Naked by Kelly Favor Page A

someone already called for you.”
    “Really?” Caelyn frowned. “Who?”
    Ro shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He just asked if you were waitressing here today, and I said I thought so. I told him you weren’t in yet and asked if he wanted to leave a message. He said no thanks and hung up.”
    “Weird.” Caelyn felt an odd thrill run through her body.
    It had to have been Elijah looking for her. Maybe he wanted to apologize for the way he’d left things. Perhaps this meant that she was going to speak to him again after all.
    The thought picked her mood up and she was able to start her day of training with renewed enthusiasm.
    Before Kenzie arrived, Ro showed her some of the ropes—showed her the schedule and gave her a quick tour of the restaurant. They only had a skeleton crew on until about noon, when more of the staff began arriving.
    But everyone was incredibly friendly and made her feel welcomed. Once Kenzie and the rest of the staff showed up, everything kicked into overdrive. Customers were beginning to appear and be seated, food was being prepared, a few folks sat down at the bar.
    Caelyn’s duties were mainly to follow Ro around and help her as she watched her do her job, learned the menu and the procedures of the restaurant. Even though she wasn’t waitressing, it was still hectic, as she was running food to tables, getting drink orders, and dealing with customers the whole time.
    She was breaking a sweat, but basically enjoying herself.
    It was a lot different than sitting in class all day, but she wasn’t sure it was a bad thing.
    The hard part was when she occasionally allowed herself to envision what it would be like at night, going back to a room with nobody waiting for her.
    And it wasn’t even that she missed her roommates in the dorms.
    She missed him .
    Elijah.
    He’d left so suddenly, and she was still hung up on wondering why.
    It wasn’t until the evening, just a few hours before her shift ended, that everything turned completely upside down.
    Up until then, she’d been doing her job, hustling, learning everything as fast as possible. Ro seemed happy with her, and Kenzie was happy if Ro was happy.
    At around eight o’clock, Caelyn took a break. She grabbed a Diet Coke and stood out back with some of the other servers and kitchen staff, most of whom smoked. They all talked while smoking, and she drank her soda.
    Then she went inside, dumped her drink at the bar, and went to the bathroom.
    The woman’s bathroom was towards the back of the restaurant, and there was a long hallway leading up to it, that hooked around a corner.
    Caelyn was coming out of the bathroom when someone familiar rounded the corner. It took her a moment to place who it was, because she had no way of imagining that this person could show up there.
    When she saw him, it was as if her entire mind just shut down.
    She almost seemed to go deaf, and her vision narrowed. She stumbled a little.
    He smiled at her. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said.
    She tried to swallow but it was like there was a boulder in her throat. “What are you doing here?” she asked, but it barely came out of her mouth.
    Jayson smiled wider. “I came to find you, babe.” He reached out to touch her and she stepped backwards.
    “How did you know where I was?”
    “Lucky for you, your friends really care about you. Alicia told me you got a waitressing job out here, and it didn’t exactly take a genius to track you down.”
    “Why would you track me down? Obviously I left for a reason.”
    He cocked his head as if it had never occurred to him that she was trying to get away from him specifically. “Because I couldn’t figure out why you just stopped responding to me. I thought we were together. I thought there was really something between us.”
    She looked around, but the hallway was empty. She thought about screaming, but didn’t know what she’d say if people came running to help.
    Say that he raped you.
    No, she