Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
“Do you like it?” Topaz asked, hopefully.
I flicked through the rest of the pile, fighting the urge to laugh at the curly writing.
“Ride ’em, Cowboy. Five points. It’s bronco time! Your job is to ride your partner and hold on tight, their job is to buck you off. Whoever gets off first is the winner.”
“See what I did there?” she smiled. “Whoever gets off first?”
I declined the opportunity to comment either way.
“So, where is she?” I said. “And how much of a hissy fit am I walking into?”
“In your office,” she replied. I stared her out until she continued. “She’s… a little upset.”
“Upset as in hysterical tears, or upset as in carving knife to the face?”
She shrugged. “I think you’d better find that out for yourself.”
I hung up my coat without a word, glancing across her desk for just a moment on the way to mine. Today’s mail was still in piles, unopened.
“You’ve missed the post,” I said. “Those cheques should have been banked hours ago. If you want to take the reins, Faye, you’ve got to steer the bloody horse.”
Her mouth was a puckered little hole of hate. “Where the fuck have you been? Where the fuck were you today?!”
“Annual leave,” I said. “You’d have to agree, I’m owed quite some time.” I took my seat and fired up my laptop. “I trust you coped just fine in my absence, partner?”
Her palms slammed hard against her desk, but I didn’t even look in her direction. “Why are you being like this? I won the toss! You flipped the fucking coin! We had a fucking agreement, Andy. You promised me!”
“Poor little Faye, my heart fucking bleeds,” I said. “Don’t even start. I wasn’t in today, big fucking doo dah. You haven’t been in for three fucking years.”
In a heartbeat she’d gathered up the half-opened mail and thrown it in my lap. “Sort this fucking post, Andy,” she hissed. “It’s your job today. You should have been here to do it on time.”
I gathered up the envelopes and launched them back in her direction. “No, Faye. Your job. Your responsibility. A stupid bloody coin toss doesn’t change the basic premise of our dynamic here. The truth is that you don’t know the first thing about running this club, and today has merely proved my point.”
“And what fucking point would that be?”
I flashed her a bitter smile. “Today was your chance to step up and find your feet. A chance to get on with the shit you could take ownership of, all it would have taken was a hard day’s graft and the use of that sharp fucking brain in your skull. What really happened? Fuck all. That’s what happened.” I yanked a pile of paperwork from my in-tray. “See these? Invoices that need putting onto the system.” I held up a handful of others. “These ones here have got notes on them, very simple to follow. We have queries on these, they need a call put in to the suppliers to sort out the discrepancies.” I shoved them all back in the tray. “You could have asked Topaz what needed doing. We need another member for the door team, you could have looked through the advert templates in the staff folder and stuck an advert online. If you’d have really wanted to step up to the plate you could have written one of your own. You didn’t even get the post sorted. Need I go on any further, Faye? Really?”
Her finger jabbed in my direction. “This is crap and you know it. I’d have done all of that stuff if you’d bothered to come in and show me!”
“Would you? Doesn’t seem that way from where I’m sitting. It seems you’re only interested in playing Princess Pouty and setting Topaz loose on some ridiculous art project. Have you even seen those things out there?” I snapped. “It looks like you’ve let a toddler play with a glitter gun. What image is that going to give of our professionalism here?”
“Truth or dare night is a good idea, Andy, whatever you think about the glitter.” Our eyes simmered as they met, and her jaw looked as rigid as mine felt. “You had no intention of keeping to our agreement, did you? No intention whatsoever of letting me have a proper place in this club. It was just a stupid game to stall me, to make me think we could work this out.”
It was my turn to jab the finger. “Don’t you dare fucking start that shit, Faye. I had every intention of keeping to our agreement. Who sat there all fucking day with you yesterday while you stuck your oar in like a self-righteous fucking prick?”
“I was asking basic questions, Andy. Basic fucking questions. I’m entitled to know how to do shit around here! I’m entitled to know what the fuck is going on!” Her voice was sharper than usual, sharp and shrill. And then it cracked. “I did everything you wanted!” she shrieked. “I worked bar, I did the mail, I even cleaned up shitty fucking condoms from the fucking drain! I put up with every shitty thing you threw my way! I PLAYED FAIR, ANDY! I PLAYED FUCKING FAIR!” She slapped a hand on the desk.