Page 11 of Her Juicy Cherry (Sweet Treats 2)

Courtney nods, still marveling at the sight before her. There are lab tables set up with expensive equipment, and even a few beakers filled with odd-colored liquids.

“But is this for the farm?” she asks with confusion. “Are you developing new fertilizers, or new strains of cherry trees? Is that your goal?”

Huck shrugs his shoulders.

“Not really. I mean, we do dabble in that sometimes because you can’t trust industrial fertilizer these days. But no, we decided to open up a lab of our own to explore our interests. We like to tinker,” he says by way of explanation, “and this is our ultimate fantasy: to be able to tinker with the best equipment at our fingertips, with the freedom to do whatever we like.”

“Yeah,” I add with a smile. “We’re our own bosses now.”

Courtney nods again, and then bites her plushly pink lip.

“That does sound good,” she says. “I’ve never had a job where I didn’t have a boss.”

I grin.

“It’s an amazing experience because there’s no one to tell you what to do. You follow your own interests and intuitions, and see where it takes you. Your imagination is the limit. But enough about that for now. Take a seat,” I say, gesturing to a lab stool nearby. “How are you enjoying your time here?”

Courtney balances her ample form on the small wooden seat, and my friend and I both admire her lush figure. The tiny circle of the lab stool only emphasizes how big her bottom is, and we can also see her chunky thighs and sculpted calves. I love curvy girls who work out because they’re sizeable, yet also toned and delicious. It’s a heady mix.

She smiles at us tentatively.

“I like it at Cherrywood so far,” she says. “We’ve only been here for a few hours, but the accommodations seem fine, and the food in the mess hall is good. My compliments to the chef.”

Huck nods.

“We make an effort. We’ve found that keeping our workers happy is important because a happy employee produces more. We have acres of cherries to pick, so having our workers well-rested, well-fed, and energized is important to us.”

Courtney nods.

“Yes, but why have you hired all these people? Don’t you use harvesters and other machines to pick cherries?”

My friend and I share a look.

“We can, and we’ve tried that in the past, but harvesters don’t work well for fresh produce. For processed cherries, it’s fine because cherries picked by machines usually lose their stems. But for fresh cherries, consumers like to see the stem attached, and unfortunately, that can only be done when a cherry is picked by hand.”

Understanding dawns in Courtney’s eyes, and she folds her hands demurely in her lap.

“Oh I see. So we’re picking cherries for grocery stores, right?”

I nod.

“Exactly. We’re going to pick them by hand, and then pack them by hand too. Unfortunately, mechanization hasn’t gotten to the point where we can do all this using machines, but Huck and I are working on it. We’re mad scientists after all. This is our thing.”

Courtney smiles radiantly.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Maybe I can even contribute something,” she adds.

I share a look with Huck, and my friend nods.

“Sure, that’s a possibility. I see here from your resume that you used to work at Praxel Puffin, and that you left only last week. What was the cause of that?”

Courtney visibly wilts when she sees her resume in my hand.

“Well, you see, I wasn’t learning at Praxel Puffin,” she begins. “I majored in Environmental Studies in college, and when I first got the job at Praxel Puffin, I was really excited. They do cardboard packaging with an emphasis on boxes and other packaging materials, like tape and bubblewrap. The industry really picked up after Amazon went global because there’s so much demand for packaging materials now. I thought I’d really like it because I was interested in helping develop eco-conscious boxes made of recyclable materials. Even moving from Styrofoam pellets to bubble wrap was a huge transition.”

I nod.

“But?” I prompt gently. “What happened?”

She goes pink.

“Well, I wasn’t really learning,” she says slowly. “Praxel Puffin never moved me into an analyst role, so I was only an admin assistant. And then, well, one day my boss came over to my cubicle, and I happened to have two personal emails pop into my mailbox while he could see my screen. He fired me for using work email to send and receive personal communications.”

I share a look with Huck. That is a punishable offense, but let’s face it: most employees use their work email for personal reasons. My business partner looks at her with piercing blue eyes.

“That’s it?” he drawls. “You got fired for using work email to send personal emails?”

Courtney blushes, and stammers a bit.

“Well, no. I mean, yes. The emails that came in, they weren’t exactly G-rated, if you know what I mean.”

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