“I was busy.”
There was a pause. “So I saw from you taking the day off without saying anything.”
Oh no. It was my fault?
“I get here before everyone else and stay here later than everyone else. If I need to take the day off, it shouldn’t be an issue.”There was a pause and then,“I’m not a kid and you’re not my fucking boss. You don’t get to tell me when I can take time off and when I can’t.”
Mr. Cooper didn’t reply immediately, and I stood there, right outside the break room door, listening and wondering if I should interrupt them or not. Them arguing drove me crazy. It really did.
“I’m not trying—”
“Yeah, you fucking were.”
“Cut me some slack. We’re in this together. I don’t want you getting into trouble.”
“You think I’m doing something to get into trouble?”
“I don’t know, Ripley. I don’t know! You don’t tell me anything!”
“I need to?”
“Why are you trying to—”
Okay. All right. With a sigh, I kept walking, but instead of ducking into the break room, I made it to the office door and knocked before I could stop myself. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do exactly, but I knew I wanted them to stop and it was up to me since the rest of these chickens never did.
Sure enough, a millisecond after knocking, the voices cut out altogether.
“Mr. Cooper, it’s Luna. Have you seen Rip?” I called out, rolling my eyes at myself for being such a bad liar.
“Sure, Luna, come in,” Mr. Cooper called out after a second.
I wondered what faces they were making at each other. Or at me for being an inconvenience. But I was doing them both a favor. They just didn’t know it.
I didn’t wait for them to change their mind, I turned the knob and peeked my head inside, making sure to put a surprised expression on my face when I spotted Rip immediately. He was standing right by the door, those massive arms crossed over his chest. I gave him a smile that wasn’t totally bright—I was too tired for that—but it was good enough to pass.
I still hadn’t told anyone at work what had happened, and if Mr. Cooper thought it was strange that I hadn’t come into work yesterday, he hadn’t bothered calling to check. I figured right then, that Rip had told him something about me separately, but hadn’t said where he would be for some reason. I was going to tell him obviously, but the day was going rough enough. I didn’t want to cry about it again so soon.
“I was looking for you to see if you wanted to go to lunch,” I said quickly, aiming my gaze right at Rip. “I owe you for yesterday.”
I didn’t miss the confused look that Mr. Cooper sent Ripley, then me.
I also didn’t miss the way Rip’s body tightened at my question.
He was going to say no, I knew it, and I was going to be fine with it. The only reason why I’d even said anything was to break this up.
“So?” I asked, giving him another smile that was as big as he was going to get, trying to tell him with my eyes that it was fine for him to say no.
But he didn’t do that.
“All right.” He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his sides. “But you’re not paying.”
I pressed my lips together and blinked. Okay, then. All right. “Then I wouldn’t be paying you back for helping me, would I, boss?” I asked him sweetly.
Mr. Cooper’s head swung from me to Rip and back again, and I felt bad for leaving him in the dark.
I’d tell him as soon as I had a chance.
“You don’t need to pay me back for shit.” He took a step forward. “I’ve got it. Let’s go.”
