Telling Vicki about my intimacy with Ryan, wasn’t a good thing to do. All morning, she had been teasing me, cracking some kind of weird and dumb jokes that were almost pissing me off. But, well, her jokes made me blush so much! It made me remember how Ryan had been gentle and passionate with me.
But, whoops, when I had woken up this morning, the soreness in my lap hadn’t been something cute. Overall, I was glad to have given Ryan all of me. I only hoped that nothing crazy would come our way now, especially because Sherri was still in this game of relationship struggle.
Vicki sighed as she stood up from the vanity chair, in front of the dressing mirror, in my room.
“Will see you later. And, by then, I’m hoping to get some news.” She winked as if her eyes were paining her.
I rolled my eyes. “What news now?”
Again, she winked. “Nevermind.”
I just walked to the dressing mirror, and began brushing my hair. “You’re off to work?” I gave her a sideways glance.
“Hm-Hm.” She shook her head, holding the door knob like she was about to step out. “Will be at my man’s place for the day. Gotta spend some time with him.”
“Good choice,” I remarked. “Alright, see you soon.”
“Yeah.” She walked out, and shut the door behind her.
I took my time to brush my hair. As soon as I was done, I tied it in a ponytail, grabbed my purse, and headed out of the room. As I stepped down the stairs, the smile couldn’t leave my lips. I was beaming this morning. And, it was just because I had gotten laid last night.
“Ahem!” Mom made that sound from the kitchen, when I reached downstairs.
I turned sideways, my eyebrows raised at her, as I gave her the do-you-need-something look.
She nodded, totally grasping my signal. Leaning her elbow over the counter, she smirked, her eyebrow wiggling at me. “Wanna tell momma something?” She inquired.
I shook my head, and laughed weirdly. “Of course not.”
She shrugged, and just walked over to the sink. “Okay.” She glanced at me. “Anyway, when you get back, I wanna know why you’re beaming so much. And, I also wanna know where you were last night. I was worried, to be honest.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hope you know I’m twenty six? Will be twenty seven soon.”
“Whatever.” She giggled, flapping her hand at me in dismissal. “Go to work. But, remember, you’ll ever be my little baby.”
“Have a nice day.” Adding that, I walked out of the house, heading to the street I used to get a cab from.
Finally, I resumed work after a couple of days. I guessed I’d have to get used to seeing Kenneth once again. And, hopefully, things wouldn’t be weird between us.
***
Earlier, when I had gotten to Stanley’s, I observed that a couple of workers were tense, in a way. I had decided to ignore them, and had just walked over to the selling counter. To my surprise, all the workers were in Mrs. Stanley’s office.
“Hey.” Marsha appeared. Her voice was pretty cool, but she sounded quite worried. Was she upset with someone? “Mrs. Stanley needs you to come to her office right now. She said she needs everyone to be present there.”
“Okay. Will be there soon,” I announced.
She nodded, and sauntered to Mrs. Stanley’s office.
Since there was no other worker here, I hurried over to the door, swiped the “open” door-sign to “close”, then made my way into Mrs. Stanley’s office.
Walking in, I was surprised to see everyone standing in front of Mrs. Stanley’s desk. Kenneth glimpsed at me, and sighed out loud.
“Please, step forward, Miss Alan,” Mrs. Stanley instructed.
Though I was hesitant, I stepped forward. I stood beside Marsha, taking a deep breath when I spotted the stern look on Mrs. Stanley’s face. What was going on? Had someone accused me of something I hadn’t done?
“Yes, ma’am.” I put my hands behind me, cleared my throat, trying to put on some courage.
She exhaled loud, her elbow propping on her desk. “I have an announcement for y’all.”
“Okay,” I said.
She cleared her throat, and looked away. The dark circles around her eyes, together with the pale skin of her face, were proof that she was pretty exhausted. I hoped she was fine?
“Well, you see, after the newly bought goods got spoiled…” she gave Marsha a sideways glance. “… due to someone’s fault, the store has been running at a loss. First, we had to buy some new goods, which is obviously a loss for us. And, second, things haven’t been quite fine these days. We aren’t having as many customers as we used to.”
I gulped in fear. Where was this conversation heading to?
“So…” She continued. “As we all know, the store has to keep running. If we continue this way, the government will have no choice but to shut the store down.”
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Stanley,” Marsha murmured, putting her eyes down.
Mrs. Stanley rolled her eyes, and sighed again. “Due to this, I’ll be firing some of you. I’m really sorry about that, okay?”
My heart jumped to my throat, my fingers shivering like they got an inner electrocution. Despair ran through me, and not knowing what to do, I began to pray. No, no. Not me. I needed this job so much.
She took a piece of paper from the table, and started, “Naomi Williams, I’m sorry, but you’re fired.” That made my heart skip a bit. “Your relevance in the store isn’t very much known to me.”
I glimpsed at Naomi who was gaping. In a way, Mrs. Stanley was right. Naomi truly had no relevance in the store. She was only a blabbermouth.
“Tim Carson, you’ll also be leaving,” Mrs. Stanley continued. “You only began working here a few days ago. There’s no doubt that we’ll survive without you.”
“Renee and Dorcas, you’ll also be leaving. You both aren’t serious around here.” She dropped the paper, which kind of relieved me. Propping her elbow on the desk, she locked her fingers in each other, and put her jaw on her locked fingers. “And, lastly…” Lastly? Gosh, no! Oops, she turned to me. “Serene, I’m so sorry, but you’ll be leaving as well.”
As if my eyes had been ready for this, tears trickled from them. I moved my lips, but couldn’t utter a word. I felt very puzzled and so hopeless. My hands, which were behind me, separated weakly as if they were made of paper. I couldn’t even control my movement.
Unable to speak properly, I just said one word, “What?”
She sighed. “My dear, I’m so sorry. I know you work a lot. But, in the past few days that you haven’t been around, I realized that the store can actually survive without you. I know Marsha is the one at fault, but she’s been working here for years. I just can’t let go of her. But, she’ll be punished. She’ll be working…”
And then, I zoned off into deep thoughts. Mrs. Stanley was still speaking, but I could hear nothing. All I could think of were: So, I was getting fired for a second time? How was I going to cater for my family now? Who would pay dad’s medical bills? What step would I take?
I clenched my hands in a fist, hoping that all this was a nightmare.