“Think about it. Was it Andy? Larry? Hector? Clarence?”
“I don’t know. Clarence, I guess? I didn’t ask him for his last name and where he lives or what his blood type is, if you’re gonna ask that next.”
Nobody named Clarence worked at the paint store. Nobody named Andy or Larry worked there either. And as much as I told myself to be patient with him, that patience was wearing out real quick with that tone. This was the wrong period in my life to come at me with this crap.
As much as I wanted to be a good person, and as much as I tried to have people, if not like me, then at least respect me, I recognized the signs when they pointed at a pointless endeavor.
Jason was just that.
“And you just hung up after being on hold?” I asked him slowly, still trying to cling on to being better to him than he was to me by not being rude in return.
The flick of eyebrows he gave me had to be a yes.
This lyinglittle shit.
I took a breath through my nose and told myself to be patient, tolet it go. But it was hard. It was so hard I was honestly tempted to go tell Mr. Cooper about how dishonest he was right in that instant.
But somehow I managed not to. Instead, I figured I would give him another subtle warning, even though I realized it was more than likely going to be in vain. “Jason, I don’t like liars, and neither does Mr. Cooper.”
Something flashed across his face—annoyance.
He didn’t like getting called out, but I didn’t like being lied to and played even more.
“Please don’t lie to me ever again and definitely don’t lie to him either,” I finished, giving him a blank expression that would hopefully hide how frustrated he made me. “I don’t need to tell you how Rip feels about liars either.”
That had him flushing. “I’m not lying!”
I didn’t hold back my own eye roll then. “Look, I’m not arguing with you. All I’m telling you is that you shouldn’t lie to anyone here. None of us appreciate it, especially not me.”
“I’m not lying!”
I almost told him to lower his voice but managed not to. “You’re lying to me right now, and you were lying to me about making a call.” He opened his mouth, but I kept right on going. “Don’t bother, I know you were. There are only two employees who answer the phone at the store, and none of them are named any of the names I told you.”
“You tricked me?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, and I didn’t like it, but you made me. I just wanted the truth. I asked you to do something and you didn’t. That’s not okay, and that’s the point. I’m not trying to get you in trouble or get you fired. I don’t want you to lose your job, so I’m trying to help you right now by telling you what not to do in the future. Regardless of whether you called or not, you should have done what I asked you to do. I’m not your boss, but I am trying to teach you because they asked me to.”
“But I’m not fucking lying!” he shouted.
Patience and kindness, Luna. Patience and kindness.
I swallowed and reminded myself again.Don’t let him get to me.“All right. If you aren’t lying, I’m so sorry for accusing you. So, do you want me to hit the redial button on the phone or do you want to help me carry the hood out of the booth?”
It was his turn to press his lips together. Lying sack of runny crap. What the hell was there to think about? He knew he was lying. I knew he was lying. He was just not going to admit it. Not ever.
When a few seconds passed and he didn’t say another word, I said, “Help me carry the hood out, and then you can put the paint to agitate while I go to the bathroom.”
In my life, I’d had plenty of people give me looks that might have killed me if they had that kind of power behind them, but the one Jason gave me right then… it was honestly one of the worst. And all it did was piss me off. I wasn’t trying to have a contest with him. I really wasn’t. If I wanted to get him in trouble, I had more than enough beef with him—and could scrounge up proof—to do just that.
But I didn’t.
I just wanted him to do a decent job and treat me with a little bit of respect.
And I wanted him to not act like a prick.
Apparently, that was asking for too much.
If I had been raised by different people, I might have been devastated at the facial expression he gave me, but I’d survived meaner looks from people who actually mattered in my life, so this twerp wasn’t going to even get a frown in return.
