Chapter 2
My feet were screaming at me, but I’d been so busy this week, I hadn’t been able to go to the store and buy new shoe insoles. Besides, you couldn’t get the good kind for less than fifty dollars, and the thrifty side of me winced at the idea of spending that kind of money on insoles when I had to replace them as often as I did. Expensive didn’t exactly equal quality.
However, my shift was almost over, and I only had to get through tonight before I could enjoy my first weekend off in months. Since I had a day shift tomorrow, the plan was to get off work, go home, clean my house from top to bottom, and then do absolutely nothing on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I was going to catch up on my reading for three days straight before I had to face the real world again on Monday.
A small part of me cringed at how ungrateful my eagerness might seem, but I wasn’t ungrateful for my job. While waitressing hadn’t been my dream job growing up, it was a good job, and I happened to work in one of the few restaurants in town that didn’t take our tips into consideration as part of our pay rate.
The Opera was one of the three restaurants owned by the Vaudeville Corporation, and it paid well above minimum wage. Now, could I afford to lease a Lexus? No. Could I pay my bills every month and still afford to eat take-out twice a week? Yes.
I’d gotten the job four years ago, when I’d had no choice but to look for something that could pay more than the cashier job I’d had before. While I lived frugally, my brother often needed help and there were times where it had put a serious strain on my finances, but he was my brother. I had to help him.
Our parents had died in a boating accident while we’d still been in high school. I had been a freshman, and Keith had been a junior. And being minors, we’d been forced to go live with our father’s brother, Uncle Terrence.
Now, while Clarence and Bonnie Westland had been great people and parents, Uncle Terrence had been an entirely different breed altogether.
Keith and I had grown up in typical suburbia. Dad had been a corporate accountant and Mom had been a news station producer. We’d had a nice life, with no worries, great friends, and awesome neighbors.
Then Dad had surprised Mom with a cruise for their anniversary, and our entire lives had been irrevocably changed forever. Over six-thousand passengers onboard and our parents had been two out of the eighteen that had been caught up in a cabin fire in the middle of night. The only consolation when we’d been told was that they had both died of smoke inhalation before their cabin had caught fire.
It had been tragic, heartbreaking, and had left us orphans.
And if the death of our parents hadn’t been devastating enough, the settlement we had received had gone to our legal guardian, and Uncle Terrence had blown through every dollar in less than two years. Knowing Keith would turn eighteen soon, Uncle Terrence had burned through the money faster I thought would ever be possible for one person to spent six-million dollars.
When Keith had graduated from high school, all that was left of the money was some hundred-thousand dollars. But that money went quickly within two years after Uncle Keith had kicked us both out, forcing Keith to become my legal guardian and see me through graduating high school.
Since then, we’ve been doing our best to live happy lives. Keith was a mechanic by trade, and I had bounced around, doing odd jobs, until I finally found this one. And while Keith had a tendency to get caught up in some unfortunate situations from time to time, I couldn’t complain much. Besides, who would listen?
“I did it.” I turned at my best friend’s voice. “I officially requested a meeting with the manager.”
“You did?”
Kimberly Alba was five-foot-three of vibrant sass. She had walnut-brown hair, dark brown eyes, and was too pretty for words. She was also thick where it counted and was the definition of voluptuous. I had shared a shift with her on my first day of work here, and we’ve been best friends ever since. Where I was too serious sometimes, Kimberly was living life while answering to no one. At thirty-years-old, Kimberly was probably the most fun thing in my life.
I loved her to death.
She nodded. “Yeah,” she muttered, trying to keep her voice low. “I need my job, but…not at the price of my dignity.” She gave me a sheepish grin. “Besides, keeping my mouth shut is killing me.”
I huffed out a muffled laugh. “I bet.”
Kim rolled her eyes. “God gave me spunk, so that I could fight for the underdog,” she said. “It’s my duty to right injustices, Devi.”
The injustice she was crusading against was our, sometimes, shift manager, Hugh Hamel. Now, while I’ve never had a problem with him, he’s made several advances towards Kim, and has even crossed the line a couple of times with his forwardness. Trying to hold onto her job, she’s been brushing off his inappropriateness and doing her best to just grin and bear it, but I guess something else must have happened since the last time he offended her.
“I’m not trying to stand in the way of making the planet a better place, Kim,” I immediately replied, letting her know I was always on her side. “I got your back. You know this.”
“I know,” she sighed. “It’s just…it’s going to suck if I lose my job over this.”
Forgetting about my aching feet, I pulled her aside for some privacy. Our shift was almost over, but we still fetched refills and checked on our tables until the bitter end. Pulling her behind one of the dividing walls that led to the public restrooms, I thought it best not to be overheard.
“Why would you lose your job, Kim?” I asked. “This isn’t the fifties. We’re in a new era where women’s voices matter. Decency is expected from your male boss.” I rubbed her upper arm in comfort. “And, I mean, have you ever filed a complaint before?” Kim shook her head. “Okay, so with as many years as you’ve worked here, and have never filed a complaint, how can they not take this one seriously?”
She waved a hand in front of my face. “You’re right.” I rubbed her arm again. “I know you’re right. I’m just dreading the whole he-said-she-said investigation, you know.”
I leaned back against the dividing wall. “What if other girls come forward and you end up being the best thing to happen to this restaurant. You coming forward could save The Vaudeville Corporation millions in lawsuits.”
“I’ll settle for the creep just leaving me alone,” she grumbled.
“Have faith, my friend.”
Kim cracked her neck and shook her shoulders loose, like a boxer getting ready for a fight, and flashed her straight white teeth at me. “Alright.” She jerked her head to the side. “Now let’s get back out there before we get fired for a legitimate reason, like not doing our jobs.”
I laughed. “Come on, woman. Everything will be fine.”
We finished out our shift with no more drama or seriousness, and I was lucky enough that we were ready to leave at the same time. About eight months ago, I’d had to sell my car to help Keith out of a bind, and I’ve been saving as much money as I could for another one, but even saving a couple of thousand dollars for a used car was tough. So, on the shifts I worked with Kim, she was usually able to give me a ride home, unless she was working a double, and I was grateful for it. The neighborhood I lived in wasn’t the worst, but it wasn’t the best either.
The entire ride home was Kim trying to convince me to go out this weekend and get stranger-laid, and me trying to convince her how staying home and reading was more satisfying than a fifty-fifty roll of the dices that the stranger-sex would even be good.
After winning the debate, Kim dropped me off, and my feet kicked off my shoes as soon as the front door shut behind me. Reaching back and engaging both locks, I leaned over, grabbed my shoes and headed towards my bedroom.
I rented a one-bedroom apartment on the South Side of Rockford, California, and while it wasn’t much, it was more than enough. The rent was cheap, the building fairly clean, and my neighbors weren’t assholes. What more could a girl ask for?
Stripping out of my clothes, I decided on a hot bath before dinner. It was only early evening, but my feet really were throbbing. A hot soak was just what they needed. Besides, dinner was going to be nothing but heated leftovers, so it could wait.
Grabbing my bubble bath and a bath bomb from under the bathroom sink, I prepared my bath, making sure to run the water as hot as my skin could stand it. I wanted to soak for a while, and I didn’t want to water getting cold too soon.
I grabbed one of my paperback-because I’d never dare bring my Kindle into a tub of water-sank into the tub, let the bubbles tickle me up to my chin, and let out a sigh from deep within my tired soul. This was exactly what I needed for tonight and the next three days.
To hell with getting stranger-laid.