Page 19 of Bought For Us
There was a small moment he almost let me, except if I was going to go, I had to give my student loans to him.
Knowing that was fucked up, I told him I’d just work more, harder.
Job after job, paycheck after paycheck. Now here I am at twenty-seven and I have nothing to show for it.
I’m alone in the world and have been for a long time now.
If I didn’t have time for school, I sure as hell didn’t have time for a dating life.
The few times I tried, it didn’t go over well. One time, a guy tried to drop me off at home, only for my dad to come out pissed out of his mind, and make a fool out of the both of us.
Another time my dad saw me out on a date with a woman. She was tall, stunning and everything I liked.
My father lost it. Called us every horrible name in the book. After that, I just gave up. There was no point. Even if I could find someone to love me, to care for me, could have gotten me out of the situation I was in, it would have been for all the wrong reasons.
Now, he’s dead. Drank himself into an early grave. Gone from my life. Like a toxic fog blown away by the wind. For the first time in years, I felt like I could breathe. That I could start my own life. Live for me and me only.
Then the bank told me about the credit cards and the lawyers came after his debts that I now had to pay because the asshole forced me to cosign on everything he took out in his name. Everything came crashing down like a house of cards.
The first thing I did was sell everything he owned and put the house up for sale.
It only managed to pay for part of his debt. There’s still a remaining balance of two hundred thousand.
And five hundred thousand for mine. Every time I see those numbers, I want to puke.
How the hell am I going to ever pay that off? I’m just barely a high school graduate without a college education. I’m making just enough to pay my own bills. At this point, I won’t even have half of it paid off before I die.
Yet, despite every shitty thing that keeps happening in my life, I still manage to wake up in the morning and keep going.
Knowing there’s nothing I can do about the pile of bills, I leave them on the table and get ready for my night shift at the restaurant.
I style my hair in long beach waves, add just enough makeup and change into my black dress pants and v-neck t-shirt.
With one last look at the pile of bills, I head out the door.
IF MY NIGHT WASN’T already ruined, it sure is now.
For the past hour, it’s just been one bad thing after another. I’ve had a man who tried to feel me up and when I got upset at him, he got me in trouble with my boss.
A lady had her dish sent back three times, then also complained to my boss that the order I originally took wasn’t what she asked for.
And now I’m covered in pasta sauce, standing in a sea of broken plates. I was so frantic to keep up with the rush, that I went in the door that's only meant to be an exit, causing tons of plates of food to come crashing down.
“Cora!” my boss, Clyde’s, voice booms. I flinch, tears filling my eyes as my heart sinks. I know what’s coming, I just know it. “My office, now.”
I take a few deep shuddering breaths to keep myself from breaking down and turn to follow after him.
“Sit.” I look down at my clothes and he huffs in annoyance. “Never mind. You won’t be here long. Look, I don’t think this is a good fit. This is a fast paced workplace with high end clients we need to keep happy and coming back. Having multiple complaints about you doesn’t look good. And now you’ve caused a lot of damage and you're forcing good customers to have to wait longer for their food. Costing us even more money as well as making the staff put in double the work.”
“But, it was an accident,” I tell him, my lower lip trembling as I try to keep it together. I hate how weak I look right now. I’m normally a lot better under pressure than this. You know what, fuck this. I’m not taking his or anyone else’s shit anymore. “And that woman was wrong. I took the right order, she just wanted to be a raging bitch who didn’t have anything better to do. And that man grabbed my ass. Was I supposed to just look the other way? To accept being assaulted.”
“Cora, I think it’s best if we part ways. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to let you go,” he says, ignoring me as he looks down at his papers, not giving a single fuck that he’s taking away the only income I have.
“You know what,” I snarl, anger coursing through my veins as my last fuck goes flying right out the window behind him. “Fuck you. You're not firing me, I quit.” I flip him off and the pure shock on his face at my outburst is almost enough to make me forget how fucked I am.
Almost.
Storming out of his office, I head to the staff room and grab my purse before heading out the back door.