A Story To Tell | Book 2

.6.

:::CHRIS:::

"You did a good job today, Chris."

One of my employees said as she came inside of the office where I was seated, trying to tally up everyone's hours for the past two weeks. I'd come across an error and I'd been stuck on it for damn near an hour and I was ready to get out of here.

Ever since Vanessa sent me a message from Facebook, I've been worried as to why she wasn't coming over to spend the night with me like we'd planned. And due to the fact that she wasn't feeling good, I was just going to stop by and see if she was okay. Maybe, I'd spend the night with her instead so that I can take care of her. I love nursing people back to health, which is why I felt I was in the wrong career branch. But I loved working in high-end restaurants and being in charge.

Turning around, I meet eyes with India, one of the girls I'd just hired about three weeks ago. She reminded me a lot of Chilli from TLC with her brown skin complexion and her sandy brown, curly hair. She had her hair pulled up in a high messy bun and her white button up shirt was no longer tucked in her black slacks, and was halfway buttoned down, showing off a black sports bra.

"Thank you." I said, turning my attention back to what was going on with one of my employees' hours.

This girl, Deon, has been trying to pull a wool over my eyes since I've started. I guess I don't look so smart, but she's been trying to cheat her hours. I don't know what she's got going on, but every time I get to the hours she's worked, I always find an error. Normally, I let the computer calculate the hours, but someone had hinted to me that Deon had gotten over on the last manager and built up hours that she didn't work.

Obviously, somebody was helping her gain her hours and I was determined to find out who. I was going from the time sheets, back to the computer, damn near frustrated.

I guess India could tell because she walked over to me and rested her hand on my shoulder, causing for me to jump a bit. I wasn't used to having girls just come up and touch me like that. She smirked at me, looking from the time sheet to my eyes through my nerd glasses that I often wore whenever I needed to focus on something up close.

"What are you doing?" She asked me.

See, I knew India had a thing for me since the day that I'd hired her. I just refused to pay her attention. But she's a really good worker and makes it easier for me not to have to work so hard. She was my assistant, but she spent most of her time out there on the floor with everyone else and away from me. But when I had to work double shifts with late hours, she'd come accompany me whenever everyone else was closing up.

I normally don't allow anyone in the back in my office unless I call for them, but considering that she was working closer to me than anyone else, I didn't mind her coming and going.

"Have you been keeping a close eye on Deon?" I asked her.

See, we've talked about this same situation two days after I'd hired her and she promised to keep a close eye on Deon and whoever that has been helping her accumulate those good ass hours. Deon barely showed up for work and somehow, she was always on top when it came to checking the hours. She worked more and made more than everybody and she didn't even come in often.

"I haven't found out anything. And people refuse to talk to me. I'd even pulled the girl Sidney to the side and she just looked at me as if I'd asked her if she was on welfare or something." India shook her head. "I see being the assistant manager gets me no love." She joked. I shook my head with a smile and erased a few of Deon's numbers.

"I know for a fact Deon hasn't even worked these hours on the computer. Somebody's been keeping track for her. I've only seen Deon twice in the last two weeks and somehow, she's worked a whole eighty-nine hours. Something just ain't right about this." I say, the frustration all in my voice.