Heather couldn’t think of anything but how unbelievably early it was. Waking up at half past three in the morning to be at work by four thirty was just insanity. She had questioned why so many people camped at the racetrack, including locals, but it made sense to her when she realized their commute was a two minute walk at most.
Many of the employees had paired off and formed little cliques. Heather hadn’t really gravitated toward anyone after things with Rob went south. She kicked herself for falling into the usual habits, and from then on, Heather wanted to keep her head down and get the work done.
After taking in a long inhale of the stream rising from her cup, Heather could feel herself coming around slowly. She swiped her card and checked her assignment for the day. No different than the three days beforehand. Her feet were sore, her mind a bit dull, but she was getting into the habit of parking car after car. In some ways, the headlights were hypnotic. Heather found it soothing, especially after four years of exhausting college classes and work on top of that.
She caught a glance of Rob when he walked in. Heather ducked her head in an instant, hoping to blend in with all the other workers dressed as bananas. What had begun as innocent flirting had quickly morphed into something Heather was not down with. His words carried more meaning, and his power over her was becoming far more evident.
Avoiding him had become one of her daily tasks along with fishing out her yellow shirt and clocking in. Heather was beginning to think that Robert wasn’t just a harmless guy trying to get his dick wet. He was singling her out. There were other twenty-somethings working at the track. Plenty of them were the party girl type, but Robert had an intense focus on Heather that made her more than uneasy. Was she a challenge? Was she a prize to him?
She turned to head out to her post early, but he spotted her.
“Hey, Heather. Where you off to in such a hurry?” He spoke low, no one else around them tuned in.
She looked to the ground, knowing she couldn’t maneuver around him He blocked the doorway. “Just heading to my post. The coffee’s kicking in, and I can’t sit still.”
His arm was across the door, and she looked up enough to catch a flash of the tattoo around his bicep. She wanted to kick herself for letting his ink hypnotize her so quickly. He had shown his true colors, and luckily Heather had discovered before things had gone too far. Still, a few stolen kisses had made this guy think he owned her. She hated that feeling, but he was her boss, and there wasn’t exactly an HR department in the two car garage that served as Parking Operations’ home base.
He gave a greasy smile. “I’ll walk you.”
“That’s alright.”
“I insist.”
Heather looked around, hoping to find someone she could sidle up to. All the other yellow-shirts were congregating and chatting, cigarette smoke rising from the groups. She hadn’t really made friends with anyone, so there was no one she could get to come along.
Robert wasn’t quite right, and Heather wished that she had realized sooner. There was something off about him. Heather knew she had to find a diplomatic way to let Robert know that nothing was going to happen between them. It wouldn’t be easy, but he was her boss, and she was in a tight spot.
She nodded in response to Robert, trying not to look nearly as worried as she was. The two walked out of the safety of the garage and into the silent darkness.
Heather flinched when he elbowed her, but he didn’t notice. He said, “So, I think you and I have a bit of a problem.” It hadn’t hurt, but it frightened her.
Heather’s heart was racing. She was already on edge, and the tone in his voice didn’t ease anything.
“What’s that?”
“Well, I’m your boss. As much as we’d love to enjoy this naughty workplace romance, I think it’s not good for either of our careers.”
Heather tried not to grimace at his disgusting words. Career? This wasn’t her career, and if it was his, Heather’s impression of him sunk even lower. Robert really hadn’t gotten the picture. She wasn’t interested. Was she going to have to spell it out?
She nodded, choosing her words with care. “I know what you mean. I can’t lose this job, and I’m sure you can’t either.”
“Definitely not. Luckily, for every problem, there’s a solution. I’m all about that, you know? I think there’s nothing that can’t be overcome. You and I have a problem, but only for right now. You and I have a problem, right?”
Heather was walking a fine line. She wanted to let him down easy. Breaking up with boyfriends had always eaten her up, but Rob was hardly her boyfriend. They hadn’t even had sex. Shit, he had only gotten to second base over her shirt. This wasn’t middle school. Heather was twenty-four years old.
“You’re my boss, and that’s a problem.” If she could play up that angle, maybe he would back off. The blame wasn’t on anyone, and she might spare his feelings.
He chuckled. “That is a problem. If I wasn’t your boss, though…” His voice almost danced from word to word.
Heather stumbled through a depression in the grass. Robert’s hand snapped out in a flash to steady her. She had to actively stop herself from recoiling. She didn’t need a man to take care of her. Robert thought he was some kind of white knight.
“Yeah…it’s too bad, really.”
He perked up. “Like I said. There’s a solution to every problem. You like parking operations?”
Heather didn’t like where the conversation was going. “The hours aren’t great, but I’ll survive.”
“What if you didn’t have to?”
Heather laughed, probably giving away her nerves. “That would be great, but—“
Robert cut her off. “Problem solved. I got you transferred.”
She stopped, her mind at once blank and spinning out of control. “What? You did what?”
Robert turned, and in the dim light cast from a faraway floodlight, she saw that he was beaming. “I pulled some strings and got you moved to gate duty near pit lane. The hours are gonna clash a little bit, but we’ll manage.”
“Clash with what?” Heather was still drowning in disbelief.
“With you and me.”
Her nostrils flared. Heather’s vision became laser-focused on Robert, not wanting anything to be misconstrued. Heather had to be as clear and harsh as possible.
“Rob, I can’t fathom how you think any of this is alright. There is no ‘you and me.’ We made out a few times, and they weren’t that great. As soon as I found out you were my boss, I should have been very clear, but you kinda took me by surprise. We can’t do this, and I tried to make that clear. Now you’re fucking with my work because you still think you have a shot? Dude, you need to learn to read the signs. You can’t just transfer me. I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve to be moved around like an inanimate object to satisfy your whims. How incredibly disrespectful.”
Heather knew that any more time near Robert would cause her to say something far worse. She huffed away, her heart pounding. She shook her head, mumbling to herself about “…being such a fool.”
The early morning work passed slowly, barely at the front of Heather’s mind. Even two hours in, she was still reeling from the audacity of Robert’s actions. At least he had been smart enough to give her a wide berth during the shift. He didn’t come anywhere near Heather, and she was thankful for that.
Heather waved vehicle after vehicle into the grassy parking area. Race fans of all ages, colors, and creeds poured into the speedway. Heather didn’t get it. She’d never understood motor racing, and there was no way in hell she could understand getting to a racetrack an hour before dawn. It wasn’t even the race. There were still two weeks until the green flag would drop. She decided every car she parked must have been full of crazies. There were the die hard crazies, who drove in the moment the gates opened at four. The ones who didn’t need their headlights were only slightly saner. All crazies, though.
By the time her shift ended, she could hear the monstrous roar of the cars on track just a few hundred feet from her. The sound didn’t mean much to her except to agitate her throbbing headache. She left the track the minute her shift ended, eager to dodge her boss.
All Heather wanted was to fall into bed. The worry of Robert kept her awake, though. She was out of the frying pan and into the fire with that one.
Maybe the transfer would be a good thing. It got her on a different schedule than Robert, and there would be no more 3AM alarm clocks. She figured the odds of having a boss that wasn’t going to make a pass at her were worth it.
Her fears had eased some, and Heather finally fell into a sleep that lasted well into the evening.