Mateo

1

I grabbed my purse, keys, cup of coffee, and heels as I rushed out of the house. I sighed as I started the car whilst trying to put my black heels on at the same time. I turned on the heat, since it was cold as fuck outside, and glanced at the clock.

"Ugh," I huffed as I put the car into reverse.

I was trying my best to not be late for work every day, but. . . it's not going great, as you can clearly see. I'm honestly surprised they haven't fired me yet 'cause I really deserved to be.

But hey, no complaints from me.

I sped down the highway, thanking God that no policemen were waiting in the corners to catch me like they did every day. You'd think if I knew they were going to be there I'd slow down, but fuck that shit.

Do you think I wanna be late for my job? Heck naw.

My alarm just won't do its job. Ha, it's always late too; I guess it ran in the household.

I hopped out of my automobile- wait, I never say that word.

Let's run that back, shall we?

I hopped out of my little rusty car, then ran into the office like my hair was on fire.

"Miss Brown, nice to see you've finally made it," my boss, Avery, boomed. His big belly bounced as he approached me like Santa would an elf. All he had to do is add the 'ho, ho, ho' and he's got himself a gig at the mall.

"At least I'm here, Avery." I glanced at the clock. "And I'm one minute early, and you know what they say, early is on time, and on time is late."

Rainy snorted, a weak attempt to cover up her laugh from behind the front desk.

I eyed her with an amused look, then quickly back at Avery. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Sir, I have a job to do." I walked casually behind the front desk and took a seat.

Avery stared at me a bit longer, probably deciding whether he should keep wasting his precious time talking to me. After about a minute, he walked off to bother yet another employee.

"Men nowadays, am I right?" I rolled around in the black chair as I sorted my things on the shelves behind the desk.

"Nah, I think it's just you, Love." Rainy moved a stack of tan folders to the side. "Avery wants us to sort these by color."

"Easy." I shrugged, got up, and put them all on the same shelf in the back room. I turned to Rainy who followed and said, "The deed is done."

"Not so fast, Darling." Rainy grabbed the stack. "He wants us to put different colors on them, sorted by the patients in the folders."

"But that's so much work," I whined as I followed her back to the white marble front desk. "I think I'll take a lunch break instead."

Rainy dropped half the stack on my side with an innocent smile. "Lunch is in four hours, Missy."

I groaned dramatically.

Okay, yeah, I applied for this job, but I didn't expect being the lady at the front desk of a pet grooming store would require so much work. I thought you'd just answer the phone with that fake sweet tone, maybe greet a few customers and their dogs, watch a couple of YouTube videos on those big iMacs, and go on with your day.

But noooo, Avery's non-organized ass wants us to do every single thing for him. And I mean every single thang. We schedule his doctor appointments, we mark when he's going to be off, we book his appointments for the groomer business, and we clean out and organize his office; it's like we're his maids!

I don't get paid enough to put up with this crap. But I only stay because I'm getting paid, and we all know you gotta chase that bag to be successful in life.

I stayed sorting those folders, answering the phone, and casually talking to Rainy for about five hours. "Okay, lunchtime." I pushed off of the desk with my hands so the black rolly chair spun me around.

"You're ready to get outta this place, ain't it?" Rainy laughed.

"Of course." I stood and grabbed my purse. "Where to?"

"Well because lunch is only thirty minutes, how about. . . Dairy Queen?" Rainy pushed the door open.

"Hey, Martha. Hey, Sherry." I waved to the women who were entering the building to take our shifts while we went to lunch.

I know thirty minutes working isn't long, but they also have other jobs to do here in the office; they just fill in our spot while we're gone then go back to whatever they were doing. I think they're groomers or something; I never cared to ask.

I hopped into Rainy's huge black truck and turned the temperature to 88 degrees; I pressed the seat warmer too. I shivered and rubbed my hands together as the cold air blasted out of the vents.

I wished they would invent something so that the air would go straight to heat time you clicked it. Some people don't have time to wait until it heats.

What if someone has gotten hypothermia and you have to rush them to the hospital, but the hospital is an hour drive from where you are currently, so, you have to turn on the heat to keep them warm, but the cold air blasts out of the vents and kills them?

I should bring this issue to court.

"What are you over there thinking so hard about?" Rainy crushed some leaves under her black heeled boots.

"Oh, nothing." I crossed my arms over my chest to formulate some type of body heat.

"Mhm, sure." Rainy pushed her black hair out of her face.

I was about to reply when I felt something hard hit the back of my head. "Was that you?" I rubbed my head.

Rainy looked up. "What are you talking about?"

I stopped walking to look at the object that had been thrown at me.

A half-eaten apple?

I scanned the area and there was no one except me and Rainy.

"Hm, odd." I shrugged and jogged to catch up to Rainy who just entered Dairy Queen.

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