Chapter 14

Our second day in Toronto started, not exactly how I would have liked, we slept through the alarm Aldahir had set up, and even though we still had enough time to get ready, have breakfast and get to the restaurant I stressed myself because the plan we had created the night before had just gone out the window. Aldahir did his best to make me think about other things, like our first day of work and made me question whether or not was a good idea to tell our boss about my autism, after a few minutes of discussion about it I decided to take the risk and tell her hoping she would be open minded and believe me.

On our way to the restaurant I was trying my best to pull myself together, I was nervous and I couldn’t help but wonder how crazy and difficult it would be for me to work as a waitress, but I decided to keep it to myself instead of adding more stress to Aldahir. When we got to the restaurant the first thing I did was go up to the manager and tell her about my autism, she stayed silent, looking at me as if she were analyzing me trying to figure out if I was lying, but thankfully she ended up smiling and saying “okay, as long as it doesn’t give you an excuse to be rude to the costumers everything will be fine” her response made me happy and it took away some of the stress I had regarding the job, at least I knew my boss wouldn’t be constantly on my case for no reason.

Our boss, Lilliana, showed us around the restaurant making sure to point out the most important things for our job, the placement of all the dishes, glasses, cups, utensils and similar things, she introduced us to the staff of the restaurant with the intention of avoiding any confusion and then she started with a little crash course about how to be a good waiter, which of course ended up with us waitering a few tables with Lilliana around to help and guide us. The first table I worked as a waitress was a bit of a challenge, I had to be the one starting the conversation with a group of strangers with a “welcome to this lovely restaurant monologue” than I had to carefully listen to everything the orders, write down – the part I hated the least – I had to read it back to them to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake and then go to the kitchen to place the order.

I managed to work a few tables with some assistance from Lilliana every once in a while and even though I was getting more and more overstimulated by the second I was able to keep it together until Aldahir and I had our lunch break, as part of the contract we had signed to work at the restaurant was a “benefit” which meant we were entitled to eat lunch from the restaurant itself, so as soon as I grabbed my lunch I joined Aldahir at the back of the restaurant.

-Hey, are you okay? – Asked Aldahir as soon as I sat in front of him

-I will be… In like, twenty minutes? – I said nervously while aggressively bouncing my leg up and down

-Oh right, let’s get you out of here – said Aldahir standing up

He approached me and tried to grab me by the shoulders to guide me somewhere but I recoiled from his touch, which seemed to concern him because he looked around as if he were looking for something or someone, after a few seconds, during which I had started having trouble breathing, Aldahir came back to me and got down to my level so he could talk to me.

-We can go to the alleyway behind the restaurant, come on – he said putting out his hands in front of me

I nodded and grabbed his hands allowing him to guide me, we walked outside of the restaurant and then went behind it where there was an empty alleyway. I leaned against the wall trying to keep my breathing as regular as possible, and failing in the process, I put my hands on my knees and my claws started coming out, Aldahir, who was standing in front of me just making sure I wasn’t completely collapsing, noticed my claws and he grabbed my hands stopping me from digging them into my legs.

-It’s okay, dig them on me – he said grabbing my hands stronger

Even though I didn’t want to hurt him I had started shaking attempting not to cry and I was afraid I might accidentally transform into a wolf, so I dug my claws into Aldahir’s hands, he whimpered for a second but then took a deep breath and simply looked at me in a comforting way. I stayed there with Aldahir trying to help me while I had the meltdown I had been pushing down for hours then, it took me about half an hour to get everything out of my system and when I was finally able to stop shaking, crying and started breathing normally again Aldahir sighed relieved and pulled his hands, that were covered in blood, from me.

-I’m sorry – I said softly

-Don’t worry, I’ll heal – he said shrugging it off as if it were nothing

-Thank you for bringing me here

-You don’t have to thank me… My little wolf – he said smiling – let me go wash my hands, I’ll grab our lunches and brig them here so we can eat, okay?

-You want to eat in an alleyway behind the restaurant instead of on a table? – I asked confused

-I want to eat with you and I know you need some more time to feel better, so we are not going back inside yet, I’ll be back in a minute – said Aldahir smiling and then kissed my forehead

I smiled back at him and watched him go back into the restaurant while wondering what had I done to end up finding such an amazing partner. When Aldahir came back with our food we sat down on the ground, ignoring how dirty it was, and ate together, once we finished eating we went back into the restaurant and Lilliana came up to me asking if I was all right, I appreciated her concern and after assuring her I was fine I got back to work.

When our shift ended we walked back to the hotel after getting something for dinner and we sat on the bed to eat while watching some television.

-We did the right thing, didn’t we? – I asked suddenly to Aldahir taking his attention off the television

-What do you mean by that? – He asked turning to me

-I’ve always wanted to be free to make my own decisions, without any influence from my parents or the pack and obviously I wasn’t going to be able to have that if I stayed with them and I started dreaming about getting away and being myself, which always excited me, I guess because I never thought it would become true

-You’re doubting of coming here with me?

-Not you, you’re the only part of this whole thing that I’m not doubting… But I’m just wondering if it was a good idea making this huge decision so quickly, like we thought about getting a job, the place where we would go and the things we brought, but I didn’t think for one second whether or not I would be okay coming to this gigantic city

-Hey – said Aldahir hugging me – you’re scared, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be because we are doing a pretty crazy thing and it’s perfectly fine to stop and think about it, but it is more important to see the potential of things and what we can do

-You don’t seem to be scare or questioning anything

-I was human for the first twenty years of my life, I’m far more used to everything here than you are, you’ve been a werewolf who’s been leaving pretty isolated from humanity her whole life, it will obviously take you a while to get use to it Dali

-I guess you’re right, beside is not like I can come back, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t even be allowed back into Loup Ville

-Yet another reason to stay here, complicate our lives for a while and then enjoy the result of our hard work – said Aldahir smiling

-Thank you, I don’t think I would have been able to get here without you – I said smiling and then kissed him

He grabbed me by the waist pulling me on top of him and then kissed me again. We kissed for a while and then finished eating making the apparently smart decision to sleep well so we wouldn’t repeat what happened that day.