by Ashlee Price
Meeting her new boss seals the deal. Though he is quiet and his eyes are hard to look away from, he seems nice enough. Connie has to start cooking and cleaning up after the staff of Marmex Farms, but finds the job has more than a few perks not mentioned in the ad.
While most of the men are nice to her, there is one she can’t seem to win over. Tony will stop at nothing to get his old girlfriend’s job back. Will he be able to get rid of Connie and spoil all chances of the two of them finding happiness? Or does love really conquer all?
Chapter 1
“Connie, what are you thinking?”
The truth was that Connie wasn’t thinking. All she knew was that if she had to spend one more minute at her job, she was going to explode. It was one of those times that she had said in her head, that ‘this was it.’ It was finally that time and there was nothing that she wanted to do more than leave. And today was the day that she was finally going to do it.
Her body actually shook as she took off her headset and grabbed the few things that were hers on the desktop. It was a cubicle that she had called hers for several years, but no more. There was no more time and energy that could be spent at GC Services. It was the last time she would have to answer with a sickening sweet voice and say the name out loud.
Turning back to her friend, she just shrugged. “I don’t know Karol, but I am not going to stay here another minute.”
Karol’s blue eyes widened. “What are you going to do? You can’t just find something else tomorrow. There is nothing here and you know it. That is why we are here to begin with, remember?”
She did remember. GC Services was one of the only companies that hadn’t sent all of their jobs overseas. There was nothing else but fast food and liquor stores. There was a moment, a hesitation and the thought that she hadn’t told her boss to shove it yet, there was still time to sit back down and press the blinking red light on her phone. All she had to do was put the headset back on, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
With the last bit of resolve in her, Connie put her shoulders back and with her belongings in tow, went towards the boss’ office and prepared herself to tell her exactly what she could do with the job that had plagued Connie’s life for far too long.
When she got to the door and knocked, she was told to come in. As soon as she entered, Cassandra put her finger up, indicating that she needed to wait. Cassie was half of the problem at her job. Connie had been taking orders from someone fresh out of college and with not a sense in the world. She was rude and used her power to her advantage. It was enough for her to get even more upset as she waited impatiently for Cassie to get off the phone.
It became clear that it was a social call and as she laughed, Connie waited, becoming increasingly happy that she had decided to quit. Reaching over and hanging up the phone from the base, Connie just smiled at Cassandra as her face started to get as red as she looked ready to explode. “What the hell…”
“I quit. Just thought I would let you know.”
Connie walked out without another word. She didn’t trust herself to say anything, but was satisfied with the look she got from the shrewish woman. She gave Karol a small wave before she made her way out of the front door. There was a feeling of exaltation when she got into the elevator that lasted almost seven floors, but the last couple of floors made her nervous and she realized that she didn’t have a job. She knew that before of course, but the realization that she was jobless really hit her as she heard the elevator ding and the doors opened.
What was she going to do?
Connie tried not to let the question running through her mind get to her. She couldn’t stop the suffocating feeling though and she was close to hyperventilating by the time she got behind the wheel of her car. There were no jobs. That much was true and she knew that she was going to have to look outside the box to figure something out. She may have very well just forced herself to leave the area, as well as her job.
She drove home slowly, playing the day out in her head and why she was now unemployed. It had just been the wrong customer at the wrong time. She had been over-talked one too many times and then gotten her review from Cassie. There was ‘room for improvement’ in her customer service and she was given a fifteen cent raise for the year. It had been the last straw for Connie. But now, she was afraid that her moment of courage had doomed her. Her mind was already thinking of the bills that awaited her at home, ready to be paid.
Connie picked up a newspaper on her way home, hoping that the job of her dreams would be in there. If she couldn’t manage the job of her dreams, than at least one that would pay a few bills would do. Pouring a glass of wine, she sat at the table and looked through the want ads. She lived close to a big city and figured that she would find something there, but there was another ad that caught her attention more.
‘Cook and housekeeper needed. Room and board included.’
There was more information about hours and the pay, both like a dream and she wondered if it was too good to be true. It was more time off and almost double what she was making at the call center. Connie was feeling pessimistic, but there was a small bit of hope in her and she picked up the phone to dial the number. It didn’t matter to her that she had a bit of a buzz and probably should have waited till morning, but a job like that would be gone quickly and there was a sense of urgency that she knew would not go away until she was hired somewhere else.
When a deep voice answered, Connie sat up in her seat and tried to sober up. “Hi, yes, I was calling about the job ad in the paper?”
“Okay.”
She bit her lip. “Are you guys still looking for someone?”
“Yeah, can you cook?”
There was a southern drawl to his voice that was not common in the city and Connie decided that she liked the sound of it. It wasn’t too thick that she couldn’t understand it, but it reminded her how different life was only a hundred miles from where she was. She had checked the location on the internet and that was about as far as the address was.
“Uh, yeah I think I can.”
“You either can cook or you can’t.”
The man had a sharp tone and it made her sit up a little straighter. “I assure you I can cook. Are you still hiring?”
“Yeah. Come down here tomorrow and we will see if you can cook or not.”
She didn’t know what to say. He was not the kind of interviewer she was used to, but there was almost a challenge that she couldn’t deny. Connie didn’t know if she wanted to work for a guy like him, but she certainly wanted to prove to him that she could in fact cook.
“Okay. How many people will I be cooking for?”
“Well, there are, I don’t know, ten or twelve on any given day. Is that too many?”
“No, not at all. What time would you like me to be there?”
“How about seven?”
She repeated it to make sure that she had heard the time right. It had been a long time since she had gotten up that early and she was worried about the almost two hour drive beforehand. But she needed the job, she told herself. It was hard to pass up the chance and the perks. If nothing else, she would get to see a bit of the countryside. It wasn’t a place that she went to often, but she liked the idea of it.
“Okay Sir, I will see you at seven.”
“I’m Alex.”
“My name is Connie, Alex. I look forward to meeting you tomorrow.”
She hung up with a little hope and a bit shaky from the conversation. It had been intense and she had an idea that he was going to be even more intimidating in person. What was he going to be like, she had to wonder and more importantly, was that really what she wanted to do with her life, clean and cook after a bunch of men?
One way or another, Connie needed a job and if she didn’t get one she was going to need a place to stay. It just seemed like it would make everything easier if she could find a job and a place all in one. She went to bed with a lot of questions, but there was hope that made sleep not so hard
to come by. Getting up at four thirty in the morning, she didn’t have much time to worry about the what-ifs.
Chapter 2
Connie was blurry-eyed as she drove down to Fasto. It was a couple of hours south of the city in the farm lands. Connie was a city girl, but even half asleep she could see how beautiful it was once there was more trees than cars in eyesight. She followed her GPS to a small farm with cows and horses, as well as corn and soybean as far as the eye could see. It was a daunting place and she hoped that hadn’t bit off more than she could chew. It had been a while since she had cooked for that many people.
Parking in front of the biggest house on the property, she got out of her car and immediately wished that she hadn’t worn heels. In her defense, she hadn’t known that it was going to be a farm, but she should have known that it was going to be something like that with the manners of the man on the phone and the address that she had typed in. Sighing to herself, she tried not to lose her footing on the ground that was softer than she liked, her heels sinking into the mud.
“I don’t think I have ever seen someone like you out here.”
She stopped at the voice, her eyes sweeping the area until she finally saw the man standing up from a swing on the porch. He was dark-headed and his eyes were taking in everything about her. It was hard for Connie not to blush as she was appraised. “Someone like me?”
“You know, one of those fancy women.”
Connie decided to take it as a compliment, and started to move towards him to shake his hand, anything to get his eyes off of her. She could feel her face reddening and she was suddenly thankful for the chocolate brown skin that covered up her ire.
“So you are Alex?”
He towered over her and nodded his head. “You are not what I expected at all. Last girl that we interviewed was some little bumpkin. Are you sure that you know how to cook?”
She laughed a little. He was just as she had imagined, though he had a charm to him and the way he looked at her made it feel hotter than the early morning sun actually afforded. She had not expected him to be so handsome or for her body to lean in slightly as she talked to him. His hand was rough in her own and there was a spark of awareness when they touched.
“Just lead me to your kitchen and I am sure I can make something for everyone.”
He finally pulled his hand away, not really wanting to and had her follow him into the house. Alex had a good feeling about her and if nothing else, she was pretty to look at. He wondered how the others would react to her. Alex decided that even if the woman couldn’t cook, it would still be fun to see the reactions of his crew when they came in and saw a woman like her in the kitchen.
Alex had not realized that she was going to be so pretty. She had sounded so meek on the phone that he was afraid that she would never make it on the rough and tumble farm, but there she was. She was in a tight skirt with tall heels and a button-up that allowed a little peekaboo as he stood beside her. While she was short, barely coming to his shoulders, she had curves that made her legs seem longer and a bust that kept his eyes in a dangerous area.
“Are you going to show me where or just stare at me the whole time?”
Alex had the decency to blanch. It wasn’t the impression that he had been trying to make and she was able to see the redness go to his cheeks through his tanned skin. Connie was becoming happier by the minute that she had come. Alex was hot and when he was embarrassed, there was even more attraction to him.
“This way. I just…” He stopped trying to explain himself and she just grinned back at him, making the heat in his face worse.
“So what would you like?”
His mind went to many things and none of them had anything to do with food. Again he was staring as she gave him the sardonic look that snapped him out of it. “Just whatever you can make. I sent Bass to the store last night, so there should be something to cook in there.”
She opened up the fridge and after a minute, he was still right next to her. “Why don’t you give me a little while and I will let you know when it is ready. What time do you usually eat?”
“Eight.”
Connie nodded and shooed him out of the kitchen, assuring him that she would take care of it from there. There was nothing worse than a man over her and one as distracting as Alex made her nervous. The job was for cooking and cleaning, but it was clear to her which one Alex was worried about and she wanted to make sure that she did a good job. She needed the job or it was going to be back to the newspapers and looking for a job that she would half to drive hours to and fro every day. That didn’t sound very good to her, so she really wanted to nail it.
She watched him walk away and smiled to herself. He had the southern drawl of the area and the tanned skin, but there was something in his eyes that did not give her the feeling that he was slow in all ways. He had practically devoured her with his brown eyes right there in the kitchen and her mind wondered what it would feel like to be touched by the strong arms.
Shaking herself clear of the thoughts, she tried to focus on what was in the fridge and then try to decide what to make a bunch of cowboys. Since there was a disproportionate amount of breakfast meat in the fridge, she took the hint.
***
Connie didn’t have to call the guys in, the food doing all of the work to save her voice. There was one guy behind her when she turned around and the next time, there were several more. She started making plates and they would go off to the table. She had never seen such orderly men in her life and they were all very quiet. Connie put it down to they were still tired, but they had actually been out working for a couple of hours by then.
Alex was the last one to come back in and he was the last to get a plate. Half of the guys were already done and back out again. It had not been what Connie expected. They all said thank you and a few of them were looking at her in the same way that Alex had.
“So you can cook.”
“You look shocked.”
“Women like you can’t usually cook.”
She let it go, still assuming that he was talking about the heels again. Connie told herself that if she got the job, she would not be wearing heels any longer. There was no way the man was going to let her live it down if she did.
When she didn’t answer, he went to the sink with his plate and seemed to make up his mind about something. “When can you start?”
“Well I would have to ask a few questions.”
“What?”
“Where would be staying and what else is involved with the job?”
“Come on.”
He didn’t say anything else before he was going up the tall stairs that led to the bedroom she would be staying in. It was bigger than she expected with its own vanity area and large closet. She would have to share a bathroom with Alex it turned out, but the rest of the guys stayed in the other building. Alex had a brother that came down from time to time that stayed in the bottom story, but it would basically just be the two of them staying in the main house.
They ironed out the rest of the deal and she told him that she would start in a couple of days. She had to move and put most of her things in storage or get rid of them. Since it was Friday, they both agreed that she would come back and start on Monday morning. She left with a sense of hope and couldn’t wait to tell her friend about her new job. She didn’t want her to worry and now that she was employed, it was all going to work out, Connie was sure of it.
Chapter 3
“I don’t know if we should have someone around the farm all of the time, especially someone like her.”
Alex wasn’t paying attention to Tony. He was trying to figure out the bills and the man was always complaining, so he had gotten very good at just tuning him out.
“Are you eve listening to me?”
“Yes, what is it Tony?”
“I don’t like her.”
“Why?” That got his attention. He had a good feeling about Connie and it seemed like everyone else liked her. Of course Tony w
ould find something wrong, he thought to himself. The man was never happy and he shouldn’t have thought that he would be then.
“I don’t know. There is just something about her that gives me a bad feeling.”
Alex didn’t get it either. She was great, beautiful and she could cook. What more could they ask for?
“I wish that you would just let it go Tony and give it some time. I know you liked the last one, but she burnt everything. You can still date her, but she doesn’t need to be working here.”
Tony was still mad that Tabitha was fired the week before. He had fallen for her and if Connie was there to stay, there was no way that he was going to be able to talk Alex into letting her come back. She needed the job and he liked to have her around. She had always found time to take care of him after dinner and she made him feel like he was the only man in the world. All of that was going to be gone if he couldn’t find a way to get Connie out of there.
“Well I just don’t like her. I got a bad feeling.”
Alex turned away and just shook his head. “You and your bad feelings, Tony. I don’t know what to say either. I hired her and she starts Monday. I know that you and Tabitha are still together and I think that is great, but she is not going to be working here anything more.”
Tony knew that the conversation was over. His boss was a kind man and a fair one, but once he had said his piece about something and said what he was going to say, that was it. That is all that he was able to do and Tony knew that he was done talking about it. Tony needed his job as well and it was the best one he had ever had. He was just going to have to grin and bear it a bit longer. He knew that he could, he just had to remember that the pay was good and he could see Tabitha after work. If he was honest with himself, the man was afraid that she would leave him if he didn’t fix it for her.
