JoJo: I need you in the office now. It won’t take long.
“Sorry, guys,” I said as I stuffed my phone back into my purse, “I left something at work that I need to retrieve. You two make yourselves at home and I’ll be right back.”
Dad held out his arm. “See? You scared her off.”
Mom snickered. “I didn’t scare her off, but all the stuff she bought will do that to her eventually.”
I rolled my eyes as I slipped out of the apartment, leaving my bickering parents to deal with themselves. I raced down to my beat-up car in the underground garage below the building to try and save on cab fare and fired up the engine. I raced to my place of work. I took my time getting up to JoJo’s office. At this point, I didn’t even care if he was about to ream me for more accounting errors. I was simply glad to be out of a space my family had invaded.
Little did I know what was waiting for me the second I slipped into his office.
“What the hell is this?” he asked.
He slapped a stapled set of papers onto his desk, and I closed his office door behind me. I dropped my purse in the chair in front of his desk and picked up the papers, flipping through them to find the culprit of his annoyance. His face wasn’t red with anger, but he was clearly not okay, and it wasn’t until I flipped back to the first page that I saw it.
“Oh, no,” I murmured.
“Oh, yeah,” he said flatly.
I slowly looked up at him. “Mr. Ryker, I am so beyond sorry. I thought I used my card. I-I-I--.”
He snatched the papers out of my hand. “Mind telling me why you charged over five-hundred dollars’ worth of shit from Happy Haven’s to your company card?”
God, you can take me now.“I’m so sorry. I just—I was in such a hurry, and I was flustered, and I must’ve pulled the wrong card out of my wallet. I’ll pay you back every cent. I never meant—it was just—you know, a spur of the moment—Jesus fuck.”
I bowed my head and flopped into the chair, and I swear I felt my cell phone jam all the way into my asshole. I didn’t care anymore, though. I was so mortified and so embarrassed that the tears effortlessly flowed right there in my fucking boss’s office. I put my head in my hands and sobbed. I didn’t care what JoJo thought of my display of emotions or even if he’d punish me for them.
All I wanted was to rewind time so that I could make the sound decision to never go into that store in the first place.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
I wiped at my tears and did as he asked. “I’ll cut you a check right now. I have the money. I swear, I just pulled the wrong--.”
He bent down and placed his hands on the arms of the chair, effectively blocking me in. “I don’t give a shit about the money, Rebecca. The charge is already there for the world to see. And when we get audited, they will find it.”
Blood drained from my face. “So, there’s no way to make this right at all, then. That’s what you’re telling me.”
He gripped my chin, forcing my gaze to stay locked with his. “Now, I didn’t say that.”
I swallowed hard. “I’ll do anything to make this right. I’m so horrified and so fucking embarrassed. Whatever it takes to make sure the company doesn’t get penalized for me being flustered in a sex shop, I’ll do.”
He grinned. “First of all, you know you’re not allowed to use those toys with anyone. Ever. Right?”
I scoffed. “At this point, I wouldn’t want to.”
“Right?” he asked curtly.
My cheeks, somehow, grew to an even deeper shade of red. “I have no plans to use them with anyone, ever. I simply bought them because I was curious.”
He stood up and released my chin. “Good. Now, there is one thing you can do if you’re really feeling bad about it.”
I shot to my feet. “Whatever it takes to make this right. I fucked up and I get that.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “Return them.”
“What?”
“You said it yourself: you don’t ever plan on using them, so what’s the point? Return what you can, throw away what you can’t, and the reversal of the charge on the card should sweep beneath the radar of an audit.”
