Following Me (14 page)

“I’ll see if I know anyone that’s
hiring.”

“That would be really helpful,”
she told him, breathing a sigh of relief.

They sat
back then and enjoyed the next two episodes of
Heroes
before Garrett had
to get ready for work.  Devon wanted to be out of the house before Hadley got
back anyway.  It had been easier like that lately.

ALMOST ANOTHER WEEK with no luck was
sending Devon’s already spiraling depression farther down the rabbit hole. 
Garrett’s search had come back with grim results.  No one was hiring.  She
couldn’t believe it.

How hard was it to find a job
in this town?  Seriously, it shouldn’t be this difficult
, she thought,
crossing the street.

May had disappeared so quickly. 
How
had she already been here a month without finding a job?
  It felt like it
was just yesterday when she had pulled up to Union Station with Dustin’s music
blasting in her ears.  She was amazed she had made it this long.  She had never
thought she would be strong enough, but here she was.  She was still searching
for a job, so she could find a way to stay two more months.

The route Devon normally had
taken walked past Jenn’s Restaurant, but kept her out of sight.  She had been
in the city long enough that it would be really strange if she just suddenly
showed up there.  She and Hadley weren’t all buddy-buddy anymore, so they
hadn’t spent their afternoons together in Jenn’s, but Devon knew Hadley still
frequented the locale.  Devon wasn’t about to force an encounter with Hadley. 
Devon’s anger hadn’t fizzled, and she didn’t know if she was just that
irritated with Hadley’s presence or if it was because of her drug use.  She
wanted to help, but Hadley wasn’t going to allow her in anytime soon. 
How
could she help if Hadley was avoiding her at every turn?

Devon crossed to the other side
of the street, and as she did, she glanced into the windows as she passed
Jenn’s.  She tried to tell herself she did it to see if Hadley was inside. 
Devon was pretty good at fooling herself.  Sometimes, she had even searched out
for the familiar blonde hair, but Hadley had never been there when Devon walked
by.

In truth, Devon was generally
hoping to see someone else.  It was silly.  Brennan didn’t know she was in the
city.  She had turned him down.  She had a boyfriend.  But she still walked
this stretch to see if he was working the bar, so she could catch a glimpse of
him.

No Hadley.  No Brennan.
 
Devon kept walking. 
Reminiscing about her first week in Chicago wouldn’t
help her find a job.

Turning the corner, Devon
immediately jumped out of the way as someone came barreling directly toward
her.  She got off a few choice words for the person as he passed her.  
People
in Chicago are so rude!
  People just didn’t act like that in Nashville.

When the person abruptly skidded
to a stop, Devon retreated a few steps.  She hadn’t thought her cussing at the
person would cause him to stop.  She didn’t want to draw attention to herself. 
She certainly didn’t want to set off some street thug, or worse, tilt the
emotional imbalance of some crazed serial killer.

When the person turned around,
Devon’s fear dried up.  It was immediately replaced with what she could only
describe as an
oh-fuck
face.

“Devon?” Brennan said
tentatively, facing her.

Breathing heavily from his run
with a sheen of sweat on his forehead, he looked astonished by her presence. 
She couldn’t blame him.

“Uh…hey, Brennan,” she
whispered.  She was ashamed that they had to meet like this after what had
happened between them.  “You looked like you were in a hurry—”

“What are you doing here?” he
asked, ignoring her statement.

“I, uh…didn’t leave,” she
murmured softly.

“What?” he asked, looking
confused.  “You were supposed to be gone like three weeks ago.  Why would you
stay?”

She had clearly shocked him
enough for him to speak plainly.  Normally, she thought he was so reserved, but
his face was giving him away as clear as day.  He hadn’t wanted her to leave,
and now, he was glad to see her. 
Could she possibly be reading him
correctly?

“I decided to stay and…help
Hadley,” she told him. 
It was the truth…mostly.

Brennan’s eyes narrowed in
response.  “I’ve seen Hadley almost every day for the past three weeks, and she
never mentioned that you’re still in the city.”

Devon shrugged.  Well, that
looked seriously implicating.  It wasn’t that she had told Hadley not to tell
Brennan.  It was just that Hadley wasn’t talking about Devon at all.  Now, it
looked like she had been avoiding him.  Well, she had.

“I haven’t been succeeding…” she
said. 
That much was also true.

“So, she’s avoiding you like the
plague because she wants to keep using,” he said intuitively.  “I’ve seen that
before.  You’re going to have to try harder.”  He paused, glancing down and
then up, like he wasn’t sure what to say.  “Maybe you should swing by Jenn’s. 
It might help.”

“Oh,” she whispered, looking away
from him. 
Why did he insist on complicating things?

“To see Hadley,” he added.

“Maybe,” she said.  “I’m kind of
busy looking for a job, so I don’t know when I’ll have a lot of time.”

“You’re looking for a job? 
You’re staying?” he asked.

She clearly continued to shock
him every time she opened her mouth.

“Oh, yeah, I’m staying through
the summer.”

She could see the question on his
face.  He wasn’t on guard like he normally was.  He seemed to want to know why
she hadn’t come to see him since their last encounter.  Still, he should know
why.  She had given him reason enough when she had broken the kiss in his
apartment.

Instead, he said, “Come with
me.”  Then, he turned on his heel and walked away from her.

Devon stared after his retreating
back. 
What the fuck is he thinking?
  But he wasn’t waiting for her, and
she had to jog to keep up with him.  She didn’t even know why she was following
him.  She knew it wasn’t a good idea to be around him.  That had become
blatantly obvious after he had kissed her.

She was too messed up.  She had
too many of her own issues to deal with, and she couldn’t drag anyone else into
it.

Brennan walked right into Jenn’s,
the place she hadn’t walked into for three weeks straight.  She followed on his
heels to the back of the mostly deserted restaurant.  Some regular customer
called out a snide remark to him as he passed, and Brennan flipped the guy
off.  The guy laughed through his smoker’s cough.

When they reached the door to the
kitchen, Brennan said, “Wait here.”

Devon stood around, twiddling her
thumbs.  She wished she knew why he had brought her here.  She didn’t know what
had compelled her to follow him, except that it had all been so sudden.  She
hadn’t expected to see him any more than he was expecting to see her.

Loud strong language from the
back broke her out of her thoughts.  All she could really grasp from the conversation
was that he was late for work.  That must have been why he had been running. 
She didn’t suspect he was the kind of person who was usually late, but she
didn’t really know him all that well.  Maybe it was a regular thing for him to
show up late.  Maybe that was why his hair had always been rumpled.

A couple minutes later, Brennan
walked back out of the kitchen with a woman in tow.  Devon had never seen her
before when she had spent time in Jenn’s, but that didn’t surprise her.  The
woman wasn’t wearing the typical uniform.  Instead, she was clad in a
form-fitting dress.  She looked well-kept, and Devon wondered what she was
doing back in the kitchen.

“Devon,” Brennan said, facing
her, “this is Jenn Yarrow.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Devon
said, sticking out her hand.

“Brennan said you are looking for
a job,” she said with a thick Northern accent.  “You have any waitressing
experience?”

“Yes, ma’am.  I worked as a
waitress in Nashville for a few summers,” Devon said, her hopes flaring.

“First off, don’t call me ma’am. 
That’s my mom or my mother-in-law, God strike her down,” Jenn said, tilting her
head to the sky.  “Second, we work with test-runs only.  You make it through
today, and I’ll hire you.  Otherwise, you can keep your tips and have a nice
day.”

Jenn threw a towel at her, and
Devon caught it, feeling shocked.

“So…is this like an interview?”

“What does it look like?” Jenn
rolled her eyes and looked at Brennan as if she were asking what kind of person
he had brought into the place.  “There’s a change of clothes in the back.  I’ll
check on you at closing time.”  With that, she turned and walked away.

“What just happened?”  Devon
stood completely still, holding a hand towel.

“The owner just gave you a job as
long as you make it through today,” Brennan told her.  “So, make it through
today.”

DEVON PEELED OFF her uniform in the
women’s restroom at the back of Jenn’s Restaurant.  As she changed back into
her street clothes, her arms and feet ached, her mind was whirring, and she
felt an overwhelming sense of exhaustion coursing throughout her entire body. 
The whole thing made her wonder why she hadn’t gotten a job earlier.  She was
so busy that she had forgotten everything else, like her reason for being in
Chicago, her best friend on drugs, and Brennan’s eyes always finding her in the
room.

Okay, she wasn’t busy enough not
to notice Brennan, but it felt different now.  She couldn’t react or respond
like she normally would have because there were simply too many customers who
had kept her occupied.

Jenn had met her at the door when
the bar closed.  Apparently, she wasn’t one for long-winded conversations.  She
told Devon to keep the towel and the extra uniform if she didn’t have any other
clothing that would work.  That was lucky because Devon hadn’t brought anything
like it with her.  She would have to use some of her tips to buy new clothes
and more comfortable shoes.  Jenn had told her to come in every night for the
rest of the week.  She hadn’t bothered to ask if the closing shift was okay for
Devon.  Jenn had mentioned that she would give Devon an official schedule the
following week, and Devon suspected she would remain on the night shift.

She rolled her shoulders backward
and forward a few times, trying to work the kinks out of them, but it was no
good.  At the very least, she would be sore for the next week.  The roll of
bills in her pocket made up for the stiffness she would surely face in the
morning.

Jenn’s was in a nice area, and
customers were always floating in and out.  The tourists that managed to find
the place tipped like crap, but the regulars tipped bucketloads.  They had
tipped way more than the people at the small pasta place she had worked in
Nashville.