Still, when she’d suggested that he come out to LA to see her and he’d agreed, it had been like a weight she hadn’t even realized was there had lifted off her chest and she could breathe again. And nowthat Trevor was here, all she could do was hope that he’d stay longer than the week they’d planned on. It was an extraordinary rush.
Their server showed up before Jenna could tell Trevor that she loved hanging out with him, too.
“Hey, girl,” the dark-haired waitress said, giving Jenna a smile. “Want the usual?”
Jenna grinned. When you went to a restaurant as regularly as she came here, it was only natural to become friends with the people who worked there. And Cindy was one of the best. “Yup. Chili burger with cheese, fries on the side, and a glass of iced tea.”
This place was known for comfort food, and that had been her go-to order since the first time she’d eaten here.
“And for you?” Cindy said, looking at Trevor.
“Sounds so good I’ll take the same,” he said. “But make mine two burgers and a double order of fries. Oh, and could you add a plate of onion rings, too?”
“Sure thing,” Cindy said, jotting it down on her notepad. “I’ll get those iced teas right out to you.”
Trevor put their menus back in the holder as Cindy walked away, then looked at Jenna. “Since she knew what you were going to order, I’m guessing you come here frequently.”
Jenna nodded, her lips curling into a smile. “Yeah. I found this place a couple months ago. I immediately fell in love with it and have been coming back once a week or so ever since.”
As they ate, she and Trevor talked about the places they’d been to that day while out sightseeing. Jenna nodded and responded in all the right places, but at the same time, she found herself thinking about the real reason she came back to this part of town every week.
Two months ago, she’d been wandering the alleys of the nearby Skid Row, hoping against hope to find her missing sister, Hannah, among the hundreds of unhoused people who lived in that part of town. Finding someone who’d been missing for nearly a decade seemed impossible, but she’d never given up on her sister and she never would.
Then one night, Jenna had seen a woman she was sure was Hannah darting through the shadows. Before she even realized what she was doing, she called out her sister’s name. The woman had whirled around to look right at her, and in the glow coming from a streetlight, Jenna recognized her sister’s face. But instead of running over to her, Hannah had turned and headed in the other direction. Jenna had chased after her, frantically calling her name, but Hannah disappeared down a manhole into the sewer. Going after her wasn’t an option. Jenna simply didn’t do dark places like that. Claustrophobia had never been an issue for her when she was a kid, not until her sister had been kidnapped. Now, it was a major part of her life.
Jenna had been coming back to this same partof town since that night, hoping to stumble across her sister again. This diner served as a great place to start from, since it provided takeout meals for the unhoused, which she took with her whenever she traveled the back alleys. The meals served two purposes—feeding people who could really use the help as well as providing cover for why Jenna would be wandering around that part of town so late at night.
“Maybe we should head back home after dinner,” Trevor said, dragging Jenna out of her thoughts and back to the present.
She gave herself a mental shake. “What?” she asked.
How much had she missed? If the amount of food left on her plate was any indication, especially compared to Trevor’s nearly empty one, she got the feeling she’d been zoned out for a while.
Trevor’s mouth curved into a small smile. “I was saying that you seem a little out of it. Considering how much running around we did today, I’m not surprised you’re tired. We can head back to your place after dinner if you want instead of going to a movie.”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m fine. I was just lost in thought. That’s all.”
Trevor looked skeptical at that, but he didn’t push, which Jenna appreciated. Whenever she ate at the diner, she always brought meals to theunhoused who lived there, and she didn’t intend to detour from that tonight. And who could blame her if she looked for her sister while they were there?
Unable to tell him that, she hoped to distract him by reaching over and stealing a french fry off his plate. The expression of mock horror on his face at the move almost made her laugh.
“Hey! Why are you stealing my food when you still have plenty on your own plate?”
“I wasn’t stealing,” she corrected, nibbling on the fry in her hand. “I’m merely checking to see if your fries taste better.”
Grinning, Trevor grabbed a fry off her plate and shoved it into his mouth. “Mmm. You might be onto something. Your fries so taste better than mine.”
They both laughed at that, his earlier comment about going directly home completely forgotten, which was good. They couldn’t go back to her place—or even the movie—without first going to Skid Row. Jenna felt a little bad about not being completely honest with Trevor about her motives for coming to this particular part of town, but it was for a good cause. At least that was what she told herself.
She ended up letting Trevor eat most of her fries. There were more than she could handle, and he definitely still looked hungry. Besides, sharing them with him made her feel a little better about fibbingto him. But in the end, he motioned for their server and ordered more fries for them anyway.
“So how did you get into special effects makeup?” he asked, dunking a handful of fries in ketchup. “It doesn’t seem like a career I would have expected you to end up in.”
“Why?” she asked with a snort. “Because I’m a woman instead of a Star Trek–watching fanboy who looks like he lives in his parents’ basement?”
Trevor looked chagrined for all of a second. “Um…actually…that’s pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Can you blame me?”
Jenna couldn’t help but laugh. “Okay, if I’m being honest, you did just describe an extremely large percentage of the students taking the FX—special effects—track with me at the makeup school I went to here in LA. So I guess I can see your point.”
