Leo (Vigilance #3) - Silvia Violet Page 0,4
I slipped into the alley between the café and the jewelry store next door and knocked on the employee entrance. “It’s Leo.”
Cathy opened the door a moment later. She’d wrapped a towel around the knob because her hands were covered in cherry juice. “Did you come by to see what we had left over today?”
I grinned. She often offered me and the other artists at Devilish Ink leftover pastries that she couldn’t sell the next day. “I won’t turn down any offerings, but I actually came to talk to you about Ezra.”
She blew out a long breath and returned her focus to the cherries she was pitting. “He really is trying his best. I know—”
I held up my hand. “I’m not here to complain. I want to hire him.”
She looked up from her cutting board. “You want to do what?”
“I want to hire him… as my new receptionist. I think he’d probably be better at that than he is at being a waiter. There’s nothing to spill, and he’ll be behind the desk, so there shouldn’t be much to trip over.”
Cathy smiled. “I suppose that’s true.”
“I wanted to check with you before I made him an offer. Would you be in trouble without his help?”
She shook her head. “We’ve had a few applicants this week that look promising. I’ll be fine.”
“So I have your blessing?”
She gave me a pointed look. “You have my blessing to hire him to work for you, but not for anything else.”
“He’ll be my employee, so he’ll be off-limits.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Just like Lorenzo?”
“Lorenzo is the reason I made that rule.” When I’d first opened the shop, I’d hired an artist who was way more interested in getting in my pants than serving our clients. I’d let him seduce me and had regretted it immediately. He’d only lasted a week.
“I won’t go so far as to say Ezra is innocent, but he’s… not from your world.”
I huffed. “Few people are.”
She glared at me. “Leo—”
I raised my hands in surrender. “I promise he’ll be safe with me.”
“Anyone would be safe with you since you can, like, kill a man with a toothpick sixteen different ways.”
I laughed. “That might be an exaggeration, but I could probably think of fourteen.”
“Do not hurt him, or you will answer to me, and badass or not, I promise I will make you pay.”
She was a foot shorter than me and nearly a hundred pounds lighter, but her words made me shiver. “I don’t doubt it.”
“Good.”
“I don’t suppose you’d give me his number?”
Cathy shook her head. “His shift starts at seven tomorrow.”
“You want me to get up and be here at seven in the morning?”
She grinned. “I’ll have already been baking for hours.”
“Fine. But you’d better have some damn strong coffee ready for me.”
“Deal.”
As I returned to my shop, I had the feeling I’d just made a terrible mistake, not because I had to get up at the fucking crack of dawn, but because every time I thought of Ezra something inside me went all soft. But it was too late to change my mind now. Ezra was going to be mine. My receptionist that is. Not anything else.
3
Ezra
I was running late for the second time that week. Cathy had been amazingly patient, but I knew she had a limit. Waiting tables was not the perfect job for me, but Cathy was a fantastic boss, and the pay was better than I could expect at most places. I didn’t want to fuck up the opportunity.
After exiting the train, I ran down the street, nearly knocking over a family of tourists and an older woman who was a regular customer. I apologized profusely and promised her coffee and pastry would be on me today.
She waved me off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sturdier than I look. Go on. You’re obviously in a hurry.”
“Thank you.”
When I reached the bakery, my reflection in the window let me know my hair looked as crazy as I’d feared. After I stepped inside, I realized my t-shirt was on backwards, just as I recognized Leo standing at the counter talking to Cathy. I’d never seen him come in this early. His shop didn’t open until noon, and it was rare to see Leo before ten. Of course, the morning I’d run in like a lunatic who can’t dress himself, he’s up early.
When he turned to look at me, I felt like he saw way too much—all my insecurities and the unrelenting crush I had on him—but I couldn’t