Chapter 14
At seven thirty on a Thursday morning, Luc pulled into Lilith’s driveway, excited to get on the road.
He hurried to her door and grinned when it opened before he knocked.
Instead of greeting her with words, he took her face in his hands, bent down, and kissed her.
They broke apart several minutes later, both breathing hard.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, I just have these two bags here, but there’s more in the kitchen.”
“Let me take these out, and I’ll be right back.” He picked up the bags, surprised that there wasn’t a lot of weight to them, took them to the truck to store in the backseat with his own suitcase, then hurried back inside. He met her in the kitchen and frowned at her.
“What’s all this?” He pointed to everything spread out on the counters and table.
“First, I’m not cheap, not by a longshot.”
“I never said you were.”
“Okay, sorry about that, let me try to explain this. You know I’m twenty-eight, right?”
“Yes.”
“When I went to my first paranormal hotel, I was eighteen. This will be my tenth trip. I get so excited to get underway, that I always get up earlier than I should, but then the excitement kicks in and in my mind, if I stop for a meal, that will take away from my time to explore where I’m going once I get there. ”
“Okay,” Luc said with a smirk, and watched her as she expertly started putting things together.
“I know you enjoy things like we’re about to do, and it’s only a six hour drive, but I cooked us up some breakfast sandwiches we can eat on the way.
I also have some ham and cheese, and roast beef sandwiches we can eat for lunch.
I figured we could take a few extra minutes when we stop for gas, or eat them going down the road.
” She looked at him from beneath her lashes.
With a gigantic grin on his face, he walked over, gathered her in his arms, and hugged her tightly. He didn’t let her go for several minutes, not until her tense body started to relax.
“Thank you. I’m not saying that to placate you. I’m saying that because in my excitement to get here to pick you up, I failed to grab anything to eat for breakfast. I’m starving.”
“You’re not just saying that?” she asked, then laughed when his stomach growled.
“Okay, I only have English Muffins, but I have ham, bacon, or sausage, with eggs and cheese.”
“Yes,” he said, and picked up one of the sandwiches with sausage and bit into it.
He groaned and held up his hand for her to wait, and disappeared.
He came back with his travel mug and filled it from the full pot still sitting on the counter.
After he ate his second sandwich, they wrapped the others, along with the ones for lunch, made sure their mugs were full, everything was off, then as she grabbed her purse and made sure the house alarm was set, with the door locked behind her, they climbed into the truck and got underway.
They rode in comfortable silence until after they stopped for the first tank of gas, and once they were underway again, with bottles of water, and full coffee mugs, Luc reached over and took her hand is his.
They were on the expressway, and he set his speed control, settled back and looked over at her.
“I know this is probably none of my business, but could I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Whatever happened to that woman that tried to tell you that I was no good for you. The one that asked to use PTO time?”
“Crap, what a nightmare that turned out to be.”
“Can you talk about it?”
“I can now, since it’s all over with.” She sipped her coffee, gathered her thoughts, then turned in her seat slightly to face him.
“As I said months ago, she tried to tell me that you weren’t a good person, without even knowing you.
Then I proceeded to tell her about all the flawed men she had dated over the years.
We left that with me not being her friend until she apologized to me.
In the interim, I would be her boss only. ”
“Correct, I remember that, then she asked someone else to cover for her and asked to be paid with the time owed her.”
“Correct. That same day, if you recall, I made up the schedule for the next two weeks. The people that work for me have the same hours every day. It’s like if they had a factory job and worked a certain shift.
I learned early on that they didn’t like to have their hours changed.
Some of them were going to school, or had families, and their hours worked for them.
It took me roughly one month since becoming the lead librarian to learn this.
It hasn’t changed in seven years. Well, the only change I had to make was when one of them requested time off for a personal day or vacation. ”
“Wow, that must be an easy job. Not the entire one, but scheduling. I know I hate that the most when I’m doing my paperwork.”
“Yeah, I have wonderful people that work for me. Anyway, what you might not know is that whatever I do, scheduling, payroll, new library cards, ordering books, destroying books, charging late fees, everything has to have a copy sent to the district office.” At his furrowed brow, she sipped her coffee again, and gripped his hand.
“This might not be in all states, but here, a district is the county. I happen to be in charge of the largest library in our county. There are seven of them. The district librarian oversees all seven of them, and we all send in our paperwork and they keep it on file. Oh, we do too, but they have a copy.”
“Cover your ass situation?”
“Basically, yes.” She sighed and shook her head.
Instead of looking at him, she looked out his side window, or at his chest and became mesmerized by how it rose and fell as he breathed.
She shook her head, and smirked at his quirked brow.
“Anyway, when I put up that schedule, we were only two days into the current one, and the one I put up was for two weeks.”
“So, what was posted for almost three weeks?”
“Yes, and I never put up the new two week one until I received approval from the district. The day after Meg told me she was working for Sally, and she wanted PTO, Sally never called anyone again to fill in for her, nor did she work any of her hours for the next two weeks. As per our policy, if someone is a no call no show two hours after their start of shift, we document it in their personnel file, then contact district with an e-mail and a phone call.”
“Did you call her? To check on her?”
“No, one, it’s not my job. We are all adults, and if an adult can’t make it to work for their scheduled shift, it’s not my job to hold their hand. However, Meg and two others did. They were told to mind their own business and to stop bothering her. We did.”
“Oh, and Meg and Sue, the ones that reached out to Sally, contacted district and told them what was said.”
“Again, covering everyone’s asses.”
“Correct. Believe it or not, it came in handy.”
“How?”
“Six weeks after her last day of work, I get a letter in the mail asking for the details of why Sally was let go from her job.”
“But you didn’t fire her.”
“I know that. It was from the unemployment office. I took the next day, armed with my files, and went to the district office. Thankfully, it’s only six blocks from my library.
I talked to the manager, and we were able to get our lawyers involved.
It ended up that we went to court, and because she was classified as a no call, no show for two weeks, they, the unemployment office, determined that she quit her job with no notice.
” She shook her head sadly. “There was one thing that helped us besides all the paperwork we had.”
“What was that?”
“Sally never turned up at the proceedings. It wasn’t like it was a judge and jury, but it was a meeting with the unemployment board.
They determined she wasn’t eligible for benefits, because she quit with no notice.
That was the last time I ever heard anything about her. That was over three months ago.”
“I’m not saying this next part to be mean, but it doesn’t bother you not to know what she’s doing now?”
“At first, I was worried, but I happened to be someplace, I forget where, and I saw her with a group of people, laughing, having fun, acting like she didn’t have a care in the world.
I figured if she was happy, and living her life, then she doesn’t need to be in mine.
I know that might sound harsh, but I absolutely refuse to have someone with a track record like she has dictate how I am to live my life.
The last time I looked, I was over twenty-one and free to make my own decisions. ”
“Good for you,” Luc said as he picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. They were silent for at least half an hour before he sighed heavily.
“What is it?”
“It might not be anything, but it’s weighing on my mind.”
“Can you talk about it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, club business?”
“No, it’s not that.” He shook his head and glanced over at her. He sipped his coffee, sighed heavily, and concentrated on his driving. Lilith thought he wasn’t going to speak until he asked a question she never expected him to.
“How well do you get along with Starr?”
“Your sister?”
“Yes.”
“I like to think well. If we don’t hang out, we talk on the phone all the time.
She comes into the library to show me her latest designs, and I help her with books to get a more realistic look at what she’s interested in.
” At his scowl, she giggled. “You know that in Hollywood, Lucifer is depicted to have horns right, and is red?”
“Yes.”
“Well, actually, he is a fallen angel. God kicked him out of heaven, and he had wings. He later grew the horns while in Hell.”
“Are you telling me that Starr is going to put me in horns and wings?”
“Don’t know,” she giggled at the sound he made and his expression. “But Starr and I are close, I think since the first time I met her, which was two days before I met you, we talk at least four times a week.”