Don't Turn Back (Coming Home Book 1) (20 page)

The next couple of days seem to fly by, and before I know it, I’m heading back to work again. Jennifer has her finals this week, and I can tell by her actions how nervous she is about them. I know she is going to do well, but she takes her schooling so seriously. 

On Friday afternoon, Jared tells me he wants to see me in his office before I leave. I finish getting all the cleaners and hoses put away before heading inside. I throw my jacket across the front counter and see Clint leaving from Jared’s office. 

“Have a good weekend, man,” I tell him. I have tried hard to be social with Clint, but he is a tough nut to crack. Ever since the day he made the comment about Jennifer and I called him out on it, he has been very short with me. We’ve never spoken words about it since then, but I can tell he’s just not my biggest fan. 

He looks over at me and forces his words. “Yeah man, you too.” I can’t stand the cockiness in his tone. It really rubs me the wrong way.

I knock on Jared’s door, and he tells me to come in. 

“Hey, what’s up?” I take a seat in one of the chairs across from him.

Jared looks up at me, but he doesn’t have his usual cheerfulness about him now. 

I am suddenly concerned about this look he is giving me. “Everything okay?”

As he stares at me so severely, I get the feeling this is not going to be good. 

“Brian, do you remember when I hired you, I told you how I run a very reputable business here, and I have a lot of repeat customers?” It doesn’t take me long to figure out this is not going to be a friendly chit-chat.

“Yes sir. I’m not sure I’m following you though.” I tell him. 

“Last week, I had a gentleman tell me he had some money go missing from his car. He swears the money was in his glove box before he got here, then, when he placed his paperwork for his service in the glove box, he noticed it was missing. At first, he thought maybe he had left it at home, but then he found the envelope under the seat. Empty.”

“So, what are you saying? Are you implying I took it? Because you are wrong. Jared, I didn’t take anyone’s money.” I am completely shocked he would think I had anything to do with the money.
This is nothing like that other time
… I struggle to stay focused on what Jared is telling me.

“I really want to believe you Brian. I really do. I spoke with Clint about this first, and he said you did the car wash and cleaning for the customer while he was on lunch.” Disappointment is written all over his face.

“Jared, I swear to you man. I have never taken anyone’s money. Yes, I’m still trying to save up my own money, but now that Jennifer is helping me out, I’m managing right now. I don’t need anyone else’s money.” I know my face must still show shock, but I’m starting to get angry that I’m being accused of something I really don’t know anything about. I can’t help but feel I’ve been set up. Would Clint do this to me?

I know that what he is about to say is not going to be good. The knot in my stomach tightens.

“Brian, I really like you, but I am going to have to let you go. I can’t afford to have negative things said about my business, or customers distrustful of my employees. This is my livelihood, and I have to make sure my employees are absolutely trustworthy if they are going to represent me. My business takes care of me and my family.”

I duck my head. “Come on Jared. Why can’t you believe me? I promise you I did not take that money.”

“Brian, my decision is firm. Since this is my personal business, I feel the need to repay the customer for his missing money. I have also refunded him for his services that day. I don’t feel it’s necessary to take all the money from your check, but as you will see, I did deduct half. I’m sorry to do this to you, but it’s my final word on this matter. Now, if you will, please leave.” He hands me a sealed envelope containing my final check. I’m too scared to even open it right now.

I don’t even remember leaving work and driving to the apartment. I sit outside in the car for a few minutes trying to figure out how I’m going to explain this whole mess to Jennifer. I bang my hands on the steering wheel.

“
How the fuck did this happen
?” I ask myself aloud.

I tear open the envelope and see just how much Jared deducted from my paycheck. “Shit!” I say louder than I should, once I take in the measly amount I’m left with.

Here is it,
almost fucking Christmas
, and I’m without a job and hardly any money. 

I somehow manage to pull myself together before walking in the door to see Jennifer’s smiling face. “Hey babe. I got good news.” Looking at me, she sees I’m clearly not myself.

I try to compose my thoughts quickly. “What’s that?” I force a fake smile in her direction.

“Are you okay? You look like you don’t feel well.” 

“Yea, I’ve got a slight headache. What’s your news, baby?”

“I aced all of my exams! I was so nervous about them.” She’s so excited. “And, I received straight A’s for my final grades this term.”

“Babe, that’s wonderful. I knew you would.” I’m trying so hard to be happy for her. I give her a hug and hold her for a few seconds before giving her a congratulatory kiss on the cheek.

“You don’t look so hot. Why don’t I get you a couple pain pills, and you go and crawl into bed? I’ll bring you something cold to drink, too.” 

I hear her rummaging through bottles in the bathroom cabinet, and she returns to the bedroom with two pills and a bottle of water.

“Here you go.” I take them from her and take a swallow of the water. Now, I really do have a headache. The earlier events from work are eating at me.

I have no idea how I am going to break the news to her. Everything had been going great in my life. Now, it’s totally fucked up. Christmas is only a few weeks away, and I was planning to get Jennifer something really special. Now, I’m not much better than when I first met her. I’m going to disappoint her so much when I finally get the courage to break the news.

“Thanks. You are too sweet.” I hold her hand as she stands above me lying in the bed. I gently rub her smooth skin, back and forth. 

“Try to get you some rest. I hope you aren’t coming down with anything.” She bends down to kiss me on the forehead. “I’ll leave you a plate in the refrigerator that you can heat up later. I’ll try not to wake you when I leave for work.”

She walks from the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

I toss and turn for hours. Every time I close my eyes, images of Jared accusing me of taking the money fill my head. The more I dwell on it, the angrier I get. I can’t believe the son of a bitch would blame me, then turn around and fire me without giving me a chance to offer my own conclusion. What’s worse is, he even took some of the repayment from my check. I am screwed.

A couple of hours go by, even though it feels like I’ve been laying here forever and it should be morning already. I hear the bedroom door slowly open. Jennifer walks in to gather the things she needs for work tonight. I lay as still as I possibly can, barely breathing. She doesn’t say anything to me, but I lay motionless, pretending to be asleep. 

Is this wrong of me?
I would love to be able to give her a goodnight kiss before she leaves, but I am so disgusted right now, I just want to be left alone.

Morning finally comes, and I am still in a pissed off mood. Jennifer should be coming home any minute now, and I’ve got two choices: I can fess up and tell her about being falsely accused, or I can pretend to hide my bad mood until I figure out a way to break the news later. I decide I am going to hold off from telling her as long as I can get by with it. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to find another job that’s even better. Thus making the story of leaving the lube shop not as painful.

I jump in the shower and as I’m toweling off, I hear a noise on the other side of the bathroom door. I stop for a moment just as Jennifer opens the door, scaring the hell out of me. I jump suddenly. 

“Oops. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I just wanted to come see you.” As she is saying these things to me, I really want to just go back to bed and sleep the day away. But, that’s not going to solve anything. She leans over and gives me a light peck on the cheek.

I want to show her some vulnerability right now, but I am so angry, I think it’s best to pull away. 

“You scared the crap out of me.” 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. Are you feeling any better this morning?” She pulls the towel from my hand and dries my back. I close my eyes allowing her to take her time, making sure she doesn’t miss a single wet spot. I am trying so hard to enjoy this moment. I have never had a girlfriend do this before.

“Thank you.” I hang the towel up to dry and walk out of the bathroom with her, disappointed she didn’t take advantage of me having no clothes on.

I throw on some clothes and meet her in the kitchen, where I see she has brought home some blueberry muffins from a local bakery. “Thought I would surprise you this morning.” She places a muffin on a plate and passes it to me.

“This looks delicious.” I bring the muffin to my nose, and it truly does smell heavenly. She hands me a cup of coffee, and we sit down together at the small kitchen table.

I try not to look at her directly, but I don’t want to call any attention to my behavior either. Somehow, I feel like she is going to see it written all on my face.
Focus, Brian
. I must focus and keep myself together, for her. 

Surprisingly, I have never been this bothered and emotional before about losing a job. Not that I was all that proud of the job itself, but I feel like I have let her down, as well as myself. I told her so much about my previous bad luck with jobs, I can only imagine what she’s going to think of me now. After all, coming here is supposed to be a fresh start for me.

We eat in silence until I can stand it no more. “How was work last night?”

“It was okay. Rebecca hung around for a little while after she got off and updated me about her plans to spend Christmas with Greg. He’s scheduled to be home for a few weeks and has planned a trip for them. He’s not telling her where they are going, and the suspense is killing her. Personally, I think he’s going to propose.” She sounds so excited for her best friend.

“Do you think she’ll say yes if he does?”

“They’ve been together for so long. I know she will, I just don’t know how much longer he’s planning to stay in the military. I hope it won’t mean she’ll have to move. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have her close by all the time.”

She gets up to put away our plates. I run my fingers through my hair, still feeling a little dampness from the shower. I need to see about getting a haircut soon, especially if I’m going to be looking for a new job again.

“You up for doing anything today?” She turns to ask me. 

“Sure. What do you have in mind?” I don’t feel like pretending to have another headache today. I’m going to try my hardest not to worry about what happened yesterday. It’s over and done with. Come Monday morning, I will figure out what to tell her when she expects me to leave for work.

“I’ve sort of got a surprise for you.” She tells me, her face suddenly lighting up with excitement.

“Oh yeah?” I’m curious to know what she’s got planned.

“If it’s okay with you, I’m going to try to take a nap first.  I’m really exhausted, but when I get up, I’ll let you know the surprise. How’s that sound?”

“Aww, babe, you’re killing me. I can’t have one little hint?”

“Nope. I’m going to test your patience.” She teases.

“I can’t believe you’re going to make me wait, but I know you’re tired. Get you some rest, and I’ll try to stay quiet in here while I wait patiently.” I offer her a wink as she walks back towards the bedroom.

A couple hours later, Jennifer emerges from the bedroom looking refreshed. I know working nights must really take a toll on her body, especially when you try to keep normal hours on your days off. And now that she and I are together, I don’t think she gets nearly enough rest, because she always wants to spend as much time with me as she can. Maybe now that her classes are over for the next few weeks, she’ll be able to catch a few extra hours in the evenings. I, on the other hand, am going to have to find something to occupy my time during the day while I am supposed to be at work. At some point I will find the courage to tell her the truth, but until then, I’ll pretend as long as I can. Hopefully, I’ll get lucky and find another job quickly, and I can convince her it was a choice I needed to make in order to better myself. I can only hope.

“You ready to head out?” She asks me. She’s already changed into a nice outfit and sits down on the couch to put on her shoes.

“Sure, just let me change real quick, then we can go.” I run to the bedroom and throw on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. “You going to tell me where we are going?” I call back to her from the bedroom, eager to learn this surprise she’s been keeping.

“Nope, not ‘til we get there.”

I’m not a fan of surprises. I’ve simply had one surprise too many throughout my lifetime, but I pretend to look excited for her sake. I just hope this is a good surprise, since my track record could use some improvement.