60. Noah
SIXTY
NOAH
“Are we sure this is the right thing to do?” Bry sighs, but I don’t answer him. I’m on the fence about it too. It’s not something I would usually agree to.
But it was either let Max and Nate go alone and potentially do something they’ll regret or go along with it and try to keep things peaceful.
I didn’t see Rosy yesterday. Nate was the only one who did. She didn’t feel up to coming over for dinner. It’s not the first time it’s happened, and we can’t expect her to always want to be with us. But she has been retreating recently, her mind elsewhere and her emotions more clouded.
Whether that means we should be turning up at her workplace after she’s left is too late to question when we’re all piled into Nate’s truck and on our way there.
“How do you know if he’s still going to be there?” Max adds, leaning through the seats to ask Nate.
“Booked a meeting with him. Said I had vacancies, and we need someone to do the hiring. That it had to be him.”
“So you lied to get us in?” Bry groans, shaking his head.
“Didn’t say I’d take people on. Just that I’m looking. I can look.” He dismisses his worry with a hand. “None of you saw her last night. She was hurt and breaking. They can’t make her feel like that.”
My chest aches at the idea of Rosy in pain. I appreciate that Nate was able to give her the physical outlet; I hope she’s ready to use me when she needs an emotional one.
We’re all quiet, lost in our thoughts for the remainder of the journey.
“Nate, we need to remember to stay calm. Don’t say anything we’ll regret.” I warn.
“No regrets, got it,” he says, striding through the front door, and I curse, quickly following him.
The office is quiet, empty, but it’s well past their open hours. Nate refuses to wait and heads down a corridor, barely pausing to knock when he comes to a door and opens it.
“Ah, Mr…”
“Nate.”
“Nate, it is. I’m Peter,” the man behind the desk declares, leaning across to offer his hand to Nate, who pointedly ignores it. “And your colleagues are…?”
“Names aren’t important. I’m here about Rosy,” Nate states, folding his arms across his chest.
“My employee, Rosemary? Wait, I recognise you.” Peter points at Max, his face turning red. “You were here with her the other day. I told her you were banned from returning.”
“Oops, must’ve forgotten that part.” Max shrugs, dropping onto one of the chairs.
Great, he’d also forgotten to tell us that part too.
“Perhaps we should all just take a seat,” I interject, squeezing Nate’s shoulder and folding myself into one of the chairs facing Peter’s.
Everyone reluctantly follows suit, tension filling the space and suffocating us.
“We wanted to come and talk to you, as we were concerned that Rosy’s often coming home upset,” I share, hoping this can be settled easily.
“She hasn’t informed me of any changes to her living arrangements. It sounds like I should be concerned that my employee is suddenly living with four men. She wouldn’t agree to something like that. She’s a wholesome girl.”
“Gross. She’s a woman, not a girl, and I fucking wish she was living with us,” Max hisses.
Whilst I agree with his meaning, I wish he’d think before he speaks.
“Like I said, we’re just worried about her and wanted to meet with you to raise our concerns.”
“As I said, she’s my employee. Not yours.
I care about her welfare and will speak to her directly about any concerns she may have.
But I will not have you come into my office under false pretences and accuse me of mistreating my employee.
” He’s leaning forward, hands wrapped around his armrests by the time he finishes.
“She’s not the slightest bit yours,” Nate retorts. “Be fucking better to her.”
“What Nate’s trying to say is that we came to speak about our concerns over things that have recently affected Rosy. It’s good to hear you will talk to her about it. So we’ll end this here and take our leave,” I interject, rising from my seat and offering a hand to Peter.
“If any of you step foot in this building again, I’ll call the police.”
My outstretched hand drops as he remains seated.
This did not go well; not that I’m surprised. But I’d hoped Peter wouldn’t have turned out to have been as much of a belligerent bully as he is.
“What the fuck, Noah?” Max spits as we leave the building, his hand fisting my jacket and tugging.
“What? Did you expect to just threaten and coerce him into suddenly becoming a nice person and treating Rosy well? It’s never going to happen.
He obviously always is and will always be a spiteful man.
The better option was to placate him and help Rosy find a job elsewhere.
She relies on the income to support herself and the animal shelter; I can understand why she won't just leave. So we can help and support her by finding other options, not making her current situation worse.”
Max drops his hand, his face creasing in contrition. However Nate just leans against the truck, arms still folded defensively.
“What? I don’t regret it. He’s going to continue to treat every other kind, loyal person like Rosy the same. Not going to sit there and lick his ass. I’ll call him out on his shit.”
“And when she loses her job?”
“She’s better than this fucking place. She shouldn’t be treated like this or be around that asshole,” Nate snarls. His anger’s easy to notice, but there’s an undercurrent of frustration too. “I’ll support her. She can move in. Anything, as long as she’s not stuck here.”
I might not get his anger, but I feel the need to shield her from this, to keep her safe and happy. But I’m not sure this was the right way to do it.
“Let’s go. There’s no point standing here arguing about it. It’s done now. We need to try to make it right and hope we haven’t made things worse.” Bry sighs, breaking the silence he’d kept. He might’ve been here with us, but it was obvious he was just as uncomfortable.