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Completely untrue, but she hadn’t realized the resentment other employees had harbored until her return. No one welcomed her back. Not one single person.
Mr. Stevenson made it clear in no uncertain terms that he didn’t even trust her to manage the coin-counter machine. At the weekly management meeting, on the first day of her return, he’d even refused to speak to her directly.
Instead, his secretary, Gladys, had relayed all his messages in a very painfully awkward and embarrassing three-person conversation, in front of everyone. He told her what he expected of her going forward. Which wasn’t too much. But there was a long list of infractions she would incur if she so much as looked in the wrong direction.
She would be fired if she came in late. She would be fired if she took too long of a lunch. She would be fired if she left early without taking official personal time. She would be fired pretty much for anything if it was possible. She carried the bank employee’s handbook around like her personal bible day to day, memorizing every word so as to avoid getting let go on a technical offense. The blazing message in her brain saying, “If you get fired or quit, they win.”
She didn’t want them to win. Ever.
Jack had made it so that her boss couldn’t strip her of her title or reduce her salary in retaliation for the recent court debacle, but her boss managed to punish her all the same.
He made her working conditions completely intolerable. The other employees were instructed to go through Gladys if they wished to discuss even the most minor of transactions with her.
Mr. Stevenson said it was because he said he wanted a witness to all of her personal interactions until further notice. Gladys, not surprisingly, became disdainful of her added “interacting communication” duties very quickly.
Since Abby’s entire workload had been farmed out to others during her so-called blameless suspension from the bank, Abby had nothing to do on a daily basis. Plus, she wasn’t given any new duties or new accounts. The days at work became incredibly long, but not because she was distracted by work. This light schedule gave her way too much free time for memories of Zane and Cooper and, additionally, how completely stupid she’d been in ending things with them.
For two weeks she’d arrived early, taken no lunch outside of the bank, instead eating at her desk in front of witnesses, and left late to keep from being fired. Her life had become excruciating. She was about to crack. The solace of her relationship with her men disappeared because she didn’t know what to say to mend things.
After several failed attempts to finish dialing the phone or to complete a text able to explain her cowardice, Abby decided she needed to see Zane and Cooper in person when she told them how sorry she was for never contacting them after her court appearance.
Truthfully though, the biggest push to do what she’d wanted to for two weeks had been from the letter she received yesterday. It was possible Zane and Cooper had done something to initiate the contents, even though neither of their names were mentioned inside. She was here to discover the truth and possible future about more than just her love life.
However, her primary reason had to do with her feelings. She was in love. She wanted to know if they felt the same way or if they were finished with her. If she had no chance with them, then she planned to ignore the note she’d received.
But if she had any chance left with them, she’d see it in their eyes. Abby truly wanted a chance with them, and not just because of how it would impact the contents of the letter.
She approached the sheriff’s office and immediately saw a crowd gathered in front. There was lively cheering, and she heard Zane’s name in the crowd once or twice.
What was going on here?
Abby worked her way past several layers of patrons trying to see what was going on. She finally elbowed her way to the inner circle, just as the crowd broke into a familiar chant. “We want the kiss! We want the kiss!”
Her gaze fixed on a smiling Zane sandwiched between two attractive women, each about to kiss him on either of his cheeks.
She sucked in a very audible shocked breath that no one heard because the crowd’s cheering was way too loud. The green monster of jealousy had never skirted her thoughts before today. But she knew that if she got near either of the women hugged up against Zane, clumps of their hair ripped from the roots of their skulls might very well be airborne in the very near future.
