29. Break My Back
29
Break My Back
It was so busy I barely had a chance to take another break. I wanted Hoynes to see that despite some hiccups today, I was there for the team, for Christmas, and for everybody.
So, time got away from me. I limped away from the station half an hour past my scheduled end time and checked my phone, half expecting passive aggressive texts from Mom about hosting the family. Instead, I got tagged in photos from Joon's mom, Aunt April, who raved about a magical experience for her kids. I liked her posts and kept shuffling towards my cubby for my coat. Another picture came in from her via my DMs. It was Harvey. Working.
“He’s cute,” Aunt April commented.
“STOP STALKING MY BF,” I texted back. This wasn’t high school. But I added, “And yes, he is” a and a heart emoji to appease her.
Harvey had texted me. “The rest of your family came to visit me at work. Can we talk after your shift?”
Oh my gosh, he was going to break up with me over them. Normally, I’d text, but this was an emergency, so I called him.
“Hey." He sighed. He sounded exhausted.
“Hey. Sorry, I just got out. Where are you?” I asked.
“Break room. I’m finally eating my lunch. I’m almost finished, though, so why don’t I meet you at security?”
“Okay, see you soon.” Yeah, this was definitely going to be a talk about him needing space. Shoot. I texted my mom that my shift ran late but I’d be there as soon as I could.
At security, Officer Holland leaned over as I separated the bells from the back of my boots to go through the metal detectors, then fastened them on again.
“What are those for?” he asked.
“Fun.”
“Oh, right.” He raised his brows and glanced away.
Did people forget about the concept of fun? I leaned against the wall, hugging myself, and only stood up straight once Harvey came in.
He jerked his chin at me, his tone flat. “Hey, Sugarplum.” At least he was still semi friendly.
“Hey. Hi there.” Two greetings? I rubbed my forehead, tempted to hide my face.
Officer Holland glanced between us as he did the manual wand scan on Harvey, then gave him the okay. “Are you two going somewhere?”
“No,” Harvey said.
My shoulders sagged. Did talking to each other not count? Was he going to cancel all our plans? Cookie baking was tomorrow. His dismissiveness made me question if we’d even make it to a new year’s kiss.
“Have a good night,” I told Officer Holland.
“Will do,” he said.
I held the door open for Harvey, who in turn held it for me. Were we still going to hold hands? Link arms? I had to ease into our normal routine. “How was your day? Besides my family," I said.
He sighed, a silver cloud of mist pushing into the cold. “Fine. But if I hear one more complaint about not having cinnamon twists in stock or what it costs to reserve them, I’m going to throw flour in someone’s face.”
“So they can learn to bake?” I teased.
Harvey let out a humorless laugh. “Yes, exactly. How was your day?”
I chewed my lip, my boots crushing salt and gray slush in the parking lot. “My boss yelled at me.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Why?”
“My family was being loud, calling me ‘Shelby,’ and he was mad I took off to stop my mom from…whatever she was doing.”
“Inviting me baking,” he said, almost mocking.
I sniffled. “Are you still coming?”
“I think so. But Shelby,” we stopped at his car, and he turned to me, serious, “I’m dating you , right? Not your whole family.”
I scrunched my shoulders to my ears. “Yes.”
“So, why do they keep crashing our dates and showing up at our workplaces?”
“Because they have no sense of boundaries.” I pawed at the snow on his back windshield.
Harvey swiped the sides of his car with his arm. “Then, you need to set them. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to make a bad impression with them or anybody deciding if I should be manager, but next time they do something like that, there are gonna be consequences.”
I crushed some ice in my palm. “For me or for them?”
“Both," he said.
“That’s not fair.” In most cases, the idea of him punishing me for mischief made me happy. But I couldn’t control my family. Sniffling hard, I pointed at his chest. “You shouldn’t punish me for something they did. I like our relationship. I’m trying to protect it. I’ve always gotten them away from us, even at the cost of my job performance. Everybody’s mad at me and…and…” My job was to make happy memories.
Oh, sugarcane, the tears were welling up. I didn’t want to regress. But after the day I’d had, I wasn’t sure how much more I could keep inside. I couldn’t have a full-on breakdown in front of Harvey and give him another reason to go running besides my family. I kicked a mound of snow in frustration, accidentally catching Harvey’s pants with some side spray. “Ah, sorry.”
He brushed his leg off. “What the hell, Shelby?”
I couldn’t verbalize what was in my head–my heart was too loud for that. My chest was tight and my eyes stung. Didn’t he say it was okay to be myself around him? Sinking into my instincts, I spread my stance and curled my hands into fists. “You’re being a meanie.”
His eyes flashed as he took a step back. “What? How?”
“You…you said I’d get in trouble over stuff someone else did.”
“No, I didn’t. I said there’d be consequences.” He glanced down the aisle, which, thankfully, had nobody else around, and tugged his hat down further.
“S-same difference.” I rubbed my eyes, fighting the urge to whimper. Him, Hoynes, and my family, they all wanted different things from me. They thought I was failing. I was going to lose my job and my boyfriend, two things I really loved. Hot tears slipped down my cheeks, so I ran to the other side of the car and crouched, wiping my face. Harvey shouldn’t see me crying.
He started to follow me. “What are you doing?”
“Hiding.” I pulled up my fluffy hood as a shield.
Harvey stepped onto his tailpipe and peered at me over the hood of his car. “You don’t want to talk?”
I played with the icicles hanging by his tires. “I can't. You’re just going to yell at me.” Or break up with me. I squeezed my eyes shut and curled into a ball.
“No yelling. We need to talk, Shelby.”
Oh, no. He was definitely going to break up with me.
He unlocked the doors. “Get in the car.”
I huffed and turned away. “No, I don’t wanna.”
“Are you…?" He snorted. "I recognize that tone, Shelby.” He hopped down, then got into the driver’s seat, the engine rumbling to life a second later.
I stood up and rubbed my hot face. Was he going to leave me like this?
He rolled the passenger’s side window about halfway down and held up his fingers. “I’m giving you three seconds to get in with me. One… Two…”
I yanked open the back seat and flung myself inside. My heart raced, heat flooding my limbs. I grinned and spread my limbs out, victorious. “I did it. I got in.”
“You were supposed to sit by me. You purposely disobeyed me.” Harvey peeled his jacket off, his eyes glinting. “Now, you’ll get a punishment.”