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All flustered, I rush to the back room. I knock first before going inside. Gabriel’s sitting on the floor with a notepad opened in front of him and a pencil in his hand, and there are stacks of books all around him.
“Oh, um, I’m sorry for bothering you, but there’s a girl out front asking for you and she seems kind of pissed.”
“Really? What does she look like?”
“Short black hair, kind of like a Goth-Punk nightmare.”
Gabriel laughs at my description and then says, “Oh, that’ll be Rita, I’ll be out in a sec.”
I hesitate at the door, waiting for him to get up, but he continues to scribble something down on his notepad. He looks up at me. “You can go back out Tegan, I’ll be a minute.”
“No, that’s okay I’ll wait for you. I don’t want to go back out to her alone, she looks like she wants to punch me in the face and I don’t even know her.”
He laughs again and rises to his feet. “You don’t need to be scared of Rita, she’s all talk, believe me.”
Then he walks out the door and I follow behind him. When we get back to the counter Rita is leaning against it with one hand on her hip, and her face is a picture of hostility.
“Why the hell haven’t I been informed about this?” she asks, pointing at me.
“Marcel deals with the hiring Rita, not me,” says Gabriel in a level voice.
“Well, I thought you guys were finally going to let me work here, and then I come in to find her working at the job I was supposed to be given.”
“I never heard Marcel say he was going to give you the job.”
“Oh whatever, you know as well as I do that I deserve it. I’ve been coming here for years, I know the place inside and out.” She gives me another look up and down.
“Don’t be rude, Rita,” says Gabriel, and for the first time he actually sounds angry. He seems older now, by decades. That certainly puts her in her place and she shuts up immediately. After a minute of silence she flutters her eyelashes and purrs, “I’m sorry Gabe, but you know how much I wanted that job.”
“Yeah well, I don’t think Marcel was ever going to hire you anyway, you know you piss him off too much.”
“Oh he loves me really,” she says in a falsely sweet voice.
“I don’t know about that,” replies Gabriel harshly.
“Well even if he doesn’t, I know you do honey bunch,” says Rita while putting her arm around Gabriel’s shoulders.
He shrugs out of her embrace and steps back. “Now is there anything else you wanted, because I have work to do.”
“Oooh, what kind of work? Need some help?” she asks excitedly.
“Just research, and no I don’t need any help, thank you.”
At this moment Marcel walks in the door and those chimes ring again, which is really beginning to irritate me.
“Hello Rita,” he says, “here to cause trouble I suppose,” while shoving his coat under the counter.
“Nope. Just meeting the new girl is all,” she replies.
“Ah, yes, speaking of which, how have you been getting on Tegan?”
“Fine, no problems so far.”
“Well that’s good to hear. Listen I’m going to shut up shop for lunch so we can make a start on our little study. Is that okay with you?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.”
“What study?” asks Rita, sounding annoyed.
