Crave - Part One: Aria's Song (Crave Series Book 1) Read online

  CRAVE - PART ONE: ARIA'S SONG

  CRAVE SERIES

  by Rhea Wilde

  Published by Rhea Wilde, 2014.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  CRAVE - PART ONE: ARIA'S SONG

  CRAVE SERIES

  First edition. August 14, 2014

  Copyright © 2014 Rhea Wilde.

  Written by Rhea Wilde.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  “How old do you have to be to have a mid-life crisis?”

  “Huh?”

  “I know it’s somewhere in the middle of your life. That’s clear. But how exactly do you know when you’re in the middle? What if you only live to be 50? That means you can have one in your twenties.”

  “I suppose…”

  “This is it. I’m going to die when I’m 50. I’ve wasted half of my life…”

  “Aria?”

  Leigh cocked an eyebrow at me. The confusion on her face made her look like something out of a comic book but it did little to humor the situation. The reality of everything dawned upon me and I no longer felt like I had the control I always had.

  “I can’t believe it,” I said as I shook my head. “Wasted. All that time partying and drinking and having fun. And now things are not working out for me.”

  “What’s gotten into you?”

  “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  “You’ll be fine. Just relax. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Yes, it is. Have you seen all those people out there? They’re rich. They have money and power and influence. There’s an entire room full of them.”

  “Since when did people like that make you nervous?”

  “Since I actually have to deal with them. Not to mention this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this.”

  “You’ll be fine,” my friend repeated to try and reassure me. “These people won’t even be paying attention to you.”

  “But what if—”

  “Nothing is going to happen. They’ll tell you what to do. You head out there and just stick the plate in front of them. They’ve even got name plates at their tables so you don’t even have to talk to them if you don’t want to.”

  “I wish it were as simple as you’re making it sound.”

  “It is simple.”

  Leigh Brady was my best friend. I met her a few years ago just before I dropped out of art school. She was the professional between the two of us. An old soul. While she was hard-working and doing her best to try and make a comfortable living, I was the one who coaxed her into attempting to have more fun. The fact that I was questioning which one of us had the better philosophy on life meant that we were definitely getting older faster than I wanted to.

  “Okay,” I sighed as I tried to regain my composure.

  “Worst-case scenario, you can come over and talk to Jacob and he’ll take care of it.”

  “What are you doing here anyway? I thought you and Jacob gave up the whole dealing-with-the-aristocrats thing.”

  “He did. But he can’t give it up completely. When you have that much money, nobody is going to leave you alone. Jacob still has a lot of friends in the building. Favors need to be paid.”

  Ever since Jacob and Leigh got engaged, she seemed different. She was a lot more grounded than she normally seemed, which was saying a lot. Now that she didn’t have to worry about making ends meet and could just focus on being happy, there was a sense of calm about her that anybody would be envious of. Some of it rubbed off on me and helped calm my nerves even more. It was that or the fact that her billionaire fiancé was influential enough to handle my screw-ups simply because I was her friend.

  “It’s just… I feel like this is my last chance,” I sighed.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know what it is. I thought I had it with that advice column but I just got bored, you know? I had to quit.”

  “Didn’t you get fired?”

  “Let’s not talk about that. That’s not the point. The point is that I’m not sure how I got here. I went from a promising career as a writer to serving a bunch of men in tuxedos and women in fancy dresses overcooked pieces of steak.”

  “It’s just one night, Aria. You don’t have to keep doing this if you don’t want to. Think of it as something in the meantime.”

  “I know. And I’m really grateful for this. I just wish I didn’t have to do it.”

  “There are a lot of times when we have to do things we don’t want to. This is just another one of those things.”

  “Who knows? Maybe I’ll enjoy it.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  “I was just joking.”

  Leigh had calmed my anxiety but I still lacked the enthusiasm for tonight that I was looking for. She smiled then reached forward and gave me a hug.

  “It’s just one night,” she whispered.

  “One night…”

  I pulled away from her and the smile was still painted upon her face.

  “Aria! What are you doing?”

  A voice boomed from behind me. I turned around and my new boss for tonight held his arms out to the side.

  “Are you done with your little conversation?” he asked. “Start plating this food just like I showed you. First course is due out in fifteen minutes.”

  “Okay,” I sighed.

  I turned back to Leigh one last moment and she remained smiling at me.

  “I have to go,” she said.

  “I know.”

  I nodded to her just before she turned around to leave. I sighed again as I watched her go then turned to the empty plates sitting on the counter next to me. Tonight was going to be a long night. I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

  Chapter 2

  I didn’t know how I got here. I knew why I was here but all of the things that eventually led up to it were all a blur to me. I wasn’t complaining but I wasn’t happy about it either. I was grateful and dissatisfied all at the same time.

  I used to be a writer. It was one of the nicest gigs in the city. Any young woman my age would have been grateful for the opportunity. Then again, I’m not any young woman and a sense of ennui eventually took over. I left that job even without anything in place.

  Now, here I was, decked-out in a shirt, tie and a pair of pants that all matched white. The apron around my waist was just the same but I knew it would eventually be stained with the splatter of my inexperience and general disinterest.

  It was the evening of a fancy charity dinner being held at a hotel in a part of the city I wasn’t familiar with. Millionaires, billionaires and whatever is past that all gathered in their tuxedos and expensive dresses for the reception. It was all a drop in the bucket to them but good publicity was priceless.

  My best friend Leigh was in attendance. I knew she didn’t belong with this crowd. Her fiancé, Jacob Freeman, didn’t belong either. An
d he was someone who actually had a lot of money. I knew it would be a long night from the simple fact that I would be a servant to these people. But I had no other way to pay my bills and no other job prospects on the horizons. Like I said, grateful and dissatisfied all at the same time.

  I peered through the window on the door and watched the ballroom from the kitchen. The tables were filled with people who were looking for an excuse to show off how much they were worth. So much money and power and influence. All of it right here in front of me. But all I could see was a bunch of men and women with sticks up their asses. In the distance, Leigh sat at a table and quietly listened to the conversation of her fiancé and an older man sitting next to him.

  “Aria!”

  I jerked my head around. The voice came from a man who was busy plating food onto dozens of dishes in front of him.

  “Start taking those trays,” he shouted at me. “First course is in five minutes. Stop standing around!”

  “Right…”

  I sighed as I made my way toward the plates of food that were already prepared. I knew I would be taking care of several tables. And with six courses, the math in my head quickly added up to a long night.

  I followed the rest of the waiters and did my best to look like I knew what I was doing. I took one of the trays that had plates upon it and gently lifted it up. Surprisingly, I didn’t drop it over myself.

  I shuffled my way through the kitchen door and into the ballroom where the festivities were taking place. The room was filled with chatter, live music coming from the band next to the dance floor and the sound of my heart pounding against my chest.

  “Fifteen… Sixteen… Seventeen…”

  I chanted the names of the tables I was assigned and slowly made my way over to them. I did my best not to look at anybody directly. Thankfully, I had to focus on not spilling the tray of food all over myself. When I got to the first table, everybody seemed to ignore me. I placed the tray down and placed the plates in front of each one of them like I’d seen the other waiters do it.

  Come on, Aria. You’ve seen a waiter before. You can do this. Yeah… That’s it…

  I was giving myself a lot of credit for something that was so simple. The fact that nobody had any reason to complain meant that I was doing my job correctly. I stopped by the kitchen for another tray and made my way to the next table where everything proceeded just as smoothly.

  When I got to the last table I was tending to, suddenly, I had to focus on several things at once.

  “Be a dear and pour me another glass of red.”

  “This is rather tepid. Do you mind heating it up for me?”

  “How do you expect me to eat this without a soup spoon? Where’s my soup spoon?”

  I didn’t complain. I knew how cliche it would have been to roll my eyes at any one of them but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t even think it. This is what I asked for when I left my job early.

  After tending to all of their desires as quickly as I could, I looked at my tray and saw one final plate resting upon it. I picked it up and looked around the table.

  “Does everybody have a first course?” I asked.

  Everybody ignored me. I looked around the table and everything seemed to be in order when I noticed an empty spot just across from me. I made my way around the table toward it.

  Everybody had name labels in front of them. Whether it was because they were really important people or it helped stimulate conversation, I didn’t know. When I approached the empty spot at the table, the name plate was obscured by two glasses and a folded-up napkin. I placed the last remaining plate down onto the empty spot.

  “I guess this one’s for Stephanie…” I said to myself.

  “Stephen.”

  I quickly stood-up straight from the sound of the voice just behind me. I turned around and saw a man standing just in front of me. He looked almost completely rigid, the only part of him moving were his arms as he straightened his tie. I moved my eyes up his tie toward his face and saw him staring straight back at me.

  The first thing I noticed was how striking his eyes were. The light-green was something I’d never seen. Or maybe I was just never paying attention before. His skin was smooth with a light-tan that gave him a youthful appearance. The remnants of a trimmed beard along his jawline made it obvious he—or someone he paid most likely—cared about his appearance. It was a light-blonde that made it seem transparent against his skin. His hair was neatly-trimmed and combed straight over his head without a single hair out of place.

  After he straightened his tie out then rested his arms at his sides, I remained staring at him. I didn’t know why I was so captivated. Maybe it was his impeccable grooming. Maybe it was the way he towered over me in a way and stood so close to me. Maybe it was because I was so close that I could see just how good-looking he was. But I didn’t move from my spot.

  “Stephen,” he repeated.

  “Right,” I chuckled nervously. “Stephanie. Stephen. I’m sure you get that a lot.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  He slightly shook his head at me. The feelings I felt just moments ago from being enamored with him were quickly replaced by an awkward embarrassment that I wanted to get rid of. Apparently, he didn’t see anything to chuckle about.

  “Well,” I said as I tried to dig my way out of the hole I was in. “Now I know. Stephen. I won’t forget it.”

  “I’m sure you won’t.”

  He stepped to the side and held his arm out to allow me to pass. I quickly paced by him and walked toward the empty tray. As I headed back into the kitchen, I glanced and turned around to look at him. Stephen sat there with the rest of the table and joined in on their conversation. Despite how comfortable he looked, he still seemed to stand out from the rest of them. It wasn’t just his youthful appearance. There was something about him that I couldn’t quite place my finger on. Having seen him up close, he still seemed to be as imposing from so far away. And when I realized how I’d embarrassed myself in front of him, I quickly dreaded the fact that this night wasn’t anywhere close to being over.

  “Just five more courses,” I muttered to myself.

  Chapter 3

  The amount of people in the room made it warmer than I was expecting. It didn’t help that I was running back and forth while catering to the constant desires of the people at that table. And it was only that table. The table Stephen sat at. While the other two tables, were modest in their demands, table 17 was full of the aristocrats I hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with.

  I couldn’t complain. I had to constantly remind myself that I was the only person responsible for being in this position. As someone with no experience, I had to be grateful that Jacob was doing this personal favor for me. But more than anything, the big takeaway from tonight was the empathy I now felt for every waiter and waitress all over the world.

  “Miss. Come here, please.”

  An older woman at the table motioned for me with her index finger just as I was pouring another gentleman a glass of wine. I finally made my way over to her, slightly exhausted but still able to put a smile onto my face.

  “Yes?” I asked.

  “Do you see something wrong?” she said.

  I looked down at the table. Her entree sat there right in front of her. It looked no different from everybody else’s plates.

  “Um—”

  “How do you expect me to eat this?” she asked.

  With a fork?

  I looked down and her utensils were just the same as everybody else’s. I did my best to maintain my composure and gently placed my hands up.

  “Just tell me what you would like,” I said. “I’ll do anything you need.”

  She raised her fork from the table and held it up to me.

  “This is a salad fork,” she said. “You can’t expect me to eat with this.”

  “No… Of course not—”

  “Just bring me a dinner fork. Thank you, my dear.”

  I nodded my head to her
and unknowingly gritted my teeth. I realized what I’d done when I looked up and saw Stephen glancing at me from across the table.

  There was still no expression upon his face. He looked the same this entire night. Not that I was staring, of course. But whenever I would look in his direction, every now and then, our eyes would meet and I would notice an inexplicable feeling wash over me.

  Right now was no different. I looked away from the blond man and hustled my way back to the kitchen in search of slightly bigger silverware. A feeling of wanting to stab the woman in the hand directly with the fork crossed my mind but I fortunately thought better of it. I wasn’t lucky enough to be blessed with the affluence she was, so that meant I had to follow her orders.

  With the table seemingly in order for the moment, I made my way over to my friend to say hello. Leigh sat there and the bored look upon her face was undeniable. When I approached her, her eyes lit-up and she smirked at me.

  “How’s it going?” she asked.

  “Take a guess,” I sighed.

  “Well… You don’t look that bad. Really. I mean—”

  “Don’t patronize me,” I said as I shook my head.

  “It’s almost over,” she said with a shrug.

  “For the both of us.”

  “Indeed.”

  Leigh was a stereotypical starving artist. A calm, demure and modest brunette who hadn’t changed much ever since I met her. Of course, being engaged to a billionaire certainly changed things but I was happy to see that she’d found success in love and in life as well.

  I glanced at her fiancé as he listened to the story of the old man sitting next to him. Jacob Freeman was a billionaire who made his fortune by hustling in the streets and working his way up, as Leigh once told me. He was a good-looking man who still had his youth. Now that he and Leigh were as official as they could get, they seemed to have settled down.

  I placed my hands upon my hips and took a moment’s respite to myself when Jacob turned his head to me. He greeted me with a big smile that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’d practiced in front of a mirror.