"What the—" Val felt the wind being knocked out of him as he pitched forward, twisted in an attempt to catch himself, and landed directly on his back yanking Amara down on top of him.
"Ooof!" She landed across his chest with a loud gasp, her face inches from his. "Sorry, uh. I didn't mean to. I think I slipped on something."
"Mara, you can't just fall for me like this," he joked, but the way her eyes dipped down to his lips when he said that made his core tighten and his stomach flipflop. His attempt at levity fell flat immediately as her bright eyes found his again. God, she was really very beautiful…not that he hadn't already known that. But there was something about her being up this close that felt like more…it was the way she smelled like soft lavender and the way her hand was pressed against his chest, just hard enough that he was pretty sure she could feel his heart beating. And was it beating faster? It felt like it was pounding so hard it was going to break his rib cage open.
All she had done was look at his lips and his brain was suddenly hazy…what the heck was happening?
Her cheeks tinged pink again, and she quickly looked away with her signature eye roll before sliding off his chest. She pushed herself up to her feet and didn't bother offering him a hand to do the same, which was probably for the best, given how that debacle had just played out.
"Ha ha. Very funny," she said.
"We should, uh…" Val cleared his throat and got back to his feet finally. "We should probably do another patrol around. It's been a while. Gotta stay on top of things. Could be more raccoons out there, you know."
"Yeah, but then I've got some work to do in between patrols. I can't believe it's already almost midnight." She held up her cell phone, showing a display of 11:54pm, before she pushed it back into her back pocket. "I'm going to need another coffee."
"Same," he agreed.
They made their way back to the store and brewed their own separate traveler mugs of coffee—extra sugar and cream in hers and his completely black. He kind of liked the idea that this tough girl persona actually poured on the sweetness pretty thick, but he kept his thoughts to himself. After they were properly caffeinated, they made the rounds again to check all the locks and doors were secure.
"I've got to go run an errand at The Big Cheese—do you want to join me or stay here and guard the stores?" There was a slight smirk on her face as she said that, as if she didn't think he would be much of a guard without her.
"I think I can hold down the fort just fine," he assured her, but then curiosity wrestled its way into his mind. "Wait…what are you doing at the food truck?"
"Come on." She ushered him to follow her with one hand. "I could use the help carrying everything anyway."
He frowned, even more confused, but followed her anyway. When they arrived at the outdoor food courtyard, it was pitch dark with only a few security lights on around the perimeter to show the way. Amara didn't seem to have any hesitation, however, and marched right up to the large yellow food truck with a fake giant wedge of cheddar propped on the roof. She pulled a small ring of keys out of her pocket and shuffled them around in her hands for a moment until she found the one she was looking for and stuck it in the lock on the rear door of the truck.
"Voila," she said, giving a flourish with her hand as the door flung open. "Welcome to Cheese Heaven."
Val laughed and followed her as they climbed up the rickety metal stairs into the back of the truck. Everything was closed and covered, packed away for the night, but the generator was still running, keeping the refrigerated section working. He could still smell the fresh bread and cheese scent of today's preparations, and it was making his stomach growl.
"Why are we here?" he finally asked. "How do you even have a key to this?"
"The owners of The Big Cheese let me use their refrigerator overnight. They usually set out everything I need to prep, so it's super easy." Amara opened the fridge and started pulling out a stack of cheese slices, bread, and condiments. She then pulled out a large metal container of what looked to be scrambled eggs, and a plate of bacon. "Here. Place these out on the counter."
He took the containers from her and arranged them in a line of the counter. Everything was pre-cooked and looked good enough to eat—heck, he just might need a midnight snack. "Are we making sandwiches?"
"Yes, but not for us." She handed him a stack of brown paper lunch bags. "Okay, take two pieces of bread and load it with eggs, cheese, and bacon. Wrap it in the parchment paper and then put it in the brown lunch bag."
"I can't even have one?" he joked, beginning the sandwich preparations as she had described.
She just grinned at him and shook her head, then began placing apples and bananas that she'd pulled out from a refrigerated compartment beneath the counter into each bag. He added the sandwiches to the bags as they both kept working, and once she'd packed about twenty bags with fruit, she switched to placing a stack of thick, long hash browns in baggies and tucking those into the bags next.
They worked in silence for about twenty more minutes until all the bags were packed with breakfast items and stacked on a long tray.
She then pushed that tray back into the refrigerator unit and closed the door. "Okay, around five o'clock, we'll come back and grab these. The kids will probably start dropping by around five thirty, so we want to be ready for them."
"These are for kids?" he asked, following her out of the truck as she locked up everything behind them. "Which kids?"
Amara shoved the keys in her pocket and headed back toward the entrance to the indoor part of the mall as they set out to do their next patrol around the area. "Last year, the local school system ran out of funding for the breakfast program for kids from low-income families. The school still provides them a warm lunch—which is great and better than nothing—but some of these kids don't get anything to eat in a day but that. It's hard to do well in school and concentrate on an empty stomach, so some of the local businesses partner together to hand out bagged breakfasts to kids who need them. It's a great business write off for The Big Cheese, and since half my customer base—or more—is kids, I want to make sure they're well provided for if I can."
"Wow." Val hadn't heard about these efforts before, and he felt a bit out of the loop that he had never thought to give back to the local community in that way. Heck, he didn't really give back at all. There was something about the way he grew up and losing his parents that made him feel like he had to hold on to things—tight. Like if he were to let go and let people in, it would mean losing everything he owned, and everyone he loved. Because, in reality, that was exactly what had happened to his parents. "That's really wonderful that you guys do that."
She shrugged. "It's not much. I'm pretty blessed to come from a stable, happy family. My parents have been in love longer than most, and they always told us to pay it forward when we can. This is one small way I can do that."
"I think I have the opposite approach sometimes," he admitted as they walked up to his jewelry store. He surveyed the entrance, all decked out in glitz and gold. "I think I'm afraid to give things away. I'm afraid I'll never get it back. That's one of the downsides of jewelry, you know. You put all this work and effort into crafting something beautiful, and the moment it leaves the store, it loses almost all its value."