Page 12 of Mine to Love

CHAPTER FIVE

It’s ten in the morning and I can’t stop thinking about last night. I have zero regrets about practically accosting Logan in his car. It isn’t like I forced him to have sex with me. He enjoyed every moment of it, even my flirting at Emerson and Holden’s house.

And it erased all the impending stress of today’s workday. In fact, as soon as Logan had stepped foot in the house, I’d all but forgotten about my possible and likely demotion. Of the salary cut. Of the cut in benefits. Of the doctor bills. Of the garage that my father would never get built, even though he has no use for it anymore since he can’t drive.

Now that I’ve been sitting behind my desk for two hours, the stress is back. The tension between my shoulder blades pinches a nerve that crawls up my neck. Not even daydreaming about my incredible night in the front seat of Logan’s beamer can relieve the tension headache building in my forehead.

As expected, all employees are greeted with an email from Frank Bates. We’ll be meeting the new owner on Friday and have Wednesday and Thursday to read about the changes in positions.

Warren comes into my office before I take a sip of my Starbucks this morning and informs me that he’s been asked to oversee the two branches in Bangor and Ellsworth, and they’ll be hiring someone new for Acadia Falls and Bar Harbor.

“I take it the new owners aren’t impressed with my resume?”

“Sorry, Reese. I tried. Frank said the new administration wants someone with more experience, especially since they’ll be running two branches.”

Warren knows I’m qualified, even if I haven’t officially been the branch manager. I’ve worked side-by-side with him for the past four years, learning on the job. Staying late and offering to help solve auditing issues, offering new suggestions for loan marketing. I’m humble when I need to be, but my brain is wired for the business world. Numbers, calculations, and problem-solving—unless it’s my personal life—come easy to me.

I never cared about having any written recognition from Warren. His word of mouth was supposed to be good enough to get me the promotion when he moved, which I thought would be in another year. Unfortunately, the new asshole president doesn’t care about small town loyalty.

I had an hour to wallow in my pity before the next shoe drops. Warren hands me a warm cup of my favorite caramel latte drink from the coffee shop down the road and takes a seat across from my desk.

“Did you send your assistant out for this, or did you pick it up?”

“I did.”

“Well, shit.” I open the lid and blow on it before taking a scalding sip. “If you tell me I’m fired, I’m going to do something sacrilegious like dump this cup of the most perfect coffee over the new management’s head. Tell me they didn’t hire Randy. He’s an asshole.”

Randall Schroeder has managed the Bar Harbor branch for the past year and is terrible to his employees. He borders on the line of sexual harassment, but the younger tellers are so smitten with his cheesy charm they always vouch for him.

“Schroeder got axed.”

“First good move the new people have made.”

“You still have a job.”

“I hear a huge ass buuuut coming my way.” I sip my coffee and brace myself for the news.

“You’re being moved to lead teller.”

---