At Your Service: Tammer Read Online Free Page A

you. Although you have to admit, had you been in my shoes you might have reacted the same way. You know with the attempted call for help, hiding in the bathroom. The calling you names.” She looked at him and thrummed her fingers along the table’s edge. “But now that I know you’re safe, I should have a little more respect. I made a promise to Joel a long time ago to try anything he asked of me at least once. I’m not really giving you that chance, am I?”
    “Why don’t we start again,” Tammer offered, sticking out his right hand. “I’m Tammer Weston from the service. Are you Nina?”
    “Yes, I’m Nina.” Playing along with his attempt to right their bumpy beginning, she took his hand only to have him grasp it, turn it over, and plant a tender kiss right in the middle of her palm. “Nina Prescott,” she breathed at the heated contact which burned clear to her shoulder.
    “That’s a beautiful name, Nina,” he said, turning her hand palm down again but not letting go, holding it across the table instead.
    Nina shot a glance around the restaurant in hopes no one could see them.
    “I chose this booth intentionally,” he said, running his thumb over knuckles. “No one can see us. And I doubt many, if any, of your peers share your affliction with food only to be found in this part of town.”
    He had a point.
    Nina relaxed a bit and let the nearly unfamiliar feeling of human touch soothe her. He was right. The last time she’d tried to get one of her girlfriends to accompany her out for grits and greens past the great divide, Florence had turned her nose up, declined the invitation, and hadn’t called her for three weeks. Come to think of it, they hadn’t shared lunch since then either.
    Nina didn’t know what the big deal was. She was raised on this food and didn’t give a damn where she had to go to get the best in town. If people were afraid of an invisible barrier, they weren’t worth her time anyway. Fuck them.
    With all the smells lingering on the air reminding her of home, Nina had a hard time deciding on just one protein and three sides. But by the time the waitress arrived with a pitcher of sweet tea and two glasses, Nina knew exactly what she needed to feed her inner soul sister.
    “I want the chicken wings, the hotter the better, greens, black eyed peas, and fried corn, please. And can I have a side of corn bread?”
    “Yes, indeed. For you?” The waitress turned to Tammer who ordered catfish and okra, one side apparently all he needed to round out his meal. Not Nina. Since she had the chance, she was tanking up on the full Monty.
    “We’ve got pecan pie for dessert today. Be sure to save some room,” the woman said then trotted off to the kitchen.
    “I could eat my weight in pecan pie,” Nina said, taking a drink of the tea Tammer poured for her. “I might have to order a whole one to take home with me.”
    “As long as you share and let me stop for whipped cream on the way. I like mine with plenty,” Tammer confessed. “I know what Joel told me, but being as you two haven’t really lived together for so long, I suspect his take on things might differ from yours. Living apart for long is rough. People change. So do their desires.”
    “Well, nothing like cutting to the chase. Are you hourly?” Nina said, tugging her hand away, disgusted with herself for mistaking his gesture for more than it was, one of the required motions.
    “Not hardly. If you’re not ready to talk about that, we won’t. What would you like to talk about? What do you do besides sit in your office and write speeches and talk to invisible people all day?” Tammer didn’t try to retake her hand, but didn’t remove his from the top of the table either as if giving her a choice to reach back out.
    Nina didn’t quite know what to say. As she curled her fingers in and out of a fist under the scrubbed, spotless Formica slab, she chewed her bottom lip. The truth was she’d turned into quite a recluse the