Page 4 of The Runaway

“Yeah- no problem.” Off the bartender went, leaving me to stare at this guy that’d so confidently butted in on my conversation. He turned his blue eyes to me, the very light stubble on his jaw and cheeks rippling as he smiled. Licking my lips as nerves ate through my gut, I held out my hand politely, and the hairs on my arm stood up when he took it with no hesitation.

“I’m Jacob.” Jacob’s palm was warm, sliding roughly down my fingers from the callouses of his hard work. For a brief second, my brain fried under the brightness of his eyes. He was young— maybe not older than me— and I nodded as my gaze struggled to stay on his face.

“M— Joci.” The bartender returned with his beer, and Jacob nodded in thanks. “You speak Russian?”

“No, sorry. Your English is pretty good for someone whose never been here before, Joci.” Grabbing my shot to hide the flames that licked my cheeks and up my neck, I closed my eyes tightly to knock back my drink. The burn hit me hard, trailing down to my belly, and my toes curled slightly in my heels. My chest tightened, a hot sigh escaping my lips as heat settled behind my ears. “What brings you to America? Holiday?”

“No. Am moved here.” I winced noticeably, and Jacob chuckled slightly before covering his mouth with the back of his hand. His eyes danced like beautiful, blue waves on the Gulf, his thin beard rippling with merriment. My phone buzzed on the bar, forcing me to look away as mortification heated up to my hairline. Ophelia’s name winked at me, and I debated answering for a long moment before swiping the green button.

“Hey, Ophelia. I found a bar.” Still speaking in English, I frowned at how weird her name was rolling off my tongue. “How’s your food?”

“It’s great! I was calling to check on you.” Awkwardness floated through the line, and I just lowered my phone and hung up after a second too long. Setting my phone back on the bar top, I stared at it through dazed eyes. Once Aleksander cut me off, I’d have to get my own cell phone… in English.Crap.

“Do you want me to leave you alone, Joci?” The question broke my thoughts, and I glanced up as Jacob took a swig of his beer.

“I just think… I had more focus in school.” Scrunching up my nose, I shook my head hastily. I didn’t think this throughat all.“You’re okay here, Jacob.”

4

Joci

“Woah…” Pulling both ends of themozz stick, my mouth watered as the cheese just stretched— and stretched—and stretched.“Weird.”

“You’ve seriously never had this kind of cheese before?” Pausing to glance at Jacob, I arched a brow quizzically at the humor lacing his tone. He held his cheek on his fist, a slight smile tilted his lips. Alarm glimmered in his eye, and I gasped. “Watch it!”

“Oh!” Raising my arms as high as they would go, I barely stopped the gooey cheese from touching the bar. A sharp throb shot down either side of my spine, and I grimaced as the cheese coiled onto the small plate. “Fuck-“

Slurring heavily, I dropped both sides of the bready part of the stick to grip my shoulders. Hoovering up a hard breath, my eyelids shuttered tight as I arched sharply. Instantly, a cold sweat broke out on my back, and fire engulfed my joints. Tentatively, a calloused palm pressed against my lower back, worried eyes boring holes into my face.

“Do you need ice or something, Joci?” Forcing my eyes open, they found his easily as he leaned in close, concern thinning his lips.Ice?The last time I put ice on me, it made the pins quiver and the plates sear my bones from the cold. When I shook my head, Jacob frowned under furrowed brows, but he didn’t object.

“My— my arm—”Shit, what’s the English word for shoulders?My lips moved in agonized silence, but Jacob seemed to get me, anyway. Closing my eyes tightly, I struggled to take a few calming breaths as I sat, rigid on the stool. “I’m— I sit too much.”

“Let’s take a walk outside.” That was even worse, but I didn’t protest as Jacob held my biceps and helped me off my seat. “So, you can’t raise your arms very high?”

“No.” Sitting for so long didn’t help me at all, either. There was only so much I could manage, and being active wasn’t even at the bottom of that list.Even here, Anatoly’s curse follows me.I ground my teeth through the pain as Jacob and I walked out of the bar and onto the street. The sun had set fully, now, and a surprised hiccup escaped me at how busy the sidewalks still were.

“I get sitting too much.” Leaning against the brick holding the windows to the building, I gulped harshly as Jacob positioned himself next to me. “I work a desk job. It sucks— that’s why I’m careful to be more than usually active.”

My head hurt— too much to try to decipher what he was saying. Pulling my phone out with trembling fingers, I sniffled harshly and took a deep breath through my nose. That app the bartender showed me popped up through blurred vision, and I held out the bottom of the device to him to nod encouragingly. He spoke again, the computer-generated voice repeating what he said in Russian.

“I don’t work— not really. I basically babysat a rich kid in Russia, but I had this opportunity to move to America. I had to take it. I can’t go back.” The words spewed out in English from my phone’s speaker, and Jacob’s brows rose in interest. With each second that passed, with the cold air and the hard bricks, the pain in my body dulled a tiny bit. Gingerly taking my phone, Jacob spoke, and I closed my eyes to listen to the deep timbre of his voice.

“That sounds really cool, actually. Did you do a lot of fun, rich people stuff? Every job has its ups and downs. I’m a computer programmer, and I love it— I’ve got my dream job. The downside is that my boss is a bitch.” He paused when I didn’t open my eyes, focusing on breathing rather than holding a conversation in a language I didn’t know. “… That’s the thing that sucks about computer people— everyone thinks they’re so amazing. They try to be the smartest person in the room. I’m just a programmer, but I’m constantly telling my boss she’s wrong about simple stuff.”

“It’s a complicated situation, but if by ‘rich people stuff’ you mean clubs and prostitutes and listening to him whine about his maid taking too long to put on his socks— yeah. I did a lot of that.” Craning my neck to speak into my phone, I blinked back the sting in my eyes. Jacob laughed, covering his mouth again with his hand to stifle the sound. His was a beautiful, deep sound, with no hitches or sharpness— smooth and thick. Reaching to cover his palm with mine, I lowered his hand as he paused, his eyes widening. “You have a wonderful laugh. Don’t hide.”

It wasn’t until my phone spoke back to me in Russian that I realized I’d spoken English, and my tongue tingled. Jacob smiled wide, his fingers curling around mine as heat slithered up my neck. Softly brushing his lips along my knuckles, his eyes sparkled with a different kind of interest.

“How’s your shoulders?” My brows twitched in confusion before the phone speaker spouted out Russian, and I ducked my head in a nod. “Ready to go back inside?”

“I will pay back… but…” Just as I trailed off guiltily, my phone trilled insistently. Pulling back from Jacob’s grip to frown at the screen, I swiped the green button. “Ophelia— what? You call 10 minutes before.”

“I called 10 minutesago, but I’m worried about you on your own, Joci. Complain all you want.” I scrunched up my nose at that, but Ophelia just trudged on with barely a pause. “You’re at a bar, right? Don’t drink too much.”

“Yes,Mom.” Hanging up again, I rolled my lips between my teeth to huff through my nose. “Don’t drink! Ugh.”

“Is she your sister?” I shook my head, and Jacob rocked back on his heels to reach into his jacket pocket. He seemed to constantly surprise me as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and plucked two. “Why did you move to America? Do you have a plan?”