Rowena Flores has problems...and we're not just talking about her anger management issues. After cursing her cheating ex-boyfriend, this home goods cashier's life is turned upside down when a pack of werewolf shifters accuse her of being a murdering...
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Rowena Flores had calling into work down to an artform. Only amateurs used excuses like, "I'm sick." Her boss, Rolando Sanchez, was the store manager at Sweeter Homes and he hated when employees missed their shift. The "I'm sick" excuse didn't work on him. If you told Rolando you broke your leg, he'd say you could ring customers up while sitting down. If you told him you were vomiting all morning, he'd say you could clean the bathrooms and vomit while working. If you told him you were in labor with your firstborn child, he'd tell you to have the baby at the store—it would be free publicity.
Rowena eyed Abby warily as they waited for Rolando to answer her phone call. She had him on speaker as Abby sat next to her in the white room Rowena now knew was one of Cross' guestrooms. When the familiar deep and thickly accented voice of the fifty-year-old manager came on the phone, Rowena panicked.
"Rowena? Flores, is that you?" Rolando's angry voice vibrated through the phone. "Girl, you better have a real good reason why you missed work yesterday. That's a no-call, no-show. Automatic termination."
A shot of anger spiked up in her. "What? Are you serious, Rolando? You're going to fire me? After all the times I worked overtime for you?"
"You know the rules, Flores."
"Yeah, I also know you like to pour whiskey in your morning coffee while you're at work so don't tell me about rules, Sanchez." She hated how he used her last name to address her like he was a coach on a sports team.
"I see we've resorted to blackmail now," Rolando noted. "Gina had to cover your shift. She hates you now."
"Liar, that woman loves me."
"You're the liar. You're lying to yourself if you think Gina even likes you much less loves you. You know she hates working extra shifts."
That was not a lie. Gina hated working other people's shifts. She was an older woman in her fifties who had a serious smoker's cough and a deep voice so gravelly Rowena wondered if it hurt Gina to talk. Rowena didn't understand why Gina didn't just quit her job at Sweeter Homes. She'd tried to ask her once but Gina made some vague excuse about staying away from a stripper pole. Rowena frowned.
"Was Gina a stripper before working at Sweeter Homes?" Rowena asked Rolando. She didn't think fifty-year-olds were in high demand as strippers but she'd never been to a strip club except that one time she followed an ex-boyfriend. Needless to say, she didn't get to observe the women as she was too busy getting thrown out by a bouncer after getting into a yelling match with her ex.
She heard a choked sound before Rolando sputtered, "Flores, what are you talking about? Don't let Gina hear you say anything about her days as Tipsy. She will cut you."
Gina had a stripper name and it was Tipsy? Rowena couldn't believe it!
"Tipsy? Are you serious? She never mentioned it to me." Rowena huffed before stealing a glance at a perplexed looking Abby. Abby was holding Kitty as she listened to Rowena try to save her job. "Is she called Tipsy because she liked to drink or because she wanted more tips? I really cannot believe she never mentioned this to me."
