Page 5 of Gene

“She’s one of the new hires. Works out on the field and packaging orders. She knows how to milk cows, so every once in a while, when Jordan can’t do it, she’ll go help,” Gene explained.

“Why were you staring at her like that?” Ezekiel asked, turning to Gene.

“I’m worried about her,” was the only thing Gene offered.

Was his worry misplaced? Was this was how she always looked? He remembered hiring her and thinking she looked a bit pale, but he attributed it to Sammi not being outside much.

But now, now he was starting to worry.

“Why? You care about your employees but you don’t usually worry about them this much. What makes her different?”

“She’s lost weight, she looks even more pale, the bags under her eyes have gotten worse, she’s going to the bathroom a lot, and she just looks so utterly exhausted. Nolan radioed me, worried about her as well. She lied to me when I asked her how much water she’d had today,” he explained. “I know she’s eating because she has a good lunch, but that doesn’t explain why she’s losing weight and looks worse than she was before.”

But the thing that got him the most was the fact that she was losing weight.

“Sounds like she needs a Daddy,” Ezekiel pointed out.

“You’re probably not wrong, but who knows whether she’s a Little or not. And you cannot talk to her or try to be her Daddy. Do you understand me?”

Ezekiel raised his hands in the air and chuckled. “I won’t talk to her unless I have to. I heard you, boss. She’s yours.”

Gene growled and glared at Ezekiel. “I never said she was mine.”

“Didn’t say, but your action sure did show it.”

Gene ignored him and started to walk toward the car. “Are you coming or what?”

* * *

“Gene!”Magnus said, turning around as Gene and Ezekiel got out of the car. “Forgot you were coming today. What can I do for you?”

Magnus was amazing at his job, but sometimes, he would forget when they had meetings. If it weren’t for Ezekiel, Gene probably would as well. There was too much shit going on, and it was hard to remember everything.

“We had a meeting to see how production was going,” Gene said.

“Right. Production has slowed down just a little bit since we couldn’t get one of the vital ingredients. Workers are great and doing what they should be doing, so I’ve got no complaints there,” Magnus explained.

“Tell me the ingredient, and I’ll get it for you,” Gene replied.

Magnus nodded, and they started to walk toward his office. It wasn’t unusual for them to run out of supplies. Some chemicals were hard to come by, and they didn’t want to attract unwanted attention and some took longer to make but were getting a system down on when we need to order things so this doesn’t happen again.

“Last time we dropped off a shipment, Deccan said he wanted to up the amount he was buying. I told him I would bring it up with you. Business is booming since they came into town. We get a couple more workers here, and we can increase production if we have everything we need.” Magnus handed him a piece of paper.

Gene briefly looked at it and nodded. “I’ll have a meeting with Deccan and ask how much he wants to increase it by. Before I say yes, I’ll talk to you and Carter to see if you guys can do it.”

“Sounds good, boss. Will continue to make what we can with what we have.”

“Good. It shouldn’t be long until I have this for you. If you are missing anything else, don’t hesitate to contact me or Ezekiel about it.”

“Got it, boss.”

Gene and Ezekiel walked out of Magnus’ office and toward their car. They came out once a week to each plant to see how production was going. Ever since the Springfield Sinners moved into town, their production had gone up. What once was a side gig was now turning into their main business. Gene wasn’t mad about that. It just meant he could have more time to do some of the things he wanted to.

They both get into the car and start driving back to the Little Farm.

“It’s good that Deccan is giving us business,” Ezekiel spoke, briefly looking over at Gene before back on the road.

“Yes, it is. They could have gone somewhere else, but they didn’t.”

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