“More than you having two kids?” His eyebrows flew up. “To be honest, that was pretty surprising to me, but I think it’s awesome. I know you’re a great mom.”
“Well, there’s a little more to it than that. And I need to tell you about my second job—”
I stopped talking when I noticed him patting his pants pocket. He held up one finger as he retrieved his phone, pulling it out to glance down and see who was calling. “Oh, shit, it’s Colleen. I better take this.”
I watched him put the phone to his ear, the smile he had worn seconds ago fading into oblivion.
“Okay. Yeah, I can come back. No problem. Just a sec.”
He frowned, pursing his lips as he returned the phone to his pocket.
“What’s wrong?”
He rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Colleen said she needs me to come back to the bakery right away.”
“Oh.” I stood up as soon as he did, hoping I would at least get a kiss goodbye. In a way this was good. I could sit on my throne all day on autopilot while I figured out how I wanted to tell him about River’s CF and my second job as a Mistress Magenta. Those were the two main things I figured anyone getting into a relationship with me ought to know.
“Sorry. I can drop by after work…” He paused for a moment as if his memory was kicking in. “Oh, is that meeting tonight?”
The meeting had been postponed till tomorrow, but I didn’t want to talk to him about that yet. I wanted to see how he reacted to the other stuff first. And then I would tell him about my involvement in the Rebel Alliance—which is what we called our organization that was plotting to take down the Sweets and their Evil Enterprise once and for all.
“I’ll text you, okay?” I gave him a sweet smile and reached my arms out to offer him a hug.
He scooped me up into his embrace and planted a kiss on my lips. “I’ll see you soon.”
12
Cy
I breezed through the kitchen, catching sight of Colleen in the cramped little office that was enclosed in glass in one corner. The timeclock was right outside the square enclosure, and that was pretty much the closest I’d ever gotten to the office. My boss was never in it. Until now. As soon as she saw me, she gestured for me to come inside.
“Hey, sorry, I thought I had a little more time,” I apologized as I took a seat in the hard plastic chair across from her desk. She was reading something on her computer, but when she did finally look at me, I saw a fire in her eyes I’d never seen before. It almost looked like rage.
“Close the door, Marcus,” she barked at me.
Whoa. I had never heard her sound like that before. What the fuck had I done? I reached over to swing the door shut, not realizing how hard I pushed it. It crashed into the frame with a bang, which only seemed to make the scowl on Colleen’s face deepen. “What’s going on? Is there a problem?”
Her eyes whipped toward me, locking on to mine as her intense glare ramped up. “Yeah, there’s a problem.” She adjusted her computer monitor, turning it around to a photo on the Sweetopia website.
Of my family.
With me in it.
Oh shit.
“You want to explain to me why you look exactly like the Sweet’s youngest son?”
There was a nasty sneer in her voice. I scraped my hand down my beard, which had grown in nice and thick. “Oh, I do look a wee bit like the Sweet chap, don’t I?”
She huffed out a breath as she turned the monitor back toward her. “You know, when I saw you chatting with Clem in the hallway earlier this morning, it all became crystal-fucking-clear. You’re here undercover, aren’t you?”
“What?” I mustered up as much shock and outrage as I could. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My fake accent held steady.
“Stop with the fake British accent already,” she snapped. “I understand now why you’ve asked so many questions about the meeting, about the secret Facebook group. Your parents sent you in here as an undercover boss, didn’t they? They couldn’t send Clem or Carson because we all know who they are, but you’ve barely worked in the park, right? You’ve been gallivanting all over the globe studying art.”
Fuck.
“Are you the one organizing the employee uprising?” I asked. There was no sense in beating around the bush now.
“No, I’m not, but there is no fucking way in hell I’m giving you any more information about it,” she seethed. The veins in her temple looked to be throbbing, and her jaw was clenched so tight I thought it might snap.
“You know your job is on the line, right?” I reminded her. “All I have to do is say the word, and they’ll fire you.”
She ignored that little nugget of truth and attacked from a different angle. “And that’s why you’ve been getting close to Jolie, isn’t it? You’re trying to figure out how she’s involved in all this, aren’t you?”
“No, actually, I really like her.” That wasn’t a lie, even if it was a little hard for me to admit it to someone else.
Colleen looked me up and down, the wheels clearly turning in her head. “I won’t blow your cover and tell your parents you’ve been goofing off in here with some girl instead of doing whatever the hell you are supposed to be doing, if—”
“If what?”
How dare she threaten me. I could fire this woman. My parents would back me up on that, right?
Ugh. I didn’t know that they would.
“If you stay away from Jolie,” she sneered. “I mean it. No going to her dressing room. No talking to her if she comes in here.”
“But I already told you, my mission here has nothing to do with Jolie. I genuinely like her!” I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but it was too late. I wondered how soundproof those glass walls were.
“You Sweets are all the same, you know that? You think of people in terms of what they can do for you instead of being actual human beings with needs and feelings. It’s sick, really.” Colleen shook her head as she continued to shoot daggers at me. “Jolie deserves better than that. She’s a good, kind, young woman and a hell of a mom. I don’t want her getting mixed up with you—and if she finds out you’re the Sweet’s son, she might be tempted—”
“Tempted? Because of my money?” I shook my head. That didn’t sound like the Jolie I had gotten to know.
Colleen sighed. “No, she’s not a gold digger, if that’s what you’re afraid of.” She flared her nostrils as another deep breath huffed out her mouth. “Look, this isn’t my story to tell, but if you care about her, you’ll stay away from her. She has enough on her plate. She only needs loyal, reliable, trustworthy people surrounding her, and you’re not it.”
“Why? She’s an adult. She can make her own choices,” I protested.
“Her kid is sick, okay?” Colleen fired at me.
It was a flaming arrow that pierced me right in the heart. “What do you mean, sick?” The story Buster told us last week of the park employee with a terminally ill child came to mind.
“Her younger son has cystic fibrosis,” she filled me in. “Even right now, he’s at the hospital getting a high-power course of IV antibiotics.”
“What?” I shook my head in disbelief as I flashed back to our conversation in her dressing room just moments ago. She said there was more she wanted to tell me, more that I should know.
Here she was about to bare her secrets to me, show me who she really was beneath the crown, the costume. And she still had no fucking clue who I was. She didn’t even know my real name. Maybe Colleen was right. Maybe I didn’t deserve her.
“You heard me. Now, look, you need to come up with something to tell your parents, and if you really care about Jolie, you will protect her. She doesn’t need any more shit in her life, and she really needs this job, okay?” Colleen’s dark eyes were blazing with compassion. She really did care about Jolie a great deal; that much was obvious.
“But they’re breathing down my neck. They want details on the meeting and this media shit going down. I don’t know what to t
ell them. I can’t make everyone happy here.” And that was the honest truth of the matter.
“I don’t think you’re a bad person, Cy,” she said, using my real name. “Not if there has been any truth behind your portrayal of ‘Marcus.’ But your parents are two selfish, greedy assholes. And I have a feeling your two older brothers are just as bad. Things at Sweetopia will probably get even worse with them at the helm. That’s why the employees are banding together now, getting our ducks in a row. We want to stand up to them, force them to do what’s right—”
“But if Sweetopia shuts down, you’ll all lose your jobs. What are you calling for…a strike? A boycott?”
Her eyes gleamed at me, even though she didn’t confirm or deny my accusation.
“Once the media breaks the story of a single mom who can’t get the treatment she needs for her terminally ill son because of the Sweets’ ridiculously expensive and useless health plan…”
Oh, god, Jolie was the organizer. Or if she wasn’t, she was definitely the poster child. Their entire operation hinged on her and her story.
“You have a chance to do the right thing, Cy,” Colleen continued.
My head was beginning to pound as the weight of all these realizations pressed down on me. “If I don’t give up the name of the person behind this…this…union you’re organizing, then I’m toast. They’re cutting me off.”
“It’s up to you, Cy,” she reiterated. “You’re going to have to make a choice. And you don’t have much time.”
Jolie
I had no idea where Marcus was. It was past the time he’d agreed to meet me, and he still hadn’t shown up in my dressing room. Maybe I’d scared him off with my warning that I wanted to divulge some things he needed to know. I wasn’t supposed to be venturing outside of the throne room or my dressing room during work hours, but I knew a way through the employee tunnels to get to the bakery. I’d just check and see if he got held up over there.
Colleen was in her office when I made my way through the back room and kitchen from the tunnel. I knocked a bit on the glass so I wouldn’t scare her, but she jumped anyway.
“Hey,” I said, poking my head in. “Have you seen Marcus?”
She tilted her head for a moment as if she had to think about it. Then her brows furrowed as she gestured for me to come in and have a seat.
“What’s up?” I arranged my dress around my legs. It was so voluminous, it barely fit between the chair and the desk where she sat.
“Have you and Marcus been…uh…dating?” she questioned, fixing her dark gaze on me.
I wasn’t expecting to be interrogated about my private life, but Colleen knew me well enough. She knew all about my situation with River and how I didn’t have help from either of my sons’ fathers. “Well, we’re just…getting to know each other,” I settled on.
“Getting to know each other in a romantic way?” she pushed, her eyebrows arching.
I shrugged. “I guess you could say that.”
She huffed out a long breath as she continued to stare at me. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, hun.”
“Why not?” Was she judging me for not being with my kids every moment I wasn’t at work? She didn’t know about my dominatrix gig. That was just about the only thing she didn’t know about me. Maybe she didn’t think I should date, that I should be in Mom Mode any time I wasn’t at work. I guess that’s what I thought too up until a few days ago.
She cleared her throat as she seemed to struggle with how to articulate her thoughts. “I just don’t know if Marcus is really who he appears to be,” she warned me. “I don’t have any concrete evidence, but a couple things aren’t adding up.”
“Like what?” My heart was beginning to thump hard against my ribs, and the pressure from my corset wasn’t helping.
“I can’t give you anything just yet. Give me a couple days,” she said. “By the time of the meeting, I should know more.”
“Is this why you wanted to change the date and time?” We had been set to meet tonight. She talked me into changing it, and I was actually good with that decision because River was still in the hospital, and I really wanted to be with him tonight.
“Partially,” she revealed. “Just…stay away from him, okay, Jolie? You have to trust me on this.”
I shook my head as my heart raced. The flood of regret and confusion surging through me was enough to make me sick at my stomach. I just wanted a low-key summer fling. I should have known better than to actually invest any emotion in this guy.
“Alright. I better get out of here. So Marcus already left for the day?” I scanned outside the glass walls of her office, searching for him in the fluorescent-lighted kitchen just outside. Tall metal shelves with flour, sugar, and other ingredients partially obstructed my view.
“He went to the gift shop to get some ibuprofen,” she told me. “He’s working late tonight.”
He wasn’t the only one feeling bad. “Okay. Thanks.”
“If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you tomorrow night at The Roost, okay?”
The Roost was where the secret employee meeting was going to be held. I needed to confirm with all the media outlets who were planning to cover my story. What no one knew besides Colleen was that it wasn’t a meeting to plan the agenda for the press conference. It was the actual press conference itself. It was a prime-time news slot, and it would be followed up with an employee strike at the park the next morning, at the same time the public would be asked to boycott until the Sweets agreed to our terms.
I was still ironing out the terms with Colleen and a few other park employees who were in our inner circle, but they included raises across the board, flex time for working parents, better and more affordable healthcare coverage, and an actual overtime rate.
My mind swirling with how much still needed to be done before the “meeting,” I decided to take a cue from Marcus and sneak into the gift shop for some painkillers as well. Though Ellie, the gift shop manager, wasn’t in the “inner circle,” she was definitely sympathetic to our cause and would be in attendance at the meeting. I’m sure she’d slip me a few pills if I texted her from the storeroom, the only place I could get while still in costume.
I said goodbye to Colleen and rushed back down the employee tunnel, taking a couple of turns till I arrived at the back door of the gift shop. I thought the door would be locked, but I found it just a little bit ajar, like someone had forgotten to close it the whole way.
“Ellie?” I called out into the dark space, but I didn’t hear anything, so I crossed the threshold and proceeded through a short hallway lined with shelves. I wasn’t sure where the light switch was, so I kept walking, coming to an abrupt stop when I heard some whispering.
I could tell the whispering was coming from the other side of the shelving unit, and when I raised up on my tiptoes, there was a space to look through to the other side. I had to raise my hand to my lips to stifle the sharp gasp that escaped when I saw Marcus and Ellie standing mere inches from each other.
Ellie had her hand on Marcus’s shoulder and reached out to run her fingers through his hair. I thought he’d flinch or back away, but no, he just stood there. There was a bit more whispering, which I couldn’t decipher, then he wrapped his arms around her waist and aligned his lips with hers. Next thing I knew, he was kissing her.
Kissing her! What the actual fuck?
I didn’t think I made a noise, but maybe I did inadvertently. He abruptly jerked away from her and said something else I couldn’t understand, though by that point in time, my heart was pounding so hard that the sound of blood whooshing through my ears was the only thing I could hear.
“See you then,” Ellie’s nasal voice filled the quiet room. Marcus nodded and turned to leave.
I guess I didn’t realize he would be coming back to the doorway where I was still standing. Duh.
“Jolie?”
Oh, shit. I turned and fled down the hall, hearing his footsteps behind me. It was nearly impos
sible to run in my heels, but I suddenly turned into a track star, hightailing it back to my dressing room like I was aiming for a gold medal at the Olympics.
I could hear his footsteps pounding into the concrete floor of the tunnel behind me, but I reached my dressing room door just as he was turning the corner. I slammed it shut, and seconds later, heavy fists began to pound against it.
I collapsed in the chair in the corner of my dressing room, fighting off the tears that were threatening to ruin my makeup. I was not going to cry over that asshole. I should have known he was a player. Colleen must have known about him and Ellie; that’s why she was trying to warn me. Maybe he said something to her about Ellie.
Fuck. I was glad I caught them, though. Better to find out now before I had invested any more of my time and energy in him. I had bigger fish to fry. That fucking bastard.
At least I’d managed to avoid having to talk to him.
But I didn’t get anything for my splitting headache.
13
Cy
Family dinners should never be this awkward. I was sitting across from my brother Carson and his wife, with Clem beside me and my parents at the ends of the table. I was waiting for my parents to grill me about what happened at work, but they were obviously going to postpone the grilling until Maureen had served the rest of the dishes. The potatoes came out steaming. The roast looked like perfection with its halo of carrots and asparagus artfully arranged around it, and the aroma from the basket of rolls wafted through the blue and white striped towel wrapped around it.
As soon as Maureen scurried back to the kitchen, my father’s eyes swung in my direction. He didn’t even have to say anything, he just stared at me. Finally, when I didn’t respond, my mother added, “Well?”
Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology Page 55
