Elegant Sins - Stasia Black Page 0,3

room would take over any ability to resist.

“You have two days to do the spadework before the Ghost Ball shall commence,” the Elder continued as the canes thumped in cadence to the haunting orchestra.

I nodded again.

“You will acquire a belle without equal that night. Then once you do, and we deem her as worthy, The Order of the Silver Ghost will break her.”

The canes increased in tempo.

Louder.

Louder.

Wind blew in from the open windows, swirling around us as if the Order had summoned Satan himself.

The Latin chanting began again as the gas lighting of the room flickered.

“Montgomery Kingston. Your Trials of Initiation shall now begin.”

2

Grace

I looked up when the bell rang above the diner door, signaling a customer. Damn it, I was almost done with my chapter. I scribbled down a couple more notes about Managerial Accounting before pasting on my biggest smile.

Only to look up and see my coworker, Delilah, hurrying toward the counter while juggling her overstuffed purse and tucking her thin white T-shirt into her short shorts—the standard uniform for all the female waitresses at Bill’s Diner.

“Sorry! Sorry, I know I swore I wouldn’t be late anymore.”

She was a skinny girl who liked dying her hair black. She’d been a few years behind me in school, but we’d become fast friends since working here.

I glanced above her head at the clock over the front door. She was over twenty minutes late.

Dark sunglasses covered what I had no doubt were bloodshot eyes. Nobody liked to party harder than Delilah. She was only nineteen, but she looked about ten years older. I glanced behind me toward the kitchen.

I lifted an eyebrow at her. “Just be glad Bill isn’t in yet today.”

She huffed out a laugh. “As if he’d get off his fat ass and actually work the grill.” She leaned over the counter and waved through the little window back to the kitchen. “Hey, Darnell, how ya doing this mornin’?”

She grabbed an apron from behind the counter while she was bent over it.

The diner was fairly empty since it was 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, but Mr. Simmons was a regular. Over his coffee, he took in the eyeful provided by Delilah’s short shorts while she bent over. He was a dirty old bastard who pinched my ass every chance he got.

“I’m just fine, ‘Lilah.” Darnell smiled back.

I just shook my head at her. “Don’t let Jimmy catch you flirting with Darnell again.”

Delilah pulled back from the counter and glared at me. “Jimmy can go fuck himself. You’re so lucky to have Kyle.”

Kyle. My boyfriend of three years. There was a time when just his name would’ve sent butterflies fluttering through my stomach.

Now?

I think of finding him passed out on my couch last night after I’d worked a double, videogame controller still in hand, leftover take-out containers on the table, drool dripping down his chin.

The applications for local positions around town sat untouched on the kitchen table where I’d left them. He hadn’t even moved them, meanwhile I was working my ass off to support both of us. And I’d told him not to order takeout. It was the last thing we could afford.

But whenever I tried to bring up money, he just said he liked me better back before I used to bitch and complain all the time. Usually followed by him grabbing a beer from the fridge and walking out of the room.

“Yeah,” I murmured, running a cloth over the counter. “So lucky.”

“Hey.” Delilah’s voice was sharp. “I mean it. You got one of the good ones.”

I smacked the cloth on the counter and braced my hands, looking up at her. “Did I?”

Then I shook my head at myself. “I always swore I’d be nothing like my mom but look at me, shacking up with the first guy who looked my way.” I grabbed the cloth and started scrubbing again, harder than ever.

“You’re gonna scrub the Formica off that countertop, you keep going at it like that,” Delilah said. But she crossed her arms over her chest. “And someday you’re gonna have to get down off that high horse and realize you’re just like the rest of us. Yeah, you’re super pretty, but ain’t nothing special about you, or me, or any other girl ever born in this county. We were born in the dirt and that’s where we’ll die. Reading all these books is only making you miserable about that fact.”

She thumped my Econ book closed.

“Hey.” I grabbed for the book, but she yanked it out of