Chapter Seven
Clint
Day two of training Jessie, and sitting close to her was low-level torture.
She had made it clear from day one that she hadn’t wanted me here.
Now that we’d had a chance to talk, it felt like we were more on the same page.
Still didn’t mean she wanted to climb into my lap.
It wasn’t the time for me to be trying anything with a woman anyway.
What was I supposed to do? Whisk her off to a romantic dinner and ask her to pay?
I had other things to be thinking about besides the little gap at the top of her tank that gave me a peek of cleavage.
Or the fact that despite working on a construction crew she still smelled feminine and delicious.
I forced myself to finish going through the how-to manual I had put together and was rewarded with a genuine smile.
I didn’t think I’d gotten one of those from her before.
Jessie took over the desk to take a closer look at what I had come up with and I decided to eat my lunch.
Budgeting for groceries had been harder than I’d expected. Just the basics were outrageously expensive. Not to mention deodorant, soap, toilet paper, toothpaste. The list went on.
I poured myself a cup of coffee and grimaced as I took a sip. I hated black coffee, but it was free. “There’s coffee fixings in the cupboard over there,” Jessie said, pointing to a cupboard that I hadn’t noticed before. “Usually cream in the fridge too, if you like.”
I opened the cupboard she pointed to and snatched up a jar of honey. How had I not known about this? “Thank you.”
I turned to see her wrinkling her nose. “You put honey in coffee? That is so weird.”
I shrugged. “I’m bitter enough without adding coffee to the mix.”
She snorted. “You’re far from bitter.”
That almost sounded like a compliment.
I pulled out my sandwich and dug in, again grimacing at the taste.
Jessie put the paper she was reading down. “Don’t tell me you have nothing in your sandwich either.”
I struggled to swallow and finally succeeded. “Just jam and bread. Not very exciting. Can’t afford much right now. The jam was on a good sale.”
Her expression grew somber. I knew she’d been where I was right now and probably worse. She got up and left the room, returning with a bag and a knife. She pulled out a sandwich that looked one hell of a lot better than mine and cut it in half.
“I’ll never finish mine anyway. Want half? It’s roast beef.”
“You don’t have to–”
“Just take the damn sandwich, Dimples.”
I grabbed it from her hand and muttered my thanks.
She went back to her papers and I dug in. It was delicious. We were quiet for a few minutes. “Do you have a freezer?”
I blinked. “What?”
“In your apartment, a freezer.”
“Are you asking to hide a body or?”
She laughed. “No, just a piece of advice. Day old bread at the bakery on the corner of Fourth and Main is seventy five percent off. Just freeze it when you get home. The dollar store sometimes has peanut butter. Just watch the expiration date. If you see Larry, he is the one with the long gray beard who drives the dump truck, ask him about his garden. He has a massive vegetable garden in his yard and will bring you a bag of everything that’s ripe. ”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.”
She moved around the side of the desk and leaned back on it, holding my eyes.
“If you need to use the food bank, don’t be ashamed.
That’s what it’s there for. Just donate what you can when you get back on your feet.
You’ll run yourself into the ground if you don’t eat enough.
” She moved back to sit behind the desk without waiting for my reply.
That was just as well since I didn’t have one.
It was one thing to pity a person and a whole other thing to offer them a way out.
The whole feed a man a fish versus teach a man to fish thing.
Jessie focused on the paper work while I finished eating.
It gave me a chance to study her. She was short and curvy, favoring light jeans and t-shirts or tank tops.
Her hair shone anywhere from dark brown to deep red depending on the light.
Her skin was bare of makeup, I thought anyway.
I’d never worn makeup so what the fuck did I know.
I could always tell when she had a question because she pulled her eyebrows together and bit her lower lip.
It was distracting in a way it shouldn’t have been.
I needed to get some distance. But I didn’t want it.
******
“Come on, Dimples. We’re getting drunk.”
I glanced up from the papers in front of me and frowned. Since when did Jessie invite me places?
Was this like a pity thing after our conversation about my food budget?
She seemed to pick up on my confusion. “It’s Greg’s birthday. You know, Greg? He’s our first aider. He’s turning fifty.”
My mind bounced over to my bank account, the balance of which was embarrassingly small. “I think I’ll pass on a bar night. Thanks, though.”
Her face softened. “It’s at Greg’s place and the food and beer are provided. Won’t cost you a dime. Trust me, getting to know the crew will only help you as a supervisor.”
This offer felt like an olive branch. Besides, I wasn’t about to turn down a free meal.
A few hours later I was sitting in a lawn chair in Greg’s backyard with two burgers on my plate and way too many beers in my gut. I was pretty buzzed given that I planned to drive home later. But for now I was warm and happy.
In chairs nearby was Greg, Mark, Jessie, Liz, her boyfriend, Nate, and a few other people whose names I couldn’t remember.
There were kids and dogs running around. It was cool in the shade but still too hot for mosquitoes. Everyone was relaxed and chatty. It was so far from how work events went in my old life that it was almost laughable.
“What brings you to our little corner of paradise?” Greg asked me, stretching his legs out in front of him.
Under normal circumstances, I’d have given a vague answer, but I was buzzed and Greg seemed like someone who had his shit together.
“The CEO of the business I worked for, who also happened to be my father, got arrested for fraud and everyone in management was fired.” I rambled on, explaining the whole sad story.
“Well, shit,” he said, passing me another beer from the cooler to his left. I really shouldn’t, but found myself cracking the top anyway. He glanced over to make sure Mark wasn’t listening in. “Not right the way it was done, but we’re happy to have you.”
His words, or the extra beer, warmed me in a way I hadn’t felt before. “Seems like you guys are a family here.”
He nodded. “Most would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Was your old work like that?”
I made a juvenile snort. “Haven’t heard a word from any coworkers or friends since this all went down.” I took a long pull from the bottle. “I’m over forty with a Master’s degree but I’m just getting around to learning how the world works.”
The pipeline I was working on now was forecast to cost over thirty billion dollars, not exactly a small business.
My role was different this time. I was happy to focus on the small picture.
Make sure supplies arrived on time. Fill in a shift for a guy with the flu.
Let the higher ups know where we were at, and that was really it.
“And I’m sure you’ll keep learning. Our Jessie will teach you what you need to know.”
“Once she is done hating me for taking her job.”
Greg laughed. “She’s a tough nut. She’s one of only a few women on site and not every guy is okay with her being in charge. People only get to be as tough as her because they have to. Show her respect and work hard, and eventually she’ll respect you back.”
I understood what he was saying.
Jessie was a straight shooter, not afraid to get her hands dirty or drink her coffee black. She had no issue walking right over me, which just made me want her even more. To hear the words please, Clint come out of her mouth. To watch her come apart with my head between her thighs.
“You miss the old life?” Greg asked, pulling me out of my head.
“Sometimes,” I answered honestly. “Being broke sucks, but being under my father’s thumb and working for a corrupt company? I don’t feel right about either one.”
Mark and a few of the people with kids headed out as the sun went down and we moved our chairs into a tighter circle. Greg lit a fire and I could have fallen asleep to the heat from the flames licking up the front of my legs.
“Now that the boss is gone, we need the real story,” a guy with a long gray beard said. Larry, I was pretty sure his name was. “No offense, Clint, but we were taking bets on how long it would take before Jessie sent you running.”
I caught Jessie’s eye across the fire and her mouth twisted in a smirk.
The mood was calm and the twinkle in his eye let me know he was teasing. “Can’t say I wasn’t a little intimidated watching Jessie tell off some guy in traffic on my first day.”
Everyone laughed including Jessie.
“He had it coming,” she said.
“In my last job, everyone was so polished they practically squeaked. Everything was surface level, half of it not even true.” I leaned my head against the back of the chair, knowing that I was talking too much and not able to stop it.
“It’s nice to be around someone who says what they mean. I’ve never had that before.”
“Never been told my lack of a filter was a good thing,” Jessie said, peeling the label off her beer bottle.
I lifted my head enough to make eye contact again. “It is to me.”