Salmonella

Side Story - Atlas

🫧Atlas🫧

"Paint job for kitchen and living room..." I hold the phone to my ear with a shoulder while typing into our spreadsheet. "Great. I'll just need to know the colors you want and the dimensions of the area you need painted. If you look on our webbedsite, kelppaints.com, you'll find a color chart..."

Teal swims up to the desk. "Where's the job? I'll get ready now—"

I gesture for him to quiet, focusing on the customer. "Okay, thank you. And repeat your address for me...?"

When we hang up, I give Teal the customer's information and send Zig to fetch the paint cans for him. We help Teal carry them out to the sideswim.

"I got it, I got it," Teal assures me, taking one can in either hand like they weigh nothing. "Don't worry. You know how strong I am, Boss." With a wink, he frees one hand to start flexing a bicep for me, before Zig stops him.

"'Kay," I say dryly. Teal knows I hate it when he calls me "Boss." Him being 7 years my senior, it feels very patronizing. "You need me to call a car?"

"Nah, I can swim there. Won't be long."

"You sure you can carry them all the way there?" says Zig dubiously. We fold our arms, watching our strong man hesitate, lifting and lowering the cans a few times before changing his mind and asking seepishly for a cart. I mock flexing a muscle and he tries to pull me into a playful headlock. Luckily Zig returns with a cart from the basement before he can do any such thing, and together we load it with the cans. Teal heads out and Zig and I return to work.

I pull up the script for my latest acting gig on my phone and rehearse my lines for a while, keeping an eye on the time. Ella should be clocking in right about now. Why isn't she here yet?

She's probably on her way. Give it another minute.

I sing along to the backing track for my solo. Practice my choreo. Redo my makeup. She's still not here. Where the hell is she?

I'm so mad that I end up poking my eye with the mascara wand. I struggle to fix my screwup with one hand while I call Ella with the other.

Why isn't she picking up?

"Get over here now," I bite out when she finally answers, blinking really hard until my eye stops burning. She cries some half-assed apology that I can't hear a single word of, too busy finishing my makeup and making sure I don't have an eye infection. I start to wonder why she hasn't hung up yet, but when I look back at the screen I see—shit—she's... changing—pulling her shirt over her head and forgot I can SEE her—

I slam the end button so hard my phone does a flip and starts floating off the desk.

Shit. That was close.

Damn you Benthic, you did that on purpose to make me flustered. You had to have ... But it's Ella, I remind myself. She can be kinda clueless at times. No, not kinda. Very.

Then when I look out the window later to see her looking ridiculous pleading with a dolphin, I'm sure of it. There's no way this girl would have intentionally teased me like that.

I grab her and pull her into the shop, away from the poor service dolph she's accosting.

But then when I try to order her to work, she teases me and makes me flustered, confusing me all over again. Did she do it on purpose? But Ella's definitely not the type to risk her job stripping in front of her boss... Agh, whatever! I send her off to work so this confusing girl can stop messing with my emotions and distract myself with reading over the lines I already have memorized for the hundredth time. Teal gets back from his paint job earlier than expected; Zig rushes to go count the money and store the half-empty paint cans away so he has something to do. I mark today's paint job as completed on the spreadsheet and type in the amount of money made. Then I'm in the middle of rehearsing when a customer finally swims up to the shop.

But it's just Gen. Turns out the dolph Ella rode here was actually the one Gen reserved and Ella stole the ride from them. God, why don't I just stab my other eye while I'm at it? Damn it, Ella. Can't stay out of trouble a single second. It's only Gen, but if that had been someone else, this could have gotten really bad. My mind goes horrible places. Like if the people who reserved a ride had been... Gen's parents. Shit. I don't know how I'd get Ella out of that one. I'd probably have to geyser her so they don't close down the store or something. 

Nah, who am I kidding? Gen's parents wouldn't be caught dead using dolphin service. They ride cars everywhere. Those rich bitches could learn a thing or two about humbleness from their child.

I excuse myself with finding the first-aid kit for Gen, but end up staying in the back room as long as possible, just waiting it out. Because I know what Ella wants—for me to go out there and either defend her or give Gen a distraction so they can't yell at her. But I'm not going to do that. My job here is more than just managing a store; it's teaching my employees how to deal with what this world throws them.

Like I said, Ella can be kinda clueless. I need her to learn how to be strong and get through issues herself. Of course Gen won't do anything to her, I know that—but I'll just let her think she's actually in trouble. See how she can wriggle herself out of this situation. Yeah.

This'll be fun.