After my conversation with Serena, I had a newfound irritation that seemed to grow only when the name Darius Lunar was mentioned. He did not hang around the bar again but the aura of his presence remained and it settled over the atmosphere like a thick blanket choking all the air and life out of me.
Serena seemed to notice that my mood had changed because she made sure to avoid me for the rest of the shift. She was very quiet and it was awkward being in the same confined space with her and not being able to speak to her but I figured it was for the best because I could not guarantee that I would not say something rude to her.
By the end of the night, I started walking over to my car expecting her to follow but she bundled her jacket tighter around her body and started going in the direction of the bus stop.
“I can drop you off,” I said and she turned to me.
“It’s alright, I could use the fresh air,” she mumbled and she didn’t wait for me to give her a response before she turned on her heels and walked away.
I felt a little bit guilty.
I didn’t feel bad for speaking up about Darius but I felt bad that it had cost me the only friend I had in town. I wanted to follow after her but she had somehow disappeared into the night and there was not a trace of her to be seen.
“Trouble in paradise?”
I jumped when I heard the voice behind me and I turned to see Ian leaning against the wall.
He had his arms crossed over his chest and there was an unlit cigarette in his mouth. I wrinkled my nose at it and he raised a brow as if challenging me to say something about it. That spark of mischief was alight in his eyes almost as if he was itching for a fight.
“These things will kill you.”
He scoffed but pulled it out of his mouth. “A lot of things could kill you, even your car but you don’t see people throwing their cars away.”
“What do you want, Ian?” I asked suddenly feeling bored and tired of the conversation. “I want to go home. It’s late and I am tired.”
“Right.” He snapped his fingers as if he had suddenly remembered something. “Darius has instructed a change in your wardrobe for work- trousers instead of shorts and a better-fitted top.”
I looked down at my shirt wondering what was wrong. It was a little bit see-through but all white shirts were like that and it fit perfectly on my frame. It accentuated my boobs and made it look a little larger which a lot of customers seemed to like because they were sure to tip me well. Suddenly it hit me why Darius wanted me to change.
“Does he have a problem with customers staring at my boobs?” I asked and Ian stayed silent but I knew that was the reason. “Tell Darius that I said thank you for the concern but I don’t need him to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“My job was to deliver the message.” Ian lifted himself off the wall. “If you want to go up against him then that is a fight that you will take on by yourself. Good luck with it though.”
He started to walk away but he stopped when he was directly beside me.
“You should know one thing before deciding what to do,” he whispered. “Darius is not one to give up. He will always get what he wants and he is not fond of people touching or looking at what belongs to him.”
I wanted to retort that I did not belong to Darius but before I could speak, Ian had walked into the bar leaving me standing alone with nothing but the chill of the breeze in my hair and the goosebumps on my arm from his words.
I found it hard to fall asleep when I got home. I was thinking of all the ways to make it known to Darius that I was not going to be a pawn in his game and I was not going to let him treat me however he wished. It was when I was falling asleep that I was finally able to concoct a plan.
I woke up the next morning feeling very excited about what I was going to do. I was practically floating in the air and whistling to myself as I thought of how Darius was going to react. It did not skip my attention that I was deriving so much pleasure from a man who I had no ties to but if there was something I hated, it was men who tried to act like they owned everything and that was exactly who Darius was.
Darius Lunar was a spoiled child who had his entire life handed down to him on a silver platter and I was not going to be another object in his possessions. I refused to allow a stranger to dictate my life and how I dressed. I just hoped my actions would not cost me my job seeing as I was going to use the last of my savings to implement my plan.
“I don’t like that look,” Grandma said as she walked into the dining room. “Whenever you had that look as a child it always meant that someone was about to get seriously hurt or in big trouble; which is it going to be this time?”
“You have such little faith in me,” I mused deliberately ignoring her question. “I have to go shopping today because I have been asked to change my uniform.”
She hummed and she tried searching my face for any hint that I was lying but there was none. I was going to change my uniform but not in the way Darius asked. I was going to make him regret asking me to change it and that was certain.
“Be careful, Leindra,” Grandma said after a beat of silence. “If you play with fire then you will get burned.”
I froze because for a second, it sounded like she knew exactly what I was planning but when I turned to her, she was not looking at me, she was sitting on the couch with the newspaper open in front of her.
“I’m not playing with fire, I am putting it out.”
She put her paper down long enough to stare me straight in the eye. “If that is what you want to tell yourself then go ahead.”
She didn’t speak to me again.
After Grandma’s ominous warning, I started to second guess my plan but the more reckless part of my brain was insistent that I showed Darius that I was not to be messed with. I waited until everyone had left the house before I got in the car and drove to the store.
It was exactly the way it was when I had left. For the first time, I was grateful that nothing had changed because it made it easier for me to find what I was looking for. I walked into the shop that my mother used to frequent all the time when I was a child and when I walked in through the doors, the woman at the desk froze like she had seen a ghost.
“Leindra,” she breathed softly and I nodded. “I heard that you had returned but I didn’t believe it.”
Agnes was my mother’s friend. She was one of the people that was impacted the most when she died and I had not seen her since the funeral- I couldn’t. She told me how I was going to grow up to look exactly like my mother and I couldn’t bring myself to be around her and hear those words.
I smiled softly because that was all I could muster and I looked away because I knew the longer I stared at her, the more likely I was to cry.
“I need some clothes,” I said effectively changing the conversation and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her wipe at her cheeks and clear her throat.
“What exactly do you need?”
“I need a white shirt but it has to be the most see-through material that you have,” she raised a brow at my words. “I also want some black pants but I was thinking more along the lines of leggings that stick like second skin.”
“Do I want to know why you’re asking for this?” she asked and I shook my head.
“I think it is better if you’re in the dark.”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with your new job at the bar, does it?”
I had forgotten how easy it was for news to spread in a small town. Of course, she would be able to piece together the information and figure out why I needed the shirts. Still, I kept my expression neutral and shrugged.
“I will neither confirm nor deny. Do you have what I need?”
She muttered a few words under her breath that sounded like ‘help me’ and then disappeared into the back of the store to get the outfits for me. When she returned, she had her hands filled with different clothes of different fabrics. I leaned over and plucked a shirt out of her hands.
It was white but completely see-through- I could see my hand on the other side. The corner of my lips tilted up in a smile.
“Is this what you’re looking for?” she asked although I could already hear the undercurrent of pride in her voice- she knew it was exactly what I was looking for.
“You are a lifesaver, Agnes,” I squealed like a little girl opening her Christmas presents. “Where can I try them on?”