'He's going to make me owe him?' I think to myself, then I say to Lucas, "What do you mean?"
"Well, it means that you'll have to treat me to lunch sometime to make up for today. I thought at first that me being a Prosecutor scared you away, so to prove me wrong you have to treat me to lunch."
"Is it gentlemanly to let a woman pay for the meal? I mean I'm all for women empowerment and women taking the lead, but I do still believe that there are gentlemen out there."
"I would never let you pay but you get to pick the place, time and date. In other words, it's a date."
"A date? I beg to differ."
"Why?"
"Because you're forcing my hand to go out for lunch."
He squints his eyes into small slits, "Am I really? As far as I see it, I know that you really want to come out for lunch with me."
Two small circles form on my cheeks, just as I was about to say something a voice from behind me says, "Here I thought that fraternizing with customers isn't allowed."
Speaking to Lucas, "Excuse me." speaking to Joy, "I believe that those are your rules, Yolanda is the store manager not you."
She makes her eyes into small slits, I continue to say, "If you want to get back to work then you say that but not to talk to the customer."
Joy says in a loud whisper, "Smart-ass."
I squint my eyes while placing my hand around my ear as if I didn't hear what she said, "What did you just say?"
A small sigh escapes from her "I said for you to stop talking and get back to work."
Placing my hand back to my side, two small circles form on my face as my eyes meet his ocean blue orbs. "I'm sorry, I have to get back to work. Perhaps we can discuss this another."
Lucas grabs my hand, "How about tonight?" Placing something hard into my hand which feels a lot like paper. He walks away from me and I look down to look at my hand, but just before walking out the door, "We'll talk tonight."
Two small circles form on my face, I nod my head and he walks through the door. Looking down into my hand to see a folded up piece of paper in my hand. Joy then says, walking from behind the counter towards me on the floor. "By the way Kemille you try repeating what you did today like that, I'll have no choice but to go through the higher ups to get you out of here and on your ass."
"You know, Joy I have a bit of news for you— you have no power whatsoever. And even if you did go above Yolanda, they'll ask why you didn't go through the chains of command. You'll need good enough proof to show that I'm a troublesome worker."
"Well I'll tell them that Yolanda is too close to you, to be reasonable about you. That's why I skipped the chains of command."
A small scoff escapes from my mouth, "You moron, you and I both know that Yolanda makes good reasonable judgment on all of us. Unlike you, she can departmentalize herself between work and personal. The only person she shows true mercy for is you and even then, it's forced." Folding my arms over my chest, "So you tell me who's squirming on the floor now. Joy, don't speak to me for the rest of the day, I'm going to pretend as if this conversation never took place, got it?"
Joy rolls her eyes and walks back behind the counter as I continue to pack out the rest of the cookies and croissants. Walking back into the department, to grab some more containers and a silver rack filled with pies and danishes of different flavors. Packaging them up and stacking them up on the black cart.
"Man, it's quiet like a graveyard around here and I gotta be in here with the Grinch." Oren says walking past Joy who turns to look over her shoulder at him. He then continues to say, talking to me "She's looking at me— isn't she?"
A small smile graces my face while moving my head from up and down. Oren continues to say, talking to Joy, "Hey girl, how have you been?"
She turns to look at him and she picks up her middle finger at him. As someone watching from the sidelines, I shake my head from side to side, Oren then says, "Anytime." he winks, turns around and heads to the back to start doing bake off.
Joy then says, "Ugh-- he's such an asshole. I can't believe that a guy like that even works here."
I turn to face her and say, "You should've known how perverted his mind is, you kind of put yourself in that kind of predicament to get that kind of response from him."
"So. You'd think he would never say something like that to me, though. I'm his boss."
My eyes turn into two small slits, "Are you really? Technically speaking, his boss is Yolanda, at least in the store she is. Then there's our bosses in corporate, you know the big cheese."
Joy rolls her eyes at me, swaying her hand in the air at me, placing her attention on pricing cookies and piling them on the second black cart. I can't stand this woman period-- but then again who can, I'm not the only one. 'Hahaha-- hehehe' I laughed to myself internally. I shake my head at myself, that's how you know that I'm tired as hell.
"Oh, the bitch is here." Fei says to me as I look up to see her walking towards the bakery section behind the register, walking past Joy who's looking at her with her eyebrow cocked up.
"You know, Oren did the same thing to her earlier. She caught an attitude and I guess you can fill in the blanks."
Fei shakes her head from side to side, "Oren is such a perv. That boy needs to get laid." She grabs to black cart that's filled with pies and danishes for the fall. "Better not let him hear you say that. You know that kid be sayin' some really sick shit."
A small chuckle escapes from her mouth, "Girl, you ain't lyin. The night I closed with that sick bastard, he told me that when he goes home. He thinks about all the women customers he missed out on because he's in the back doin' bake off. They couldn't get some of this chocolate drizzle on them."
My face scrunches up, "He really said that, to you?"
"Yes. If looks could kill, I would've had him dead." Fei says while exiting the department to pack out.
Suddenly behind me I hear a deep voice saying, "Did I just hear the beautiful Goddess Fei Chan?" I turn around to come face to face with Oren, just as I'm about to speak another voice from behind me says, "You must be joking? She's a dyke okay, what would Fei want with a little boy like you."
Turning to come face to face with Joy, "First off, that's extremely homophobic. Second off if…"
I'm cut off by Oren, who places his hand over my shoulder to move me aside and steps up to Joy, "Don't you dare call her dyke again. At least she's got personality and heart, she can be my Miss Independent any day. It's women like Kemille, Fei, and Yolanda that I respect outside my Mama, but if I ever hear you speaking ill of her in my presence Imma do more than have a conversation."
"Are you threatening me, Oren?" Joy says, placing her right hand on her hip.
Suddenly behind me, I can hear Fei's voice say, "Did I miss something interesting?"
While Joy and Oren were going back and forth, "Something like that, Oren heard Joy call you a dyke. I was gonna say something to her, next thing I know he's pushing me aside."
"That's all?" She says as if it doesn't bother her. My eyebrows scrunch up together, "People have called me a dyke since I was a teenager. The word used to bother me, but if she thought that word was going to bring me down. Then perhaps she should be punched in the face."
Fei and I begin to laugh together as Joy and Oren continue their argument, "We should stop them, that looks so unprofessional in front of the customers." We walk over to them to stop the ongoing argument between them.
Fei raises her hand and it connects to Oren's face, everyone stops to look at them and she says, "Thank you. I'd kiss you, if you were a woman, but you're not. The word dyke doesn't bother me, but I appreciate you defending me like that. Arguing with an ignorant dumbass isn't even worth it-- small FYI."
I notice Joy looking over at them with her eyebrow raised up. Oren gives her a hug and so surprisingly Fei accepts it, no problem. She turns her head to the side and notices on the pricing machine that it says 2:30pm. Pushing him off of her, "I've got to go. Oren have a safe night," she turns to look at me, "Sis, I will see you at home." Then she turns around to face Joy and she says walking past her, "By, bitch." Smiles at her while cocking her head to the side.
Meanwhile Oren and I are laughing our asses off in the corner. Joy looks at us as if to say, "Stop it." Oren swings his hand in the air and walks to the back, as for me I continue to pack out the floor, while she takes care of customers.
As I'm walking through the black double doors that lead to the back, I come face to face with ocean blue eyes. "Told you I'd be back." He turns to look back at Oren, who gives him a thumbs up as he makes a drink for the customer. "Oren, told me to walk over and wait for you to come out."
"If that's the case, I hope you weren't waiting long."
He shakes his head, "Not at all." I nod my head, "Okay, ready to go?" He says with slight anticipation in his voice. A small chuckle escapes from my lips and I nod my head.
We headed out the door and I said, "So Lucas, what really brought you back to our little bakery?"
"Well, I wanted to finish our conversation and at the office I was having a bit of a sweet tooth."
Nodding my head, "Oh." Well that makes some sense. This actually works out for me, in my favor. During the rest of my shift, I was thinking about what Fei said to me about telling Lucas about Quinton. Being free of him and wanting justice for Aquila, that dream is a constant reminder of how it's been weighing on me. I also need to make up my mind, this is my chance to make things right and get justice for Aquila.
"Lucas?" I pause, swallowing a huge gulp down my throat, "I have something important that I need to share with you. It's barely an old case."
He looks at me with his left eyebrow raised up.