Chapter 3
3
KYLIE
M y boss is the biggest dick I have ever come across before in my life. I’m not even exaggerating when I say this. What kind of person treats other human beings with such little respect?
This entire day has been a complete whirlwind. The only thing keeping me from slapping him in the face and walking out is knowing the money and health insurance will change our lives. I owe it to Benny to make his life as easy as possible.
I managed to sneak in a text to my neighbor Angela and told her I’d be home later than usual and to let Benny know. Angela is in her eighties and the sweetest Italian immigrant widow. She’s as tough as nails, and she has been through hell and back in her life. The moment she learned of my situation, she took me under her wing, and she has been there to watch Benny whenever I need to work.
Now that Benny is twelve, he doesn’t really need a babysitter, but she still brings over food and tries to help where she can. She assured me he’d be well fed and have his homework done by the time I got home tonight.
Speaking of, it’s six, and Mr. Monroe is still working in his office. Most of the employees have filed out to go home to family or meet friends for happy hour, I’m sure. I don’t know if he works late every night, but I recall Scarlett telling me that I stay until he leaves. This is going to be an adjustment for me and Benny.
It’s seven by the time he shuts down his computer and walks out of his office.
I realize he isn’t even going to say goodbye to me, so I call behind him, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Monroe.”
The dick doesn’t even turn around. He just lifts his hand in the air.
I huff out a breath of frustration and pack my things up.
On the subway, I think about Scarlett telling me that all of his assistants couldn’t stop drooling over the man and eventually got fired for trying to find a way into his pants.
Is the man good-looking? Yes. He’s gorgeous. I think I even gasped when I first laid eyes on him this morning. His dark hair is short on the sides and longer on the top but styled into a perfect, natural messiness. He has stubble on his face that adds a bit of gruffness to him. And his eyes are a captivating mix of hazel and gold with flecks of brown.
But none of it matters once he opens his mouth. The man seems to live in his own world, where he thinks everyone should bow down to him and worship the ground he walks on. And yet he gets pissed off when his assistants fall head over heels for him and fires them.
I may need to come up with a mantra to remind myself why I’m here and why I need to put up with his shit.
I get off the subway when it reaches our neighborhood. We live in Harlem, which is a far cry from a picturesque upbringing for Benny, but it’s all we can afford. Our apartment building is old and has one too many roaches that like to make their appearance all over our apartment.
I’ll bet if Mr. Monroe ever caught wind of where I lived, he’d fire me on the spot. It’s probably beneath him to associate with someone of my kind, even if I’m working for him.
I put the key in our lock and jiggle it five times, which seems to be the trick these days to get it to catch, then turn the key to the right. The creaking of the door echoes throughout the small two-bedroom apartment. I consider it our own home security system. No one’s getting through our front door without waking me.
“Benny?” I shout as I toss my keys on the wobbly wooden kitchen table. “I’m sorry I’m late.”
Moments later, he stumbles out of his room with a tired look on his face. The moment he sees me, his eyes open wide. “What the heck are y-y-y-y-you w-w-wearing?”
I glance down at my outfit, completely having forgotten I was dressed like this.
I open my arms wide. “Surprise! I got a job.”
He follows me into the kitchen, where I find a plate of leftover lasagna for me, thanks to Angela. I pull it out of the fridge and place it in the microwave.
“H-h-h-h-how?” he asks as he takes a seat at the table.
I wait impatiently for the food to warm up, feeling starved from the day. I didn’t even get a chance to eat lunch.
“The craziest thing happened to me today,” I begin. I tell him all about my run-in with Scarlett and having to run out to buy new clothes for the interview. I polish off the lasagna and kick off my heels under the table. “It’s going to change our lives, Benny. We finally have health insurance, and the pay is amazing.”
“Are—are … y-y-yo-you always g-going to work late?” he asks hesitantly.
Benny has had a stutter ever since our parents went missing. I haven’t been able to get him in to see anybody because we don’t have insurance. But now, maybe I can find someone who can work with him. He doesn’t really have any friends. He tells me they all laugh when he tries to talk, so he says as little as possible at school.
I sigh. “I don’t know, buddy. Maybe. I’ll do my best to be home at a reasonable time every night, but I can’t make any promises. But this is good for us. This changes everything. We can get a better place. I might even be able to put some money aside for college.”
He looks away quickly. “I’m too—too … s-s-s-s-s-stupid for college.”
I drop my fork on my plate. “Hey. I don’t want to hear you talk about yourself like that. A stutter has nothing to do with how smart you are. You are very smart, and you get good grades. You can do anything you want to. I’ll make sure of it.”
A small smile splays across his face, but I can tell he doesn’t quite believe me. He stands up and walks back to his room, leaving me alone in the kitchen.
That’s it. First thing on my agenda tomorrow, when I have a second of free time, is to get my insurance information and find someone for him to see. There’s got to be a way to help him get over his stutter.
I don’t want to see him suffer like this. It just keeps breaking his self-confidence, the older he gets. He should be outside, playing with friends. Instead, he stays in his room and reads. I’m all for reading a good book—sometimes, I even listen to them on audio—but I do think he needs balance in his life.
It dawns on me that my hours are going to be different now. With school being out, it was nice to get into work at five in the morning and get off at one. Ben would have only been up for a few hours by the time I got home. Now he may be alone all afternoon and evening. Something we understand is the hands we were dealt. He’s had to grow up a lot faster than most kids, learning to be on his own by ten.
It’s not always fair, but when you don’t have any other options, you have to accept it and move on.