Page 10 of Walking Red Flag

“I’m so fucking sorry,” Brecken repeated for the fourth time. “We were supposed to be home in time, but this stupid traffic is insane! I mean, what the fuck?”

I smiled.

“It’s okay, I promise,” I repeated. “I swear, I’m more than okay sitting at home in my pajamas and not going out tonight. It’s been a long day, anyway. I had another employee quit.”

“Was Shasha responsible for this one, too?” she asked, sounding like she was sending accusatory glares toward her husband who was likely the one driving.

“I did no such thing,” Shasha said. “I haven’t even been into the damn shop in a week now because she doesn’t want me there until she finishes the remodel. She says that I scare the contractors.”

Which he did.

“Uh, huh.” Brecken didn’t sound very convinced.

“I promise, it was not me,” Shasha repeated.

“It wasn’t,” I said. “I caught one of them stealing from the drawer. I fired her.”

“How did that interview go?” she asked.

“It didn’t work out.” I paused. “She told me that she has time blindness, and asked me if I’d make accommodations for her. After the last girl I fired with ‘time blindness,’ her words, not mine, I am gun shy over that term.”

“What the fuck is time blindness?” Brecken asked.

“According to her, she doesn’t realize what time it is, so she just flies by the seat of her pants. She says she’ll try to make it in on time, but there’s a high possibility that she could be upward to an hour late.”

“Oh, boy.” Brecken laughed. “Kids these days.”

Brecken knew what I was going through.

She worked with juniors and seniors in high school, which was a lot of the pool I hired from to work.

Pretty much, working at a coffee shop was an entry-level job for most people. They worked there for a few years while they either went to school or figured out what they really wanted to do with their lives.

The ones that were older than twenty-five either loved the job, or didn’t want any more responsibilities than what they had working for me.

For instance, I had one long-standing employee that was twenty-seven and only worked because she was a people person and wanted to get out of the house for three to four days a week.

Her husband was a pilot, and she only worked on the days he was out of town.

She was fantastic, and I loved her to death. But she was adamant about not working when her husband was home.

Which was why I’d been looking for a new hire.

Sadly, finding new hires that were competent was hard.

And I was exhausted from searching.

“Okay, okay.” She added, “How about we bring pizza over?”

I winced. “It’s already eight…if you’re stuck in traffic for who knows how much longer, I’ll be ready for bed. I’ll just do a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and we can celebrate tomorrow.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll relay it to Maven and Nastya.”

After a few more minutes of talking, she finally let me go, and I collapsed onto the couch.

I closed my eyes and contemplated just going to sleep, but a sound had my ears straining.

That sound got closer and closer, and it finally came to a stop outside of my house.

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