Chapter 3
2343words
After a few days, a man with long brown hair walked in, wearing a black baseball cap turned backwards. Jake’s coworker, Aydan, stiffened. “You take this one,” he said coldly.
Jake nervously walked over to help the man, wondering why Aydan seemed to take issue with this customer in particular.
“What size do you want?” Jake asked.
“Regular.”
Jake grabbed the proper sized, pre-made dough. “Red sauce and mozzarella?”
“Yes, and just pepperoni and basil for the toppings.”
Jake put the ingredients on, and placed the pizzas on the counter behind him. Aydan put it in the oven.
“I haven’t seen you here before,” the man said.
“Yeah. I just moved here last week.” Jake stepped over to the register to ring him up.
“Where from?”
“California.”
“Really? I once went to LA when I was a kid, right before those terrible floods. Where are you from?”
“Originally San Francisco.” The floods there weren’t any better. “But we moved to Concord when I was in middle school.”
“This place must be a huge difference.”
“It has been. For here or to go?”
Jake punched in the numbers on the cash register, and the man paid.
“Name?” Jake asked.
The man smiled. “Luke. Yours?”
Jake smiled back. “Jake.”
“Nice meeting you. Hopefully I’ll see you around again.”
Luke sat at the nearest table to wait. He had been the friendliest customer by far. It was an easy order. Jake couldn’t figure out why Aydan didn’t want to serve him.
There weren't any other customers waiting to order, so Jake walked over to Aydan. “What’s bad about him? He seemed cool.”
“Maybe at first. But that guy is bad news.”
“Bad news?”
Aydan lowered his voice. “He was in jail for a few years. Just got out about six months ago.”
“What for?”
“It’s a long story, but I’ll try to make it quick.” Aydan tapped his fingers on the counter. “There was this woman. Her parents were looking to marry her off.”
More marrying off? Jake still couldn’t get over what Maple was going through. “Okay.”
“Yeah.” Aydan continued as if there were nothing wrong with it. “But that guy, Luke. And the woman. They were seeing each other, but her father didn’t approve of him. He told Luke to stay away. Pointed a shotgun at him and everything. You’d think the idiot would’ve listened to him, but nope. They continued seeing each other. Secretly.”
Jake’s eyes widened at each passing sentence. What 19th century nonsense was this?
Aydan misunderstood the reason for Jake’s shocked expression. “I know. Nobody suspected a thing until she ended up pregnant. Guess who the father was.”
Jake snuck a glance at Luke, who scrolled on his phone like the average person.
“Yep. The woman died giving birth to his kid. A girl. Her parents took care of the baby for a couple years, until they gave her up to some other relatives. Now that he’s out, there’s rumors that they’re giving him custody of her. I don’t know why anyone would. The girl should be adopted out to a normal couple. Not some criminal.”
To Jake, it sounded like something out of a historical romance novel. Though he couldn’t imagine what any of that had to do with Luke being jailed. “What did he go to jail for?”
“Did you not just hear me?” Aydan shook his head, and checked on the pizzas in the oven.
Jake watched him pull one of the pizzas out, and put it in a box. He struggled to put two and two together. There was only one reason he could think of, but it didn’t make sense. “He went to jail for getting a woman pregnant?”
“For rape,” Aydan whispered as he cut the pizza. He closed the box, and called out a name. A man walked up and took the box, then left.
“Really?” Jake’s stomach twisted at the thought. He looked at Luke again, who continued scrolling on his phone. “You made it sound consensual.”
Aydan stared at him as though he had missed an obvious detail. “I said this happened without her father’s permission.”
“But did the woman want it?”
“Some say she did, some say she didn’t. But that doesn’t matter. Her father didn’t consent to him being with her. So, it’s rape.”
Jake failed to understand how any part of that story made Luke the bad guy. He’d never heard anything so ridiculous. “That’s messed up.”
“Tell me about it,” Aydan said. Though Jake had a feeling he misunderstood why it was “messed up.” Aydan grabbed a few more pizza boxes, and opened them. “His is probably done now. You handle it. I’ll help this next customer.”
Aydan walked over to take a woman’s order. Jake checked on Luke’s order, which looked done. He took it out, boxed it up, and called Luke’s name.
Luke walked over to grab his order. “Thank you.”
“Have a good day.” Jake gave him a friendlier smile than usual.
After Luke left, Jake glanced at the clock. He only had five minutes left of his shift. Thank God. The man's tragic backstory made Jake too depressed to work.
“We’re almost out of sauce,” Aydan said. “Can you go in the back and get more?”
Deep in thought, Jake walked through a swinging door that led to the kitchen. He picked up a large metal container of sauce from the fridge. Then, he strode towards the swinging door with it. He shoved it open with his shoulder, right as his supervisor walked through. The two collided. The container tilted towards Jake. Cold sauce spilled all over his shirt, dripping down to his pants. A small puddle landed on the floor. Somehow, a couple of drops ended up on his glasses as well.
His supervisor, Rolan, apologized and asked if he was okay.
“I’m fine.” Jake set the container down on the counter, and grabbed the nearest towel. He wiped his glasses off first, then attempted to wipe the sauce off his shirt. All that did was smear it.
“I’ll take this out.” Rolan took the container from him. “You get yourself and that floor cleaned up.”
After scrubbing the floor, Jake clocked out. He made a stop in the men’s room first, to clean himself up. Except he couldn’t get in, because the door wouldn’t open unless he stuck his finger in the fingerprint reader on the door. But because he had gotten sauce all over his fingers, it wasn’t registering, even after he rubbed his finger on his pants. Aydan had to open it for him.
The fact left Jake annoyed. That, along with the story he heard about Luke. Jefferson sucked.
His new home was only a few blocks away. He walked in through a side door that led straight to the laundry room. Once inside, he kicked off his shoes, stripped off his clothes, and dropped them in the washing machine. A basket of dirty laundry sat on a table next to the dryer. Might as well catch up on laundry. Except he'd never used this particular washing machine before. He hadn't a clue how to turn it on, and he was too tired from working to figure it out.
His first instinct was to call the family robot over to take care of it, but then he remembered his father putting it away, and hiring an actual butler to do everything instead. Apparently, having human staff instead of robots was some sort of status symbol here. Jake found the whole thing ridiculous. They barely needed the robot, much less an actual person to do basic household chores for them.
“I can take care of that.”
Jake jumped at the voice. He turned around to find their new butler at the doorway. Chives averted his eyes, which reminded Jake that people here were prudes. “Sorry.” He grabbed a towel from a basket of clean clothes, and wrapped it around his waist. “I was going to shower.”
“Be quick about it. Your father will be arriving with company any minute.”
“Seriously? Who?”
“A pair of brothers who own a soda business. They want to do a partnership.”
It must be those Henderson brothers from the party, though he knew nothing about any partnerships. His father must’ve gotten along well with them. Much unlike Jake. He still couldn’t get over how they wanted to marry Maple off like a piece of property.
Poor Maple. Jake hoped she’d come too. Their little adventure in the basement had been fun.
He left the laundry to Chives, and walked down a short hallway, past a living room, and through a kitchen. The walk to the nearest bathroom with a shower was needlessly long. He entered the foyer right as the front door opened. In stepped his father, the Henderson brothers, and Maple. All caught sight of him in nothing but a towel.
“Jake!” his father hissed at him. “What are you doing?”
“I was going to take a shower.” Jake caught Maple’s wandering eyes. Part scandalized, part intrigued. He gave her a flirty half-smile, leaning against the staircase. “Hey, Mapes.”
She turned pink. Walker covered her eyes with his hand. Both brothers glared at him as though he were corrupting their innocent sister.
Sebastian spent half the week debating on if he should contact Axel. Several times, he’d pull up his number, stare at it, then switch the screen to something else. Axel had shown kindness towards him, along with an interest in friendship. Sebastian hadn’t had a friend in six years. The moment someone discovered he was Mayor Barstow’s son, they lost interest. Who would want to be associated with someone like him?
Axel was the first person who didn’t seem to care about his past. But Sebastian found him attractive. A fact that reminded him of that disgusting part of himself. That part he fought so hard to bury. It would be healthier if he forgot about the mechanic.
“Now how and where am I supposed to announce my run for governor?” Waylon asked over dinner, for the fifth day in a row. “We missed Barry’s party. Everyone was there. It would’ve been perfect.”
Celine nodded along in agreement as she took a sip of wine. Sebastian poked at his steak. His mind was occupied with more important things than Waylon’s lame run for governor. In fact, he planned on voting against his father.
Axel probably would too. Sebastian smiled.
“You think this is funny?” Waylon’s harsh tone yanked Sebastian out of his thoughts.
“No!” Sebastian set his fork down. “I was thinking of something else.”
“And what were you thinking about that was more important than my problem?”
Sebastian struggled to think of something that wasn’t Axel. “Uh… Women?”
Celine smiled. Waylon stared at him. Sebastian braced himself for yelling. Instead, his father stroked his mustache. “You know, Camp Hope did a damn good job of fixing you. Almost too good.”
Sebastian forced a chuckle. “Yep. Women are always on my mind these days.”
“Definitely. It has me thinking…”
Did Sebastian want to know? He waited for Waylon to continue.
“Now would be the perfect time to find you a wife. What do you say?”
A wife? Sebastian’s throat closed up. He didn’t want a wife. “I don’t think…”
“People still can’t get over what you did. But you getting married will convince them. Those who won’t vote for me because of your past might change their mind when they’ve seen you changed yours. It’ll be a big help.”
“I’m not ready!” Sebastian blurted out.
“Not ready?” Waylon held his fork in midair as he frowned at him. “You’re 23 years old. You should already be married!”
“Nope. I’m going to start searching the classifieds. See who’s looking for a husband. I suggest you start going out more. Maybe you can find one the natural way.”
At least Sebastian was given the option of finding someone. Too bad he didn’t want a woman at all.
With that final thought, Sebastian made the decision to contact Axel. He’d at least be someone to vent to.
After dinner, Sebastian went straight to his room. He tapped at the phone app on his watch, and navigated towards Axel’s number. “New text,” he said out loud. A blank message box popped up on the watch’s screen. Sebastian spoke into it.
“Hi Axel, it’s Sebastian.”
Axel was quick to respond. His watch read the text out loud. “Hey, I’m glad to hear from you. Everything good?”
Sebastian opened his mouth to reply back, but footsteps approached his door. His father opened it without knocking. “Who are you talking to?”
“No one. I was about to check my emails, but my watch forced me to listen to an ad first.”
“I hate when that happens.” Waylon turned around and left, not bothering to shut the door behind him.
Sebastian got up to close his door, then dug out his phone. He’d have to continue texting silently on that. He opened up his texting app, to continue the conversation in written form.
No. My dad wants me to find a wife. But I don’t want to get married.
Man, that sucks. I’d hate that too.
Sebastian smiled, grateful he wasn’t alone in not wanting a wife.
Yeah. He’s planning on running for governor. He thinks me being married will help his chances. Personally, I’m not voting for him.
Neither am I. Are you doing anything tonight?
Just moping in my room.
Wanna hang out later?
Sebastian stared at his last message, unsure how to respond. He certainly wanted to. But if he knew what was good for himself, he wouldn’t. He shouldn’t.
Sebastian tapped on the reply box, and texted his answer.
Sure. What time and where?
