Free Across Eternity by Aris Whittier

you’ve proven your point. What are you, my mother? I
hope you weren’t this much of a prude last night."
    "I’m not a prude. You just need to find a better place to meet
guys."
    "Maybe I should start going to church or something."
    Amber laughed as she pictured Rachael sitting in a pew. "You would so
traumatize a church boy." Not to mention the entire congregation, she
thought amusingly to herself.
    "You’re right. I’d probably be struck by lightening the
moment I stepped foot in the place." She dug in her pocket and took out a
tube of lip-gloss. "I could join a fitness center. Meeting a guy there
would be a total win-win situation. Seriously, do you know how in shape I would
stay?"
    "That would be nice."
    "My ass is looking a little sad these days."
    Amber watched her friend bend around and looked at her backside.
"Whatever," she said, knowing her friends figure was damn near perfect.
"The right guy will come along."
    "Speaking of the right guy…" She rubbed her lips together
and offered the tube to Amber. "Where do you think he’ll be taking
you tonight?"
    "I’m not sure." She stopped what she was doing and
slathered on the gloss. "I don’t care just as long as I’m
with him."
    "God, I love the way you say that. See that’s what I’m
talking about right there. I haven’t felt like that about a man in
years."
    "I’ve never felt this way before."
    "You better not let him go because if you do there are a handful of
women who are waiting to take your place." She glanced around at the
other waitresses, glaring at a few of them.
    "You included?"
    "No, you don’t have to worry about me."
    Amber laughed, "Why, because you’re living vicariously through
me?"
    "That’s right." She tapped Amber’s back discreetly.
"Here comes Hendricks. I’ll see you in a bit."
    The last twenty minutes of her shift were uneventful and horrendously long.
Amber cleaned up and clocked out in record time. She hugged Rachael and
promised that she would call first thing in the morning.
    ****
    A few seconds after she stepped out of the restaurant, Amber spotted Logan
parked across the street in a gray sedan. He waved casually to her as she
crossed the road and moved toward him.
    "Hi," she said as she opened the door and climbed in.
    He wanted to say ‘I’ve missed you’ but instead he kept his
tone light when he said, "I see you’ve kept your job."
    "Yes, surprisingly so." She shut the
door and looked over at him.
    "And to think you thought you’d get fired."
    "It pays to have connections," she said with a playful smile.
"Did you call Mr. Hendricks?"
    He shook his head. "Why, is there a problem?"
    Her eyes narrowed. "If there were what, would you
do?"
    "I would take care of it," he said seriously and then added. "Immediately."
    "Why?"
    "Because you have done nothing wrong. And I
won’t allow Mr. Hendricks—"
    "There was no problem," she interrupted. "That’s
what surprised me."
    "I told you there wouldn’t be any repercussions."
    "Are you kidding me?" she said, in disbelief. "No
repercussions."
    He smiled wryly and held up his hands in surrender. "I’ve
misspoken. Please allow me to rephrase that. I meant in regards to you being
fired."
    "That sounds better. I have a feeling I’ve opened a huge can of
repercussions."
    Yes, they had, he thought as he watched her push at the black wisps of hair
falling into her eyes. "How was it?" He asked as he looked out the
window toward the restaurant.
    "Very busy." She reached over her
shoulder for her seatbelt. Her eyebrows shot up as she turned and locked the
seatbelt into place. "I think you made a lot of money today."
    There it was. He’d waited the entire day for it, the scent of her
perfume. That fragrance had been stuck in his head all day. It had teased and
tormented him giving him little whiffs of her here and there, but never giving
him what he wanted—her.
    "What did you do today?" she asked.
    Mope around the house and wait for this moment. "Not much, a
few conference calls and