Page 12 of Forever Fickle

Ithurt.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated and hung up.

CHAPTER5

ARMADILLO

“What did you do, Alpo?”Armadillo whirled around, staring at the other two men who were screaming at each other angrily in horror. Firefly was shouting, jabbing his finger in the other man’s chest.

“You idiot! We need her here, remember?”

“I know that!”

“Then why would you do something so stupid?”

“Because I need my wife to love me more than we need a receptionist!” Alpo roared angrily, grabbing Firefly’s index finger and twisting. “Quit jabbing me – that hurts.”

“Your wife worships the ground you walk on, you nitwit…”

“What did you do, Alpo?” Armadillo repeated, getting angrier. “Harley will flay you alive if you have screwed this up while she’s on maternity leave with Samantha – not to mention Thumper will pound you into the ground, followed by Valkyrie, and even Dixie… Karen is her friend!”

“I made the stupid sign… that’s all,” Alpo shrugged.

“It said Hot Cakes…” Firefly explained. “You sent our little Karen out into a public place with a sign that said Hot Cakes – not Jace Sorensen. I can only imagine what people were saying to her. Think back and remember our reaction to his dumb call sign!”

“You didn’t…” Armadillo whispered, stunned at the denseness of the man before him. “And I…workfor you? Our families’ livelihoods depend on…you?”

“Hey… that’s harsh,” Alpo said frowning. “We are a team.”

“Karen is part of our team,” Firefly growled menacingly.

“He’s right,” Armadillo replied, stunned. “Karenispart of our team, and you are going to apologize to her and explain what a moron her boss is.”

“Wait…” Firefly said suddenly, looking at Armadillo and then Alpo. “What does Glory have to do with any of this?”

Armadillo’s head swung back towards Alpo, as if he was putting together all the pieces too. Alpo said ‘that he wanted his wife to love him’… which meant Glory had put him up to this.

The other man looked distinctly uncomfortable in that moment, making Armadillo dizzy – so much so that he grabbed a chair and sat down hard.

“What did you and Glory do?”

“Keep Glory out of this…” Alpo snapped angrily. “I’ll thank you not to drag her into this – especially when she’s not here to defend herself.”

“Fine! What didYOUdo, Alpo?” Armadillo bit out tightly, hoping that they didn’t end up fighting in the office. Firefly was standing there practically seething, his hands balled up tight.

“Remember Glory said she wanted to match up Reaper with someone?” Alpo said with a heavy, defeated sigh, flopping down in a chair nearby – surprising the two men immediately.

“Glory was so happy for him to learn that he’d gotten married – and she loves Sophie to death… but she cried and cried that night,” Alpo uttered, putting his face down in his hands. “She cried like she’d failed at her first attempt at matchmaking – despite the fact that I told her not to even try it.”

“What does this have to do… Ohhhh…” Firefly said, plopping down in a chair, slapping his forehead. “Glory’s wanting to pair up Hot Cakes with someone – and you are helping her.”

“Don’t tell Glory what I did… please,” Alpo whispered, looking up at the two men, actually looking terrified. “She’s such a tender soul, such a loving person, that she believes everyone should be just as happy as we are – and it crushes her to think that someone might not be. I can’t take listening to her cry again.”

“But Alpo –this is Karen… and she just quit on us.”

“I’ll apologize, tell her it was my fault, and make it right – but please don’t say a thing to Glory. She thinks that Karen just being here with Hot Cakes will make the two of them fall in love.”

“Have you even met our ‘Him-bo’?” Firefly muttered, laughing. “He doesn’t love anyone but himself. Although, he doesn’t have any problem having women falling all over him. Who knows?”

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