“My aunt is coming to visit and I’ll be working the whole time.Can’t I have the next two days off?”
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” heasked. “You just had two days off. I could’ve switched it around.”
“I just found out the day before yesterday. Can I please? I haven’t seen her since I moved here and I really miss her. She’s an attorney so she doesn’t have time to visit often.”
“Nah-uh, new girl,” Johnny cut in. “We’ve all done our turn working holidays. It’s your turn.”
“Sorry, Emy. We need you to work,”Michael said, though his tone was nicer than Johnny’s.“Unless you can find someone who’ll take your shifts.”
“She looks so sad.” Natehesitated when I turned my puppy eyes on him. He and Sean were the only two employees who had those days off.
“Please?” I leaned on the counter, making my cleavage more noticeable as I put on my saddest face. “I’ll love you forever and I promise I’ll make it up to you,”I said, placing a hand on his chest.
“Okay,I’ll take both days.”
“Yay!”I gave him a hug and peck on the cheek.“Thank you, thank you!”
“That was easy,”Johnny griped.
“What do you expect us to do?”Michael asked.“With the pout and the sad face—”
“And the,”Nate held his hands to his chest as I giggled.
“Thank you again.”I gave him another hug.“I owe you. Anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Well, almost anything.”
“Almost anything.”Nate smiled.“I’ll take it.”
“I guess that worked out,” Michael said. He glanced at the time.“You’re off, Emy. You’re free to go whenever you want.”
“Really?” I pulled my phone out to check the time, then got sad at the lack of messages. I had kinda hoped Dennis would text since I hadn’t seen him in two days. Oh well. At least I was free for the day. “Bye, guys. Happy Thanksgiving!I’ll see you Friday.”
I hopped over the bar to leave, which was actually pretty fun. I could see why Dennis always jumped over it instead of walking around the side like a normal person. My phone rang as I walked outside, showing a picture of me and Ari making goofy faces. I answered and shouted her name.
“Emy, come over. I’m at the guys’place.”
“What’s wrong?”I stopped walking as I reached Tuffy 2.0. She never responded like that.
“Nothing. Just hurry up?”
I got on my bike as I heard Sean and Mateo’s voices in the background. Both sounded unhappy, to say the least.“Is Dennis there?”I asked.
“Uh, yeah. He’s here. He’s… distracted,” she paused as Tuffy’s engine purred to life.“Just hurry up and come over?”
“Yeah, sure.See you soon.”
We hung up andI zoomed from the lot, drivingevenfaster than usual. Once I reached their building, Iascended the stairs two at a time, then opened the unlocked door to see Sean pacing the room, Mateo sitting down looking pissed, Ari sitting on the smaller couch fidgeting while she watched Sean pace, and Dennis nonchalantly reading a book.
“What happened?”I shut the door. Sean pointed to Dennis, who had a faint black eye.“What the fuck, Dennis, what happened?”I walked over and gently took his cheek.
“Nothing important,”hesaid.“It’s almost done healing.”
“Who’d you kill this time?”
“No one,”Sean said angrily.“He didn’t do anything for once. It wasMelissa, pulling the same shit from the other day.”
