Page 4 of The Nanny and the Nerd
You’re not going to be late! You’re not going to be late!
She repeated the mantra as she sped through the city toward her restaurant in the swanky Crystal Creek neighborhood.
“You’re…” she began, then caught the time on the dashboard clock. “Not going to beon time,” she finished, her heart beating a mile a minute.
She was now officially four minutes late—had zero time to get her laptop checked, and there was no street parking available.
Shit!
She barreled into a parking spot in one of the pay lots. Moving like her job depended on it because it did, she jumped out of her car and hustled toward the back entrance of the Crystal Cricket. It was Denver’s hottest new restaurant, but this job was no picnic. The celebrity chef who owned the place was a giant hothead. Luckily, as a waitress, she worked the front of the house and didn’t incur the explosive chef’s wrath. Still, the restaurant’s manager was no pushover either. And he’d warned her last week, if she were even ten seconds late, she’d be out of there.
Perhaps, he’d forgotten.
She swung open the back door and charged inside, then hit a wall. No, not a wall! She’d run smack-dab into Marshall Canter, the cranky Crystal Cricket manager, who currently sported one hell of a scowl.
“Ms. Fennimore,” he fumed. “You’re late…AGAIN!”
Two
Penny
Hello,boob sweat!
“Oh no!” came a voice Penny would recognize anywhere.
She glanced past her seething manager and spied Charlotte Ames—one of her dearest friends and the person who had gotten her the job at the Crystal Cricket.
Marshall looked over his shoulder. “Go on, Charlotte!” the man barked like an incensed Chihuahua. “You’re covering Penny’s section as well as your own!”
This was not good! Not good at all!
Charlotte mouthed,beg him for your job, before swiping two salads off the counter and hurrying out of the kitchen.
Suddenly, it felt like it was a hundred and ten degrees in there. Penny pulled at her blouse. “Boob sweat! Boob sweat!” she muttered under her breath.
“What did you say?” the manager asked—his eyes nearly popping out of his head.
She gasped. “I thought I said that in my head.” She shifted her stance. “When I get nervous, I get boob sweat. You probably don’t know much about that because it’s a lady problem. Well, a problem for anyone with large breasts, I suppose.” She gave the slender man a once-over. “I doubt you have to worry about it.”
“Are you flaunting your large breasts? Are you judging me for my lack of large breasts? Are you sexually harassing me, Ms. Fennimore?” the man shot back.
This had gone from bad to worse!
Penny raised her hands defensively. “No, absolutely not! This is the last time I will ever utter the b-word. No, not the b-word people usually assume is the b-word. I mean breasts. This is the last time you’ll hear me say that word. Breasts, not bitch. Unless there are chicken breasts on the menu. Then I’ll have to say the b-word. Breasts. That b-word.”
Son of a…b! She needed to shut the hell up!
Marshall’s look of anger morphed into outright outrage.
She had to fix this, and quick!
“I need this job, Marshall,” she pleaded before he could get a word out.
He shook his head as the pulsating vein in his forehead softened. “Boss’s rules. Mitch says three strikes, and you’re out. This, may I remind you, is your fourth strike. I’ve done all I can for you, Penny.”
It was actually her fifth time being late, but she’d keep that nugget to herself. Unfortunately, she only had herself to blame. The last four times she’d been late, she’d been writing—really writing. It wasn’t like you could flip a switch and turn on the creative juices. Thank goodness, Charlotte had called. Otherwise, instead of being late, she would have missed her shifts.
Still, she had to fix this. She could not handle telling her mother she’d lost another job.
