My Own Way

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I could hear noises coming from inside his apartment and the door opened.

Blake stood there with a big smile wearing jeans and a black shirt which made his blue eyes stand out.

"Hi." I said smiling back.

"Hi, come on in." He said, backing up to let me in.

"Thanks."  I walked in and noticed he had cleaned up.  He wasn't a messy guy but when I left this morning the place wasn't this clean.

"Sorry I'm late." I said feeling guilty.

"You're not late... You look great." He said and closed the front door.  "You had a really small shift at the diner today. I don't know how you do it."

"Yeah it happens.  Wait, do what?" I asked, while taking off my running shoes.

"Pay your bills... I know you don't live at home so..." He said walking towards his couch and I followed him and sitting on my foot at the opposite end of the couch.

"Well, sometimes my parents help me out.  Plus my boss is a jerk…it's his way of payback for misbehaving." I confessed.

"Misbehaving?"

"Yeah." I said, shaking my head.

"Can you or…do you want to explain?" He asked.

"Um..." I could still hear Emily in my head and it was driving me nuts.  Telling me to continue and talk.  "I had a customer the other day and he was...rude...and my boss thinks I handled it poorly for some reason." I answered.

"What did you do?" He asked with a smile, it was obvious he was curious.

"I um...I hit him upside the head." I said looking down and biting my lip.

"Really?  He must have been pretty rude to make you do that."

"Yeah and he still sits in my section." I added.

"What did he say?" Blake asked.

"He didn't say anything." I answered, checking the TV for the score of the game.  My team was losing but I didn't care.  My home team was my favorite team, win or lose.

"Okay? Did he do something?"

I looked at Blake for a second before deciding to answer.  My mom always told me sometimes you could tell if someone was good or bad news.  Obviously it didn't work out to well for us but she said, sometimes you could feel it, in your stomach or your heart.  A 'red light' turns on in your head, giving a warning sign.

I didn't really know Blake, I knew his body pretty well as he knew mine but other than that, I didn't know him.

I couldn't feel the 'red light' but nothing was telling me that he was good either.  I decided to take a chance.

We were staring at each other when I answered, "He slapped my butt."

"What!" He said loudly.

"Anyways, my boss didn't agree with the way I handled it so...he cuts my hours when I do something he doesn’t approve of." I said.

"He's lucky I wasn't there or I would have kicked his..." he started saying but I cut him off.

"It's not for anyone to handle but me." I stated.

He just looked at me, like he was trying to read me so I didn't break eye contact like I usually did, which was difficult.

"Well...then your boss is more than just a jerk." He said.