But I was still pissed off.
“Explain what sir? I apologize but this is a business phone. If you don’t have a problem that I can help you with I’ll have to ask you to hang up.”
“I do have something you can help me with and you know it baby. Mandy, you need to listen to me. Drew told me what you said. I’m not going to forget you. I can’t, baby. You’re everything to me. He told me what you heard, but you need to listen to me. If you won’t talk to me now I’ll wait until you’re ready.” His voice went from pleading to desperate. I ached inside, and wanted to forgive him, but I was too confused, and too angry.
“I don’t have time for this,” I hissed. “I’m working and I can’t lose my job because you’re an asshole who preys on fat women to get them to sleep with you.”
“God dammit Mandy, you know that’s not what happened. You’re mine, baby. I can’t lose you. You’re everything to me.” He was practically begging me to listen. His voice was harsh as he told me I was his. He wanted to own me, control me, not be my partner.
“You’re nothing to me, Xander,” I snapped, my resolve breaking. “I thought you could be, but you proved that wasn’t going to happen. You proved that you were exactly who I thought you were. You’re the jerk I was afraid to get involved with.”
“I’m not, Mandy, and you know it,” he said softly. I heard the sorrow in his voice, like he was giving up. Or like he knew he couldn’t convince me to let him back into my bed. All that work and he was going to have to start over.
Poor ass.
“No, actually I don’t. You fooled me. You let me believe you weren’t a jerk. You hid who you really were. God, I fell- It doesn’t matter.”
He breathed out a frustrated breath. “It does matter, Mandy. It matters to me. What were you going to say? Tell me now or tell me tonight. I’ll come to Cooler Coffee tonight and we can talk after your girls’ night.”
“No, leave me alone. It’s over, Xander. We’re done. Don’t call here again because I will not be able to do anything for you. It was nice knowing you, Mr. Carlson. Goodbye.”
I hung up the phone. It took all my guts to turn him down. I didn’t think I could do it again, especially when he was being sweet. But I had to. I wasn’t going to let him trick me twice.
I felt the pain rising in my gut, overwhelming me and choking me. Tears pricked at my eyes and I knew I had to get to the bathroom before I broke down in front of everyone. Melody would never let me live that down.
“Mandy Ryan, I need you to follow me, please,” I heard from behind me. I whirled around and was blown away by the harsh look on Diana’s face.
I stood and followed her through the path to the conference room again. She stood near the far wall and glared at me as I sat down.
“Ms. Ryan, I presume you were talking to a client on the phone since personal calls on company time are not allowed.”
“I, uh…” I fumbled. I didn’t know what to say. Depending on how much she heard it would be clear the phone call was personal. I did not want to get into a discussion about my break-up and I certainly did not want to admit I was handling personal issues on work time.
“It was a customer, yes.”
Diana breathed out a deep irritated breath. “I was really hoping you weren’t going to say that. Ms. Ryan, from what I heard of that phone call you were very rude to whoever was on the phone. We don’t talk to clients that way, no matter what they say. What did the client say to you?”
I took a deep breath. I glanced around, looking for inspiration, and found Melody grinning at me. It reminded me of Melody’s lies. I had no doubt she thought Diana was berating me for threatening Melody. Hell, maybe she heard my phone call with Xander and was just happy she was right. At that moment, I didn’t care.
“He’s a customer I’ve spoken to in the past and he was not being polite to me. I told him his situation had been handled and that he had no reason to call back but he did.”
“Is he harassing you? We can get the transcripts of the calls and we can alert the authorities. If he’s harassing you, we will make sure you don’t get his calls anymore.”
Diana looked so serious. I knew she was serious. Even though it would solve a few problems for me I knew I had to take care of Xander myself. I had to talk to him and tell him it was over and to leave me alone. I had to get him to leave me alone. Avoiding his calls would only go so far.
“No, Diana, he’s not harassing me. He just called about something today that I wasn’t able to help him with. I’m sorry for responding the way I did.”
She stared at me for a few seconds. I couldn’t read her expression though I knew it wasn’t good. Fear crept over me. Was I going to get fired? Over Xander? First I lost my boyfriend and now I was going to lose my job? This had to be the worst week ever.
As I sat there and waited for Diana to deliver the bad news I tried to think of what I was going to do. I would have to move in with Claire, if she would let me. I’d have to sell my townhouse and all my stuff so I had enough money to pay for food and everything for a little while. I’d start looking for another job right away, but customer service jobs weren’t always easy to come by.
Fuck, how could one guy have ruined so much of my life?
“In light of the information I received Friday afternoon, I’m afraid I’m going to have to put you on leave. We’ll be investigating the issues between you and Melody and this new issue with the customer. I’ll need his name and I’ll review the transcripts of all your calls with him to make sure this was an isolated incident. In six weeks you’ve gone from one of my best employees to someone I might have to fire, Mandy. I don’t know what’s happened with you, but I am very disappointed.”
“You know what,” I said, letting the anger and frustration fill me. “I’m disappointed, too. You let that poisonous viper come in here Friday, after I’d left for the day, and feed you a bunch of lies, and you just believe her. You don’t even ask me what happened before accusing me of being guilty? Melody is the most vicious person I’ve ever worked with. Ever since you announced your retirement she’s spread more rumors and lies about me than I ever heard in high school. Just last week she told the entire office I had lice, then she told you about my relationship hoping you’d fire me for it, and now this. It doesn’t matter what I say. It’s clear you’re going to listen to her and ignore me.”
“Did you say she said you had lice?”
“Yes,” I sighed, wondering why that was the only thing she cared about.
Diana shuffled through some papers on the table. When she found what she was looking for she pulled it from the stack. “Melody said you spread that lie about her last week.”
I shook my head. “She’s not even creative enough to come up with a new lie. It doesn’t surprise me. Diana, I don’t know who signed these papers for her, or what emails she produced, but I have enough issues of my own. I don’t need to create issues with Melody.”
Diana shook her head. “I was quite surprised, but the evidence wasn’t something I could ignore. Melody can be very convincing.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, thinking back to the day she called Xander. Tears sprung to my eyes. She’d have no reason stay away from him now. He was available again.
“Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “Not really. I broke up with my boyfriend earlier. That was the phone call you heard.”
“You said it was a customer,” Diana said with hands on her hips.
“Well, Melody told you last week that he is. I broke up with him yesterday and he called today because I won’t answer his calls on my phone.”
“Men are a pain in the ass. I’m sorry, Mandy. Listen, I’ll look the other way about the phone call, but I still need to investigate Melody’s claims, even though I’m certain there’s nothing to them. Why don’t you log out of the system and review some of the files we have on backlog. If I find Melody lied about all this, she will be the one out of a job by the end of the week, and you will be getting the pr
omotion. You might want to read up on how to do my job.”
I smiled. Something was finally going my way. I stood up for myself and Diana believed me. If only it was that easy with Xander.
Diana nodded, dismissing me, and I left the conference room. I went back to my desk and signed out of the system so I wouldn’t get any calls. I knew it meant my day would drag on, but it was already mostly over.
I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a text to Claire, Sam, and Addi asking to change the location of girls’ night. If Xander was going to be at Cooler Coffee, I was going to make sure I wasn’t.
My phone buzzed back a few seconds later. Addi suggested a bakery called Bite Me! She said another teacher brought in cupcakes from there and they were really good. I agreed and Sam and Claire texted back their agreement also.
With one issue solved I went to the bathroom to try to bring down my heart rate. I was still reeling from Xander’s call and my confrontation with Diana. I checked the stalls and was happy to find them all empty. I dropped onto one of the toilets and rested my head in my hands.
The tears came easily. I let them fall, not even trying to hold them back. I didn’t cry out, just in case someone was walking by the door, but I let my tears go. I cried for the relationship I thought I had, for the man I was tricked into thinking Xander was, for my own foolishness, and for my heartbreak. I replayed his words when I met his family and again when I met his friends. I replayed our phone conversations and all the things I told him.
I’d never felt so exposed before.
He’d let me believe I could trust him, like he was a good person. I told him so many things, things I never imagined trusting anyone with. He made me feel loved, cared for. He made me feel like everything was going to be okay, like life could be perfect. Perfect with a man.
Perfect with Xander.
I dried my tears and pushed myself off the toilet. I had to get back to work before someone noticed I was gone so long.
The mirror showed me how poorly I wore sadness. My eyes were red and puffy. I splashed cold water on my face, but it didn’t hide much. I pulled my make-up bag out and added mascara and a little shadow to my eyes. When I decided it was as good as it would get I went back out to start my training.
At least I wouldn’t have to worry about Xander calling me again.
Twenty
I plugged in the address for Bite Me! on my phone. Addi said it was near the center of town, but I had no idea where, even after looking at the address. I did like the name though, and kept thinking that’s what I want to say to Xander - Bite Me!
The directions led me through Winterville toward Addi’s school, Winterville High School. It was still strange to have a friend that taught at my old high school and was friends with people who had been my teachers. I was just glad she didn’t have parties with us all there. I wasn’t sure I could handle that.
I turned onto Lake Effect Lane and started looking for the address. A few blocks up I saw a small shopping center with a few restaurants and some little shops and realized it was sandwiched in the middle. Feeling like a fool I parked near the entrance and dragged myself toward the door.
The door was marked with a chocolate cupcake smothered in pink icing. The cupcake had a smile on its face and a bubble over it where it said, “Bite Me!” I intended to do just that as soon as I got inside.
The smells that hit me when I walked in the door made me want to set up a cot in the back and never leave. Holy shit the place smelled good. It was like the sugar had permeated the walls. I was tempted to lick the walls to see if they tasted as good as the whole place smelled.
When I looked over I saw the creamy white walls looked like buttercream frosting. Rich chocolate swirls were painted along the walls with swipes of pink running alongside. I never knew walls could look delicious.
As I tore my eyes from the walls I saw the large display case with all the cupcakes. I felt like a new mom looking through a nursery window at my precious bundle of joy. The cupcakes were a rainbow of colors all arranged in an artful display designed to tempt me into trying one of each.
And after the day I’d had, I was tempted more than I wanted to admit.
The woman behind the counter smiled at me. She had chocolate brown hair cut into short choppy layers with peanut butter highlights, and I shit you not she had cupcakes that matched. Her bright blue eyes sparkled as she watched my reaction to the place. She had the prettiest smile I’d ever seen, it just lit up the room. I could tell she liked her job, and not just from the size of her body, but from that brilliant smile.
Of course, seeing a heavy woman behind the counter of Bite Me! made me like the place even more. I hated when I went into a cupcake shop, or anyplace that specialized in sweets, and saw a waif behind the counter. It made me wonder how good their stuff really was if even the employees could resist. I knew Bite Me! had to be good judging by the size of the employee.
“What can I get you today?” she asked me.
I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy answer. I wanted to order at least four of them, maybe more. Looking at her I knew she wouldn’t judge me. It was definitely a cupcakes for dinner kind of day.
“I think I’ll try a red velvet, one chocolate peanut butter, one strawberry, a chocolate mousse, a vanilla bean, and one surprise of the day. Oh, and can I get a hot chocolate?”
She lifted each cupcake as I spoke and gently placed them into a box fitted with cardboard that gripped the base of the cupcakes so they wouldn’t fall over. I had to admit there was nothing worse than seeing a delicious cupcake fall over and know you’d never get it back just right no matter how hard you tried.
She handed me the cupcakes then went to get my hot chocolate. I paid her and she said, “Here’s one of our flyers. We’re having a Grand Opening in a few weeks.”
“Oh, you’ve only just opened. You must love working here. I don’t know how you smell this all day and don’t eat them all.”
She laughed, a tinkling sound that made me feel better that I didn’t offend her. “I opened about three weeks ago but wanted to wait until I knew if things would go well before doing the party. And yeah, it’s hard resisting all this stuff. You should see when I’m testing out new recipes though. That’s the worst because I have to make a whole batch to find out if they’re good.”
“Oh, wow, you’re the owner?” I asked, pleasantly surprised.
“Yeah, I’m Charlotte Black, Charlie.”
“It’s nice to meet you Charlie. I’m Mandy and my friends are over in the corner. If you ever need taste testers, I’m pretty sure we’d all be very willing to help out with that.”
Charlie laughed again, the sound making my day just a little better. “I’ll have to keep that in mind. I hope you enjoy those ones.”
“If they taste half as good as they smell they probably won’t make it out of here in the box. I was ready to lick the walls when I came in.”
She threw her head back and laughed earnestly. I realized in that second she was someone I wanted to be friends with. “That was exactly my reaction when my painters finished in here. Thankfully I haven’t had anyone go for the paint instead of the cupcakes.”
I laughed with her and thanked her again for the treats. I had to make sure I gave her my card on the way out the door. And I was pretty sure I’d suggest we change our weekly girls’ night to Bite Me!
Claire, Sam, and Addi stopped talking when I got to the table. If that wasn’t a sign that they had just been talking about me I didn’t know what was.
“Hi guys, what’s up?” I asked cheerfully, trying not to be pissed that they were talking about me. Or that they thought I was so fragile.
Oh, wait, I was fragile.
“How was your day?” Sam asked cautiously.
I’d intentionally left out the details of Xander’s call when I texted everyone earlier. In fact, I’d left out the fact that he’d called at all. I didn’t want to get into it at work. I was already in enough trouble because of him. I could
n’t handle getting a second reprimand in one day.
“My day sucked, how about you?” I said sarcastically. They were going to handle me with kid gloves all night and I couldn’t deal with it. If they wanted to know how I was doing, they needed to be prepared for my honest answers.
And I honestly had a shitty day.
“Why did you have a bad day?” Addi asked. Her voice was a little too high pitched and she looked like she had something in her eye the way she was blinking rapidly. It was like watching the Stepford Wives with her perfect outer appearance and fake emotions.
“Well, let’s see, I woke up knowing my ex-boyfriend that I thought I was in love with sees me as a fat cow. I found out Melody made up a bunch of lies about me and I might lose my job. Xander called me at work and told me he’s not going to leave me alone and he’s going to find me so I’ll talk to him. Then I got in trouble and taken off calls because I was rude to him on the phone and my boss said I’m not allowed to talk to customers like that. Now I’m here and I’m getting treated like I’m mentally unstable by the three people who’ve always supported me. Is that bad enough for you?”
The three of them exchanged looks. ‘Busted’ was written all over their faces. I called them on their idiocy and even though they didn’t like it, they knew it was the truth.
“We’re sorry. It’s just after what you told me last night, I told Sam and Addi to lay off on the advice or whatever about Xander. We just don’t know what to say,” Claire told me.
“How about ‘Wow, your day sucked. Sorry you had to deal with all that. Is there anything we can do to make it better?’ That might help instead of everyone trying to figure out on your own what I need.”
I opened my box of cupcakes and inhaled deeply. For just a few seconds I needed to feel like everything was okay. I needed to forget how upset I was about Xander and how my friends were treating me like I was incapable of dealing with my life on my own. I had to have some control over something in my life, and staring at the six beautiful cupcakes I’d just purchased, I was happy I was in control of which one I ate first.
Chubby & Charming (Big & Beautiful Book 1) Page 16