7. Seven
SEVEN
A ccording to Olivia, everything had gone fine with Ronan. Zach and Rex had talked to him, sorted out the hows and whys of his employment at Stone Casino, and were seemingly happy with his answers.
That was good—very good, actually—because the idea of Ronan losing his job because of me filled me with anxiety. Sure, inherently I knew he would be fine because of who his parents were. Still, I hated—absolutely loathed—the idea of being the reason he was out of a job he was seemingly good at.
I hadn’t seen him in days. Not that I was hiding from him or anything.
Okay, I was hiding from him. I was careful to avoid his section of the casino even if it meant adding to my walk and going through the roulette area instead.
It wasn’t that I was afraid of him—mostly—but the mere idea of seeing him made me itchy.
He was never far from my thoughts, however. I found myself thinking back to my teen years more than I was comfortable with. We hadn’t been close—not by any stretch of the imagination—but he’d often been on my mind back then too.
Had I had a crush on him? No, of course not. Teenagers found each other hot all the time. One day, someone was hot, and the next, they looked like shriveled prunes. I’d cycled through everybody back then with a one-day crush. A crushlet, if you will.
Except your crush on him lasted for years.
Who said that? I wanted to hunt down my inner Tallulah and choke her into silence. There had been no years-long crush. That was ridiculous.
“What are you doing?” I almost came out of my skin when Olivia appeared next to me.
I was in the corner of the high rollers section, looking over my table assignment for the evening and reading over the notes Kyla had provided.
Apparently, we were expecting a few professional athletes this evening.
I hated it when I had to wait on famous people.
It wasn’t that I was nervous—I didn’t care about that either way—but more often than not, I found them entitled and obnoxious.
“What are you doing?” I demanded of my best friend in a voice that was too loud. I adjusted quickly and lowered my tone. “Don’t surprise me like that. You know how my boss feels about me.”
She cocked her head. Olivia had never met a thought she didn’t immediately express. “This is about more than Kyla disliking you. Tell me what’s wrong,” she ordered.
I balked. “How do you know something is wrong?”
“Because I’ve known you since kindergarten. You remember kindergarten, right? You broke the yellow crayon and cried. You’ve always been sensitive.”
I gave her an “are you kidding me” look. “That never happened.”
“I remember it distinctly.”
“That happened in Buffy the Vampire Slayer .”
Olivia opened her mouth to argue then snapped it shut. “Huh,” she said after a beat. “Now that you mention it, I think you’re right. That was in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer .”
“Yes,” I agreed. “The episode where Willow almost ends the world.” Something occurred to me. “Wait. You don’t think I’m capable of ending the world, do you?”
She laughed as if I’d said the funniest thing ever, earning the attention of Kyla, who had walked into the pit. Olivia’s back was to her, and it was impossible to miss the glare Kyla shot at my best friend.
Oh no. Something bad was about to happen. I could feel it. Before I could warn Olivia, however, Kyla was on us.
“Tallulah,” she said in an icy voice, “I’m glad to see you’re on time this evening.”
I’d only ever been late once and by two minutes. She refused to let me forget it. “Of course,” I said automatically.
“Visits from friends are strictly forbidden, however,” she continued as if she was imparting a helpful tidbit on me. “I’m going to have to make a notation in your permanent file. Isn’t that three notations already?”
Since she was the only one making notations, she already knew the answer to that question. “That sounds about right.”
Olivia turned slowly and faced Kyla. “She has notations in her file?”
Kyla blanched when she recognized Olivia. “Oh, um, I didn’t realize you were the one dropping in for a visit, Mrs. Stone.”
“What notations does she have in her file?” Olivia asked. Her voice was brutally pleasant, which was a dead giveaway that she was about to turn difficult.
“Oh, just minor things.” Kyla brushed off the question as if it didn’t matter. “It’s not a big deal.”
Olivia pushed forward. “Well, if it’s not a big deal, then you should have no problem showing me.”
Kyla looked as if she wanted to do anything—including take up interpretive dance—other than show Olivia the file.
She didn’t have a choice, though. “Of course.” She disappeared behind the counter and came back with a manila folder.
Leave it to Kyla to go old school with a physical folder rather than an electronic one.
Her eyes briefly landed on me, and there was fury there.
When she snagged gazes with Olivia, however, she was all smiles. “As I said, it’s not a big deal.”
“You made it sound like a big deal.” Olivia opened the file, which contained numerous pages of notes. Much more than the two—potentially, three—incidents Kyla had remarked on. “So, it says here she was late about a week ago.” Olivia’s forehead creased. “What day was this?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Kyla answered first.
“Eight days ago. She was technically late on her first day, too, but she got held up by security, so I didn’t put that one in there.” Kyla acted as if she deserved a reward for that.
Olivia swished her lips. “I should hope not. We all know the first day with security is a doozy. You do have notes in here about the incident.” She whipped out the sheet of paper and handed it to Kyla. “You don’t need that. It must have been an oversight.”
Kyla swallowed hard but nodded. “Of course. It was a total accident.” She crumpled up the sheet of paper and shoved it in the garbage can. “I have no idea how that happened.”
Olivia flicked her eyes up to me. “Was this other day because you were in the storage room?”
The question in Kyla’s presence made me distinctly uncomfortable, but I nodded all the same.
“This one can go into the garbage too.” Olivia whipped it out of the stack and handed it to Kyla. “She was late because of unforeseen circumstances.”
“Life is full of unforeseen circumstances,” Kyla replied dryly.
“Yes, but in this instance she was doing something important for my family.” Olivia’s gaze was steely. “If you need higher clearance, I can get Zach on the phone. Or he can come down here, and we can do this in person,” she added brightly, as if it was an afterthought.
Kyla looked furious. “I…” She didn’t finish. She seemed to be debating her options. “That won’t be necessary,” she said finally. When she crumpled that sheet of paper, she did it with enough force that her knuckles turned white. “It’s not necessary at all.”
“Good.” Olivia smiled and looked at another sheet of paper. “And what’s wrong with the uniform? You have a write-up about the uniform in here that I don’t quite understand.”
“The top is too small.” Kyla gestured toward my cleavage. “I think one size up would be better.”
I wanted to wrap my fingers around her throat and start squeezing. I held it together. Barely. “I believe I mentioned I thought I would do better with a bigger top during my first shift,” I gritted out.
If looks could kill, I would’ve been dead. Kyla made a coughing noise into her hand then shook her head. “I’m sorry. I must not have heard you when you made that request.”
“You’re on the hook for uniform issues,” Olivia said as she whipped out the sheet of paper and handed it to Kyla. “Get her a bigger top. This should’ve never been there in the first place. You’re in charge of making sure everybody is dressed correctly.”
Kyla balked. “I… Of course.” She threw the sheet of paper in the garbage can. “Anything else?”
“Yes,” Olivia replied, not missing a beat. “What’s this?” She held up the final sheet of paper in my file.
For a moment, Kyla looked confused. “I’m not certain. What does it say?”
“It says that there was a complaint from one of the other workers regarding Tallulah’s attitude.” Olivia’s brow creased. “It doesn’t say who the employee is.”
“As you well know, we have a pro-whistleblower environment here,” Kyla replied stiffly. “I don’t have to report who made the complaint. They’re allowed to remain anonymous.”
“But the details here are sketchy,” Olivia persisted. “It just says she’s obnoxious and rude in the hallways of the employee area. Don’t you think the complaint should be more—I don’t know—intricate? There are a variety of ways to be obnoxious.”
“Perhaps she hit them all.” Kyla smiled as if she was making a joke, but when Olivia didn’t return the gesture, she sighed.
“You can’t just throw that complaint away.
We encourage all of the employees at the Stone to report any issues they might face during the day-to-day operations of the facility. ”
“Yes, but that was enacted for the female workers who might be subjected to sexual harassment.” Olivia looked frustrated. “It wasn’t so a random individual in the coffee shop can complain about a server in the high rollers section.”
Kyla merely held out her hands and shrugged. “I don’t believe the complaint came from the coffee shop, if that helps.”
“That was an example.” Olivia sounded exasperated.
Kyla wasn’t backing down, however. She held out her hands and shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. This employee was concerned about Ms. Hayes’s conduct in the employee hallway. I believe they think that Ms. Hayes has attitude that isn’t warranted given that she just started work here.”