Troy
Last night was a bit unusual with Reece being at my house. I expected for us to actually be together, in my bed, not for me to be watching over her because she was drunk. Honestly, I was still wondering how she got drunk off of two margaritas, but at least I know that she’s not a heavy drinker.
Once she was sober enough to go home, I dropped her off so she could change and head to work. It was Friday, so we needed everyone to be there since it’s normally one of our busiest days.
As I drove into work, I heard my phone go off, as I quickly checked it, It was Kari, asking me if I’d made a decision on giving her a job. I put my phone back into the console. If I ever let Kari come back to Suds, it would be World War III because the employees couldn’t stand her. I couldn’t think about that right now. I saw cars lined up in the four lanes outside of the store. I slowly got out of my car, mentally preparing myself for the new work day.
“Damn, you looked worse than the day before. You have got to stop drinking,” Jamarcus said.
I stared at him and sighed. “It wasn’t that type of night, Jamarcus. I had to watch over Reece since she was drunk.”
Jamarcus looked confused as I gave him a pat on the back. “I’m not going into details about that, so let’s have a good day and pray that we don’t have any irate customers.”
“Or deal with crazy employees. Like now. What the hell are you two doing?!” Jamarcus exclaimed as he looked over at two employees fighting over a vacuum. I looked at my watch, noticing Reece’s car wasn’t in the parking lot, so hopefully she was okay.
I walked inside and saw Reece and Nena at the register. I greeted the two as Reece looked at me and gave a quick smile before tending to her customer. Once she was finished, I went over to her register.
“How are you feeling?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. I was still kind of woozy, so Mark brought me to work.”
“Okay. I could had brought you.”
“It’s fine. But I didn’t get to say thank you for what you did. I really appreciate it.”
I nodded. “It’s fine, mija. Just go light on the tequila next time, okay.”
She gave me the evil eye, which made me smile.
I greeted a few customers before I went outside to check on several departments. On my way to the detail area I noticed that an employee had gotten into an accident with a customer that was entering into the parking lot while he was driving a customer’s car.
“Fuck!”
I slowly counted to ten in Spanish before I went over to the scene. I had a feeling who was behind the wheel, so I knew this was not going to go well.
I walked over to see both customers mean mugging my employee.
“First of all, is everyone okay?”
“Hell no, since your dumb ass employee was speeding in the parking lot. He should had been paying attention instead of trying to show off in my damn car!” The customer, whose car my employee was driving stated.
I glanced over at Tony, who quickly looked away from me. I want to strangle him right then.
“You better do something about my damn car! I was on my way to work; now I have to tell my boss I was in a fucking accident at the car wash!” the other customer exclaimed.
“Lo siento, Troy. No quise golpear otro carro…”
“Silencio!” I exclaimed.
I didn’t know how I was going to handle this without both customers trying to take a swing at me. This location is known for altercations between customers and employees, so I had to think of something quick.
“Go to the office, now.” I told Tony as he went inside.
I looked at the two customers figuring I’d tell both of them that I’d call Uber to pick them up and take them wherever they needed to go. I would have to figure out a way to get both of their cars repaired because Tony rear ended the customer that was coming in. The fender of that vehicle was busted and the passenger doors were dented on the other vehicle.
I started cussing in Spanish, not believing this shit was happening. I would have to tell Mark about this, which meant this would be coming out of the store’s budget, more precisely my damn check.
Once I told both customers my plan, the two still weren’t happy. While the customer that was entering finally calmed down, the other whose car that Tony was driving, decided to go off the handle on me.
“That’s not going to solve anything, muthafucka! I’m not going to have my got damn car because your employee is fucking incompetent! I should bust his ass for driving my car and you for hiring his ass!” The customer said as he got into my face.
“Sir, I sincerely apologize for what happened, but your car will get repaired. I can’t have it fixed this second. If I could, I would, but you know that takes time.”
“You better do what you need to do, because I’m about two seconds from punching your ass out right now.”
“You know what, you can fight me if you want to, but don’t let this uniform fool you.” I said as I got in his face.
Before I could even take a swing, I felt someone pull me back. At first, I thought it was Jamarcus, but when I noticed how soft their hands were, I knew it was a female.
“Reece?”
“Ahh, you got a bitch holding you back. She came out here to solve your fucking problems!”
“Who are you calling a bitch?!” Reece exclaimed. She pushed me to the side as she went up to the man.
“Shit,” I said as I tried to go after her. I didn’t need to try and defend her when she wasn’t even a part of this!
“You can get some too,” The man said as he was about to come up to Reece. I went over to him, taking off my shirt on the way, when Jamarcus grabbed me and turned me around. The customer started laughing as I tried to pull away from Jamarcus.
“Listen, I know you want to kick this man’s ass, but you can’t. There are cameras around here. He could definitely sue you, especially since your employee just wrecked his car.”
“As for you, you need to go back inside, now.” Jamarcus said as he was looking at Reece.
“Fine, I got what I needed. Try getting your car fixed now, since you want to call women bitches and trying to fight the manager.” Reece said.
“Whatever, bitch.”
Reece tried to go to the man, but Jamarcus were holding her back as well.
“I’m calling the cops, because you’re causing a disturbance. Either you go wait until the owners come so you can talk to them, or you can be escorted off this property by a cop. Take your pick.” Jamarcus said.
The customer stared at the three of us as he went over to the bench near the detail area. I knew Jamarcus wanted to go off on us, but instead he took a few seconds to speak. “Get your ass inside, you two. I know this location is known for this type of behavior, but you two don’t need to join in.”
“He called Reece a bitch; I wasn’t going to let that fly.” I said.
Reece stared at me and I quickly looked down at the ground.
“I understand that. As much as I wanted to join in with you two, we can’t do that, because his ass would had been quick to file a lawsuit on this company. The only thing we can do is get him off of the property. We still have to fix his car, but he should be banned from coming here. I’m sure Mark and Vanessa wouldn’t have a problem with that.”
“I’m sorry I lost my cool,” I told the two of them.
“It’s cool. Just know I’ll always have your back. We can even kick his ass once we’re off the clock. I can turn some cameras off then,” Jamarcus said.
I laughed. “No, banning him is the right thing. Besides, someone told me to be a professional, so I should act like one.” I said and winked at Reece.
“But I also think the person that told me needs to listen to her own advice. What the hell were you thinking, Reece?”
She became embarrassed. “I saw what was going on from the cameras,. You helped me with that previous customer, so I was trying to return the favor.”
“Which I appreciate, but don’t do that again. As you can see, he was being an asshole. I don’t want you involved in that.”
She nodded. “I understand, and I’m sorry.”
“But at least I can say you have my back.”
Reece smiled. “I do. Like I said, I was just returning the favor.”
I stared at Reece, who continued to give me that sweet smile of hers. Jamarcus cleared his throat, which got both of our attention.
“Huh, yeah, I need to go back in.” Reece replied.
“Yeah, you did leave Nena in there by herself.” I said.
She nodded and quickly turned around to go inside.
Jamarcus watched Reece walk away before turning to me. Before he could say anything, I held up my hand.
“Do not start,”
“I wasn’t even going to say anything.”
“I know you and you were,”
“But you need to talk to Tony about what happened.”
“Already on it.” I said before heading inside.
I already knew the talk I was going to have with Tony was going to be intense, because this wasn’t the first time I had to talk to him about his behavior, but it had to be done.
As for Reece, I don’t know what’s going on between us. I feel as if she’s running hot and cold with how she’s acting toward me. I guess I’ll have to see how things go between us.