Page 38 of The Reading

I turned to look at her, and she had her keys out, all ready to help me reconcile my drawer for the day. “No,” I answered before turning back to pack my meager belongings. We didn’t have assigned windows, so I only had a Dodger bobblehead and a small dancing plant that I moved with me from window to window. “Well, not yet.”

“Not yet?”

I glanced back at Debra. “If his boss tells him to fire me, then he won’t have much of a choice.”

“I’m sorry, Hattie,” she muttered. “It’s such a mess.”

“Yeah, well, Ethan said that you guys weren’t very happy with me, so he’s sending me home early.” Whether true or not, I wasn’t one of those people that skirted around the issue for politeness’ sake. If Debra was upset with me, then she should own up to it.

“Well, of course, we are,” she snorted. “You ruined our early holiday weekend start, Hattie.”

I stood back to let her open my drawer. “I thought he was robbing the bank,” I repeated for the millionth time.

She waved away my concern. “Oh, get real. Mr. Traverse is the sweetest thing alive. He’d never rob a bank.”

“Well, since I’ve never met him, I wouldn’t exactly know that, would I?” I retorted.

“He’s seventy-four-years-old, Hattie,” she drawled out. “The man’s not exactly menacing.”

“You know what? Forget it,” I huffed. “I fucked up. This is all my fault. There. Happy?”

Debra just shook her head as she stepped back, so that I could grab my money drawer. “You know, you should be grateful that Ethan didn’t fire you. Instead, you’re acting like a petulant brat.”

“I’ll work on my maturity tomorrow,” I replied. “Right now, I’m a little bit too upset to act like an adult. I’m very likely going to get fired by the end of the day, so let me act like a jackass for a bit, yeah?”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed as we headed to the back of the bank to count my drawer. “Like Ethan’s going to let them fire you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Debra’s head reared back a little. “What do you mean?”

“No, that’s what I asked you.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, stopping to just stare at me.

“What?”

“Hattie, Ethan Turner has the serious hots for you,” she said, and I did the only thing that I could do after a statement like that.

I laughed.

I laughed hard.

When I finally got myself under control, I continued to walk towards the back. “You’re out of your mind, Debra,” I said, still laughing.

“Seriously, Hattie,” she said. “You’ve never seen the way that he looks at you?”

“Looks at me?” I stared at her like she’d lost her damn mind. “He’s usually scowling at me.”

“Then you need to open your eyes a little wider,” she huffed. “Anyone with a working pair of eyes can see that he has the hots for you.”

“You’re crazy,” I scoffed. “The last thing that Ethan Turner has is the hots for me.”

“Don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” she muttered, but she was crazy, so what did she know?

Chapter 3

Hattie~

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