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The Worst Day
Emily
“You’re fired!”
“What?” All the blood drained from Emily’s face as she stared at Ron, the manager who had been harassing her for months. She put up with his leers, his barely veiled innuendos, and his occasional accidental touches, all because she desperately needed this job. She couldn’t be fired.
“You heard me.” He smirked at her. “You’re fired. We don’t have enough hours for you.”
Still holding her apron, which she’d just taken off, she felt her hands start to shake. She’d just finished a double shift, and she was scheduled for another one tomorrow. Which she didn’t mind because it meant that she could eat two staff meals at the diner, saving her a lot of money. She got most of her meals from the diner. Without a job…
“But I’m on the schedule!”
Ron shrugged, his smirk growing into a leer as his gaze traveled up and down her body, lingering on her curves. She had plenty of them. While she might not eat enough at home, subsisting on mostly restaurant meals and noodles meant she kept the frame she’d inherited from her mother.
“If you want to convince me to keep you on…” He let his voice trail off, his hand moving over his body down to his crotch. Emily felt tears spring to her eyes, and she pressed her lips together to keep her sob in her throat. Every part of her body ached, her feet felt like they were twice their normal size, she smelled like grease, and he wanted…
I should just do it. The thought was born out of despair. What other option did she have?
They were in the back hallway, right near the manager’s office. Definitely not how Emily imagined losing her virginity. Maybe she could offer him a blow job instead? Not that she’d ever given anyone one of those, either. There was a small part of her that still wanted to hold on to the dream of romance and gentleness and… and… something more.
Definitely something more than losing it to a serial sexual harasser. She didn’t know why Ron bothered her. He wasn’t bad looking and had a decent body. Women flirted with him all the time. Their clientele all found him charming—so she knew he could be—but for some reason, he got off on bothering her.
And now he was threatening to fire her unless she…
The door to the manager’s office opened, making Emily jump. She clutched her apron to her chest, as if she could keep from having to let it—or her job—go as long as she held on to it. Marianne Webster, the owner of the diner, stepped out. It was the first time Emily had ever been glad to see the woman, who was hard as nails and had never smiled once. She insisted on everyone calling her by her first name since this was a ‘family establishment,’ but that was the closest she came to being friendly.
Petite, grey-haired, and dark-eyed, the woman put her hands on her hips and glared at both Ron and her.
“I don’t pay you to stand around gossiping,” she snapped at him. Her steely gaze moved to Emily. “Did he tell you we have to let you go?”
The question was a smack in the chest. Emily didn’t know what else to do, so she nodded dumbly, her mind completely blank. Her entire world was being upended, and she couldn’t even think, much less speak.
“Good. Nothing personal, ya know. I have two nieces who need jobs, and my sister expects me to help them out.” Marianne rolled her eyes, shaking her head, but clearly, her sister had won that fight if they were taking Emily’s job. “Not enough hours to go around with both of them coming on. If you need a reference, get one from Ron. Ron, get back to work.”
With a wave of her hand, Marianne was already turning to walk away. Ron grimaced and skittered past Emily down the hall toward the kitchen. It was only after he brushed past her that she realized he had been trying to get her to do things with him when he clearly had no power over whether or not she kept her job. Asshole.
It didn’t matter.
Marianne was the one she needed to talk to.
Shaking off her frozen muscles, Emily darted after the owner, who had just disappeared through the staff door to the parking lot.
“Marianne!” she called out as she pushed the door open.
Almost at her car, which was in the closest parking spot, Marianne turned to look at Emily, lighting up the cigarette hanging from her mouth as she did so. Her eyebrows raised, she tilted her head, the only indication she was waiting for Emily to speak.
“Please, I can’t lose this job completely. There have to be some hours I can pick up?—-”
Shaking her head, Marianne put her palm up to stop Emily.
“No can do. With two of them coming on, there’s not going to be any hours left, and there are no other open positions here. Sorry.” The apology sounded completely insincere, especially as it was made while Marianne was getting in the car. “Go in and tell the cook that I said you could take a meal home. Don’t forget to put Ron down if you need a reference for your next job.”
Hope died as Marianne slammed the door behind her, only taking a moment before peeling out of the parking lot. Not that Emily had had much hope left. Closing her eyes, she took deep breaths through her nose, so she didn’t start crying in the parking lot.
She still had to go back in and get the food Marianne had offered. There was no way she could turn that down, even though it meant possibly running into Ron again. She also had no illusions about what kind of reference he would give her if she asked him for one.
