Chapter 83: 83. An Invitation to Dinner (Erik)
Erik arrived at work well rested for the first time in as long as he could remember. Although, he had been plagued by dreams of Liona that were tantalizingly realistic and oh so good; he brushed it off this morning a lot easier than he had been able to a few days ago while in the midst of his rut.
That had been the most difficult time he had ever had in his entire life getting his uncooperative body to behave itself. Thankfully, the generic suppressants his mom had brought home from work had all worked as intended and no ill side effects plagued him for the ones he had taken.
When he entered the coffee shop, right on time for his shift to start, the first thing he was greeted by was Dani laughing. But he wasn't laughing in a malicious way. He could sense that. Instead, it was mirthful and full of affection for a friend.
"Man, I never expected your girl to be so possessive! Those are some strong pheromones!" Dani laughed.
"What? You too? Everyone is saying that Liona is possessive, but I don't understand how you all know that." Erik wondered out loud.
"That's easy! Your girlfriend has scented you from head to toe with her pheromones. She's literally marked you as hers with her scent. She's telling all other omegas to back off, that you're taken and that you belong only to her." Dani laughed.
"Really? Is that what all that rose is about?" Erik mostly mumbled to himself, referring to the rose color that lingered in the edges of his vision, that seemed to blend effortlessly into the constant mint green he saw there as well.
"Right! Your girl's rose scent is all over you! So when are you two going to make it official?" Dani asked him.
"What do you mean official? We're dating, so I guess we're official…" Erik may have been an alpha since his first secondary gender testing at nine, but he didn't understand a lot about relationships apart from dating and having a fated mate meant that you'd have someone by your side forever.
Whether that be good or bad, he had always wanted to keep an open mind about his eventual mate. His mom's hatred for his father had made him determined to see that there was good in people too, but that had been long before he realized what a cruel world it had been for those without money.
Then Liona had appeared, bringing the sunshine and rainbows to his life, that he had thought that he had long forgotten. She had brought joy to him that he didn't think was possible. Soon, before he had even noticed, he had been falling in love with her, not even realizing that it was happening, and his walls were being brought down one-by-one, brick-by-brick.
He was so happy now that sometimes he felt like it was a dream, and he would wake up one day, and it would all come crashing down on him. That simple fear, still creeped up on him occasionally, preventing him from letting go of his past entirely. He didn't want to lose her, so he kept it all to himself, unable to share that part of his life with her yet.
"No, I mean, when are you two gonna bond? I mean, that's the surest way to keep her all to yourself and from all the alphas in her school from hitting on her. But then again, it's probably a good thing to wait too, since you're still only seventeen after all…" Dani teased.
Erik blushed as he got to work preparing for the first customers.
"Hey, I respect Liona and regardless of our ages, I won't do anything that she isn't ready for. Besides, I would rather not do that yet. We don't have to rush things, there's no point when we know we're going to be together for the rest of our lives." Erik said, pink cheeked, as the rest of their co-workers arrived.
Soon the café was busy with the morning rush, and Erik was too preoccupied with his work to dwell on Dani's good-natured teasing. That is until he caught the pink in his vision growing brighter and seemingly stronger, so he looked around, and then he saw her. His mate was standing in line with a big smile on her face that only got bigger as she approached the front of the line.
She greeted him with her pretty smile, and he returned her greeting with his own. She then asked him for a bit of his time and since he had been working for the last couple of hours, and it was almost time for him to leave for school, Dani let him take off early. He also handed him a plate of unsold scones. He was starting to get the feeling that he was a receptacle for unsold or returned products that would otherwise go to waste. He wondered if it was Dani or their boss who was handing down these instructions he wasn't privy to.
Exiting the coffee shop, it didn't take more than a moment to spot Liona awaiting him at one of the outdoor picnic tables, they had. He happily met with her and kissed her on her cheek as a greeting.
"So besides missing me like crazy, what brought you here this morning, Lia?" Erik sat across from her at the table she was sitting at. He was delighted by her giggle at his attempt at humor.
"Here, I brought you this, as well as returning this to you…" Liona placed another bento on the table between them, before she then with a little difficulty hefted his bag up from below the table and set it on the table-top. "You left your bag at my house last night, and I thought you'd need it for school today. Oh, I did get into it, cause the bento I had made you before was all gross and smelly, so I took it out. Also, your wallet fell out, but I put it back, so I wanted to let you know that I saw some of the things in it, but not on purpose!" She seemed to add the last bit hastily.
Erik laughed at her slightly flushed face. He then reached into his bag and pulled out his wallet and placed it face open before her. He didn't have anything in it to hide from her, and it wasn't like he was bothered by her even accidental snoop.
"Lia, I don't have anything in my bag to hide, nor my wallet. My worldly possessions consist of a couple of bank cards, my bus pass, and my student ID. See?" He pulled out each one from his wallet and showed her.
"Wow, you really don't have much there. But how come you have two bank cards?" Liona asked.
"One is my mom's bank account that I use for purchasing things for the family, the other is my personal account and has my pitiful savings in it…" Erik was a bit sheepish.
His pitiful savings consisted of bonus pay and what little his first paychecks had been in his account. It wasn't more than a couple-hundred bucks, but when you only worked part-time for a few hours, those hours didn't add up to much pay. Especially when the minimum wage was so pitifully behind the inflation and the economy's state. Making roughly $32 an hour wasn't enough to afford even basic food without help, so his grocery store job, helped put food on their table, however poor it was.
"Oh! That's sweet of your mom. She makes sure you can save your money for yourself instead of having to spend it on your siblings." Liona's smile lit up her pretty face.
"Yeah, she insists that Nikki and I keep as much of our money as possible, but both of us tend to contribute what we can when we can. Otherwise, it's a struggle for her to support all of our siblings on her thin budget as it is." Erik explained as Liona grabbed a scone and started absently munch on it. She was so adorable with her face full of food that she looked a little like a chipmunk with their cheeks full. Her eyes sparkled as she ate, which he couldn't get enough of how pretty she was just being herself.
"That's one of the things I love about you, Er. You love your family, and you do your best every day for their sake." Liona said between bites of the scone she was eating.
Erik smiled a bit bitterly. He loved his family, yet he had yelled at his mom in such anger yesterday. Sure, he had been defending his mate, but he had never raised his voice before, even to the bullies that had tormented him or his sisters.
Sensing his turmoil, Liona asked him, "What's the matter? Why do you feel so sad?"
Erik sighed, "I yelled at my mom yesterday because she was saying things about you that weren't true, and so I got mad. She then demanded that I invite you to dinner tonight, regardless of the fact that you could be busy. Because of her demands and language describing you, I sort of lost my temper and then threw out some not nice threats in her face about our future together." Erik smiled grimly as he recalled all that he had said last night.
"Is that an actual invitation? She wants me to come to dinner?" Liona was smiling.
"Yeah. Uhm, but if you're busy, I completely understand!" Erik added hastily.
"I'd love to meet your mom! What time should I come over? Oh, but you still haven't given me your address though!" Liona looked at him with puppy eyes.
Erik pulled out a notebook and a pen from his bag and quickly wrote his address on a piece of paper before tearing it out and handing it to her.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone