"Bitch what?" Her voice drives up multiple octaves. I can hear the apprehension from her side of the phone. What I've told her is wild, unexplainable, and now she's going crazy trying to figure out the rest.

"Get over here now. I already ordered the ice cream and tacos." I say into the phone, Jessica squealing into the mic. She's muttering through her plans and the time it would take to get here. Even in the background I can hear the clicks as she messages a couple people, then turns her focus back to me.

"Give me ten minutes, only a hop and a skip away." The dial tone comes through when she ends the call, me throwing my phone onto a nearby table. Messages pile into my phone from Ares and I must restrain myself from messaging back. The simplest thing would be to block him and move on, pray he never comes into the diner again, the other is to make it complicated by opening the messages and letting myself be convinced he's different. Maybe some perfect string of words could weave through the cement coating of my heart and break the trauma that resonates anytime I attempt a real conversation with a man.

"Hey bitch!" Jessica runs in, the taco bag in hand from where the delivery human left it on the concrete walkway. The long tag is clipped to the side. It's a sincere mocking of how much us servers eat when we're not on the clock. Our manager doesn't let the employees eat the food, not that Gus cares, but it's enough that when we're free everything edible is shoved between our squirrel cheeks.

"He's shady. Like really shady." Her nice ass drops onto the couch ripping open the bag.

"Oh no. No dick? Babe." She grumbles something under her breath, then leans to give me a hug, "Do you need me to put on a strap on for you?"

"Jessica you're straight."

"Like I say, you are the only woman that could make me abandon men." A subtle growl is heard in the background and we both look around for the culprit, "Was that you Vee? Are you that hungry?"

"I thought that was you..." What?

"Either way, let's get tacos in you. They are the closest thing to sex we both are having tonight." Jessica says grabbing the tacos out and tossing them out to both of us. After our many nights together it's a routine on what we order, who gets what, and what gets cut in half. As my special request she pulls out a plastic knife working her way through the extra quesadilla I ordered.

"So true." I unwrap my cheese roll up tossing the wrapper back into the bag, "Look, you remember James? Think him but that much hotter. It was wild. The conversation was short, but the few things he said were overwhelming and so... dedicated."

"Another controlling asshole that wants you to bend to his will. The nerve of the rich. Let's eat them." She spits while taking a large chunk of burrito between her teeth.

"He was talking about love at first sight, his care for me, and so much more." I make air quotes around the words, "Even told me about real love takes time and commitment, and I quote 'both of which I plan to give you.'"

"What? Do tell more!" She takes the whole taco and puts it into her mouth after shoveling the last of the burrito. I work my way through my taco before answering her squealing beg.

"When I tried to leave because it made me very uncomfortable, he grabbed my wrist and told me he wouldn't be able to leave me, and then followed me to my cab. Not to mention he tried to call me by an 'M' 'A' name. The nerve!"

She barely keeps the lettuce in her mouth at the coughing surprise she has, "Dude," She finishes swallowing with her finger held in the air, "That's bat shit crazy."

"Glad I'm not overreacting here."

Jess rolls her eyes grabbing her next taco. It's a competition between us now on who can eat faster. "You couldn't have fucked him one time before saying goodbye?"

"And have him that much more obsessed with me? No. While I'll sleep with most men, I at least want them willing to part ways. I'm not about creating a stalker because of this nice ass. " I finish off a taco and go for my next lifting my butt on the way to give a good slap.

"You don't know if he's obsessed with you. He's just dedicated." A snort breaks from her at her false kindness towards him, "But I think it's best if you avoid him. I don't know the whole story, but how you feel is important. A bad gut feeling is a bad gut feeling. Trust it." I must bite my tongue for a moment. The gut feeling wasn't bad, it was me. Just me. My mental pain that caused the red flags to pop up, but her agreement is enough for me to shove that thought down.

"Here." I hand over my phone where over twenty messages are lined out from Ares, all begging me to call him so he can explain. Others pop in as soon as she's done reading. The sigh that leaves her is impressive, her tossing the phone back to me.

"Okay. Even I can't give the guy a break on that one. Girl you're going to have to block him. That's next level rich crazy. Who would think a girl wants thirty texts about how sorry they are? Maybe one long one, two at most, but that's... damn honey."

"And his eyes did the same thing that your guy did!"

She pauses to think back to work, her eyes shuffling left and right as she does, "The gold thing? Yeah, I thought that was lighting."

I peel my eyelids up with my fingers for effect, Jess laughing at me, "No, chic, it was real. They were like melted gold in the night watching me ride off the cab. It was wild! Changed before my eyes. I try to sum it up to some weird medical condition, but nothing on google other than weird werewolf fanfics pop up."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have no idea. Part of me, well most of me, is the dumbest bitch alive and wants to message him back. Another part of me wants to break my lease and move to another part of New York so he doesn't know where I live. You know, again."

"Both great options." She nods once. I fall back into the couch with my half of the quesadilla resting against my chin.

"Jess." I mumble pinching the end of my nose. She gives me a cat like grin, eyes looking more mischievous by the minute.

"Yes, bestie with a fatty?"

"You are useless sometimes." My sigh is loud, and she gives me a large ear to ear smile.

"I know, but of course if you want to tank his house, I know a guy. Old fuck buddy. Comes highly recommended. However, he does lack discretion so expect a couple years of free food and complementary gym membership behind bars if you choose him." A knock rolls over the door drawing both our attention. I grab my phone and walk over expecting the ice cream delivery like I had ordered earlier. Yanking the door open, the rain that was in the forecast pours over the night. Its loud drops cover any other noise I could possibly hear, "Vee? Everything okay?"

"Yeah... I think so?" I yell back finally landing my eyes on a silver card laid at the base of the door. It's sitting in the only place dry enough against the rainstorm. I pick it up between my fingers walking back into the room where Jess is strung out over the couch taco trash over her stomach, "Holy shit Jess, look at this."

"Ares Gray requests your presence. Please see compensation for the inconvenience inside."

"Well open it!" She screeches snatching it from my hand. I yank it back smacking her across the head with it to tug open the envelope a check for a hundred grand dropping to the floor, "Vee."

"I think- I think I am going to pass out." Black.