Soft Body

12: The Wait

         

Tucker had wanted to visit Ruby. Truly. His dream made him want to call her and ask her out the second he woke up. He didn't want to wait.

    But he did.

    "Jackie, why do I have so many calls on my cell from you?"

    "Because Craig just quit."

    "Craig did what?"

    "He quit, Tucker," she said slightly louder, as if it was her volume that made Tucker incredulous.

    "Why would he do that?"

    "Because Eve told him that he needed to work all the overnights that are coming up when Franco isn't here, plus the weekend shifts and then she chewed his ass out for not keeping the beds clean, or some shit and he told her to go fuck herself and that he quit and said he wanted better than this anyway."

    Tucker's headache returned. "Jesus Christ. Well who's covering Franco?"

    "See, no one wants it except for the new girl, who said she needed more hours anyway. Even when I offered more money per hour, she was the only one who took it."

    Tucker suddenly felt a small burst of elation. No, not elation, he told himself, alleviation. Finally, a responsible employee.

    "Okay, that's fine. I'll cover it with her." Jackie was silent on the other end. He heard a giggle.

    "Whatever you say. Are you gonna handle the Craig thing?"

    "Jackie, don't laugh! It's policy for owner-slash-upper management to step in when there is an assistant vacancy. I'll find you one in the mean time. And I'll call him, I guess. I'll be in touch."

    "Oh, yeah, totally, policy."

    "What?"

    "Nothing at all. Please find me an assistant. I am so not looking forward to covering and scheduling all these shifts."

    "What do I pay you for?"

    "Looking cute," Jackie said, hanging up.

    "Okay, bye," Tucker said. He stroked his chin, thinking about his next move. Look at the schedule and pop in on his new favorite employee or be responsible and put up a job listing for a new assistant manager? He groaned and reached for his laptop, quickly typing up a job description and posting it on all the job recruiting sites he had saved in his work browser. Firefox for business, Chrome for pleasure.

    And then he waited, going about his day, every day, waiting for Jackie to find him enough interview candidates to make it worth it for him to go to the Stone location. It took longer than he would have liked.

    Finally, she called, a week and a half later, days before Franco's vacation.

    "I have a couple people for you. They seem really good, so when should I say you're available?" Jackie said.

    "Well how many have you got?"

    "Four."

    "Give me one every day of the week. At uh... Three in the afternoon. See if that works for them."

    "Okay. You know I'm not your secretary, right?"

    "Jackie, please. I'm helping you out."

    She gave a sniff at the other end of the phone. "Okay. See you tomorrow then."

    "Yeah, see you tomorrow."

    They hung up and Tucker sat at his desk, thinking about what the next days would hold: Jackie off his back, which was always a good thing. Maybe even Eve off his back. And finally Ruby, of course. It had been too long.

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