Anthony: Jess just asked to pick up more shifts this week. What do you want me to do?
I frowned, reading his text as Ashton and I were heading to one of our warehouses.
“What is it?”
I showed him the screen before texting him back.
Me: She’s a normal employee. Think she’d be pissed you’re asking me how to handle it.
Ashton had leaned over and read what I’d responded. He snorted, taking my phone out of my hands, and he scrolled through it before hitting a button, putting it to his ear.
“Why are you asking for more shifts at my nightclub?”
Jesus. He called Jess. On my phone.
“I’m here with him, but you got me. Yeah.” A pause. “Anthony wanted to know our thoughts. You should be happy to know that your man said you’re a normal employee, you should be treated as such. He passed the buck back to Anthony, but I’m curious. I have it on good authority that your evenings are usually filled up, by you know, you getting fil—”
I plucked the phone from him and settled back. “Don’t shoot my best friend. I inherited him as a moron.”
“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Her voice was restrained. That was never fine.
I lowered my voice. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m taking time off from work for a bit. Could use the hours.”
“What do you mean when you say you’re taking time?”
“Oh, damn,” Ashton said under his breath.
I ignored him. “Jess. What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Now I’m worried.”
She sighed into the phone. “Look, could you do me a favor and tell Anthony to put me on every night?”
“What about me?”
She half laughed, half did her own snort into the phone. “You are busy doing what I don’t want to know you’re doing, but I know you’re busy. I’m a workaholic, Trace, and my full-time gig just got put on hold for a bit. I’m going to go crazy if I actually have time on my hands.”
That was not good, not about her not knowing how to handle downtime but about the job. “I’m sorry, Jess. I know you loved doing what you did.”
“Yeah. Well. I just need to be busy right now. Mom and all.”
“I’ll let him know. He’ll fill your schedule.”
“Thank you. And, um, when are you coming back tonight?”
“Since you’ll be working, I might be later than I’d intended.”
“Maybe you can swing by and give me a ride from Katya?”
“That sounds very domestic. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me too.”
I wished Ashton wasn’t in the vehicle with me but also wished I wasn’t in this vehicle heading an hour out of the city. “You want me to come back? Ashton can handle this. It’s not imperative that I’m in attendance.”
“Hey!” Ashton gave me a dark look.
I ignored him, waiting for her response.
“I think working is the best thing for me right now. I’ll see you when you get back.”
She hung up, and I stared at the phone for a second.
“What? No goodbyes? No ‘I love you’ yet?”
“Shut up.”
“Man,” Ashton grumbled. “If you two don’t move faster, you’ll be dead like the dinosaurs.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Means you’re going fast. I was being a dipshit.”
“When are you not.”
“When I’m—”
“It was not a question. I wasn’t asking.”
“I’m aware, but please. Let me answer anyway. I enjoy that shit.”
Ashton aside, that wasn’t good. Jess and I were still learning about each other, but I knew she needed to be busy. She’d never not been busy since I’d met her. She did not understand how people slept in on their day off. It wasn’t that she wasn’t aware of what it meant. It was that she literally couldn’t comprehend why people would do that.
She hadn’t iced me out. She’d shared about the work, but I knew better.
“Job, huh? She’s not fired?”
We knew this would happen, though Jess and I had not sat down and talked about how to handle this when it did happen.
“I’m guessing. She said she was taking time off. That’s code for—”
“Getting fired.”
“Or suspended?”
Ashton thought about it. “She was probably suspended. So the firing will happen later when they realize she’s still going to be at your place every night.”
“If that happens.”
My gut was churning. I knew it would happen, but I didn’t like hearing about it, and I didn’t know how to process how she was handling it. She shared, but she also didn’t share. Would she share later? Was she one to talk about her feelings? I couldn’t see Jess being that type of woman. I hadn’t known her to be that type of woman. She moved. She kept busy. That’s how she handled life.
“You love her, right?”
That question was a shock. “Yeah. Why?”
He had pulled his own phone out and was scrolling through it. “She’s not a woman that’s fickle. She knew what she was doing when she chose you. She said the actual words. Whatever this is, you don’t need to be spooked by it.” He paused in his scrolling, looking at me. “She’s one of the toughest women I know. The literal definition of ride or die. This, her job, is going to be nothing for you guys. You’ll figure it out. You don’t need to worry about her. She’s got it handled until you pick her up tonight. She asked for you to do that. That’s her telling you she’ll need you, but it won’t be till tonight. Till after you both do your jobs. She might be annoying as fuck for what career she likes to do, but you, my brother, got a good one.”
I grinned. “There you go. Being annoying and a dumbass, telling me nothing that I don’t already know.”
He smirked back.
He knew I appreciated it.
Anthony: She just picked up shifts for every single night except Sunday. Do not shoot me. She informed me that’s what she wanted and you told me to treat her like a normal employee. I’d be stupid not to take up her offer, but I also enjoy having a job so don’t shoot the messenger.
Anthony: Please.
