Sugarcoated by Sarah Epstein

Author:Sarah Epstein [Sarah Epstein]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fourteen Press
Published: 2021-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

I didn’t have a chance to fill Simon in on what had happened. Mr Rooke devised a long list of jobs for me that conveniently prevented me from being anywhere near the shop floor. As soon as he informed Barb he would be overseeing my workload for the day, I understood what he’d meant about playing games. It was like he was challenging me to complain or walk out, but I refused to do either.

Gia smirked at me when I backed out of the middle toilet stall in the women’s bathroom. She’d clearly ignored the CLOSED FOR CLEANING sign I’d propped outside the door. She tucked her long hair behind her ears and leaned over the sink, inspecting her reflection in the mirror. Her silver skull earrings glinted under the lights as she plucked a black makeup pencil from her pocket.

“Nice fashion statement,” she said, glancing at my yellow rubber gloves. “They really bring out your eyes.”

I dropped the toilet brush into its plastic receptacle and sighed. I’d already scrubbed both the men’s and women’s bathrooms, and mopped the break room in my Rooke-imposed housekeeping spree. I was trying not to think about what fresh hell he’d serve up next.

“You know a cleaning crew comes after hours to do this, right?” she said.

“I’m aware.”

Gia leaned towards the mirror again and ran the pencil beneath her eye. “So what happened? I thought you were Rooke’s little BFF.”

I grimaced. “What makes you say that?”

“The way he always singles you out? And your cosy lunch date with him the other day.”

“He took Simon out for lunch as well.”

“Yeah,” Gia said, smudging her eyeliner with her pinkie, “but I don’t think Simon is his type.”

I shuddered. The whole thing was making me way too uncomfortable.

Gia squinted at me in the mirror. “What did you do wrong to get stuck with cleaning toilets?”

Good question. What had I done wrong? I wasn’t even sure what Mr Rooke was playing at. Every time I ran our interactions over in my head, I couldn’t work out if he’d actually broken some kind of rule or said something he could get into trouble for. I knew how it made me feel, but was that enough? Was that the kind of thing I could speak to Barb about? She was Mr Rooke’s aunt. His father was the managing director of the company. And who was I? Some sixteen-year-old nobody with squirmy feelings.

But could I tell Gia any of this? I barely knew her. I certainly didn’t know if I could trust her. She might think I was a drama queen and laugh in my face.

“Earth to Sophie,” Gia said. “You receiving me?”

I reached for the mop and bucket and dragged it towards me. “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know what I did.”

Gia regarded me in a thoughtful way as she continued smudging her eyeliner. I lifted the mop out of the bucket and slopped it down onto the floor tiles. We were both quiet for a few moments as I dragged the mop in sudsy arcs across the floor.

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