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While he talked, my eyes were scanning the perimeter, looking for a flash in the fore or background. Waiting for her to spring, I thought bitterly.
“You seem… spacey,” Big Bob said slowly, as though testing out the words, worried that the wrong one might set me off.
“I’ve just got shit on my mind,” I replied, tone brusque, uninterested in dialoguing with such a prick. “And I’ve got a favor to ask.”
“With a tone like that? I don’t think so.”
I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but I kept my cool.
“I need an advance on my salary.”
“What the hell makes you think you’re going get that?” Big Bob was more amused than offended, really.
“Well, I watched you manhandle a young woman yesterday, and I’d be willing to testify on that. Should that not work out, I could also tell them about all your tax evasion schemes.”
Big Bob’s eyes went wide, showing their yellows. The white had long been clouded over with a sickly color.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would, Bob.”
“You think I’m gonna be threatened?” he blustered. “And in my own shop? No way, no how.”
This was getting frustrating. “I’ve got about two more seconds of etiquette left in me before I start to get less nice. Please advance my salary.”
“You don’t sound like you wanna keep working here,” Big Bob observed with fair accuracy.
“It’s the only job I’ve got. And if I have to—” I broke off, trying to find the right words, “if I leave for any reason, if I can’t make up the work, I’ll pay it back to you.”
“Ha! Like I’m supposed to believe that. I’m no sucker.”
I leaned in close, towering over his small frame. “Unlike you, I’m a man of my word. I promise that if you don’t give it to me, I’ll call the tax department. And I promise that if you do and I skip town, I’ll make it up. So. The money. Now.”
That did it. I saw Big Bob’s face crumple with fear, and the knowledge that I was absolutely dead serious on all counts.
“Fine,” he spluttered. “But only because you caught me in a good mood.”
Somehow I doubted that, but didn’t much care to argue. Big Bob spat on the ground next to me, almost on my fine leather boots, and strode back inside, cursing to himself with every step. I should’ve been able to take some small joy in my victory, but instead, I felt empty. Being harsh wasn’t in my nature, even with a man like Big Bob. Besides, it was hard to rejoice when I felt the chill of Meghan, metaphorically breathing down my neck.
Big Bob returned not long after, carrying a couple hundred dollars in cash.
“I knew you would give me shit about writing a bad check,” he grumbled, passing the money on to me. “So here’s your cash. Now, you gonna get to work?”
I rifled through the money, counting that it was all there. “Sorry, I can’t today.”
“So I give you an advance, and you won’t even stick around to work?”
I shook my head. “Not today.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And tomorrow? How about then?”
“Tomorrow… I don’t know.”
That was the God’s honest truth. I wasn’t sure whether Henry and I were skipping town or what. It seemed probable, though not decided. There were a million and one factors, none of which I could pin down just yet. In any case, I knew that it wouldn’t hurt to have some cash on hand, should it come to that.
“One more thing,” I added.
“You aren’t being serious.”
“Certainly am. If I don’t make it here tomorrow—”
“You mean if you leave town,” Big Bob said. He was a dick, but he was fast on the uptake.
“Whatever I mean. Should I not be here, and for whatever reason Phoebe and her friend Jo-Beth show back up asking for the car, fix it for them. The part will be in by then — it’s a simple fix. Do it for them, okay?”
This was the final thing I had to do. I hoped to hell that Phoebe and Jo-Beth had already hit the road, were already speeding far off into the California sunshine… but if not, I needed to make a contingency plan. Even though I’d sworn to leave Phoebe behind me and said that I couldn’t protect her — well, that was one promise I’d break. I had to do what little I could. If that meant getting Big Bob to fix her car? So be it. Though if there was any mercy in the world, she’d be on the road by now.
Big Bob nodded, but added, as though to perennially remind me of his idiocy, “But only because I need their money.”
So be it. I wasn’t gonna change the man in one conversation, and being somewhere in his fifties, his shitty personality was pretty much set in.
