Page 7 of When Life Sucks!

With the four necessary folders in hand, I leave my office and head towards the conference room. As I pass Sadie's desk, I give her a friendly smile and finger wave to acknowledge her presence. She gives me a giggle and an eye-roll in return. We have a good relationship, but we've never become close friends, perhaps because of the age difference.

Taking my seat next to Ronald, who is ready and waiting at the long conference table, I hand him the files.

“Do we need to get rid of anyone today?” Ronald asks. I give him a half-hearted smile because I hate it when he places these decisions in my lap, and from the grin on his face he knows it too.

“I don’t think so, but we could give them warnings? It’s maybe time they were aware their jobs could be on the line.”

“Okay, I’m going to sit back and let you deal. I need to know that you can step up because I have some plans I’ll need to discuss with you later. Jeffrey and I may have plans that will alter your life, too.”

Before I can ask what’s going on the door opens and our four consultants walk into the room. We give them the usual good morning greeting, but all four are subdued.

“I’m not going to mess around with you. All of you are on last warnings because the mess you have made of your accounts is more than a little disturbing. If I had not been on the ball myself, we would have lost large clients because of your ineptitude.”

I turn when I hear Ronald huff, and hold back the smile when I see he is sitting with a pout on his lips, squinting his eyes, and as he’s holding his glass of water, he has his pinky finger sticking out at an angle. Frowning because damn, I think he is wearing mascara, and his eyelashes are better than mine!

For the next ninety minutes, I take the four through all the accounts I found issues with. Pointing out their errors and making sure they realize how much money they would have cost the company, had I not been alert.

Ronald stands and cocks his hip while folding his arms under his chest, honestly if he had boobs he would have shoved them under his chin. “You all be warned, if we have another mess to clean up, you will be gone. I will make sure that you never work in this industry again. Now scat and get some work done, and do it efficiently.”

“Do you think you scared the pants off them?” I ask while smirking.

“Shush…you! Honestly, I should fire you and find another to do your job.”

Giggling because we both know he’d never get rid of me. We are more family than anything else. “Now, what did you want to talk to me about?”

Taking his seat again, Ronald gives me a serious stare, which tells me he’s trying to find the right words before he speaks. “Jeffrey and I are thinking of opening a new branch. If we do, then we’d like you to take over this place. We’d only need updates every quarter, so you’d be running everything yourself. We are not fully behind the idea yet, but we wanted to warn you.”

“Okay. I had been thinking of moving away from here, but I would stay if you needed me to.”

“Hm, I’m sure we’d rather you stay and run the established business. We enjoy the setting up of a new business and all it entails. It will be the same business, of course, just another office, and we are thinking it could happen within three months.” Ronald is giving me a grimaced look because he’s dropping this on me. We both know now that they’ve been thinking of this for a while and already have irons in the fire.

“Well, I would expect a pay raise, an extra week's vacation a year, and a big bonus at Christmas.” I know I’m pushing my luck, but if you don’t try, you gain nothing.

“We were going to do that anyway, and we were going to throw in a brand-spanking-new Toyota Camry in red.”

Before he can change his mind I loudly blurt out, “Yes, I want the Camry. You know I love mine but a new red one. Wow, can you just imagine?”

Ronald bursts out laughing and steps over to me, giving me a hug and a kiss on my forehead. “Yeah, I can imagine. Now come on, let’s get back to work. Jeffrey is coming to take me to lunch.”

The rest of the day flies past and as I leave work, I decide to grab a takeout meal from the diner. Joe and Mary’s Diner has been around since before I was born. It’s their grandson who runs the place now, but it’s still making the best meals you can get around here. I love their chicken pot pies, smashed potato, and greens with a pot of gravy to pour over it all. My mouth is watering before I even get the meal purchased.

Walking into the diner, I walk straight to the counter and give Blossom my order. I take a seat at the nearest table while I wait. That’s when I cringe, hearing my ex-friend's voice from somewhere behind me.

“Shame when you can’t hang on to your man.”

“Aw, momma gave you shit about stealing someone’s man.”

“He’s good in the sack. No wonder he was given Sacks as his road name.”

I ignore it all because at this point I don’t care about Sacks or Melody, or anyone else. I’m done with the club and I can easily pretend they are invisible.

“Baby is coming along nicely. We’re having a boy. Got an old man now, and marriage is next on the cards.”

Blossom delivers my order, casting dirty glances at Melody as she approaches me. However, I respond with a cheerful smile as I receive the bag and gratefully squeeze her hand.

Turning to leave, my vision is filled with Melody and two club whores. Both are trying not to look at me as I’d done both of them favors in the past.

Not looking away from the three of them, I step near and pretend-whisper, “Shame the baby is going to be a crackhead. Maybe you should wipe your nose.”

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