Page 10 of Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress
Nope. Sleep would not happen. Not there.
He moved back to the main room and the muscle chair and eased his long frame into it. He’d had the chair tailormade for his size. Off-the-shelf models only reached the back of his calves.
He swallowed the sleep dose and stretched out. It would take a few minutes to kick in. He just had to avoid thinking for a few more minutes.
Soft, low laughter. Her hand on his hip, trailing fingers…
Elijah opened his eyes. Reached for something. Anything. “Barney?”
“Yes, sir?”
“A woman arrived in the city today. A Varkan. Red hair, green eyes. She was on my ship. Who is she staying with?”
“I can enquire. A moment, sir.” Then. “She appears to be staying at a transient hostel in the Heartlands.”
“Transient?”
“She has not applied for residency. Do you require her com number?”
“No!” He cleared his throat. “What is her…” He paused to breathe. His chest was tight, making it hard to expand his lungs. He sipped air.
“You would like her name, sir?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I want to stay as far away from her as possible. Does she have appointments while she’s here?”
“She appears to be purely a tourist, sir.”
So she would be wandering the city, popping up in odd places. He might glimpse her from the corner of his eye. Spot her hair through the crowds…he liked it longer, the way she wore it now.
That is not Blake, he told himself firmly. Then, “Barney, I intend to stay in my apartment until we ship out on Thursday. Tell Allison to cancel everything for the next three days, except the Consortium meeting.” There was little danger of spotting strangers in the old executive wing. No one was allowed there without special passes.
“Including your breakfast table at the Sky Dome restaurant?”
“Including that,” he growled, for damn it, helikedhaving breakfast there. “No, I’ll eat there on Thursday morning.” At least one day of good coffee and perfectly cooked bacon was not too much to ask of cruel fate. “And tell Allison to stop sulking. I won’t bite.”
“Allison feels that perhaps you did, sir. Bite, that is. Just a little.”
Elijah rolled his eyes. “Then tell her I’m sorry, and come back to work in the morning. I’ll need her for the meeting.”
“I’ll see if I can settle her down, sir,” Barney said, his tone very polite.
Elijah expelled his frustration with a heavy sigh. Sleep was enveloping him in a warm, soothing blanket. “And turn off—” It was all he could manage, but the lights extinguished anyway.
~ 4 ~
“Lucie, can you cover Edme’s tables please, hun?” Olivette said, as she pushed another breakfast through the hatch. The older woman bent to smile at Lucie, the brown marks under her eyes looking darker than usual. “Just for ten minutes, promise.”
“That’s okay,” Lucie told her, picking up the plate. She had been on the job for two point seven five days…she had been on the job for nearly three days, if she didn’t count the frantic training time. In two days, she had learned that there was much more to waitressing than delivering plates of food and taking orders. But she had also learned how to manage many tables. It reminded her a lot of how she had managed a city and its millions of residents’ constant demands. Set priorities, then deal with each matter, no matter how minor, in the fastest order.
And always be pleasant, smile and never show nervousness. Tips would be better if she smiled.
In two days she had also learned how much Olivette needed her. Well, anyone at all. But Lucie had been the one to step into the restaurant and ask about the help-wanted sign she had seen in Celestial.
Olivette had barely asked any questions. She had dropped the apron over Lucie’s head and pushed the order pad into herhand. “You can learn as you go. You seem sensible, like you have a head on your shoulders. Don’t piss off the customers, is all I ask. We have a reputation here, and it’s not all about the view and the food.” Olivette had hurried away to prepare for dinner, as the lunch rush had just finished.
Although even when the rush was over, the Sky Dome restaurant was busy. The view did havesomethingto do with it. Lucie had learned not to look up too high, or else risk her attention being snagged by the starfield hanging like crystals upon black velvet just overhead. The purples and reds of the Arentto Cloud galaxy glowed with majestic beauty. And constantly, ships were drifting out of their bays, to hang in space just beyond the dome, before disappearing as their pilot took the ship across Interspace.
It was far too easy to stand and stare through the dome and forget where she was, until someone called for her with annoyed tones.
