Free Tethered 01 - Catalyst by Jennifer Snyder Page A

know the hours. I’m so sorry; my mind seems to be a little overworked today.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “We open at ten in the morning and close by four during the week and six on Fridays and Saturdays. We’re closed on Sundays. But I won’t need you for all of those days. I’ll probably have you work three days a week, possibly four. How does that sound?”
    “Great!” I said with a little more enthusiasm than I’d intended.
    “All right, now on to the boring stuff,” he said, lifting the paper up so he could better read it.
     

 

    When I got back home, Vera was awake and sitting on the couch watching TV. We didn’t have any cable or satellite, but we did have movies that I’d thought to bring. She was watching one of my favorites, Superbad .
    “Where have you been? I walked around this house searching for you for like an hour before I realized your Jeep was gone. This place is huge!” Vera said as I flopped down beside her on the couch.
    I grabbed a throw pillow and sat it in my lap, tucking my feet beneath me. “I went job hunting and landed one at the first place I applied,” I bragged.
    Vera paused the movie. “So, it’s official. You’re staying for the summer, then?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, I think I am.”
    There was too much I needed to learn from Kace, too much I didn’t know. I couldn’t leave now.
    “Awesome, because I’d love to head back out here, even if it’s just for a weekend, before I get settled in at the dorms. One last go around with summer.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
    I grinned at her. “That would be awesome.”
    “Where did you land the job at? Anyplace cool?”
    “That bookstore, Spellbinding Reads.”
    Vera made a gagging noise. “Ugh, it would be the only stuffy bookstore in town and not someplace of actual value…like a clothing store where you can get a wicked discount, or even a shoe store.”
    I hit her with my pillow. “It works out for me. I’ll be getting ten percent off any books I want to buy and I get to read while on the job any book I want for free.”
    “Anyway…” she said, completely ignoring my awesome discount news, as she switched the movie back on. “What do you want to do for dinner? I’m starved.”
    We ended up going to a restaurant on a completely different side of town than Fisherman’s Brew. I made the excuse of not wanting anything seafood—which was hard to find in a beachside town—but in all honesty, it was because I didn’t want to be anywhere near Twila, Stina, or Theo. There was something unsettling about all three of them, and it went deeper than the little threats they’d directed my way the other night and their odd stares.
    Instead, we chose an Italian restaurant, which seemed a little out of place in the beachside setting. But who were we to judge? A large green sign hung above the front double doors that read: Colette’s . The place was small and dimly lit, but the smell that filled your nose upon entrance was heavenly—fresh-baked bread with just a hint of garlic.
    “Bread…real, fresh-baked bread…this place is speaking my language. Good thinking, Add,” Vera said as she inhaled deeply while we waited at the door to be seated.
    “I know,” I agreed.
    We were both self-proclaimed bread heads. The type of people Dr. Oz labeled with a wheat addiction. If you wanted to kill either of us in the most agonizing way…take bread from our diet. We’d die, for sure.
    “Table for two?” the dark-haired hostess asked with a smile. There was a slight gap between her two front teeth, but on her it worked. Some people were like that.
    “Yes, please,” Vera and I both said at the same time.
    “Right this way.” The hostess turned and we followed her through the restaurant to a booth nestled in the back.
    I slid into the seat, feeling the cool leather against my bare legs. Our hostess passed each of us a menu and a rolled-up thing of silverware.
    “Janelle will be your waitress tonight. I’ll send her over to take