Hands Down by Zapata Mariana

Author:Zapata, Mariana
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“He’s in a mood today,” Deepa whispered to me two weeks later after I’d gotten back from lunch.

The muscles along my shoulders tensed up. I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about. I knew. Just like I’d known that he was showing up around noon and that’d I’d have the morning without Gunner’s overbearing presence.

You know, because I checked the schedule every day.

“Why?” I whispered back, setting my purse under my keyboard.

“Richie”—he was one of the personal trainers at the gym—“said that he overheard him on the phone. He thinks he was arguing with one of the other owners.”

“Over what?” I whispered, standing up.

I didn’t need to look directly at her face to guess she was looking around to make sure he hadn’t magically appeared out of nowhere. “Something about employee retention.”

I snickered and heard Deepa snicker back. “Big surprise.”

“Right?”

The side door opened, and we both started trying to look busy. But it wasn’t Gunner. It was one of the MMA guys coming in.

I just about sagged in relief and greeted the guy as he flashed his badge and went ahead with a “Hey.”

The second he walked off, we turned back toward each other discreetly, ready to move and change positions if we had to. “Did the nursing home call you back?”

“No, not yet. I was going to call tomorrow morning. They seemed really interested during my interview, but they still haven’t called.” She grabbed a bottle under the counter and sprayed the surface. “My mom called yesterday and said she isn’t feeling well. I’m worried about her. She’s going to the doctor tomorrow.”

“I’m sorry, Dee. Let me know what the doctor says,” I told her.

She nodded as she wiped the counter off. “Are we still on for Sunday?”

I glanced at her. She was talking about filming. “Yeah.”

“Are any of your friends coming?” she whispered.

“No, they’re busy.” They were.

“Why didn’t—” she started to ask, and it was some miracle that I happened to be facing forward again when the side door open and The Asshole strolled in.

I picked up the phone as fast as I could and pretended to be on a phone call. Right on time.

I could tell from the way he was walking that he was in a mood. I could read his signs, that’s how bad it was.

Unfortunately, he came straight for me. Fuck my life.

Holding the phone to my ear, I figured I might as well get this over with and said—to no one, literally no one because it was only the dial tone that could listen to me—“No problem at all. Have a nice day.”

Gunner had started watching me from the second he entered, and I was pretty sure he thought I was full of shit and faking being on the phone, but he could never know for sure. Sucker.

“Hi, Gunner.”

Yeah, he didn’t give a single shit. He just looked at me with his grumpy expression. “Got a sec?”

Nope. “Sure,” I said, like he didn’t know I had a second. Obviously, he could see there wasn’t a line of people trying to come in.

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