Page 40 of Edge

“My personal life is none of your business. I appreciate the opportunities you’ve given me to pick up some extra hours, but going forward, I need more than one day’s notice.”

“Whatever,” she snapped and walked away from me.

“What was that about?” Irene asked, startling me.

“She asked me to cover her shift tomorrow and didn’t like it when I said no.”

“You said no?” Irene asked, feigning surprise.

“Shocking, right?”

She laughed. “Get out of here and enjoy the rest of your day.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said and headed out to my car.

I’d briefly forgotten about the morning incident, but quickly remembered when a shiver ran down my spine as I walked across the parking lot. I felt like someone was watching me and was going to pop out to grab me at any moment, but I didn’t see anyone around when I carefully surveyed my surroundings.

“No one’s going to get you,” I whispered to myself. “This isn’t like before.”

My efforts to calm myself were futile. I picked up my pace and practically dove into the front seat of my car, scrambling to close and lock the door. Shaking my head, I sighed. I’d always been good at freaking myself out.

Unfortunately, my nerves didn’t settle after I got home. Every random sound had me tiptoeing to the nearest window to carefully peek outside. Even though I knew I was safe at the backof Irene’s property, I couldn’t seem to relax. I was on the verge of driving to the grocery store to buy a bottle of wine when Edge called. He immediately realized something was off.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

I briefly considered lying but decided to tell him the truth. If he couldn’t handle what I considered justified paranoia, I wanted to know sooner rather than later. “A man showed up at the diner this morning and got into a fight with two of the regulars. They put him in his place and showed him the door, but the whole thing rattled my nerves.”

“Did he say or do anything to you?”

“No. He barely made it in the front door.”

“Did Irene call the police?”

I shook my head before I realized he couldn’t see me. “No. Walter and Buck hung around for a little while to make sure he didn’t come back.”

“What time did this happen?”

“About thirty minutes after we opened. Why?”

“I’m going to have Byte pull the camera feed and save the video clips. If he comes back, we’ll have proof of the previous incident. Irene really should have filed a police report.”

“She probably still can. Should I call her?” I asked.

“No, don’t worry about it. Irene knows what she’s doing. If she didn’t think she needed to involve the police, then she probably didn’t.”

I didn’t like the way he said “probably didn’t” but I tried not to overthink it and moved on to tell him about Marcy.

“It’s okay if you need to work tomorrow,” he said.

“Thanks, but I’m looking forward to our plans,” I said. “And I really enjoyed telling Marcy no. You should’ve seen her face. She couldn’t believe I said no. Then she got mad.”

“Why is she still working there?”

“Because Irene hasn’t been able to find anyone to replace her. Well, that’s not entirely true. She’s hired a few people, but they’ve all quit after a few days of training.”

“Is Marcy the one training them?”

“Yes,” I said slowly as realization dawned. “She’s running them off, isn’t she?”