Home > When Darkness Ends (Moments in Boston #3)(2)

When Darkness Ends (Moments in Boston #3)(2)
Author: Marni Mann

“No.” I shook my head. “A surgeon.”

“What kind?”

“Heart, I think. But I have a lot more years and what feels like a million more classes to complete before I make that decision. Premed is only the very beginning.”

A smile replaced the emotion. One that was so alluring that I would agree to anything she asked. “The amount of studying and term papers and exams you have in your future kinda makes me want to die.” She laughed, and it was just as captivating as her grin. “I want to graduate as quickly as possible and start my career.”

“And go where?”

Her arms dropped, and she tucked her hands into her pockets. “New York or LA—whichever city will take me.”

“That’s an interesting way to put it.”

Once again, her eyes were seeking out the window, like the answers were written on the glass. “My industry doesn’t welcome you with open arms. I’m going to have to find a crack and squeeze my way in.”

There was something so intriguing about Pearl. Different. Deeper. Like a wild bird that wasn’t supposed to be made a pet and that was what college was doing to her. Humble to the core but far too talented for Boston.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you,” I confessed.

Her smile didn’t reach as far as her eyes this time. It stopped at her nose and slowly faded. “Something tells me you won’t ever again.” She moved into the hallway and added, “Maybe we’ll cross paths again one day. See you around, Ashe.”

The door shut before I got a chance to say another word.

Several seconds passed, and I finally looked at the textbook in my lap. I scanned the words, not retaining a single one. Knowing that she was in my living room, I couldn’t concentrate. I just wanted my eyes on her, my body in her presence; something unfamiliar tugged at me to get closer to her.

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t leave my room until I finished the chapter. I counted the double-sided pages and had eight to go, taking notes as I read to force myself to pay attention. When I reached the final sentence, I got up and went down the short hallway. But as I reached the opening of the living room, Pearl was nowhere to be found.

Where’s the hot girl? I mouthed to Dylan, the room loud, as several people were speaking.

He shrugged and replied, She had to go.

She had found her crack, and she had squeezed her way out.

 

 

Two

 

 

Before


Pearl

 

 

“You’re late. Again.” My boss seethed as I rushed into the bar. He was leaning against the bar top with a tumbler in his hand, the whiskey a permanent fixture that I never saw him without. “Pearl, I won’t tolerate your tardiness anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

I had known I was cutting it close, but I’d needed the extra studying for the exam we had on Friday, and Dylan’s apartment was only a few blocks from here.

My boss blocked me from the back entrance, standing several inches over me, the booze on his breath making my stomach churn. “Your good looks will only get you so far.” His eyes were on my lips while he licked his own. “You know, average-looking girls show up on time, and they’re hungry for the attention my customers give them. Maybe I need to fire you, trade you in for an average girl, someone who isn’t such a diva.”

Divas didn’t work six nights a week, begging for the seventh shift. I didn’t say that to Frank. Instead, I apologized again and sidestepped around him, rushing into the break room.

I set my bag on the bench, digging through it to find my uniform. Once the clothes were in my hands, I stripped out of the ones I was wearing, hurrying to put on the tight black cotton skirt and see-through white tank top. The bra that happened to be clean today was bright blue, so that was the color eyeliner I would soon swipe over my lids. I added a pair of fishnets and tied my apron around my waist. As I stood in front of the mirror, I repositioned the curls that hung down to my chest, spraying them with hairspray, and once my eye makeup was done, I added some red lipstick.

Finished with the look, I shoved my bag into my locker and opened the door to the hallway, instantly greeted by Frank, who had been waiting on the other side.

Sipping his drink, he eyed me up and down. “Took you long enough.” He waited for a response, but I didn’t give him one. “Pearl, take this as your final warning. I’m up to here with your bullshit.” He pointed at his throat.

“They’re not excuses—”

“What did I just tell you?”

His voice was full of threats, ones I’d heard many times before. His eyes told an entirely different story as they continued to travel across my body, pausing at the spots I wished were more covered up.

“Frank, I promise to do everything I can to be here on time. But you know the full load of classes I take each semester, and I’m heavily involved in the theater, which causes my schedule to be even tighter.”

He handed me his empty glass. “The only thing tight I want to hear you talk about is your pussy.”

Half of my coworkers slept with him. The thought made me sick.

He put his hand on my chin, lifting it so my lips moved closer to his. “Don’t do it again. Understood?”

If I wasn’t short six hundred dollars on rent, I would knee him in the balls and walk out, never returning. But he ran one of the most successful bars off campus, and none of the others in the area could pay me what I earned here.

I nodded hard enough that his hand fell, and I walked away.

“My God, I hate that man,” I said to Erin, the bartender, stopping at the bar as she was cutting up limes.

“That makes two of us.”

Erin had interviewed me almost two years ago after I came home from school that afternoon, finding an eviction notice on the door. She promised the money would be worth the bullshit. At the time, I didn’t know what she meant.

I’d learned fast.

If I wasn’t dealing with a drunk customer trying to shove his phone number into my tank top, I was putting out a Frank fire.

“I think I can make this shift a little better for you.” She smiled, lifting a clipboard from behind the counter and turning it toward me. The schedule showed that I’d been assigned the front of the house—the best section in the bar.

I reached over the cutting board and hugged her. “Thanks for having my back.”

“Girl, I’ve always got you—you know that.”

As I pulled away, grinning, I pointed at the two high-tops by the door. “Have they been helped?”

She shook her head. “I told them you’d be right over.”

I thanked her again and went up to the first table. “What can I get you?” I asked the two men.

“Two shots of Jameson,” one of them answered. “And a Jack and Coke for me.”

“Bud Light,” the other man replied.

I wrote down their order and moved on to the four-top, asking those customers the same question.

And I repeated those words over and over for the next five hours until Frank came up behind me and said, “You’re cut.”

I was at the bar, waiting for Erin to finish making a round of drinks I had ordered, when I felt his breath on the back of my ear. I looked at him over my shoulder, his stare making my stomach turn. “Now?”

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