Page 60 of Breathing Without You

“Stacy. Stacy. Stacy. You obviously don’t realize I’m not going to take your shit. So why don’t you take your nosey ass bitchy attitude and shove it up your ass.” I smile to her and right as I’m about to walk away the door opens again and Lisa comes walking in.

“Oh my god, Emerald.” Her voice comes out quickly in a panic. Stacy smiles at me with an ‘I told you so’ look on her face which falls as quickly as it appeared, with a look on her face like what the hell? When she realizes Lisa is worried and not angry. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Emerald. I thought something happened to you. Please come to my office and talk to me.” She walks to me, grabs my hand and walks me out of the break room with her.

Lisa is more like a mom to everyone who works for her, it’s rare that she gets mad at you for being late, or mad at you in general. What I love the most is she always gives you a chance to explain your side before she says anything about the situation.

“Come in sweet girl, come in. Tell me you’re okay?” Her face scrunched up with a concerned look in her eyes.

“Hi Lisa,” I start off with. “Sorry I was coming to find you then Stacy stopped me in the break room before I had thechance.” I roll my eyes a little before I continue. “So, let me start from the beginning,” I breathe out. “I was in my driveway walking to my car when Axton pulled in next door and was yelling on the phone. Me being my nosey self I had to stop and listen to what he was saying. I still had about five minutes before I had to leave, so I wasn’t worried.” I breathe out again, I’m talking so fast to get everything out quickly that I almost forget to breathe between words, or even sentences. “So, he was yelling on the phone because he had found out that his girlfriend of three years was cheating on him.” She gasps, putting her hand over her mouth.

“Oh no sweetie, is he okay?” She stops, a strange look on her face before she continues to talk. “Well shit that was dumb to ask. I know he’s not okay but is he okay?” She laughs at herself.

“See I did the same thing, I asked him the same question out of habit I wanted to make sure he was okay and then we talked a little and you could tell he was just so heartbroken.” I sigh, thinking of the look on his face again and how sad he was. It broke my heart.

“So, when I left, I was only going to be late by a few minutes but then my terrible fucking luck.” I stop putting my hand over my mouth. Shit. Oops I didn't mean to swear like that, I didn’t think about who I was talking to when I said it. “Sorry Lisa.” She waves it off as I squint one eye shut almost like I’m afraid for her to see me because I’m not sure if she’s mad even though I think she just laughed it off.

“It’s okay sweetie, I swear all the time I just try not to while I’m at work. Sometimes it’s hard when you deal with asshole customers all day.” She laughs to herself.

“You got that right, the rough ones really make your work shift hard, that's for sure.” I start laughing with her. It’s true working with people really makes you dislike people sometimes, especially the difficult ones.

“Anyway, sorry for cutting you off, continue.” She smiles at me, she’s on the edge of her seat waiting to see what I say next.

“I got pulled over by Officer Johnston.” I stop talking, shaking my head because I’m still pissed I was pulled over. “I swear I have only ever gotten pulled over by him. I think he’s into me or something.” I shiver from disgust with a grossed out look on my face. He might be cute but he’s an asshole. He’s a cocky cop who thinks everyone owes him something or should kiss the ground he walks on. Asshole.

“Well, did you flirt with him to get out of a ticket?” She snorts, wiggling her eyebrows at me a cheesy grin on her face.

“Yes, I sure did.” I put my hands on my hips proud of myself for thinking of that, especially with Officer Johnston. “Although I’m sure Creedence won’t be happy to hear I was flirting with another man.” I place my palm against my face not thinking about the fact that I didn’t think about how it would make Creedence feel for me to be flirting with another man. But it wasn’t because I was interested, it was to help me get out of trouble.

“Oh, honey he’ll get over it. He’ll understand it was for a good reason, now for my next question. Did you offer Officer Johnston a discount on his next meal like we talked about?” She smiles again. God I love this woman.

“Yes, ma’am I did. He was so happy, he decided to take me up on the offer and didn’t give me a ticket. He didn’t even ask for my license or registration. Just kind of flirted with me. I’m glad he didn’t ask if I had a boyfriend or anything. He probably would have given me a ticket then.” I laugh, shaking my head.

“Oh honey, the whole town knows you’re with Creedence, everyone around here loves to gossip. You know this, you should hear what they’re saying.” She giggles in excitement. “So, he probably knew better unless he wanted to get his ass kicked.”

“I didn’t even think of that. You’re probably right! Thank god, now I won’t have to worry about whether or not he’ll ever ask me out. I sure hope everyone knows we’re together.” I let out a sigh of relief.

“So did Axton seem as okay as he can be for just finding out that bitch cheated on him.” I laugh a little, not used to her swearing like that but glad she’s opening up a little more to me.

“I guess so. I told him to come up here with Creedence, because he’s coming up here when he gets done at work. But he said he’d think about it,” I tell her with a sad look on my face.

“Gosh, I just feel so bad for him, he broke my heart.” I sigh, crossing my arms while thinking of what else I could do to cheer him up. I don’t really know him, like I said before, but I’d love to find a way to cheer him up.

“Hey, text him and tell him to come up here. Tell him Lisa said to get his ass up here. The foods on the house for him today, he can order whatever he wants.” She has the sweetest smile on her face.

“Aw that’s so sweet of you, Lisa. I’ll have to go back and get my phone though and text Creedence and wait for a response from him because I don’t have Axton’s number,” I tell her, biting my lip a little, hoping she doesn’t get mad that it’ll delay me starting work a little longer.

“That’s fine. I already got your tables started for you, so how about you go check on them and then swing into the break room after you give your orders to the cook.” She walks towards me coming in to give me a hug. “I’m so glad nothing was wrong and that you’re okay sweetie, really, I am. I was worried sick about you. Next time just shoot me a text so you don’t give me a heart attack honey. Here I’ll text you on my phone, type your number in for me and I’ll text you so you can save my number.” She is just so sweet. I swear she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.

“Awesome, thank you so much I can’t believe I forgot to get your number before.” I start typing my number into her phone then hand it back to her.

“It’s okay sweetie, we got that taken care of now so next time just shoot me a text so I don’t worry about you like you’re one of my children.” She places her hand on my shoulder and pats me on the back gently as I turn around to walk out the door. I walk out to the counter and grab my notepad and pen before heading to my tables to check on them.

“Hey Tom, hey Sandy,” I say walking over to my first table of two of my regulars.

“Heyyy, there’s my favorite waitress.” Tom gives me a big smile, while he waves his hand a little.

“Hey sweetie, we’re happy to see you made it, Lisa was worried sick about you. She made us worried too,” she chuckles.

“I know I feel terrible, I had some personal issues going on but now everything’s okay.” I give them a big smile, hoping they don’t ask further questions because I’m not about to add to the town gossip and give them something to talk about.

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