Chapter Fourteen
I watch as Sylvia runs through the process for outgoing invoices one more time. Finally, I nod, letting her know I understand. We have already been through it three times today, not to mention everything else she has showed me. After only a little over a week, she is leaving me on my own this afternoon and I’m scared out of my mind.
She smiles at me and stands up from the desk. “Okay, Gypsy. You can handle it on your own from here on out.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, nodding my head. “I think I got it.”
In all honesty, this is the easiest job I have ever had. Physically, it’s a breeze compared to lugging around plates at the diner. Mentally, it can be stressful but it is still simpler than trying to keep up with dozens of customer orders and different daily specials. Still, it’s nerve wracking. At the diner, the most I could mess up was someone’s lunch. Here, a simple mistake could screw up a high paying contract.
“You’ll be fine, honey,” she says, grabbing her purse from the drawer and heading toward the door. “If you need me, I’m never more than a phone call away.”
I smile at her, giving her another nod. “I know.”
After saying goodbye, I watch her walk out the door then look back to the computer. I try to focus on work. Instead, my mind keeps drifting to last night with Chance. After we spent half the night talking about our pasts, we spent the rest cuddled up on his couch. More than a few kisses were shared, all of which blew my mind. He didn’t try for more, even though I know he wanted to. Instead, he held me in his arms all night, both of us falling asleep on his couch. It was the first time in my life where I’ve slept with a man.
I didn’t know what to expect waking up in his arms, especially with how I would feel about it. If I’m being honest with myself, I’d say that I liked falling asleep and waking up with Chance.
Memories of last night end a quick death when the office door is shoved open. A second later, a man stomps into the office obviously angry. He slams the door, making me jump in my seat. My eyes are glued to him as he stalks to my desk and slams a check on top of it, causing my heart to race.
“What the hell is that?” he shouts, pointing to the check. “You shorted me by nearly three hundred fucking dollars.”
I look down at the check, reading over it as quickly as possible. The minute my eyes land on his name, I realize what the issue is. This is the foreman from the Martin job, a job that was screwed up so bad that Chance and Adam were forced to give them a discount. It was their decision that part of the discount would be coming out of the foreman’s pay.
“Let me give Chance a call,” I mumble, picking up the phone. “You can talk to him or Adam, and they’ll explain everything to you.”
Even as I say the words, I know they have already talked to him. Chance told me all about it last night, letting me know that they were probably going to have to fire the man. Not only had he messed up on more than one job, but his reaction to a cut in his pay was extreme. Chance said the only thing that kept him from letting the guy go on the spot was the fact he had three kids to take care of.
He grabs my hand and slams the phone back in place. “I don’t want to talk to Chance or Adam, already did that. I want you to fix it right now, so I can go cash my fucking check and take my ass home.”
He is so angry; his entire face is red and the vein in his forehead is pulsing. His hand tightens on mine before letting go. A second later, he is fisting it at his side. I scoot away from my desk, my body tingling with fear.
“I can’t do that,” I reply with a nervous shake of my head. “I don’t handle payroll; one of the brothers writes out all of the checks.”
It’s the truth; I haven’t been taught how to handle payroll yet. Sylvia promised to stop by on Wednesday to show me how to do it, but last week Chance did it. The week before, Adam did all the paychecks.
“Don’t lie to me!” he shouts, slamming his fist onto the desk. “You can cut me a check, but you don’t want to.”
“I’m not lying to you,” I say, stumbling over my words as I stand up from the chair and take a step back from the desk. “I swear to you that I’m telling the truth. I haven’t been here that long, and I have no idea how they handle payroll. Sylvia hasn’t showed me how to do it yet. Honestly, I don’t even know where they keep the checks.”
All of what I said is true, but he’s not buying any of it. Instead, he is just getting angrier and angrier. He’s banging his fist into his thigh with such force I’m sure there will be a bruise there later on. By the way he is glaring at me, there is no doubt in my mind that he wishes he was hitting my face instead.
His hand shoots out, banging loudly against the top of the desk once more. “If you can’t write me a check, then get my money out of petty cash. I’m not waiting one more damn minute for my money, and I’m not leaving without it.”
Suddenly, my mind goes back to the night that Kilo hurt me. The feeling of his fist smashing into my face. The scent of his sweat covered body. Even the tearing pain between my legs flashes through my mind, almost bringing me to my knees. Unable to stop myself, I let out a whimper of fear.
“What the hell is wrong with you, woman?” he shouts, kicking my desk. “Are you a fucking idiot or what?”
My breaths start coming in pants, and I know I’m about to go into a full blown panic attack if I do not get out of here right away. Looking around the office, I realize there is no way I can get past him to get to the door. I have no choice but to run to the back and head out that way. I can only hope he doesn’t catch me.
Pounding his fist down again, causing the computer screen to fall over, he asks. “Are you listening to me, you stupid bitch? Get me my money!”
I’m about to attempt to dash past him when the door flies open again. Chance storms in, heading straight to his foreman. His hand comes out in a flash, grabbing the other man’s arm in a brutal hold.
He looks to me, his body shaking with anger. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I whisper, looking between the two men.
As quick as my fear came, it is gone. Just knowing he is here, I know everything is going to be fine. There is no way he’d let this man hurt me. Deciding there is no reason to run, I plop down in my seat and pull in a relieved breath.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Chance growls, giving the man a hard shake. “You don’t ever talk to one of my employees like that, especially not her.”
The foreman jerks his arm away and directs his anger at Chance. “My check is short, and she won’t fix it.
“I just wanted to talk to her about my check. It’s nearly three hundred dollars short,” he says, much calmer than before. “I need that money to pay bills. Without it, I won’t have enough to even cover the mortgage.”
“That’s not my problem,” Chance says, crossing his arms over his chest. “I already told you your check was going to be docked by thirty-five percent for the next ten weeks to help cover the discount we had to give on the Martin job.”
“You can’t do that!” he shouts, fury lacing through his voice. “You can’t just take part of my paycheck.”
He takes a step toward Chance and for a second, I think he is going to swing at him. Just before he does, Chance steps forward. The man blinks, obviously surprised someone would stand up to him. Chance’s anger is enough to take on anyone at the moment. He quickly steps back, raising his hands in front of him.
“I already did,” Chance replies, not fazed by the other man’s anger. “If you have a problem, you come to Adam or me, you don’t bother Gypsy with it.”
The foreman looks between the two of us. His eyes narrow on me just before a smile spreads across his face.
“This is Gypsy, huh? I heard you and your brother talking about how fine she was. I gotta say, she’s one hell of a piece,” the man says with a chuckle. “Are you fucking her, Chance? Is that why you’re so pissed about me talking to her?”
A bright red flush of anger covers Chance’s face as he stomps over to the door and flings it open. “You’re fired, get the hell off my property.”
Both of them are silent for a second, just staring at each other. The tension in the air is thick, thick enough to cut with a knife. My eyes stay glued to them, waiting to see what will happen next and wondering if I should call the police.
“You can’t just fire me,” he finally responds, shaking his head. “I’ve worked for you and your brother since you started. I’ve been your foreman for nearly three years and have done a good job.”
“You used to do a good job, a damn good job. This last year something has changed; you’ve been nothing but trouble, messing up everything you touched,” Chance replies, not looking any less upset. “We should have fired you a few months ago, definitely should have let you go when you screwed up the Martin job. Adam and I only kept you on because we knew you have a wife and kids to take care of.”
“Please don’t do this, Chance. Don’t fire me.” The man raises a hand and runs it over his head before pulling in a deep breath. “I can’t lose this job. It’s the only thing keeping a roof over my kids’ heads.”
He sounds so upset, so apologetic, I start to feel a little sorry for him. Then, I remember the way he screamed at me. If he spoke to me like that, I can only imagine how he speaks to his wife and kids behind closed doors. I’m guessing theirs is not a happy home. I can only hope this does not make it any unhappier.
Chance nods to the open door and says, “None of that is my problem, you should’ve thought about all of that before screwing up and costing the company money. I was gonna give you another chance, but now you no longer work for me. You lost your job the minute you started screaming at one of my employees.”
It takes another minute or two for Chance to get him out the door. I watch through the window as they walk to a beat-up truck. They talk a little more. I can tell the man is begging to keep his job, but Chance isn’t giving in. If anything, he is just getting angrier with every second that passes. Finally, the man climbs into the truck and drives off. Chance watches him drive out of the parking lot then turns around and walks back to the office. The minute he steps through the door, he heads straight to me.
Stopping right beside me, he pulls me out of the chair and wraps his arms around me. “I’m so sorry that happened and that he brought all this to you.”
“I’m really okay,” I say, leaning my head against his chest. “He didn’t hurt me, just scared me a little.”
For the first time, I realize how well I handled the situation. Even when the panic attack started, I didn’t let it take over. For years, any time an angry customer yelled at me about a wrong order or overcooked steak, I would go into a panic attack and freeze in place. I would stay like that for an hour or more. Half the time, I didn’t even remember it when it was over. This time, I fought it back and kept control of my mind. To me, that is huge. So huge, I feel proud of myself.
“He had no right to talk to you like that,” Chance says, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes. “No one has the right to speak to you like that.”
“It’s okay, though,” I say, a wobbly smile spreading across my face. “He didn’t do anything but scream a little. I think he is a lot more bark than bite.”
“As long as I’m around, no one is gonna bark at you,” he states, letting out a chuckle. “Hell, if anyone even looks at you the wrong way, I may do some barking of my own.”
His words bring a bubble of laughter from deep within me, causing a wave of happiness to fill my whole body. It feels wonderful and freeing at the same time. Never in my life have I felt like this, especially not after being screamed at by a stranger. It just proves to myself how far I’ve come from that scared girl that ran away from home.
I laugh, leaning my head against his chest again. “I really like you, Chance.”
He places a kiss on the top of my head and whispers, “That’s good, because I really like you, too, Gypsy Girl.”