It had been two months since Jax was at the diner and a part of Cleo started to worry about the man she felt attracted to. For many weeks he was there almost everyday, ordering the same every single time and sit there in the corner for a few hours.

Now, the brunette was staring over at the empty spot by the window, heaving a deep sigh while she seemed to be lost in her thoughts. She felt like in one of those movies where the girl falls in love but the feelings are only one sided and in the end the guy they want chooses the other woman. Or maybe she was only being a little over dramatic here.

"The people won't serve themselves, honey", the calm voice of her mother tore her out of her thoughts and bringing her back to reality. "Don't you have his number?"

The brunette shook her head slightly. "No, I don't. And even if, I probably wouldn't call him. You think he changed his mind now that he knows about Enrico?"

"Well." Looking around briefly to check if anyone needed anything at the moment, she poured her daughter and herself a cup of coffee. "It's possible but I don't think so. You said he still stayed after you told him. Why would he do that in the first place if he was about to stay away? Maybe he's got a lot to do."

"Always seeing the positive in everything, hm?", Cleo gave her mother a cheeky smile, yet she was thankful that at least one person here had a positive mindset. "Or he and his girlfriend talked shit through and I was just a nice distraction."

"The way you talked about him, honey, I can assure you that you weren't just distraction", it was Katelynn whose expression was now as serious as ever. "Not to be dramatic but the life he leads is dangerous. Maybe something happened."

It grew silent but Cleo's mind was racing. It wasn't typical for her mother to think this negative but she wasn't entirely wrong in her assumption. This life meant danger all the time, anything could unexpectedly happen. She quickly shook those horrible thoughts off.

"I think we would've read about it in the papers. Jax is pretty famous here in Charming, we definitely would've heard about it", she said eagerly, trying to convince herself by chosing to think positive here.

"I'm sure you're right, honey. I didn't mean to scare you." Katelynn caressed her daughter's arm with a sympathetic smile.

"I'm not", the brunette muttered but knew her mother was right. She was scared. They haven't even spend so much time together but for weeks she had seen the man everyday and sometimes, they ended up having a nice talk; their last one an even deeper conversation.

"Mhm", her mother hummed softly, grinning to herself. It was obvious how worried her daughter was, which showed her how much Cleo already cared about the man she barely knew. "Go back to work, get some distraction. Maybe there's an explanation for all of this."

Cleo muttered something under her breath and got back to work. Today, not even the customers could cheer her up or distract her from her own dark thoughts because her mother's words were always in the back of her mind.

──

On her mother's order, the brunette was on her way to the grocery store to get some fresh vegetables for the diner since they ran out of them earlier. They had lots of people to serve today, more than usually. Their diner was famous in Charming and they had lots of good reviews but it was never as full as today.

She made sure she didn't need to long and only fifteen minutes later she headed back to the diner with two full paper bags filled with vegetables of any kind.

The young woman stopped in her tracks in front of the diner, studying the man waiting outside. A weak smile hushed over his face, his hands loosely shoved into the pockets of his jeans. Without realizing, she held her breath as he closed the gap between them and kissed her forehead.

"Hey darlin'", he said, his voice sounding different; tired and exhausted.

She still stood there petrified, not sure how to react at all. Was she mad? Or relived to see him again? Maybe it was both.

"Hey", she said, her voice soft as always but some disappointment in her tone that didn't go unnoticed by him. "Haven't seen you in a while."

The blonde nodded briefly as he lowered his head. He put a cigarette between his lips and lit it, slowly blowing out the smoke to the side so it wouldn't get in her face. For a moment, he studied her face. Something changed about her but he couldn't tell what it was. She looked just as exhausted as him, like someone has sucked the life out of her.

"I'm sorry about that", he finally answered. "Lot of things happened that shouldn't have happened. I had to handle things, needed some time to think."

"You could've said something, I was worried", she told him with a sigh, sounding harsher than she wanted to. It wasn't like she had any right to be mad at him, they weren't a thing. She didn't even know if they were friends or not. "Listen, I have to help my mom out. It's really busy today. But if you want you can come back later and we can talk?", she asked, a bit of excitement in her tone.

When he heard that she was worried, all he could do was smile to himself. Now he stood there, smiling like an idiot. "I'm sorry that you were worried about me, darling. You mind if I stay until your shifts over? Don't have anything else to do today."

Her heartbeat sped up when he asked if he could stay. She was happy about it and also curious why he wasn't there the last two months but she had to wait until her shift was over to ask him that.

"Of course you can stay, you know that", she told him softly and motioned him to follow her inside. His spot in the corner was already taken by a family with three kids so she watched him take a seat at the bar while she got the groceries in the back where the kitchen was to give them to their cook; the only other person that worked here besides Katelynn and Cleo.

──

They stepped out into the night, the streets only lit by the dim lights of the few lanterns on the sides of the sidewalk, the cool breeze filling their lungs as they both inhaled deeply.

Cleo wasn't this exhausted in a while. Hours of serving so many customers, helping their cook with the menus and cleaning up was enough for today. She still wondered why there were so many people today, yet they couldn't complain. They've earned a good amount of money.

"If you're too tired I can come back tomorrow", Jax assured the brunette when he heard her yawning. The last thing he wanted was to keep her up while all she needed was a bed. Little did he know that she wasn't much of a sleeper. During his absence, her addiction got even worse due to the worries.

"No, it's fine. Is anything special going on in Charming? We never had so many customers in one day in years", she asked the man, lifting her head a bit so she could look at him.

"There was a Fundraiser today, that's all I know. Maybe people finally give you and your mom the recognition you deserve", he said honestly. The man was always impressed by their work, how easy they made it look like while it was stressful to work in a diner several hours a day and never have much of a chance to sit down.

Cleo blushed slightly at his words. For her, this was a huge compliment. The diner meant a lot to her mother and her, it belonged to her grandpa before he passed away a few years ago. Also a reason why Cleo attended street races. Besides the adrenaline rush, she also earned money with it sometimes she secretly put in the cashbox of the diner.

"Thanks", she smiled sincerely. "It would be great if it would be like this more often. So, you wanna tell me why I haven't seen you in months?"

Jax' smile faded, replaced by a bitter expression. That was the moment Cleo knew something bad happened. A haunted look on his face as she looked into his empty blue eyes.

"A few brothers and I got arrested two months ago, the day after our last conversation in the diner. My best friend got killed inside", he explained, his jaw clenching once he finished talking and his eyes fixed on the ground he was walking on.

Cleo stopped walking, reaching out to gently grab his wrist so he would come to a stop, too. There was sincere compassion in her eyes as she looked into his. Now she almost felt bad for being mad at him inwardly that he stayed away for so long.

"I'm so sorry about that, Jax", she hardly whispered, meaning every word that slipped past her lips. It wasn't a surprise that he got arrested, it didn't scare her away; she was used to it. Her brother had been arrested a few times, that's how it was as a part of an MC. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Just stay with me tonight. I haven't talked to someone since last time I saw you", he told her honestly, his voice threatening to crack. She had no best friend, but if she had one, it would break her just as much if anything would ever happen to him or her.

The nervous feeling kicked in knowing she couldn't just snort a line of crushed pills when she was with him. He couldn't know about that side of her, it would probably ruin their whole friendship thing or whatever this was. But she wouldn't leave him alone after he told her such a horrible thing.

"I guess we can't stay at your house and I'm sure you don't want me around your brothers because of my brother. What about my place?", she asked, slowly letting go of his wrist again. "I'm sure my mom won't mind."

"Are you sure? I don't wanna get you in trouble, Cleo." He was grateful for her offer. The club wasn't the place he wanted to take her. His brothers would ask questions about her and for now it was better they didn't know too much about this since he had no idea where this was going to led. None of them would spill a word about it to Tara, but they would be curious to find out more about Cleo and with her brother being a Mayan, it would only led to problems at the moment.

"I'm sure", she assured him.

It was a ten minute walk from the diner to the house. Once inside, Cleo made sure to lock the door while kicking her converse sneakers off. Jax' white Nikes landed next to hers before she quickly showed him around.

The house in spanish style wasn't big but enough for the two woman. It had a nice kitchen, next to it a living room that was painted in a pastel orange like the hallway. Then there was her mother's room, a bathroom and at the end of the hallway Cleo's room.

Jax took in everything, all the family pictures in the hallway. Most pictures were taken outside, showing a boy and a girl. He assumed it was Cleo and her brother, who seemed to be a few years older than Cleo. He was in here for a few minutes and it already felt more like a home than his own house at the moment.

"It's a nice house", he told the brunette once they were in her room. It was different from the rest of the house. One wall was painted in black, the others in a mint green with even more pictures. Lots of plants were hanging from the ceiling, giving the room something special.

"Yeah, it's a pretty one. Small but pretty", Cleo smiled briefly and pointed at her bed. "Make yourself comfortable."

She left him alone for a moment to get them both a beer from the fridge and some cold leftover pizza from yesterday. She got herself a extra bottle with soda, adding a few more spoons of sugar. It wouldn't replace the pills but lots of sugar also had an effect.

"That's all we have left, sorry", she placed everything on the bed next to him and plopped down, making herself comfortable. "You wanna talk about your best friend?"

Jax leaned against the wall and tilted his head in her direction, a tired smile on his face. "I told him about you. Ope was always the one I could talk to about anything. Our friendship was tested many times over the last few years but── he was the one I wanted to know about you."

"What did you tell him?", she asked curiosily while she was sipping on her soda. If he talked to his best friend about her it had to mean something. Maybe she wasn't as delusional as she had thought and there was actually something between them.

"That I met a girl I really like." Jax grabbed the beer and held it in his hands, turning the bottle back and forth. "He had watched how my relationship with Tara changed over the years, how it turned to shit. I wasn't happy anymore and he knew it."

"So, he didn't judge you?", she asked carefully, hoping she didn't cross a line. In no way she was assuming his friend to be judgemental, but it would be a normal reaction.

"No, not at all. He even encouraged me to see you again once we're out of prison again", he smiled sadly as he thought about his last few conversations with Ope, feeling his heart ache as the pictures were back in his mind of his best friend getting beaten to death. "I wasn't myself the last few weeks but a few days ago I remembered his words and I just knew I needed to see you again."

"I'm glad you came back, Jax. I don't know what this is, but I like having you around", she admitted softly. "Ope sounds like a great best friend and I can't imagine how you feel at the moment. But if you ever need someone to talk to, you know where to find me."

The brunette pulled her knees against her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs to keep them in place. With her head resting on her knees, she studied him silently from the side, noticing how much he was struggling with his feelings.

She heard him swallow hard as he leaned his head back against the wall, staring at the wall on the other side of the room as the grip around the bottle in his hand tightened.

"He was", he said after a while. Everytime he was with her, he felt like he could be himself. She didn't expect him to make the right decisions or to act like everything was fine. She accepted him the way he was, even in his vulnerable state. If this would led to something, could she accept the monster inside him? Could she accept the man who had taken lives ruthlessly, one only a few days ago with a snow globe? Or would it end the way it did with Tara who couldn't accept him for who he was?

There were so many things on his mind, so much worries and negativity but he found peace when he was around her, which was almost addicting. She was able to tame the storm inside him, make him feel comfortable in his own skin.

They sat there in silence, now and then they were exchanging a few words but other than that, they were comfortable with each others presence only until they fell asleep.