Blinded (Breaking Free Book 1)

by Maya Hughes

  “See, all tidy and ready to go for tomorrow,” she said holding her arms out and showcasing the dining room.

  “Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner tomorrow. I can’t wait for the next two weeks to be over. My wife has been clamoring to go on that cruise for months now,” he said. She grabbed her bag from behind the bar and followed Ben to the front door to lock up.

  “I’ll see you at noon,” she told him as he turned the key in the lock.

  Ben hopped into his truck and pulled out of the parking lot, waving at her. She waved back and shifted her bag on her shoulder. The weather was miserable, with the heavy smell of rain in the air and the cold wind whipping around her. Her hair was flying all over the place and she cinched her hoodie a bit tighter around her neck. All that didn’t keep the little bounce out of her step as she crossed the parking lot. Flirting with a seriously hot guy and having generous customers will do that to you.

  She glided across the parking lot, even with her sore feet. A couple more weeks of this and she’d be good to go in the savings department. She’d taken the semester off because she was worried about loans and didn’t want to have to work too much during the semester, but it also meant that she had to save every penny to get by once school began again.

  Alex was worrying about the costs of the upcoming semester as she made her way to her car. As she reached for the handle, a hand landed on her left shoulder and a jolt of fear shot through her. After an unpleasant run-in with her mom’s boyfriend, she’d taken a women’s self-defense class. She used those instincts and reacted.

  “Hey—” Her assailant’s words turned to a howl as she delivered a swift punch to his nose. She was just bringing her knee up for a groin shot when she recognized him.

  “Jesus, Alex!” The stranger she’d mistaken for a psycho turned out to be Mr. Hottie. He cried out, holding onto his nose with one hand while shielding his groin with his other.

  “Gabe? Oh my god, Gabe, I’m so sorry,” she said, covering her nose and mouth with her hands.

  “You have a nice right hook,” he stated as he held onto his nose.

  “Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” she repeated, placing her hand on his back. “Are you ok?” She crouched down in front of him and grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his nose. Her stomach dropped. The first guy to hit on her forever and here she was hitting on him back—literally. She wanted to smack herself in the head. Not knowing what to do, her hands hovered over his head and back.

  “You’re bleeding. Oh shit, I’m so sorry.” She dug through her bag looking for some napkins. “Here!” she said as she thrust the one napkin she found at his nose.

  “Thanks.” His words muffled by the napkin. “You sure know how to make a guy work for your number.”

  “My number? You want my number?” Her head jerked up and she nearly head butted him.

  “Well, I wasn’t waiting for you after work to mug you.” He chuckled and braced his hands on his knee to push himself to a standing position.

  “Of course, of course. Yeah, you can have my number. I can put it in your phone, assuming you still want it,” she stammered, hoping that she hadn’t broken his nose. She probably would have given him a kidney right then if he’d asked for it. Poor guy.

  “Here you go.” Gabe smiled at her through the tissues on his nose, pulled his phone out of his back pocket and handed it to her. She put her number in and called herself. Her phone started to ring and she ended the call.

  “Now, I’ve got yours. You know, in case I need some boxing practice after work,” she said with a weak smile.

  “I’m really sorry. How is it now?” He pulled the tissues away to see if the bleeding had stopped.

  “I don’t think the studio would appreciate me being your punching bag beyond tonight.” He grasped his nose between his fingers and moved it from side to side. Wincing, he attempted a smile, which was something out of a horror movie, what with the blood smeared across his top lip.

  She opened her car door and grabbed a handful of napkins from her glovebox, then took the bottle of water from her cup holder and doused them. She held the damp napkins out and attempted to wipe some of the blood off his lip.

  “Looks like it stopped bleeding,” she sighed, giving him an uneasy smile.

  “Yeah, it looks that way.” He touched his nose and pulled his fingers away to look at them. “So … the real reason for my parking lot approach—sorry about that by the way; I realize how that could freak you out— and the reason I want your number …” She attempted to interrupt, but he held up his hand to wave her off.

  “I’m in town for the next two weeks and I would really like to see you again.” A bright smile lit up his battered face in the dark parking lot. Her heart stuttered and she did the happy dance inside. Trying to play it cool, she nodded her head.

  “I’d like that too,” she said breathlessly. “I’m working at the diner every day from twelve ‘til eight, but other than that my schedule is pretty much open.”

  “We’ll be shooting mainly at night, so it looks like I can come by the restaurant when it’s quiet and we’ll have plenty of time to see each other,” he said with a smile. Butterflies fluttered in her belly and she knew that a blush was creeping up her neck and onto her cheeks. She hoped that the poorly lit parking lot meant that Gabe couldn’t see just how giddy she was.

  “It would seem that way.” She beamed. “And I'll be sure to keep my fists of fury to myself,” she said, holding her fists close to her chest.

  “Good to hear. Let me get your door for you.” He stood by the door and She got in. He closed the door for her and she rolled down the window.

  “I’ll see you soon, Alex,” he said as he stepped away from the car.

  “See you soon Gabe.” She pulled out of the parking lot and checked her rearview mirror in time to see him shove his hands in his pockets and walk off into the night.

  3

  Gabe stared down at his phone and it took everything he had not to send her a message apologizing again for frightening her. Almost getting knocked out by her in the parking lot had been bad enough; he didn’t want her to think he was a stalker, too.

  He walked the last couple of blocks to the hotel the cast and crew were staying at and waved to a couple of the crew members that were sitting at the bar. He rode the elevator up to his floor while going over some of his lines for his scenes for tomorrow. The rewrite notice had been scary, especially after everything Aaron, his manager, had told him. He remembered the conversation they’d had in Aaron’s second floor office in the management building in LA.

  “Gabe, it doesn’t look good,” Aaron said solemnly as he handed Gabe the updates script from the studio. “This type of overhaul is usually not a good sign.” Aaron plopped down in his seat across from Gabe. He knew Aaron had just as much riding on this project as he did. The success of a big project like Stargazer would be a major break for them both. Aaron would get bigger clients, and he would be seeing more roles. He had flipped through the script.

  “These are a lot of changes,” he said. “Now we’re ending up in a desolate ocean planet?”

  “Looks that way. The good thing is, there are no notes about your performance. The studio loves you! So even if this bombs, there’s a chance they might still try to find something else for you.”

  “Maybe. I guess it’s good that I kept my registration spot for school,” Gabe mumbled.

  “It’s not the end of the world, Gabe. Keep doing what you’ve been doing and people will want to work with you. Now, you head out tomorrow morning. Ann has your tickets. Someone from the shoot will pick you up from the airport and take you to your hotel. I’ll be out there a bit later to check in on you.”

  Gabe hadn’t been able to sleep that entire night waiting for the morning flight. He’d been a leg-tapping bundle of nerves during the taxi ride from the airport; this was supposed to be his big break—not that he’d even been on this path a little over a year ago. It was crazy to think he was going to
be an actor in a major movie. When the random guy approached him when he was working at the electronics store, Gabe thought it was just a pick-up line. He’d been reluctant to call the number on the back of the card although he had Googled the company and it looked legit.

  Cautiously, telling pretty much everyone he knew where he was going, he went to the address they gave him and, lo and behold, there was a whole room of casting people and he hadn’t had to take off his clothes. Getting up and performing in front of the room full of people had been a strange feeling. He’d acted in a few school plays and had done a few community productions when his mom put him up to it but this was different.

  During those, he always played the Ducky from Sixteen Candles character. Best friend to the girl that gets trampled on. It probably had to do with the fact that he was less than 5’6” and skinny as a rail during most of high school.

  Between a growth spurt that pushed him over six feet and serious time spent in the gym during the summer between high school and college, he was transformed. Gabe hadn’t wanted to go off to college as the same bean pole he was in high school. During that time, his mom went out of her mind trying to feed and clothe him. He figured she was probably elated that he was going to be his college’s problem when it came to food that fall.

  Newly muscled and much taller, Gabe felt like an imposter for most of his freshman year. The change in attitude when it came to girls was probably his biggest mindfuck. Girls who would have never given him the time of day, except to maybe ask to borrow a pen, were suddenly all over him. It was insane!

  He’d had his fun for a while, but realized that these girls never would have given him a second glance if he didn’t look like he did now. Gabe pulled back from the social scene a bit and focused on studying. The physical transformation had worked, but maybe it wasn’t everything he wanted. Then the summer before senior year, he’d been picked out by that casting director and it all snowballed from there.

  His mom wasn’t exactly happy about him taking a year off from school to work on the film, but she knew what an opportunity it was for him. Things like this don’t fall into your lap every day. The compromise had been to take one year off, see where it went, and then reassess.

  Staring out the window of the taxi that first night as it rolled through the almost desolate shore town, it had reflected the bleakness his film career had turned into. Every building they passed was dark until he finally spotted a lone restaurant with the lights on. They were stopped at a light that seemed to go on forever when he spied a girl through the large glass windows of the place. She was sitting at the bar biting on a pen. It looked like she was pushing up glasses she wasn’t wearing and he laughed at how intently she was studying.

  Her dark, riotous curls were piled on top of her head and he wanted to see more of her. The taxi pulled away as the light finally turned green, but he turned back to get another glance at the restaurant beauty. The hotel wasn’t that far from the restaurant, so he decided to drop his bags and walk the few blocks back to it. Some of the nerves about the filming crept back as the cold wind whipped around him. He pushed his hands into his pockets, his worries to the back of his mind, and hustled toward the warm, welcoming light of the diner.

  The moment he stepped into that restaurant and she popped into view, his anxiety began to melt away. He’d watched her move around the place all night and she calmed him for some reason. Maybe it was the methodical way she moved or the easy smile she had for everyone, but he knew he’d need a lot more of that to get through this.

  The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, bringing Gabe back to the present. He stepped out and headed to his cozy suite. He flopped down onto the hotel bed and stared up at the ceiling marveling at how much his life had changed over the last year. His time with her had made his day. Even if this movie crashed and burned, he had a feeling that meeting her would make it all worthwhile.

  When he’d first talked her at the restaurant, she’d taken his breath away. Up close, she was even more beautiful than she had been through that window. Her deep brown hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun. Wisps had escaped and were curling around her face, caressing her neck, and they made it hard to concentrate on what she was saying.

  He’d been glad that the studio’s driver hadn’t been at the airport to pick him up and that he’d decided to take a taxi to get to the hotel early. Checking out the landscape of the town, it could certainly double as a desolate alien planet. It was almost completely deserted and the overcast conditions lent an eerie feel to it.

  Gabe pulled the script out of his bag and began to go over his lines for tomorrow. He wanted to make sure that if this was his last big screen project, at least it would be a good one. After going over the lines until his eyes crossed, he fell back on his bed and the message light blinking on his phone.

  He opened it and couldn’t contain the huge smile that spread across his face. It was from Alex.

  Alex: Wanted to check in and make sure that your nose was ok. Again, I’m so incredibly sorry about that.

  Gabe grabbed his nose between his fingers and gave it a shake. Honesty, he’d forgotten all about the punch. He sat up to check it in the mirror on the closet and noted that it didn’t even look swollen. He might a slight bruise, but no other damage was apparent. He had to sit through hair and makeup anyway tomorrow, so it was no problem.

  He decided to have a bit of fun with her.

  G: It’s looking really bad. They might have to cancel shooting tomorrow.

  A: OMG, no! I’m so sorry. I can’t believe it. It didn’t look so bad in the parking lot. Did you put ice on it? A bag of peas or something? Is there anything I can do? I’m so sorry!

  G: You could always come by tomorrow and bring me some. It would help.

  A: Sure, whatever you need. Just let me know I’ll pick it up and bring it to you.

  Gabe couldn’t help but chuckle at her obvious concern, but he felt bad for putting her through it. Deciding to put her out of her misery, he text back.

  G: Just kidding! It’s completely fine. A little bit of bruising, but you can barely tell and I’ll be sitting in makeup tomorrow afternoon anyway, so it will probably be gone by then.

  A: You’re the worst! How could you do that to me? I was freaking out over here thinking I’d just ruined your whole movie.

  G: :P I’m definitely the worst. But that doesn’t mean I still don’t want you to come by tomorrow. I don’t have shooting until 2pm, so I’m free in the morning. How do you feel about breakfast?

  A: Breakfast would work, how about we have it my place? I promised my roommate pancakes, so she will kill me if I skip out on her.

  G: Works for me.

  A warm flush of anticipation rushed over him as the location pin message pop up on his phone.

  G: Got the location. What time in the morning?

  A: Does 9 work for you?

  G: Perfect, see you then!

  A: Can’t wait :D

  4

  Alex did a happy dance in her living room while Jen just grinned at her. They’d spent a couple of minutes dissecting every one of Gabe’s replies to figure out just how into her he was. She swore she held her breath the entire time she waited for a reply from her first message. When he hadn’t replied immediately, her heart sank a bit.

  “He was gorgeous Jen. I mean seriously ridiculous.”

  “And …”

  “And, he’s not exactly the type of guy that’s going to be into someone like me,” she lamented, throwing herself onto the couch and pushing a pillow over her face.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Jen, you know what high school was like.”

  “You mean the two years you were there?” Jen asked pulling the pillow off her face.

  “I’m not that girl, Jen. I’m not the girl that gets that guy.”

  “Why the hell not? You’re ridiculous, you know that? While that giant brain of yours is great for analyzing things, it’s not very good
at seeing the obvious, which is that in the past two years, you’ve become a Grade A hottie.” She snorted.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, disbelieving her.

  “Alex, your baby fat is gone. You’re not wearing those giant glasses that were so heavy that they forced you to keep your head down all the time, and most importantly,” she said, taking her hand in hers, “you got out of that house. Becoming emancipated was probably the best thing you ever could have done for yourself.”

  “It’s not like I would have been able to do it without you and your dad’s help.” She shrugged.

  “Hey, all we did was help with the paperwork. Anyway, I know your confidence is shot after all you’ve been through, but sometimes you should grab life by the balls. Plus, a guy doesn’t wait until a girl gets off work, take a punch in the nose from her, and still ask for her number if he doesn’t like her.”

  Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She stood to take her phone out of her pocket and checked the message.

  “Yes,” she shouted before fist-pumping and slapping her hand over her mouth.

  “I take it he said yes to breakfast.” Jen chuckled. She whirled around to her, clutching her phone, and bouncing up and down.

  “He did! He did!”

  “Be sure to let him know I’m super territorial when it comes to my pancakes. I will stab him with a fork if I feel he is encroaching into my territory,” she said dryly.

  “Don’t worry, Jen. I’ll be sure to make tons. Enough that we can freeze them and you can use them as a studying treat,” she said, beaming down at her phone.

  “That is an excellent idea!” Jen beamed. “Can we do some with chocolate chips?” she asked dreamily.

  “Fine, fine, but don’t complain to me when you gain ten pounds between the intensive studying and chocolate chip pancakes.”

  “Scouts honor,” Jen said, placing two fingers over her heart.

  “Is that even the scout’s salute?”

  Jen shrugged her shoulders. “Who knows? I’m probably close enough.”