9. Chapter 7
FRANKIE
“ L ita, I don’t know what to do,” she whined as she stared at the door. “I don’t know whether I should actually go or not. Dominic will be here any second now to pick me up. I’m nervous.”
Lita didn’t say anything, though. Typical. Lita liked to be nonverbal most of the time. Not that Frankie cared. If she could be nonverbal most of the time, she would, but she had to talk to people for things… adult things.
“I think it’s cause I have a small, teeny tiny crush on Noah, my boss.
I can’t let that happen, though!” Frankie held Lita close to her chest. “That type of relationship can’t happen.
Not when I really need this job. If we did get together and then broke up, I would have to find a new job.
I can’t afford that. Not when this job is paying me more than all the other onesand I get health insurance as well. ”
It was too good to pass up. She desperately needed it.
“I know you always tell me to follow my heart, but I can’t this time. I can’t jeopardize my job, no matter how right it feels with Noah.” she sighed.
Her phone went off, and she sucked in a breath. Dominic was outside, waiting for her. Time to put on her big girl panties and go to work.
Putting Lita in her bag, she grabbed her keys, locked the door, and walked out of the building.
She didn’t know when Noah was going to come to install the cameras and the new lock, but she hoped it was soon.
Frankie hadn’t slept well last night at all.
It was mostly nerves, but she kept hearing footsteps, and she didn’t know whether they were close to her apartment or not.
“You’ve got this,” she whispered to herself.
“Frankie,” Dominic greeted as he opened the passenger door for her. “Ready for your first day of work?”
Was she ready? Absolutely not.
“Yes.” She smiled before he closed the door.
“Don’t lie.” Dominic raised an eyebrow at her as he got into the car.
Her shoulders sagged. “I’m nervous. Really nervous. I don’t want to mess up.”
“You aren’t going to mess up, and if you do, it won’t be the end of the world. Noah and the other owners are really chill about things,” Dominic said.
Frankie hoped so. She had a feeling she would be making a lot of mistakes today. But she always had that feeling. Noah hadn’t talked about what to do if something did go wrong, and it was worrying her.
“Frankie?” Dominic called out her name, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Yes?” She turned to him.
“Is Frankie short for something?”
She sighed and shook her head before she realized he didn’t see what she did. “No, it’s not short for something. Maybe I can say it’s short for Franklidina, or I don’t know. But no, it is not short for anything. My parents just decided that they wanted to be different and call me Frankie.”
Growing up, a lot of boys made her life a living hell, teasing her when they realized it meant nothing and sounded like a guy’s name. Frankie was surprised it took them this long to bring it up. No one had asked this yesterday when she introduced herself.
“That bad?” he asked.
“What?” her eyebrows furrowed.
“Growing up with the name.” Dominic briefly looked at her before he pulled up to the side of the building. “You sighed before you answered, a long sigh.”
She shrugged. “It’s not an easy name, especially when you are a little kid, but I managed. I’m still here.”
Dominic placed his hand on her shoulder, giving her a small smile. “Well, if anyone gives you trouble, you let me know.”
Her lip twitched, and she nodded. “Thank you for picking me up. Sorry you had to do it.”
“Don’t you say sorry. I do this all the time. We like to keep our employees safe. If that means picking people up when they don’t have a car, then I will gladly do it. And it’s not just me. There are several other people at Behind the Scenes who drive people when they need help,” Dominic explained.
She nodded once more and opened the door, not knowing how to respond to him. She still felt bad that she’d made him come get her. Frankie stepped out and turned to him.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Why didn’t you say anything about the part of town I lived in?” she inquired, clasping her hands in front of her.
She was feeling less shaky than she had been before, but she could still see a quiver in her hands and didn’t want Dominic or Noah to see it. Would they ask anything, or just brush it off as nerves?
His eyes looked at her hands before smiling at her. “I figured Noah already said something, didn’t he?”
Frankie nodded and looked down at her hands. “Yes, he did.”
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t want to give you another lecture if you’d already heard his. Unless it goes on for a while, then I may say something,” he gently said. “But for now? You’ve already gotten one, and it hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet, so I didn’t want to give you another.”
“Thanks again.” She shut the door before he could say anything.
Frankie hadn’t really wanted to ask, but it was bugging her. Not many people cared where she lived, but Noah did, and she thought Dominic would have made some kind of comment. She had been anticipating it.
As she walked up to the front door, it opened right as she got within touching distance.
“Good morning.” Noah smiled, letting her in. “This door will be unlocked, so when you come in for work, you can just come in. If you walk to the left, you’ll see a room where employees can sign in to start their day.”
She looked at a small room that only had a touch screen in it. What was she supposed to do with that?
“This is where you’ll sign in for your shift.
All you do is turn it on, click your name, and put in the answer to your security question.
Or if you don’t like that, you can come to me, John who manages the bar, or Trent to let us know you are here and starting your shift.
” He turned to her. “If you want to use this then we can set up a couple of questions it’ll go through or if you don’t, then I can let them know to be waiting for you. ”
What did she want to do? Frankie didn’t really like answering questions; it always made her nervous, even if they weren’t on a test. She always freaked out when a website asked her for security questions.
She always picked the wrong answer. What if something she put in the wrong answer, and then could never get into her account again?
“You can think about it if you want,” Noah said after several seconds. “And you can be honest in what you want. John, Trent, and I don’t mind you coming to tell us you are here for work.”
“Are you sure?” she whispered, looking up at him.
“Yes, Frankie. I am sure that none of us minds. Some people don’t have good memories, can’t come up with a question. We want to make it easy for everyone to access, so we started this,” he explained.
“I would like to tell one of you I am here.” she replied. “I’m not good at remembering answers, or I get so worried that I put the wrong answer.”
Noah cupped her face with his right hand. “Then you won’t have to worry about that here. You come and find one of us when you come in and are leaving work. We’ll make note of it.”
“Thank you. Sorry if it’s an inconvenience. We can try the question if you want,” she suggested, feeling bad that they would have another person to look after. Did they sign up for that when they got a job here?
Noah rubbed his thumb across her cheek. She had completely forgotten that he was touching her face.
His touch just felt right, and she never wanted him to stop, but it was inappropriate.
Was she going to tell him to stop? Absolutely not.
Frankie was currently in heaven, and she didn’t want to give that up, not unless he wanted to.
“It’s not an inconvenience at all. I wouldn’t have offered if none of us wanted that.
We are all perfectly fine with it. One of us will always be here, so you just need to find one of us,” Noah gently replied.
“Now, come on. I’ll show you where you can put your bag.
It’s a secure room. We have a camera in there to keep watch.
If you want to put a lock on your cubby, you can, but it is not required. ”
Noah let go of her face, and she couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
When was the next time she would get some sort of contact like that again?
When was the last time she had gotten physical touch like that?
Frankie knew she was touch-starved. She wanted him to continue, but didn’t want to ask.
It wouldn’t be appropriate, and she didn’t want to get used to being touched only for her to get fired and not have it anymore.
No. She wasn’t going to do that.
Frankie followed Noah, letting him guide her to the room beside to the kitchen.
“This is where you can put your stuff. If you do decide you want to bring lunch, there is a fridge in the kitchen you can use. Just place it in there, and no one will mess with it. You can pick any locker you want in here. It’ll change daily which one you’ll get since we have so many different employees working here. ”
She looked around the smaller room, taking in the two rows of smaller lockers. It reminded her of gym class.
“I was never good at gym,” she said.
“What?” Noah tilted his head to the side. “Gym?”
“Oh, sorry.” Her face turned beet red, and she looked away. “This room reminds me of the locker room in the gym where I went to school. Smaller school, so it wasn’t that big. Everyone got a locker.”
An amused look went across his face. “Well, good thing we don’t grade anything related to the gym.”
“Grade?” Her voice squeaked.
Frankie hadn’t realized she would be graded on anything. She thought she was coming to do a job, and if everything got done, she was okay. How had she missed the part about being graded?
“You aren’t going to be graded,” Noah quickly added. “I shouldn’t have said that. It would make anyone panic on their first day here.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she nodded. Frankie should not have panicked as much as she did, but she couldn’t help it.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have panicked like that,” she mumbled.
“No need to be sorry. We haven’t hired anyone in a while, and I sometimes forget to watch my words.” He smiled at her.
But he shouldn’t have to watch his words. What he said was nothing wrong. It was her mind, and how worried she was about things.
“Now, let me show you around so you know where you are cleaning.” Noah held his hand out.
Frankie grabbed it without thinking, letting him guide her.