"Benji! Get your fuckin' ass in here," Mr. Boothe shouted from his office.
Mr. Booth was yelling for me again.
My name is Ben, short for Benjamin. Benjamin Carter. I'm 24 years old. I have blond hair and hazel eyes. I'm pretty short at only 5'7" and a little bit too skinny. I don't think I'm anything special to look at. I'm painfully shy and I'm not the most manly of guys, and being gay doesn't help, especially given my work environment.
I've worked at Ace's Trucking and Storage Company for the past five years. I started out as a shipping clerk on the dock, then got promoted to dispatcher two years ago. Because there was already a Big Ben and a Little Ben working here when I started, I got the unfortunate luck of being called Benji.
We have a huge storage warehouse that companies rent for overflow inventory. We have a group of drivers that make those transfers throughout the day, plus a handful of warehouse workers that drive pallet jacks and load and unload trucks. Most of our routes are local to the surrounding counties, but we do have the occasional long haul. As a dispatcher, I help plan the transfers and routes for the truck drivers.
One of the truckers that used to work here knew my dad. Dad was not the most supportive of me, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, he told my co-worker I was a 'fag'. It did not take long for it spread all over the company.
All of my co-workers ignore me for the most part. I don't mind it too much, since I have always been a loner.
Upon hearing Mr. Boothe yelling for me, the other dispatcher, Mona, looked at me and shrugged. Mona was a 40-something single lady who dressed like she was in her twenties. Not that she wasn't good looking. She had a nice figure and was pretty, but she gave off that cougar vibe. She was dating one of the young truckers, a guy in his late twenties.
I got up from my desk and walked into Mr. Boothe's office.
Mr. Boothe was a handsome man in his forties. I've always had a little bit on an attraction to older guys, and Mr. Booth was undeniably hot. He had hazel eyes, brown thinning hair with a goatee and moustache. He was built big, with a little bit of a pot belly. Unfortunately, his personality was so repulsive that it negated any hotness or attraction that I could have felt for him. He was mean and homophobic and he scared the crap out of me.
"Y-y-yes, sir?" I stammered as I stepped in front of his desk.
"You fucked up Chuck's route," he groused.
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Yeah, you're sorry. Now apologize. Christ, you are fucking worthless. Get the fuck out of my office!"
Mr. Boothe threw the route sheets at me. I picked them up and returned to my desk. I wiped the tears from my eyes and tried to figure out what I did wrong on Chuck's route.
