by Leela Ash
“Just eight hours to go,” she said to herself with a laugh as she backed out of her driveway and swung out into the street.
She turned on her lights and crawled along slowly, delaying the inevitable. She often thought about putting her foot down on the gas and just driving into the night. It was one of her favorite fantasies…
What if one day I just disappeared and never came back?
At the beginning of every night shift, the same thought crossed her mind. She imagined flying down the highway with her window open and the wind in her hair, the music turned up loud and her heart running free, but she knew it would never happen. Slate Springs was her home and always had been. Everyone she had ever known and loved was in that town, and she wasn’t about to desert them now, even if her future did seem pretty bleak without a significant other.
She drummed her nails on the edge of the steering wheel and accelerated.
“May as well get there and start earning those much needed tips,” she said as she clicked her tongue against her teeth.
She knew it was likely to be a slow night, but she may as well give it all she had and get what she could. For a good girl like her, it was the only place in town to make an honest living. Tammy was humble and had learned from the best. Her father was a regular fixture in the community with their family’s hardware store that had been supplying Slate Springs for generations. She easily could have drifted into there and became a manager, but she had wanted to get out on her own and do something different with her life. Even if that just meant being a waitress at the local diner working for minimum wage. Plus, when it came to the store, her brother Dean seemed to have it covered. He and her father had the brains and the brawn to run the place. Tammy only would have been in their way.
As she turned a corner and merged onto the freeway, a roar came out of the dark behind her. Tammy felt her stomach clench and her heart race as she realized it was them …
One by one, motorcycles started to growl quickly beside her. She smiled and watched them as they weaved around the road and left the scent of gasoline hanging in the air. Her heart fluttered just at the sight of them. Those men were bad to the bone, but she also knew they were some of the sexiest she had ever seen. They didn’t regularly come into the diner, but recently a small group of them had stopped by and she got a good look at them for the first time in her life. They were young, strong, and lawless, and even in the dark she could see the bulges of their muscles rippling down their arms as they gripped onto the handlebars of their Harleys.
“Yikes,” Tammy breathed out as she fanned her neck with her hand. “Forbidden fruit.”
She smiled to herself. She was so straight-laced and conservative, the mere thought of her hooking up with a man like that was laughable. Yet ever since her friend Lexi had started dating one of The Forsaken Riders, it was all she could think about.
Tammy and her friends had always done their best to stay away, but suddenly the secret world of Slate Spring’s only Motorcycle Club had been thrust into Tammy’s path without her even asking for it. Lexi, her best friend, was recently fired from her job at Red X, the local strip club, and found herself taken in by one of the bikers and offered a new job at their bar, The Bleeding Bullet. She would never admit that she was jealous of Lexi. Tammy only wanted the best for her friend and would always support her, but she kind of envied the way she had been seduced by King… He was strong, masculine, and instantly devoted to her. It was the sort of relationship that Tammy had always craved but knew she would probably never find.
As she watched the bikers disappear into the darkness ahead of her, she bit her lip and smiled. Now that she had her link to them, who knew what could happen…?
***
As she parked outside the diner and turned off the engine, she could see through the windows that it was busier than normal for a Thursday evening. She pushed open the driver’s door and stepped out onto the dusty ground. The air was still hot and thick, even though the sun had been down for hours. As she walked towards the steps, the sweat started to prickle up on the back of her neck.
Inside, music blared from the jukebox and Jamie, the other waitress who was on for the night, looked up and smiled.
“Hey, Doll.” Jamie chewed gum and blew a big pink bubble before it burst and caught along her chin.
Some of the truckers who were just passing through turned on their stools and eyed Tammy sleazily as she made her way behind the counter and tied her hair up into a long ponytail.
“How’s it been?” she asked Jamie.
“Slow until an hour ago, and then suddenly it all just exploded.” She chewed the gum loudly and leaned against the stove as she looked at Tammy thoughtfully. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing,” Tammy said defensively. “I’m fine, why?” She smiled to try to hide the feeling of inadequacy that was racing through her. Even though Tammy had worked herself out of debt, gotten herself a nice apartment, and was independent, she’d recently felt the strain of not having a man in her life, and it was really affecting her confidence.
“You sure?” Jamie smiled at her warmly.
“Yeah, of course,” she lied.
When Jamie returned to the front and left Tammy alone in the kitchen, she sighed heavily before Paul, one of the chefs, burst through the back door.
“Hey, Tam,” he said with his wheezy smoker’s voice.
She smiled at him and pulled her apron down from the hook before tying it around her waist. She checked the clock… It wasn’t even 9:00 pm, and she felt as if she could crawl into bed and sleep for a week. She stretched and looked out at the customers. Jamie needed her help, so she would have to banish thoughts of a perfect love and get on with what she was there for… To work and earn money.
“Evening, Sir,” she beamed as she approached the counter and took her notepad out of her apron pouch. “What can I get for you?”
***
A few hours later and the diner had quieted enough for the girls to rest their tired legs. Tammy sat up on one of the bar stools and sipped coffee as Jamie worked the jukebox, choosing her favorite cheesy 80s dance classics. The nighttime rush was over, and this was the hour that Tammy enjoyed the most. The people who seemed to frequent the diner at that time were usually locals on their way home after a night of drinking, and it was when all of the gossip came their way.
Tammy massaged the back of her neck with her thumb and forefinger and closed her eyes for a moment. As Whitney Houston blared through the diner, she could have been anywhere in the world. She remembered a night when she was younger and more carefree; the exact same song had been playing when an old boyfriend kissed her for the first time while they sat in the back of his car and looked out the windows at the stars. Even though no one could see inside of her head, she felt herself blushing at the memory. It felt like a lifetime ago and she sighed.
“Earth to Tam,” Jamie joked as she knocked lightly on her forehead with her knuckles. “Are you seriously asleep?”
“No,” Tammy pouted without opening her eyes. “Just resting.”
“You shouldn’t have come in tonight. You look wiped,” Jamie said as she scooped up a thick piece of lemon meringue pie and started to pick at it with a fork.
“I’m fine, honestly,” she smiled.
She opened her eyes and looked up at the clock as the hands ticked slowly around to nearly 1:00 am.
“Three hours to go,” she yawned. “I guess I better do something around here. If Joe sees any of the surveillance video, he’ll want to fire me.”
“Yeah, right,” Jamie said.
Although the wages were shitty, at least Joe was a good boss. There were so many questionable characters in Slate Springs, Tammy considered herself lucky that at least she had been employed by a man who seemed to have a decent set of morals. He was always fair with the waitresses, and he never overworked them. Tammy had heard horror stories from some of her friends about their employers, so she knew she couldn’t complain… at least
she knew Joe was always going to be good with money.
The bell tinged on the door behind them and the girls turned to see Candy, one of the strippers from Red X, tottering into the diner on her six-inch heels.
“Hi, guys,” she smiled sweetly.
Candy was a young, naïve girl who had found herself in town around three months before. She got sucked into working at Red X by Marv, the owner, and now it looked like she was going to be stuck there for some time…especially now that he had fired Lexi.
“You’ll never guess what,” Candy said as she sat down with wide eyes, “One of the bikers turned up at the club tonight and threatened Marv.”
Tammy’s ears pricked up, and she leaned over so she could get the full story.
“Really?” Jamie said with a huge grin. “What happened?”
“He just burst in and dragged Marv out back… Said he had a score to settle.”
“What did he look like?” Tammy asked eagerly.
Candy shrugged and tapped her long fingernails along one of the menus.
“Dunno… Tall, dark…handsome,” she laughed. “Cliché I know, but it’s all I’ve got.”
She ordered a burger and fries, and Jamie rang it through to the kitchen. Even though Tammy had only seen King once with the rest of the bikers when they came into the diner, she was pretty sure that the man Candy saw was him protecting Lexi.
Lexi had left Red X earlier that week under a cloud and without being paid. Marv insisted on collecting all of the girls’ earnings before dividing them up and choosing how much to pay them. Lexi had despised him and regularly told Tammy how much, but now it looked as if she had someone to fight in her corner.
“You seen Lexi much?” Candy asked as she outlined her lips with bright pink gloss and pouted in a handheld mirror.
“Not really,” Tammy said, which wasn’t strictly true. Lexi had been staying with her on and off since she began fighting with her mother, and now that she was caught up with the bikers, even more drama seemed to be heading Lexi’s way.
She turned on her heel and wandered back to the kitchen. She pulled her cell phone out of her bag, and as if by magic, Lexi was calling her. She hurried out the back door and into the cool night air.
“Lex,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Tam?” Lexi whispered.
“It’s the middle of the night,” she laughed. “Are you up working too?”
“I’m in the bar.” She could feel the smile coming through Lexi’s words even though she couldn’t see her.
“And your new gentleman friend?” Tammy asked playfully.
“Waiting for me inside,” she cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say thank you for all of your help.”
Tammy smiled. “Anytime.” And she meant it.
“I’ll be back sometime tomorrow,” she said. “I better go now, love you.”
She hung up the phone, and Tammy felt nothing but love for her friend. At last, it seemed as if one of them was having some luck in love.
As Tammy wandered back into the diner, she couldn’t help but wonder when it was going to be her turn…and if the small town of Slate Springs was hiding a man good enough for her, too.
2.
The following morning Tammy woke up early, knowing that she had to pull herself together and head over to the diner for yet another shift. She had wanted to take the day off but knew she was better off busy, especially when she was in a funk. The more she thought about her friend Lexi finding love, the more she found herself craving a man of her own.
She jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. The air was muggy and hot, so she turned the shower on cold and gasped as she stepped into it. She washed away the grease from the night before and got out as fast as she could, wrapping her hair up tightly in a towel and shivering as she pulled her robe around her shoulders. She had so much energy considering she had been up until the very early hours. As she dressed quickly and dried her hair, she cranked up the radio and tried to stop feeling sorry for herself.
As she pulled into the parking lot at the diner, she could already see the buzz of life inside and knew she was in for a busy day. Luckily, she didn’t have to be there too long; she had arranged with Jamie so that she could leave in the middle of the afternoon, rather than working up until the night shift girls came in.
A line of trucks were parked outside, and there were some unfamiliar cars, too, suggesting they were tourists or travelers passing through.
“Morning,” Jamie grinned as Tammy opened the front door and smiled as wide as she could.
“Good morning!” she replied.
“Well, someone is certainly in a much better mood,” Jamie joked.
Tammy rolled her eyes with a smile as she went behind the counter and reached for her apron. She was starving and knew the chefs would rustle something up for her fast, but she didn’t want to look like she was taking liberties. She got straight to serving as many customers as she could.
Today is a day for engaging and keeping busy, she thought as she approached her first table with her pencil and notepad ready. And I am not going to feel sorry for myself anymore!
The next few hours passed quickly in a haze of cooked breakfasts, large pots of coffee, and the sweet smell of maple syrup. When the lunchtime rush had calmed slightly, she finally took a break and let one of the chefs make her a grilled cheese sandwich before she started clearing tables again.
She kept thinking about how happy Lexi sounded on the phone the night before, and she really was pleased for her. She knew how hard it was to find someone to love. But she also had an unsettled feeling, like something bad was about to happen.
She made her way over to one of the corner booths and started to stack up the dishes as high as she could. She gathered them into her arms and walked around the back of the counter and into the kitchen. She ditched them on the side and went back out into the main body of the diner, when suddenly the door burst open and the bell rang. For the second time in twenty-four hours, Tammy felt as if their friendly psychic connection had pulled them together. Lexi came rushing into the diner with tears rimming her eyes.
Lexi sat down at a booth in the corner, shaking and wiping her eyes on the corner of her sleeve. Tammy felt her jaw drop as she quickly ran over to her.
“Oh my god!” Tammy hissed. “What happened? Did that biker hurt you?”
“No,” Lexi breathed. “My mother… She’s really done it this time.”
***
The girls had been friends their entire lives, and although Tammy knew that Lexi had problems with her mom, she never could have been prepared for what she was about to tell her… Lexi shook with both anger and disbelief as she told Tammy about how her mother had lied to her for her whole life, convincing her to stay away from the bikers, then admitting that morning that it was because her father was one of the Forsaken Riders who was still alive and possibly in Slate Springs.
“No way!” Tammy gasped.
Lexi’s mother had always let everyone think that Lexi’s father had died, and now here she was, telling her that he could be very much alive and could have been living down the road the entire time.
“She’s kept me away from the bikers out of spite,” Lexi sniffed. “It had nothing to do with her being afraid for me or my safety… She was being selfish and cruel because he broke her heart…”
Tammy nodded and then sighed.
“I can’t believe she never told you… God, he could have been here this whole time.”
Lexi started to cry, and Tammy wrapped her arms around her.
As Tammy tried to reassure her, she knew that her friend would soon be on a one-woman mission to find out the truth, and she was going to have to help her. Tammy had always tried herself to stay on the right side of the law, and she had never ventured to the other side of town where the bikers lived, played, and hung out at their elusive clubhouse, but now she didn’t see how she could possibly avoid it.
“Go back to my place and sort yourself
out,” Tammy said as she handed her a key to her apartment. “I’ll be done here in the next couple of hours, and I’ll come over to the bar with you for your shift tonight. Let’s talk to King and see if he knows anything.”
“Thank you so much,” Lexi smiled as she hugged her friend. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
As Lexi left the diner, Tammy let out a huge sigh of relief. The past week had been a crazy one thanks to her friend, and she rubbed her temples.
“What was that about?” Jamie asked. “Trouble with Marv?”
Tammy thought back to what Candy had said the night before about one of the bikers going into Red X and threatening the owner… if King had done that for Lexi, God knows what he would do about her mother. Tammy swallowed hard and knew she wasn’t going to be able to work any longer.
“I’m sorry, Jamie,” she said in a daze as she grabbed her purse and made for the door. “I’ll cover you another day, I’ve just got to get out of here.”
Jamie looked at her dumbfounded as she crossed the parking lot and jumped into her car.
“I wished my life had a bit of excitement,” she said to herself as she started the engine.
She flew down the highway and headed for home. She was going to have a long day ahead of her, calming Lexi down and getting ready to go and help her with the inevitable round of questions. If Lexi’s mother was telling the truth and her father was part of the Forsaken Riders, then he could be there at the bar… she may have even met him without knowing. Lexi and Tammy had been such good friends for as long as she could remember, and she knew that Lexi wouldn’t want any other person with her. Even though she was partly nervous and partly excited at the prospect of setting foot in a biker bar…she also knew she was obligated to do it for her friend.