.
"Come on," he said. "I'll show you."
He led the way, and Emily jerked her head at the boy to indicate he should follow as she walked behind him. After giving her the tour and leaving her to get settled, Luke wondered just what the hell he'd gotten himself into.
But there was just something about her that made him feel he could trust her, and that was very rare for him, so he trusted his own gut.
...
"Oh my God," Emily groaned, gripping her head and sinking into the dining room chair. Nathan set the bags down and went over to her, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly.
"You got the job," he said. "And new digs. That's good, right?"
"He's got to know something is up," Emily said, looking at him. "I mean, any idiot can tell after my performance."
"He didn't ask, so he obviously doesn't care," Nathan shrugged. "I wouldn't worry about it." He went to find his room, and Emily was left alone to sit there and think.
Nathan had come into her life full time seven years earlier. He was her nephew. Her brother had been a single father and was tragically killed while at work, leaving Nathan with nowhere to go except to live with her. She had still been working at Runway, but things had changed not long after that, and now here they were.
Emily had not expected to be living this way, but who did?
"Cool! There's a stereo in here," Nathan called. In moments, some form of rock music was blasting out of it. Emily sighed.
Sometimes living with a teenage boy gave her a headache.
Evening
"You took the sign down," Mei pointed out. Luke was wiping down the counter as she sat at the far end, her textbooks open in front of her. She helped out for the night shift, but he wanted her to focus on her studying. It was important to him that she went somewhere in life and did something big.
"I did," he agreed, not looking up.
"Does that mean you actually let go of some control and hired someone new? Or did you just take it down?"
He looked at her then, giving her a narrowed eye.
"Are you implying I have control issues?" he asked.
"In some way, yes," she nodded. "You won't even give Tito his own key!"
"If you must know, I did hire someone," he said, not giving her a response to her comment. "She starts tomorrow morning."
"Really?"
"Yup."
Mei caught sight of a teenage boy walking around the building now, and she frowned. He was tall and skinny, dark haired, and pale.
"Um, who is that?" she asked, pointing.
"The kid of the woman I hired," Luke answered. "They're living in the apartment."
"You rented the apartment?!" Mei exclaimed. "Wow. Who are you, and what have you done with Luke?"
"That's enough out of you," he said, pointing his rag at her.
"She must be really something if you gave her a job and a place to live," Mei commented. "Tito is gonna freak cos you won't even give him a key."
Luke held back his response. Emily was attractive, but she had also been desperate and seemed genuine. He wasn't a complete asshole. He helped those who needed it. Case in point: Mei.
"If you recall," he started. "I tend to help out those who need it." He gave her a meaningful look, and she made a face back at him.
"I totally had it," she argued, referring to when he had saved her three years earlier.
"Oh sure," he agreed. "You could take care of all those Russians all by yourself."
"I could have."
He just shook his head, a smirk playing on his lips. She was grinning a little herself before she ducked her head down to study her books. Luke watched the boy go around to the back, and he hoped he hadn't made a huge mistake by helping this woman.