Hearts and Other Breakable Things

chapter twenty-two ✔️

januarie robinson
- january 15, 2019 -

THE CLEANING CREW EXITED THE theatre, leaving Carmen and I standing there staring down the hallway. We were opening and they just finished the room, meaning the seats would be completely soaked. Neither of us bothered to speak with the man walking about behind the counter with a uniform on. Someone Lucas must have hired without telling anyone again. We simply watched as Paulo came back in and pulled a folded-up bill from his back pocket.

            "Thank you so much for your patience," his words dripped with an Italian accent, "Lucas told us not to worry about the time. He said he'd switch around the shows going in the rooms."

            Carmen sent the man a tight-lipped smile, "Thanks, Paulo. I'll fax this straight to the office."

            Nodding, he smiled, "You guys have a wonderful day."

            We watched him walk off. Carmen turned to me and her brow twitched. She breathed, trying not to crumple the paper in her grasp, "I'm going to kill him."

            Laughing, I turned on my heels and sighed. Whoever had closed the night before had fallen short of finished. I barely glanced at the clock above me. As quickly as I could, I filled the candy cases and moved popcorn tubs around to fill the counter.

            The man stepped out from the back and spared him a glance. He had short, trimmed brown hair, matching eyes and every time I caught sight of him, he had this aura that he was about to punch a wall or even a person for that matter. I wanted to ask what could possibly be wrong, but I held my tongue the best I could.

            Scurrying to the back, I grabbed the crate from a rack and filled it with drinks from storage. I felt a pinch in my wrist as I carried the crate out to the front and dropped it on the counter with a huff. My eyes found the guy once again with a frown lingering on his face. I thought someone would have introduced us this morning, but that didn't happen and I wasn't going to walk up to him. Not with that expression on his lips.

            Pulling the step stool up to the mini fridge on the back counter, I began removing the drinks that were left from the night before. I wiped the whole fridge with a bleach rag before starting to return the bottles to their rightful places. I stood on the top of the stool and placed another orange juice. Counting the bottles, I stared at the empty stop. Turning, I found the missing juice on the counter behind me.

            I closed my eyes and sighed, my head tipping back. Between the fridge, soda bibs, and candy cases, this job was going to destroy my joints. It was always up, down, up, down. Plus, no one else seemed to want to do them and I wasn't one to be able to just walk by something that needed to be done. It was a curse of the Robinson family; I was sure of it.

            "Here." My eyes shot open and I turned to the voice. Standing in front of me was the new guy. New to me at least, but considering he wore a blue management shirt instead of red, I guessed he wasn't new to the company. Perhaps, he left before I was hired and now, he was back.