Page 8 of Submitting to Them
“I’ll call you again soon,” he says.“Have a good evening at work.”
Work!Shit, I have to hurry.I’m going to be late, and I hate disappointing Kevin.
“Bye, Daddy,” I say.
“Bye, baby girl.I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I rush through finding black jeans and a black button-down.It’s probably good Kingston and I were interrupted by the mystery woman.I dress in record time and start toward the bus stop.To my surprise, Kingston’s car is parked across the street.Garth waves me over.
“Mr.Tyler requested I drive you to work.”
“Thank you.”Now I won’t be as late.If I’m lucky, I might even make it on time.I climb into the car and Garth carefully closes the door behind me.
As soon as Garth stops the car outside of Bartleby’s, I jump out of the car with a thank-you.
Nicholas-don’t-call-me-Nick is waiting by the door.“You’re late.”
I look at my phone.I’mone minutelate.Which seems a stupid thing to niggle over, especially because I’m almost always early.“Yeah, sorry.Where’s Kevin?”
“He broke his arm while hiking this morning.”
“Oh, how awful, I hope he’s okay.”
Nicholas gives me ayou’re a dumbasslook.“Well, he has a broken arm.So he’s not okay.”
Don’t react.Just breathe.
“Anyway,” Nicholas says, “he put me in charge.We have a couple of schedule changes.”
A heavy feeling settles in my gut, especially because of the way Nicholas is smirking at me.I hurry back to the office, where the weekly schedule is posted on the door.
“You took away my Saturday night shift?”I say.“There’s a game that night.”
I look more closely at the schedule.Nicholas was originally not scheduled to work.But now my name is crossed off of Saturday, and his is scrawled below it.He moved me to Sunday and erased his own name.
He switched our shifts.
“You can’t do that,” I say, pointing at the changes.“I was on the schedule.”
“I have to be here anyway, for Kevin,” he says, “so you won’t be necessary.Besides, I got promoted to assistant manager, so I can do whatever I want with the schedule.”
“You’re an asshole,” I say.
“And you’re in danger of getting fired if you talk to me like that.”
I bite my tongue, look away.I’m so mad I could cry.
“I actually need that shift,” I tell him.
“Well, so do I, and I’m in charge of the schedule now, so you can come in on Sunday night instead.”
There’s nothing else to say.If I argue, he could send me home or fire me.So I get to work and try not to throw mutinous glances over at Nicholas.What a dick.I’ll need to give Natasha a head’s up so she knows to expect Power-Trip-Nicholas when she comes to work tomorrow.
At least one good things comes from this.Sebastian will get his wish—I’m free tomorrow night, after all.
Sebastian
