He said this so straight faced and so unapologetically I nearly thought he was kidding. But his lack of smile and his walking away proved he wasn’t. I momentarily struggled to find my voice. “I’ve been picking up hours here before my transfer. I know what I’m doing,” I scoffed as I followed him into the long hallway. The floor was all carpet, made of an ugly red floral pattern that didn’t match the sky-blue walls or ceiling. The walls smelled of fresh paint. Even with the mismatched colors, it was a very pretty building. Once you made it out the hallway and toward the entrance, there was a small water fountain display surrounded by fake pine trees and taxidermy animals. One was a beaver. Another was of a red fox. The last was a very large grizzly bear that I could imagine was probably very frightening back when it was alive. But I could see why so many people booked events at this resort. The atmosphere was strangely homey, the forest theme making me feel at ease. I nearly forgot about the rude guy.
He didn’t look at me as his attention was solely fixated on his phone as he walked. I remembered seeing this young man from time to time when I worked in the shipping department. He was occasionally in the kitchen when I delivered packages, but we never conversed. As I thought about it, I couldn’t recall a time this guy and I had ever looked at each other. That’s how nonexistent our mutual existences were to one another. The young man didn’t bother looking at me as he answered calmly.
“You’ve been carting chairs away and folding linens while here. It’s not exactly complicated. Once you start doing some real heavy lifting, you’ll be run out of here fairly quickly.”
I couldn’t help but feel offended. “And why do you think that?”
“I don’t think, I know,” he said with confidence.
“You sound like a sexist ass.”
These words caused the guy to pause his fast walk. He turned around to face me. He smiled at me now, but there was no genuine kindness behind it. It was purely sardonic. “No. I’m a realistic ass. No female has lasted in this department a whole month before. If you make it, we’ll bother to train you. Until then, follow the group or stay out of the way if you can’t lift something heavy.”
“Whatever,” I snorted at the clear sexism being shown. “So where can I find the supervisor? You know, someone actually useful to talk to.”
This time the guy offered me a genuine smile. “There’s two. You’re looking at one of them.”
I could feel my face fall as my mouth softly popped open. It caused the guy to chuckle as he walked away.
***
It took less than four minutes working in banquet set up for me to realize I probably should have stayed in my old department. It took four hours for me to realize there was no going back to that old department. I had burned bridges by transferring. That much had been proven true when my old coworkers were delivering a package to the conference center. They offered very nasty glares in my direction that showed just how much they didn’t like me. My small wave toward them resulted in narrowed eyes and even dirtier looks. The funny part was that I had never once been sarcastic or rude to those girls. The supervisor had seemed to not like me simply for the sake of not liking me while the other girl disliked me only because the supervisor did. Maybe they were feeling even crankier than usual because I was gone. Now, Laurel would have to help Jonna lift kegs and other heavy objects instead of having me do it.
Strangely, I was finding I would have rather worked with the hormonal women in shipping rather than the department I was now in. The grass wasn’t greener on the other side. Even though my old supervisor there had been bossy and unfriendly, the supervisors in this new department were proving to be much worse.
The extremely rude supervisor I had spoken to was named Matt. He was as helpful as he was uncaring. He never bothered to talk to me again, and he didn’t relay any information that could help me with the job. He clearly didn’t believe I would last a whole month in the department and proceeded not to share anything with me that could improve my job performance. I avoided speaking to him as much as he avoided me. I found out the other supervisor of the department was the redhead with the bad haircut. He was proving to be more immature than middle-school-aged boys even though he was twenty-three.
Cale the redhead had laughed at my name when he heard it. When I had pointed out Cale wasn’t any better of a name, he had merely shrugged and called me an idiot while Jamie laughed. I was instantly reminded of my time living with Simon and his occasional bouts of immaturity. Except these guys were much worse than my teenage brother and quite merciless with their teasing toward one another. I was getting a reprieve from their bullying; no one seemed to want to speak to me, almost as if they wanted to show just how unwanted I was in this department. The only occasional comments made to me was when Cale was insulting me.
Evidently there was no care regarding what the supervisors or the employees said to one another in this all-male environment. There was no punishment for being rude and obnoxious to one another. The young men called each other derogatory names or talked disturbingly about sex or their flings with girls.
Even when people from neighboring departments like banquet servers or sales managers walked past, no one acknowledged the boys’ crudeness. It was as though this was all normal and acceptable behavior among them, and no one questioned it. In any other place, this inappropriateness wouldn’t be tolerated. But at The Forest Resort, no one seemed to care. I found I didn’t hate the job, but I was really hating my new coworkers. They never stopped cracking dumb jokes, and they had too much fun egging each other on to share even more dumb jokes. The kindest people I had come across were individuals from other departments. The maintenance people, the line cooks, and sous chef from the kitchen. Unfortunately, my time around them was rather limited. I was stuck solely interacting with my horrible coworkers.
“I must have died and gone to hell,” I said to myself once everyone left the room. It was four hours into the shift. We had been organizing a classroom setting with ninety chairs. That was thirty tables and three chairs per table facing a large, drawn-down screen. It wasn’t difficult to set, but it was lonely having no one to talk to. Everyone ignored me like I wasn’t there. Even when a very tall guy with ham-like fists nearly dropped a table on my hand when I was removing a table from the cart, he never acknowledged me, let alone apologized for nearly breaking my wrist.
I was an alien when I had been picking up hours here. The outsider who didn’t know if I’d fit in if I ever met the other members of this department. Now that I was officially among them, I was an outcast among a tribe.
Along with setting up the room, we had to set up a screen, projector table, and HDMI cables. I was about as experienced with knowing any of that as I was at knowing Latin. Given I hadn’t made it past page two of the Latin book my grandmother had gotten me three Christmases ago, that wasn’t saying much. One of the boys spared me some kindness. The dark-skinned boy, who I believed was named Terrance, offered me his to-do list to read. It was nice of him, but I didn’t understand the terminology the department used or the odd coding that was on the lists. CR3p6W/HDMI+VG
Evidently the sexist supervisor hadn’t been wrong; I really didn’t understand anything on the paper.
I was clueless and merely trying to keep my head above water by sticking with the group and copying the things that they did, but tragedy struck once all the guys left the room. They left after the group had finished setting the tables down. Everyone ignored me for the most part, which was fine by me. But as they left the room, no one had told me to follow, so I was unsure if I should finish putting linens on the tables or follow the rest of the group out. As the boy named Jamie started to talk about some obscene sex act he was trying to get his girlfriend to commit to, I decided to stay in the room to avoid having to listen in on the disturbing conversation.
“I feel the same way,” a voice answered me from across the room. My head shot up to find another boy was still in the room. He was answering my vocal thought from earlier. The guy
was the very quiet one. He was tall, just as tall as Jamie, Matt, and Cale. He had copper-colored skin and the prettiest dark eyes I had ever seen. His hair was a very dark brown, wavy but slicked back to avoid getting in his eyes. The young man started to hook up the HDMI cables to the projector before he spoke again. “I already feel like I’m in hell, and your saying that just confirmed it.”
I moved on to another table to place the linen over it before I spoke again. “Are they always like this?”
“I want to say no, but I would be lying.” He smiled.
I smiled back. It was nice coming across someone who also thought this place was obnoxious. “So…I’m Everly, and I have no idea what I’m doing here.”
The guy snorted at my introduction. “I’m Darren. I work on the golf course, but during the dead season, I pick up hours here.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
Silence took over. I wondered if I should say something to try to break it before Darren beat me to it. “Out of all the places to pick up hours, why would you come here?”
“I transferred departments,” I admitted gloomily. He let that sink in before asking another question.
“I can’t recall having seen you at employee parties before.”
According to the employee newsletter sent out through email every night, the employee party for The Forest occurs every January. “My parents moved to Wisconsin last spring to be closer to my sister. I only moved here to join them a couple months ago.”
“Hey, buttholes,” called Cale lazily from the doorway. He gave a ridiculous flip of his stupid-looking hair. “Lunch.” He walked off. I watched where he had been with raised eyebrows, surprised by the behavior we just witnessed from a supervisor.
Darren didn’t look surprised or appalled from such a greeting. Worse, he seemed far used to it. “Bet you’re regretting that decision to transfer.”
I was.
CHAPTER 3
The day never got any better. The guys would animatedly talk to one another up until I walked into a room. Then they were silent. Too silent, to the point that it felt like they had been talking about me until I showed up. Then we would work in awkward silence until they left the room. I could never stay in a room by myself to finish up small details like skirting a table or setting down notepads and pens; Perry would come out of nowhere and inform me I needed to stick with the group. It didn’t matter if those specific things needed to be done. I was still told that.
It seemed that was the only time I would see Perry. He would pop out of nowhere and inform me to “stay with the group.” I had only worked one full day with the man thus far, and yet that seemed to be his unofficial catch phrase. He probably said it to me three times in two hours, as if it were my own personal fault for not sticking with the group even though everyone would leave without telling me where they were going next. There was only one bright side to working with these boys in the conference center. The long silences and tedious work freed my mind to mentally focus on stories I was writing in my free time. I was developing brilliant ideas without even meaning to. It at least showed me that this stupid job wasn’t a complete waste of time.
I spent the rest of the day working in the same rooms as Darren. No one seemed to like talking to him, either. I suppose that’s why we were bonding; neither of us could bond with the others.
By the time my horrible first day of work was finally over, I hurriedly left and went down to the police station. They took my statement that there was a large wolf hunting by nearby houses. The officer at the front desk looked uncaring as she wrote down the information. She said the Wisconsin Wildlife department would take a look. The bored-looking woman also informed me that from living in Wisconsin I should be accustomed to coyotes and should know the difference between that and a wolf since grey wolves weren’t known to frequent this area. I didn’t say anything, for the woman wouldn’t believe the truth.
During my drive home, I spent my time thinking the woman probably wouldn’t have been so rude if she had known what kind of monster was lurking in the woods. Whatever it was we had seen the night before, I knew it was no coyote. There was no rational animal it could have been, either. I nearly drove all the way home, forgetting I hadn’t picked up Simon from work. I swore loudly as I made the nearest turn to head back to the resort. After forty-five minutes of driving back and forth while having to listen to a very annoyed Simon all the way home, I finally parked in the driveway, relishing the idea of a shower. My brother went up to his room to most likely sit in front of his flatscreen playing on his PlayStation 4 the rest of the night.
I collected sweet-smelling soaps and shampoos from the downstairs hall closet and proceeded to the bathroom. Maybe washing my hair and watching the soapy suds run down the drain would provide relief as if I were washing this bad day away. I started stripping my shirt off before I realized I had forgotten conditioner. Knowing Simon never ventured to the downstairs area because he solely lived on the third floor of the house where his bedroom and bathroom were, I knew I wouldn’t come across him while wearing my soccer ball bra. I snuck out of the bathroom and went to the hall closet. The bottle of conditioner was unfortunately on the highest shelf that was far above my reach. Standing on my tiptoes didn’t help. I had to use a towel to whip it down. My makeshift lasso worked but only to propel the bottle off the shelf and into a heavy fall. Right before the full bottle could smack me on the forehead, a large hand caught it midair.
Instant recognition hit me the second I looked up at the pale-faced owner of the large hand. It was my brand-new supervisor, the one I disliked even more than the one who called me a butthole.
Matt.
I didn’t dare move as the breath locked in my throat. I had far too many questions buzzing through my mind, but for once, I was rendered silent. Matt didn’t say a word, either. He looked different when he wasn’t dressed in his navy long-sleeved polo and khakis. As he stood in front of me, he was dressed in a crisp royal blue long-sleeved shirt and simple jeans. The color seemed to make his powder blue eyes pop more than they already did. We seemed to be locked in an undisclosed staring contest as neither of us said a word to each other. Dimly, I could hear Miranda’s voice in the background. I couldn’t process anything other than my own severe shock and embarrassment that of all places and situations, Matt was somehow in the hallway of my house staring at me as I wore nothing but ugly khaki pants and a bra that looked like soccer balls where the cups were. I wasn’t necessarily fat, but I wasn’t thin by any means. I had too large of a love for Doritos and Oreos to be such. I filled out a bra nicely, but this wasn’t a situation where I wanted a guy to see me in such an undressed state. It was as Matt’s eyes drifted down to look at what I was—and wasn’t—wearing before staring into my eyes again that I escaped. I jumped into the closet and shut the door behind me. Luckily, there was enough room to fit me. I wanted to hide away from this embarrassing moment, but it was probably made worse that I had jumped into a supply closet where I had to hold it closed to prevent it from opening.
Miranda’s voice could be heard closer than ever, but I didn’t leave the closet until I no longer heard the quiet voices of her and Matt.
By the time the voices were gone, I ran for the bathroom and threw on my long-sleeved work shirt. Then I made my way toward the living room, where I heard the voices of Miranda and Matt. I needed answers. Coming into view of the two, I was dismayed to find Matt was sitting on my family’s white leather sofa while Miranda was offering him a refreshment. He was merely sitting there as if he were a guest and this entire situation didn’t seem outrageous or completely absurd.
“Heyyy, you found a shirt.” Miranda giggled as she held a tray of glasses. That comment showed Matt had told her about the incident. While Miranda chuckled as if the situation had been funny, Matt respectively sat silent on the couch, not even cracking a smile. For that alone, I was grateful. I flushed furiously as my elder sister continued to laugh. My irritation only grew a
s Miranda set down the tray and took a seat on the chair across from the sofa where Matt sat.
“What is he doing here?” Those were the only words I could think of saying.
Miranda stopped her guffaws as she offered Matt a glass of lemonade. “Matt is picking me up, and I offered him some lemonade before we leave.”
Many questions instantly began firing around in my mind as I struggled to come to terms with what was being said.
“Are you guys in a relationship?”
Miranda looked between Matt and me as she seemed to silently piece things together. She deflected the question with a question. “Do you guys know each other?”
Matt shrugged. “Sort of—”
“He’s my supervisor,” I interrupted grimly, thinking of a few other rude adjectives that I’d like to say to describe him.
Miranda’s mouth opened into a small o of surprise. “That’s right, you work at The Forest, Everly! I met Matt when my company held our end-of-the-summer meeting at their conference center a few weeks ago.”
My teeth snapped together roughly. That explained how these two would have met in the first place. Miranda noticed Matt and I were still watching each other. Matt still sat silent while I glared.
“Are you guys in a relationship?” I asked again, ignoring the question. I had yet to tell Miranda how horrible my first day at the new job had been. Even though Miranda had no way of knowing how horrible my first day had been, it still felt like a betrayal that my older sister was dating someone who had been so very rude to me my very first day.
Matt said no at the same time Miranda said yes. The latter blushed profusely. “This will be our second date,” she explained hastily.
I balked. “You couldn’t find anyone better to date other than my new jerk supervisor?” In a way, I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. Miranda had always been the smartest and most talented of the Davis siblings. But she unfortunately had a knack for dating guys who were narcissistic or obnoxious. Maybe it was because she was pretty with her long strawberry blonde hair and brown eyes. Maybe, being so gorgeous with her long legs and slender frame, she always attracted the guys and just happened to catch more jerks than normal girls. Whatever the reason, Miranda never struggled to find dates. She caught them as easily as a bug zapper caught flies. From a young age, Miranda always looked like she belonged in a modeling catalog or on a runway in Paris. She was one of those lucky people with great looks who went from being a cute kid to a good-looking teen and then to an even better looking adult. It was always entertaining for Simon and me when Miranda brought a new guy home. First in middle school, she had a penchant for high-school-aged boys. Miranda usually brought home the best-looking ones who were the fullest of themselves. One came over every day after school and polished off any snacks our dad brought home from the store. The lack of Oreos made everyone except Miranda and our mom very upset. Simon and I still curse that boy.
The Wisconsin Werewolf Page 3
