"Oh for Pete's sake, do I really need to spell this out?"
"I'm all ears," he said.
"Fine. That little picture of you and Brittney? I bet the district manager would just love to see it."
He nodded. "Yep. I bet he would." He put on a sad face. "Except they won't. How sad for them."
"What do you mean?"
He gave me an oily grin. "Rumor has it, that cell phone of yours? Big memory problems. Missing pictures, wrong data. Oh well, that's the breaks, huh?" He made a shooing motion toward the door. "Back to work now."
Damn it.
I glared at him. "You broke into my locker. Didn't you?"
"Me? Why would I do that?"
"To delete that picture, that's why."
"Sounds likesomebody'sa little paranoid," he said.
This time, I was the one smiling. "You know what? You're right. I am."
His eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
"Yeah. Totally. That's why I texted that nice little picture to a friend of minebeforeit disappeared from my phone." I put on my own sad face. "Awwww. How sad for you."
His gaze narrowed. "You're bluffing."
"You sure about that?" I crossed my arms. "So. About that schedule?"
"Oh alright," he muttered. "I'll change it before your shift is done."
"Good. Because I'll be checking."
"But just so you know, it's not because you threatened me. It's because –" suddenly, his face brightened "—because you deserve this."
I squinted at him. That weasel was up to something. I just knew it. "When you change it," I said, "remember to give me more days, not less."
"Not a problem," he said.
Damn it. He still looked too happy. "Five days," I said. "Not three, not four. Alright?"
"Yup. Got it." He glanced toward his office door. "So, you gonna be waitressing any time soon?"
Wordlessly, I turned around and marched toward the door. Just before I got there, I stopped and turned around. "And none of those two-hour shifts either. I want full shifts, like I usually get."
"Yeah, yeah," he said, reaching into his top drawer for the catalog. "Shut the door, will ya? I got work to do."
Two hours into my shift, I still hadn't figured out his angle. I knew how Keith worked. He'd find some loophole, and I'd be screwed.
Thank God I hadn't been lying. Ihadtexted the picture to Erika. But between our argument and everything else going on, I never confirmed she still had it.
She wouldn’t delete it, would she?
I was still mulling this over when I hustled toward my next table and was hit by another unwelcome surprise.
Skank. Party of one.
