Will didn’t wait for me to come all the way into his office before he started chewing me out.
“You aren’t supposed to play favorites with the customers. I don’t care if that was your boyfriend or not.”
“That—”
“I’m speaking, Kenzie. That means you stand there and listen.”
I fumed, but I kept my mouth shut.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” he asked.
I stared at him and said nothing.
“Well?”
“My turn?” I asked. I was tired of his games, lack of assistance when it was required, and the complete gatekeeping he did to prevent us from reaching out to the owner. If I had a complaint against him, I was supposed to take it directly to him? No way.
Will was supporting, and now contributing, to a hostile work environment. At least I was feeling hostile. I wanted to just quit. I wanted to open my mouth and tell him to go screw himself. But I couldn’t do that to Ruby. She needed food, clothes, and a place to live. And it was my job to keep her safe and protected.
I needed this job no matter how much I hated it. I felt stuck. I took a deep breath and hoped I didn’t start crying. Maybe crying would make Will feel bad for yelling at me for no reason.
“Mac—”
“How many times do I need to tell you that you have to deal with him on your own?”
“And when I do, you yell at me. He threw away another customer’s food because I was carrying it out to him.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“No, not my boyfriend. I don’t have a boyfriend. I don’t even know if I’d call Allan a friend. He’s a guy I know.
“I’ve never seen him here before. How do you know him?”
I huffed out through my nose like an angry bull.
“He works with Ruby. You know, how I know him doesn’t have any bearing on any of this. Mac got mad that I was helping Allan out when I won’t cater to him. And before you ask another asinine question, Allan has a prosthetic leg. He mentioned his leg was bothering him and asked for help. I think that’s a reasonable reason to carry his food out to him. Mac’s fit was completely unreasonable. He was acting jealous because I was doing my job. He gets like that every time I talk to any man who isn’t obviously with another woman.”
I was so angry, my voice grew louder. I was yelling at my boss, and I didn’t care anymore.
“Mac is interfering with my ability to do my job. It seems to me that taking care of that little situation should be your job. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have bathrooms to clean.”
I stormed out of his office and went directly to the janitor closet. I grabbed the yellow mop cart and slammed my way into the men’s room. “Anyone in here? No? Good, I’m cleaning it.”
I didn’t do a deep clean. The restroom was gross. It always was. I did the bare minimum. I didn’t want to be there, and if Will was only going to support me with the bare minimum, I was only going to give back as good as I got.
I slammed the mop cart around, banging on the door and the wall as I rolled it from the men’s room into the women’s room. I didn’t make any grand announcement. I didn’t need to. It was empty, which was fine by me. I locked myself in the smaller stall and started to cry.
I hated to cry in the bathroom. But I was less likely to be discovered by a coworker. I occasionally screamed in the deep freezer. It was reasonably soundproof, but it was too cold for crying. And Will might go in there at any time to take inventory or pull more burgers out. He never came into the women’s restroom, not even to clean it.
I don’t know how long I was in there before I heard Jess’s voice. “Kenzie, you in here?”
I wiped my tears and blew my nose. “Yeah. I’m cleaning.”
“If that’s what you want to call it. There’s some guy out here looking for you.”
“If it’s Mac, I’m not here.”
“The old guy? No, this guy is hot.”
Tate was here? “Okay, I’ll be right out. “
I blew my nose again and let myself out of the stall. My face was blotchy and there was simply no way to hide that I had been crying. I finished washing my hands and then splashed cold water on my face.
I stepped out of the restroom, dragging the mop cart with me.
“Kenzie?” Tate asked as I stepped out. “What’s the matter?”
“Let me put this stuff away. I’ll be right back.” I didn’t bother to dump and rinse out the bucket. It would simply be more work for me later.
“Come on.” I grabbed Tate’s hand and dragged him outside. “I’ve got a break, and I need to get out of here.”
When we got to his truck, he leaned against it and pulled me into his chest and held me in silence for a long while.
“Allan said Mac was making trouble for you. Is that what the tears are all about?”
I nodded. “Will, my manager, keeps telling me to deal with Mac, but when I do, I get in trouble. Allan said his leg hurt, so I was helping him.” I told Tate the whole story again. And I included the ass chewing I got from Will. “And I don’t have an HR department or any way to complain about Will. I deserve a safe workplace, right? I think Will is going to fire me this time.”
“He’s not going to fire you. You are his best worker.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I know you, and you have integrity. Of course you’re his best worker. Does anyone else actually clean the bathrooms?”
I laughed. Tate had us all figured out already.
“No, just me. Can we talk about something else? Like, why are you here?”
“I came to see you. I’m allowed to do that, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, you’re allowed to come see me. I’m glad you did. I’ll be able to get through the rest of my shift without breaking down again.”
“Would looking forward to something help out?”
I shrugged. “Like what?”
“Let me take you out tonight. A real date. And when it’s over, I can either kiss you goodnight or seduce you.”
I liked the idea of him seducing me. “How is that going to work? What am I going to do with Ruby?”
“Send her to spend the night at her friend’s, or she can stay at my place with Allan.”
Something clenched in my guy when he mentioned Allan. I liked him. He seemed like a decent guy, and I knew he wouldn’t hurt Ruby, but could I really be sure?
“I’ll see if she can spend the night at her friend’s.”
I spent the rest of my break embracing Tate. It didn’t last nearly long enough. And then I had to wait what felt like forever before the end of my shift. I clocked out five minutes early. I didn’t want to be there any longer than I had to. I had Latisha put a to-go order together for me.
Ruby was already home when I got there. She had the TV on too loud, again.
“What’s for dinner?” she asked as soon as I walked in the door.
I handed her the bag. “Burgers and fries.” I pulled the phone out of my purse and handed it over. Tate had me developing the habit of carrying it and checking messages during my breaks.
“Call Heather and see if you can spend the night. I’m going out and don’t know how late I’m going to be.”
“You’re going out? With whom?”
“Who do you think?”
“You’re finally going on a date with Tate? Yes!” Her enthusiasm was actually cute. I was glad she liked Tate. I did too.
I took a shower and changed. I didn’t have a new dress, but I did have something decent to wear. The important part was that I didn’t smell like fry grease. Some days, getting that smell out of my hair felt impossible. I washed my hair twice just to make sure the smell didn’t cling to me.
When Tate arrived, I was glad I took the time to clean up. I thought the man was exceptionally handsome, and I had only ever seen him in some form of work pants and flannel shirts or T-shirts. It never occurred to me that he owned a suit, let alone would turn up on my doorstep wearing one. He looked like a high-powered New York lawyer in a suit and a long black wool overcoat.
“I thought you were going on a date. You look like you’re dressed for a funeral,” Ruby said as she let him in.
“Shut up, Ruby. Tate looks nice.” He looked better than nice, but I didn’t have the vocabulary at the moment to articulate just how nice he looked. He looked so good, I really wanted to get him out of the suit and naked. He had said he wanted to seduce me. I had no idea all he needed to do to accomplish that was put on a suit and a tie.
“You look nice, too,” he said with a soft smile. His glance dipped, and he stared down at my cleavage for a long moment. “Very nice.”
He cleared his throat and looked up. “Grab your things, kiddo. We’ll drop you off.”
“Where are you going?” Ruby asked.
“There’s a little place in Shasta I’ve heard about. I thought we could try that.”
The only place I knew of in Shasta that was wear a tie fancy was DiMarco’s. I really hoped it wasn’t DiMarco’s. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t.
“You can’t take Kenzie to DiMarco’s,” Ruby blurted out, cutting through my thoughts.
“What’s wrong with DiMarco’s?”
“That’s where Mom and Dad had dinner before their accident.” I was really glad Ruby was able to tell Tate. She reported it as if it were simply a matter of historical facts.
Words and panic were still wedged in my throat.
“Damn, I’m so sorry. No, we’re not going to DiMarco’s,” Tate said.
