Page 82 of For All It's Worth
Chapter Thirty Three
Charlie
Frustrationboiledinmeat Max and his evasiveness. I hadn’t heard from him for more than a couple of texts in days, and then when I tried to help by asking what his problem was, he’d brushed me off.
If we were going to move forward in our relationship, then he had to treat me as an equal partner. I had things to offer in a partnership. I’d worked with a bunch of different people in the clubs, and I knew how to handle staff issues.
Instead, I’d been dismissed.
“Charlie, you can come in now,” Evan called into the waiting room of his office.
“Hey, Evan,” I said as I took my usual seat. I wasn’t about to tell him the Max stuff, so I asked his opinion about selling my last club. All the Max stuff was too fresh in my head and heart, and I didn’t want to spew words at Evan because I wasn’t sure what I thought or felt about the whole thing. I needed to work through it a little on my own first. Then I’d speak to Evan if Max and I couldn’t figure it ourselves.
“You’ve already made the decision,” he said simply.
“Yeah. I’m not going back there. I’ve started selling my photos. And through Andy’s sister, Abby, I’ve had interest from people wanting headshots.”
“Headshots?”
“She works in the theater. She’s a costume designer, but some of the actors saw some of my photos that she’s shown them, and want me to do their headshots for promotion.”
“Is that something that you are interested in?”
“I am, yeah. I’m thinking about doing some night classes at the university to brush up on what I’d already learned and do shoots on the side.”
“What about Farmer’s Fitness and Books & Biscuits?”
“I’d obviously cut back. I barely work at either, they can manage without me.”
“Do you feel okay about that?”
“Yes. I feel like they gave me something the last few weeks. Stability. A reason to leave my mom’s house. I’ll still work over the summer, but in the fall, I want to start classes.”
“That sounds great, Charlie.”
I tensed as I approached Books & Biscuits for work. There was just a sense of foreboding. I didn’t think that Max and I had cleared the air well enough and it was going to blow up in our faces.
Max was in the office when I went in, pouring over CCTV footage of the store, with pages of notes strewn around him and a frazzled look on his face.
“You okay?” I asked, worried for him.
“Hmm, yeah. It’s fine.”
Kristen entered the office. “Max, I've got the last of the inventory from Heather.” She passed him a tablet.
“Fuck!” He muttered running his hands through his hair. He fiddled with the CCTV controls again and pulled up an image.
“What’s going on?” I asked them both, taking in their tense forms.
“We’ve just found proof that one of the staff is stealing,” Max said, disappointed and angry.
“Want me there as backup when you deal with it?”
I could almost see his hackles raise. “I’ve got it. I don’t need you to back me up. I can manage to run my business!” he snapped.
Kristen looked between us and started to interject.
“Right. Okay. Noted.” I said simply before leaving the office.
