"Yeah. One trip through the car wash, and it's gone."
"So your friends," I said. "Those two guys. Was their car painted? Or was that just shoe polish too?"
"Shoe polish, totally," she said. "Their car's fine now. Joey and Paul are still pissed, but hey, that's guys for ya. No sense of humor."
I felt myself swallow. Pissed or not, their car was fine. My car was fine. The only car that wasn't fine was Lawton's. And he'd done that at my prompting, even if that hadn't exactly been my intention.
"So," Amber said, "do you accept my apology or what?"
"I guess so," I said.
"Awesome," she said, reaching for her menu. "Because I'm in the mood for pancakes. You serve them all day, right?"
An order of pancakes and a spiked orange juice later, Amber was gone. And she actually left me a pretty decent tip.
I still wasn't sure how I felt about her so-called apology, but I had to give her credit for trying. If nothing else, she had been wearing clothes at the time, which was more than I could say for Brittney.
When my shift was over, I went to the back room and checked the schedule, posted on the back bulletin board. Looking at it, I felt my blood pressure spike and my gaze narrow. Keith changed the schedule, alright – just not in any way that would make me happy.
"That little weasel," I said.
Chapter 30
Josie was passing through on her way to the back door. "What now?" she asked.
"That stupid Keith," I said. "Get this. I'm on the schedule for five days next week, but for three of them, I'm on training duty."
"Oh man, that sucks," Josie said.
"Yeah, and check this out. Wanna know who I'm training?"
Josie sidled next to me and looked. Her brow wrinkled. "Brittney Adams? Is that the blonde who came in to see Keith the other night?"
"Yup."
Josie winced. "Ouch. Poor you."
"No. Poor Keith," I said. "Because right after I'm done here, I'm gonna strangle him."
"Good luck with that," she said. "He left like an hour ago."
I looked around. "Then who's in charge?"
Josie shrugged. "Got me. The day shift manager starts at six."
"But that's not for another hour," I said. Even for Keith, this was beyond strange. "So there's no manager on duty?"
"Not anymore." She grinned. "Unlessyouwant the job."
"Hell no," I said. "What I need is a real job."
"Hey, you and me both."
"Do you know, I sent out like twenty resumes last month?" I said. "Not that it did any good."
"You think you got it bad?" she said. "My brother? He's got a master's degree. Wanna know where he's working?"
"Where?"
