The Artist's Wife (BWWM)

Chapter 2~ You

The Hammond Palace was strangely deserted when I walked in and I wondered what was going on. This place was definitely always fuller than it was right now on any normal afternoon. This was a few minutes to four, rush hour here and only a few people were in eating.

I was staring at the few clusters of people eating when my sneakers stuck to the floor and I realized unpleasantly that I had stepped in some chewing gum. I hissed quietly, sitting on one of the chairs to try to get it out and noticed one of the waitresses, Natalie, walk towards me. Natalie had worked with us for a while, we hung out sometimes, whenever I was free.

"Rina, haven't seen your face in a while," she commented, brushing her honey blonde locks from her heart-shaped face. "What's been going on?"

"I got a job with that big company that produces fabrics," I told her looking down at the gum wedged into my shoes and frowning. How did I even step into this?

Her brown eyes widened in pleasant surprise." Are you serious? That's some major cash for you."

"Nah, got fired about a week ago but no biggie," I shrugged, scraping the bright pink goo against the metal legs of the chair I was on. "Where's my dad?"

"He's been waiting for you in his office. Your mom is there too."

"Really?" My adopted mother mostly never left the house ever since the accident that confined her to the wheelchair. Suddenly, my apprehension grew and I couldn't help questioning Natalie to get hints. "Nat, you don't happen to know what's going on, do you?"

She brushed down the front of her neat, pink apron as she talked. "Not really, things have been tighter around here than usual but Mr Hammond seems to be handling it just fine."

"Oh, okay."

"Just that..." She hesitated for a few seconds before continuing. "Even though he says he'll make it up to us here, he's been owing us some salaries and as I said, things probably have just been a bit difficult and different around here."

"He's not mentioned any of this to me." We were close to some extent but my father hadn't even dropped any details of any difficulties he had been facing.

"Then it's nothing then." Natalie shrugged. "You should probably go see him now."

"Thanks." I rose from the chair.

"Can I ask for a favour, Rina?"

"Sure."

She paused, looking down at her feet, shyly. "Rina, do you mind working my shift when you're done talking to him? I have a date later and it would mean a lot to me if --"

"You got back with Spence, didn't you?" I grinned at her and watched her cheeks turn bright red. She nodded, looking down at her feet and playing with her apron.

Spencer was her long time boyfriend and they had broken up weeks ago because of some misunderstandings, they called it 'space' but I knew she still wanted him as bad as he did her. I was happy for them, really.

"Sure, Nat, it's not like I have anything to do after." The gum was still there and I was starting to get even more irritated than I was earlier. "I'll stay."

"Oh, thank you, Karina! How is Lanc--" she stopped mid-sentence when a sugary, way too airy voice cut her off.

"Where's my father?"

My sister, well adopted sister, Mindy. She was the Hammond's real daughter. With a mouth as sharp as knives and an attitude way bigger than her size, we didn't get along at all. It was as simple as that, I didn't like my sister one bit.