Babygirl and the Mean Boss (13 page)

About an hour later Marty came in.  “How’s it going?”

She had been so absorbed in her studies
and
thoughts about Marty’s wife that
she jumped.

“Good, but I’m so behind
on everything
.”

“Well, don’t work too hard.  How’s your head?
  You don’t have a headache, do you.
”

“No headache.”

“Good.  We’ll cut out of here in
about another hour, okay?
”

She nodded.  “How’s Kendall working out?”  She tried to keep her voice
neutra
l.

“Real good.”

“You know I’m coming back, Marty, and I want my job back.”

He chuckled.  “I’m not replacing you, Baby Girl.  She’s just filling in.”

“I hope she knows that.”

Another hour passed and Nicole needed to hit the restroom and
to
get something to take her medicine with.  Fred was working Marty’s station, it was pretty slow and he was working on a meatloaf.  Kendall wasn’t at her station and she didn’t see Marty.

“Hey Baby Girl.”  Fred said looking up briefly.  “You’ve been studying pretty hard in that office.”

“Yeah, Fred.  I got a lot to get caught up.  Look at you, though.  I hear you’re the man
with
being in charge and all
.
”

“You better recognize!”  They both laughed.

She looked around. 
“Where’s Marty and Kendall?”

“Getting stock.”  Nicole thought about how tedious getting stock had always been for her.  Keeping the station replenished with fresh condiments, lunch meats, salad makings and bread was time consuming.  She decided to help, itching to do something a little physical.

“I’ll catch you later Fred.”  She went into the walk-in, but didn’t see anyone.  The first part was the refrigeration unit,
and
then behind that
was
a second door
which
led into a much smaller freezer unit.  Rarely did she need anything from the freezer, most of her station was fresh.  They must be out back getting carryout cups and trays.  That could be pretty time consuming.  She was about to leave when she heard a shuffle from the freezer.  She opened the door and peeked her head inside. 

Nicole’s mouth fell open.

Marty had Kendall
against a stack of boxes, their bodies pressed together intimately, her arms around his neck and his hands gripping her buttocks while his pelvis rotated sensually against her.  They were kissing wildly, unaware that they were being watched.

Quickly Nicole let the door shut silently
and then she backed away in shock
.
She stumbled over a box on the floor and silently stormed o
ut of the walk-in
. Her mind was crowded with so many emotions that she didn’t know which one to process first, and then it became clear that the hurt took precedents over everything else. The hurt was
sharp like a knife in her heart
.

Nicole went back to the office allowing the door to slam behind her as
the
only acknowledgement to
her
anger.  She turned on the computer
and stabbed out the keyboard in order to save her work and to close out of the programs. Her mind kept going back to the sight of their hips grinding and she felt sick with the hurt.

To hell with it, she
thought to herself
angrily
;
humiliated.  All this time she had thought Marty’s reserve was based on his high moral
:
not to make a move on an employee and someone under his care
. B
ut obviously that wasn’t the case.  Obviously being employed by Marty did
n’t stop him from screwing
you
!
How long had it been going on? Was it new?
 

Then it was true.  The feelings she had were one sided.  A tear slipped down her cheek and angrily she swiped it away.  She was not going to cry—not over him
, not when she had cried so many tears in her life
.

Nicole wasn’t surprised when the door swung open.  She didn
’t look up from the computer as
Marty stood silently in the doorway.  Finally he cleared his throat.

“Were you just in the walk-in?”

Nicole looked at him briefly but didn’t respond.  She pulled a disk out of the computer and
shoved
it in her book bag.

Marty closed the door behind him and then rubbed his shaved head with both hands sighing.  “I know what that must have looked like.  But…it wasn’t.”

“Can we go?”  She said,
shoving
the rest of her things in her book bag.

“Nicole…”

“I’ll be in the truck.”  She said, moving past him and out of the office.  Nicole went out the back door and didn’t say a word to anyone.  Marty’s truck was locked so she climbed into the bed and waited for him to come out, trembling, wanting to scream at him or smack him.  But scream what?  Smack him for what?  Choosing the pretty white girl over the beat up black woman
on public aid
?

She eyed the nearby road wistfully. She wanted to be running down that road to her apartment! She wanted to be away from these people and their uncontrolled lust and then she choked back a cry.

             
In
her entire life, all Nicole ever had was herself and then Alicia.  She never grew up depending on anyone; parents, friends and especially not a man.  Her sole mission in life for the last couple of years had been to better her circumstances, not physical comfort—but to be a better person.  Marty had been a brief interruption.  But now, she was putting herself back on track!

             
By the time Marty returned to the truck she had herself under control again. Once she got her things she wanted nothing else from him. And she intended to play it cool because she wouldn’t give him anymore than that. She jumped down from the flatbed and once he unlocked the door she climbed in before he could open her door. He watched her while he started the car and s
he knew he was dying to speak so she just turned on the radio and looked out the window.  They drove in silence.

             
He pulled into the drive-way but didn’t cut off the engine. 

             
“Nicole, Kendall is not who I want to be with-”

             
“Marty, I want to go home.”
             

             
He swallowed
, his shoulders sinking
.
“Okay…But Nicole-” She turned to him suddenly.

             
“Thank you
for everything.  I want to get my things, and after that will you
just
take me home?”

             
He
stared at her seeing only a cold, blank expression on her face.  He finally
turned off the engine
and handed her the keys.  Wordlessly she went into the apartment and quickly gathered her things, ignoring the pang in her chest.  There were a lot of good memories in th
is home
.  But she refused to humiliate herself anymore by
thinking of
them or of
Marty.
 
If Nicole was accomplished at anything, it was putting unwanted memories behind her.
He was just a man that had done her a favor and that’s all.

             
The drive to Nicole’s apartment was quiet.  Marty pulled into the parking lot but
gripped her hand
before she could jump out of the truck. 

             
“Nicole,
i
f you need anything, let me know.  I mean it.”

             
“Thanks.”  She
said while pulling away, not even looking at
him;
in such a rush to be away from him that she practically ran to her apartment. He didn’t even have time to get out and help her with her bags. She had them and was gone.

As soon as she had the door closed behind her Nicole began to shake.  She leaned her back against the door and closed her eyes surprised to feel wetness there.  She was just too
disappointed
to fight back the tears
any longer
.

~
***
~

Nicole had dumped the smelly items in her refrigerator and did the laundry before she even noticed that she had a number of telephone messages.  Who would be calling her?
 
She didn’t have any friends anymore and her family was a joke.

She listened anxiously to the recorded voice of Mr. Rodriguez of District 12 Police.  They had found the woman that had hit her
, o
r rather she had found them.  Apparently the poor lady had been looking for her.

After the accident she had been too frightened of moving Nicole so she had gone looking for a pay phone.  Even after she had found the telephone she couldn’t tell the police how to get to the site of the accident.  When she finally got back to the accident site with the police Nicole and the bike were gone. 

Officer Rodriguez had left the woman’s phone number for Nicole to contact her concerning Insurance issues and instructed her on how to get back in touch with him in case she wanted to press charges.  Nicole’s heart lightened.  That lady hadn’t screwed her!
  The world wasn’t full of fucked
up people with fucked up agenda
s!

The last thing on Nicole’s mind was pressing charges.  After all, an accident was an accident.  But if she could, maybe the insurance could get her bike replaced, and not to mention the out of pocket hospital and medicine expenses.

Nicole called Miss Westmoreland, the woman who had hit her, and she really was a nice motherly type.  They exchanged insurance information and Miss Westmoreland insisted on paying for a new bike
out of her own pocket
.  Nicole didn’t feel comfortable with
that,
but trying to
change the mind of
a motherly-type with a guilty conscious was impossible
so b
efore they hung up, t
he two made a
date to go out bike shopping the next morning
.

That night when Nicole finally went to bed she was
exhausted for the first time in a long while. 
The strain of seeing Kendall and Marty together not to mention the move made sleeping difficult.
 
A big part of her wanted to quit her job so she’d never have to see either of the two again.  But it had been a while since she’d gotten a decent paycheck and there was rent and living expenses to think about.  Besides, the big reason she had chosen
THE DOWN HOME CALABASH
was the flexibility in hours.  She could get her 40 hours a week spread evenly over the weekend.  How many places allowed you to do that?

Eventually she fell into a restless sleep.  She dreamt about the past, but
it
was Marty
and not James
that she was with
.  Alicia was with them and it was the way Nicole had always wished it could be…Mommy, Daddy and Baby.  She awakened the next morning with tears on her cheeks.

Miss Westmoreland picked her up
bright and early
the next morning and insisted on taking her out for a big breakfast and then they went to the sporting goods store.  She replaced Nicole’s mediocre bike with a state of the art European Tour-de-France racer.  Nicole drew the line when Miss Westmoreland tried to purchase the matching helmet.  Although it was out of her price range she bought it herself to appease her.  They ended their day by stopping at the grocery store where Miss Westmoreland craftily paid for Nicole’s purchases by mixing them with her own and paying for them on her credit card.