Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(8)
Ama nodded and turned back to the newspaper’s wanted ads. As the girl mumbled her thanks Ama stood up.
She was hitting the first place by a little after seven. The guy took one look at her and simply shook his head. She was well on her way to the third place when she saw the Bowens again. Ducking down an alley, she waited until she was sure they were gone before she stepped out again. More problems like the ones she had with their son she didn’t need.
By lunchtime she’d hit five places and had only filled out one application. She went into the restaurant of the Greek place down from the comic shop and ordered, and then went to the bathroom. The mirror over the sink seemed to mock her.
Her eyes were a very pretty shade of green, and that was about all her looks said in a positive way. Closing her eyes, she willed her face to look like the humans saw it. When she opened them and looked, she was surprised again, like she was every time she saw the differences.
Right between her brows was a diamond-shaped, emerald-looking mark. And from it there were intricate twists and curves that formed a line just above her eyebrows that were a darker green than the emerald. These lines extended down past her eyes and into her hairline, where they curved around her ears and then to the back of her neck to her back. A few smaller twists were on her throat, but weren’t as easy to see.
Her hands were clear of any marks as humans saw her. But when she looked at herself, her complete self, she could see herself as she truly was. The same dark green lines were there, but with more diamond shapes in all the colors of the world. She doubted that if anyone saw these they’d ever believe they were done by a needle. They were too detailed, too brightly colored, and most assuredly not drawn by a human hand. Before she could think about her back, she heard someone coming toward the bathroom and closed her eyes again. The problem with looking at herself as they saw her was that they could see the real her. She was just splashing water on her face when the woman and a small child came in behind her.
The child was perhaps three or four, but she stared at Ama like she could see her as she really was; which, according to Jacob, she more than likely could. Winking at her, Ama left them to their business and went to order her lunch. A large chicken gyro and fries later, she was headed back to a much shorter list than she’d hoped. As she walked into the last place on her list, she nearly turned around and left.
The man at the counter was big. She never took her eyes off him as she moved toward him. This could go really badly for them both, because she was pretty sure he knew just what she was.
“Mistress.” He bowed his head at her. “What is it I can help you with? I am at your service.”
She looked at the door. She could just leave and he would simply have a story to tell. But she wanted a job, and he needed someone to wash dishes. Ama walked up to the counter and nodded to him.
“I’m Amarizi Auburn. I need a job.” He nodded. “You have an ad in the paper that says you need a dishwasher. Have you filled it?”
He shook his head and smiled. “You’re an earth faerie. It would be an honor to have you working the floor, mistress. The dishwasher job is for someone well beneath you.”
“No, it’s not. I’m just Ama the dishwasher and nothing more. Got it?” He stared at her for several seconds, then threw back his head and laughed. She turned to the door to leave, nearly to the point of tears. He stopped her by calling her name.
“I’m sorry, but we both know that you’re much more than Ama the dishwasher.” She shook her head, and he stared at her for a full minute before nodding. “All right. I need a dishwasher, and for your own reasons you need to work. Can you start tonight?” She nodded. “Come back around five and work until around two in the morning? The weekends are the busiest. I’ll need you later then.”
She nodded, so grateful that she wanted to hug him, but only nodded again. He didn’t touch her when she was handed the application, and she was happy for that. He said his name was Peter Gunn, and Peter was a black bear.
Chapter 3
Sebastian was looking at the broken laptop when his assistant came in. Debby sat down across from him and sighed heavily. There was no way he was going to ask her what was wrong again. He’d done that before and had been sucked into so much drama that he’d wanted to fire her. He looked up at her and asked her how sales were going.
“Great. The new stuff is out on the shelves. I’m thinking of using my discount and getting the new unit you brought in for the readers. Man, that sucker can do it all.” He nodded and put the cover back on the dead laptop. He’d known it was a bust when it was brought to him, but said he’d give it a shot.
“I’m not going to be here after four. My family is having a big dinner tonight and I want to be there on time.” He didn’t add that he was trying to score some major brownie points with his parents or that he’d been threatened by his brothers and sisters-in-law to be nice. “Will you have a problem closing up?”
“No. I guess not.” He tried his best to look like he didn’t care. “Mark and I broke up today. He said that I was just too much for him.”
Sebastian didn’t ask. He stood up to put the laptop on the shelf to give back to the man who’d brought it in. Who would do this to a computer that they’d paid over nine hundred dollars for was beyond him. The man had admitted to “accidently” dropping it out his car window. Really? Not likely. He realized that Debby was waiting on him to say something. He had no idea what she’d been saying to him.