𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝, 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐧

16. Caution Ahead

     Please don't poke at my phony happiness, lady. "Hey..." I was approaching the situation with extreme caution, carefully coming around the desk to enter the small area I made into a home in her absence. Rick could've warned me.

"Well look at you, miss thang!" At least her happy-side was out to play. Judy jumped out of her seat and gave me a huge hug. "Oh, Ivy, I love it!" It took her touching my hair to realize that's what she was bouncing about.

"Thank you."

"You look like a movie star, girly."

As she returned to her chair, babbling about her emergency trip to Oklahoma, the corner of my eye detected the vibrancy beside my foot. My carnation puppy was sitting at the bottom of the trashcan. "Um, Judy?" Throwing down my purse, I dropped to my knees to carefully rescue the white and yellow flowers. "Did you throw this away?"

"Yes, I sure did," she answered with pride. "No real plants at the desk, you should know that. It's office etiquette."

"Was it bothering you?"

"Are you sassing me?"

"I just think it's really inconsiderate of you to welcome yourself back by disrespecting my personal space. Sure you can have a Twizzler but I can't believe you just threw this away." The arrangement was completely ruined, as if she dunked it and then stomped her foot in the bucket. "So rude."

"Oh child, please. Carnations don't last long anyway. It was on its last life. The florist can make you another one. Just don't bring it here."

"Or maybe you should bring your ass back to Oklahoma," I mumbled to myself, still picking out pieces from the wastebasket. Couldn't even find his beaded little eyes. "This is so ridiculous. It was a gift for crying out loud."

Judy was forcing herself to laugh towards my brand-new attitude. "Miss Ivy done chopped off her hair and sharpened her tongue."

Clearly, my day was tarnished from the start. Screw optimism.

At noon, I made sure to take my lunch first. In the kitchen, I grabbed my spinach and feta pie from the fridge and was greeted by a friendly smile when I shut the door. "Hi," I replied, pushing a quick grin on my way to the microwave.

"Ya hair lookin' real good," he said following behind me. "You look beautiful."

I looked at rude boy like he was crazy as I stuck my food in the microwave. "Uh, thanks..." Since my first day, he hadn't uttered one sentence to me.

"What made you chop it all off?"

"I got a wad a Bubblicious stuck in my bun last night." I was pleased to see him laugh at my corny joke. "What's your name again?"

"Rodney. But everybody call me Big Rod."

"Typical security-dude nickname." They were all Big something.

"For some of us, it's really about what's underneath."

"Underneath?"

"The clothes."

Ewww. With half my lip under my teeth, I quickly hit CANCEL on the microwave. What difference would 42 seconds make?

"Damn, girl. I was talking about my heart, ya' dig?"

"Mm-hm." Goodbye, Mr. Milk Duds. That's what his chocolate bald head reminded me of. And he had the nerve to be wearing a gold t-shirt too.