Page 1 of Don't Bet On It
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My temper had always been my undoing. I, Tallulah Hayes, was like the Hulk without the green skin and rippling muscles when I was angry.
Yeah, you wouldn’t like me when I was angry.
Some individuals were people pleasers. Not me. When I saw injustice—whether it was happening to somebody else or me—I acted.
That was how I got into today’s predicament, which involved me sitting across from my boss, Carlton Clemons, trying to pretend that I wasn’t disheveled, that my dark hair wasn’t sticking up at odd angles, and that my knuckles weren’t bruised from plowing my fist into my coworker’s face. It wasn’t an easy look to pull off, but I was giving it my all.
“Jay says that you punched him.” Carlton looked more tired than annoyed, as if he wanted to be dealing with something—anything would do—else.
I kept my face impassive. “I guess that’s true,” I hedged.
“We have a zero tolerance violence policy here at the Purple Orchid.” He was stern. “You know that. We talked about it when you were hired.”
I was well aware of the policy. Unfortunately for Carlton, I was well aware of all the policies. “You have a zero tolerance sexual harassment policy too,” I reminded him.
He arched an eyebrow. “Are you accusing me?—”
I cut him off with a firm shake of my head. He was misunderstanding. “I’m not accusing you of anything. Jay, however, is another story.”
Jay Fletcher had been the bane of my existence since he started at Purple Orchid three months before. He was younger than me by a good eight years. I was thirty-one, cruising toward thirty-two, although I’d kind of decided that maybe I should stick at thirty-one and just give up on birthdays. Jay was twenty-three, although he acted fifteen. The age difference hadn’t stopped him from hitting on me. Constantly.
“You’re saying Jay sexually harassed you?” Carlton’s forehead creased. He had hair that had once been black but was shot through with so much white that it now looked gray. He was only in his fifties—something he’d made sure to tell me when I interviewed eight months before, which was when he’d also dropped the fact that he was working his way through divorce number four—but he looked much older. The Las Vegas dry air was murder if you didn’t moisturize religiously.
“That’s what I’m saying,” I confirmed, keeping my hands in my lap so I wouldn’t start gesturing wildly. That was another of my issues. When I got going, I went big, and there was no stopping me.
“Can you give me some specifics?” He sounded as if he were gathering tidbits for when he wanted to commit me. His tone told me he didn’t believe me. Well, I was going to tell him anyway.
“It started on his first shift,” I replied. “He commented on how it would be better if you gave us shorter shorts to work in as part of our uniform. Only the females of course. He thoughtpeople might want a good view for when the female staff bent over.”
Carlton’s expression remained impassive. “How is that sexually harassing you?”
Was he kidding me right now? “He said that I would be a great draw if I spent all my time bending over. He would repeatedly drop straw wrappers in front of younger men and then get them to applaud.”
“That sounds flattering to me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Well, it’s sexual harassment.”
“Sexual harassment is unwanted touching. Did he touch you?”
“Yes, that’s why he got punched.”
Carlton straightened. “Where did he touch you?”
Did that matter? The frustration I’d thought contained after I’d popped Jay in his stupid face started bubbling up again. “On my back.”
“On your butt?”
“I said my back. It was lower, though. It was … suggestive.” That was the only word I could think to describe how it had gone down. “Jay came up behind me when I was waiting on customers. They were men. They were younger than twenty-five, and they were flirting.”
“So you’re saying the customers sexually harassed you.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
He barreled forward as if he hadn’t heard me. “While I find it deplorable that customers sexually harass workers, there’s nothing I can do about it. You know that. You just have to grin and bear it.”
