Too bad the man had been caught concealing material evidence in a case and had been disbarred. He had wound up a manager in a small coffee shop. And he took his anger out on everyone.

“Are you trying to get us shut down, Stormy?”

She hadn’t expected that. “No,” she said.

“Well, if you don’t follow the rules, you get fined, and if you get fined enough, you get shut down. So again, what are your intentions while working here?”

“To do my job and collect a paycheck, sir.”

“Well, your job is to ensure that customers receive satisfaction. If we piss off the pilots, then we lose their business. Then we lose all the airline employees’ business and we get shut down.” His voice rose the longer he spoke.

“I’m sorry I snapped at Captain Armstrong. But he was being rude as well,” she pointed out.

“The customer is always right,” he thundered. “Deal with that.”

“I apologize. I won’t be rude again,” she said, feeling tears behind her eyes.

She hated that she sometimes cried when she was angry. She wanted to show she was furious, not a weakling, dang it!

“Look, Stormy, Captain Cooper Armstrong visits us many times during the week. You need to be more observant, take the time to actually notice the crew members who stop in frequently, and be extra courteous to them. I know this is a new shift for you, but just look at their name tags so you’ll remember them more easily, and be sure to give them that employee discount!

“Follow my lead. I go out of my way to take note of every employee I see. Don’t let these thick glasses confuse you into thinking I’m a blind man!” Just as he was finishing what he was saying, he nearly tripped over his own desk.

Stormy reluctantly nodded her head in agreement with her boss—why make things worse? “Is that all, sir?” Using the word sir to address this guy tasted sour on her tongue.

“Yes. Now go man the register. The line is growing and Amy can’t do it by herself.”

Stormy turned to walk out of the office. “Stormy, remember . . .” Stormy stopped, but barely kept herself from groaning, since she knew what he was going to say. “. . . Republic Coffee is happiness in a cup.”

Completely disgusted with this company droid, Stormy left the office to return to work, though she did it with a sinking feeling in her heart.

Upon her return to the floor of the coffee shop, she found herself in a daze as she wiped the tables and straightened up the boxes of tea and refilled condiments. So Captain Armstrong’s first name was Cooper? She now knew the full name of the man she’d slept with six years ago. So much for him being Green Eyes. She was too frazzled to even think about it right now.

Amy was working behind the counter preparing a passenger’s coffee. Amy finished ringing up the passenger, then looked over at Stormy with a defeated look on her face.

“Why did you let that man get to you?” asked Amy when they were alone.

“I’m actually not sure,” Stormy answered while playing back the conversation. It wasn’t any worse than any other she had on a daily basis. “I guess it’s because I’m sick and tired of these pilots thinking they have a right to get into my pants,” Stormy said with a wink, attempting to make light of the confrontation.

“Ha! Surprise, surprise, Captain Gorgeous is another full-of-himself womanizer. A Greek god of a man who sounds like a sexist, self-absorbed moron when he speaks, ruining all of that other stuff . . . you know, the hot part. If we could just silence him and tie him to a chair, we’d get a lot more female customers, and then not have to deal with all the guys who come in here expecting a cup of coffee and a quickie on one of the tables.” Amy spoke as she began steaming milk for the customer whose order Stormy had just rung up on the register.

“It’s not just what Armstrong was spouting. I’m used to all that,” she stated as she got back to the conversation. “It’s just that I’ve met him before.”

“I hear a story coming,” Amy said with glee.

“No, no story. I was just surprised to see him, that’s all. It’s been a lot of years since the last time.”

“I want to know what’s going on, but I’ve learned in our short time together how close-lipped you can be. I’ll wait it out,” Amy said.

“Good,” Stormy said. “This week has all around sucked. I have to move on top of everything else.”

“Don’t you like your apartment?”

“It’s not that. It has new management and they are remodeling. I’ve known that I’d have to vacate for a while, but time just crept up on me and now I have no time and nowhere to go.” Stormy’s brown eyes began to well up with tears. Again. She had to get a hold of herself.

“Oh my . . .” Amy gasped, now staring at her with sympathy. “Is there any way they can give you more time?”

“Nope,” she said as she carried a basket of dirty dishes into the kitchen. “I’ve just come to realize that it is what it is.”

Amy shook her head. Thankfully, they were busy the rest of the afternoon, so Stormy didn’t have much time to stress out over her living situation or her crappy job.

That also meant that Amy didn’t get a chance to ask any more questions. The reality was that Stormy had zero clue what she was going to do next, so how could she give any answers?

CHAPTER NINE

Stormy’s bus pulled up near her apartment building after her seemingly never-ending day. She dragged herself from it, then walked to her place and made her way into the lobby.