Page 11 of Undeniably Corrupt
This will cost me. I just know it.
Feeling like a world-class piece of shit bastard, I go in.
Liora Minnie James, born September seventh in Lavender Lake, Maine, to Beverly and Corbin James. Brother Cassian James, deceased. Graduated from high school and moved to San Francisco, where she worked as a certified nursing assistant at a local hospital. Three years ago, she started paying rent in Boston with Mattia Vita, who was here on a work visa. She took out student loans for nursing school and was working at MGH as a CNA, which almost makes me laugh, considering how many of my people work there. Hazel Christine Vita was born six months after they moved to Boston, and Mattia seems to be out of the picture since Liora moved to a new apartment in a shit neighborhood a year ago. Around the same time, she started working at the club. She has student loans in her name, but her bank account has practically nothing in it, and she’s in serious credit card debt.
Hmm.
Liora is a broke single mother.
I pull Mattia’s information from their previous rental agreement and find he’s in Livorno, Italy, working for a pharmaceutical company there. He also has some money in his accounts, while the mother of his child is forced to work two jobs, attend school, and raise their daughter on her own.
Well then. I guess there’s only one thing left for me to do. Even if I already know it’s probably the wrong thing.
4
Iwas shaky the rest of the night, unable to stop replaying it all in my head. His voice. His words. The way he left. The actor was pissed and tried to play it off to the point where he attempted to come after me and grab me to bring me back onto his lap when both my manager and a bouncer stepped in.
By the time I got home, showered, and got into bed beside my little girl, I still wasn’t settled, and sleep evaded me. I tossed and turned, alternating between shivering cold and blazing hot. I was oddly turned on by the guy intervening on my behalf and yet rattled by him. How does that even make sense?
Or possibly it’s because it’s been a very long time since someone has stood up for me like that, and it happened twice in one day with two different people. This guy was protecting me. From what, I don’t know other than an asshole customer, which isn’t new.
In the two days since that happened in the club, I still haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Or him. In my head, I’ve morphed the coffee shop guy and this guy into the same man, though I know that’s impossible with how differently they looked.
Yesterday I had clinical at the hospital, and last night I caught up on schoolwork. Things were starting to even back out. And now this…
“I’m so sorry, Liora,” the owner, Leo, says with a contrite expression. “I don’t know what to say.”
Fear strikes a path through me, and my hands start to shake.
“I’m fired? For real?”
“Not fired,” he states gently. “Laid off. There’s a difference. You’ve been a great employee these few weeks, and I’ll be happy to give you a good recommendation anywhere you apply. It’s my son, and you’re the last hired.”
Therefore, first fired.
Leo wants his son to work here and learn the business, and that means someone has to go to make room for him. I get it. But fuck. And why hire me three weeks ago if he knew this was going to happen? There goes daycare unless I can find another position on campus, and those are nearly impossible to come by, especially this late into the semester.
I was lucky enough to get this.
A cold sweat breaks out on my skin, and my heart pounds in my chest. I can’t say anything or I’ll cry, and I don’t want to cry. Hell, Idon’tcry. Tears get you nowhere and help nothing.
“I really am sorry. Here’s a gift card for fifty bucks you can use here.” He places it in my hand, and I stare down at the rectangular piece of plastic with the happy-looking sun on it and almost laugh. A gift card. That’s my severance.
Like I’ll be coming back here to use it.
I turn and walk out of the kitchen area, only to remember I’m still wearing my apron. I rip it off, and slam it down on the counter in front of everyone. I don’t even care. The moment I gain any footing over my life, something else comes along and rips the rug out from under my feet.
What am I going to do?
The cold Boston air hits me in the face, and I take two steps to my right and sag against the building. I’ve done everything I can not to be angry or resentful of the cards I’ve been dealt. I’ve tried to keep my smile even when life got to be way too much for me. I saw a lot of things as fate. As a helping and guiding hand.
But this last year since Mattia left has been some of my darkest and hardest to bear. It’s not his absence. No, it’s certainly not that. It’s how he left me and Hazel and took everything from us. Worse than that, he spent money I didn’t have.
“Are you okay?” A soft voice drags me out of my spiraling thoughts and into the kind, warm eyes of an older Black woman. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to intrude, but I couldn’t help but overhear what happened back there in the café.”
“Oh. Yes. I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” I amend.
“But you needed the job,” she states plainly, her lips pursed as she studies me. “Are you a student?”
