Page 39 of Irresistible

Chapter 18

The remainder of the weekend came and went with little interruption. Neither Richard nor Scarlet made any further attempt to communicate with the other. It was all they could do to survive the weekend without a complete mental breakdown. Scarlet slept away most of the weekend, trying to will her mind to forget what had transpired on Saturday morning. She wanted her mind to be erased completely. They say that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, but Scarlet was unconvinced. Forgetting Richard, or never having loved him would have been preferable to the pain and anguish the she was currently experiencing. It was all brought back to the surface by the realization that she would have to go back to work on Monday morning.

“Ugh. Can’t I just skip work? Maybe I should quit my job,” Scarlet groaned to herself as her alarm went off.

Dragging herself into the branch was generally a herculean task for her as it was. But this morning, it was as though Hercules had lost all of his strength and had to hold up the sky anyway. Ordinarily, a strong cup of coffee would carry her through the morning. But she needed something more. She showered, wanting to cry as the water ran down her body, but finding herself to be out of tears. Once she dried herself off and got dressed, she ran to the gas station for an energy drink. After perusing the labels of the various brands to find out which one had the most caffeine, she settled on her choice and took her purchase up to the counter. She caught her reflection in the shiny dome surrounding the gas station’s security camera. Where only a few days earlier, she marveled at how much younger and more radiant she looked, she now saw a shadow of her former self. Her eyes were somewhat puffy from crying, she hadn’t put on any makeup in two days, and her clothes were wrinkled. She didn’t even have the energy to press or steam her blouses for work, as she would customarily do over the weekend.

“That’ll be $2.50,” the cashier said without looking up.

She put her money on the counter, saying nothing in the process. The cashier glanced up at her and immediately looked concerned. It wasn’t the first time a cashier caught her shortly after crying and rushed to comfort her as she would one of her girlfriends.

“Are you okay, sweetie? You look like you’ve been crying.”

“I’m fine. I just need a little pick-me-up,” Scarlet responded, shaking the can.

“I know when something’s wrong. Is it a guy?”

Scarlet was hardly in the mood to talk through this any further. Charlie had given her enough to think about, and she doubted that a stranger would have anything more helpful to tell her than the advice that Charlie had already given her.

“Really. I’m good. I just need to perk up a little bit and get to work.

The cashier could tell that she wasn’t interested in talking. Without another word, she handed Scarlet her change and nodded. The bells on the door clanged as Scarlet left the gas station and went back to her car. She downed the energy drink in a few short gulps, shook her head as the initial effects of such a large dose of caffeine began to set in, and sat in the driver’s seat for a few minutes before taking off for the bank. Laying in a bed full of fire ants seemed more appealing than going into work that morning. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay nearly as well.

The drive to the branch was entirely too short for her. She was praying for a family of geese to walk through the road and back up traffic for a few blocks. A presidential motorcade would have been a miracle for her. But traffic moved entirely too quickly and carried her to work more quickly than she ever remembered getting there before.

“How convenient,” she said sarcastically, noting the paltry amount of time that had passed between leaving the gas station and getting to the branch.

As usual, she was the first one there. The lock clicked as she turned the key in the front door. There was no saving grace here, either. The key wouldn’t do her the basic courtesy of breaking off in the lock and delaying her start to the work day. She went through the motions of opening the branch and getting everything in order for the day. On the face of it, it was just like any other Monday morning. Approximately an hour later, Richard walked into the lobby, carrying his messenger bag as well as a bag on wheels that looked like it contained a number of important files and documents.

They nodded wordlessly, and Richard went back to his office to get his work started. All in all, their first interaction wasn’t quite as awkward as Scarlet had expected it to be. She had half a mind to start screaming at him immediately. Anger and tears welled up as he walked by, but she did not give him the satisfaction of responding in a negative fashion. It would be obvious to everyone else if she did so much as shoot him a mean glance. After all, she was pretty sure that there was a betting pool going on regarding whether or not they were dating. She wasn’t out to earn anybody money that morning.

One convenient aspect of Scarlet’s routine was that she knew exactly when Jim arrived at work every morning. He always came in between 9:00 and 9:05, never earlier and never later. To avoid the inevitable conversation that she knew Jim would want to have, Scarlet made a beeline to the restroom at 8:58. At 9:07, she felt comfortable coming out. She correctly predicted that Jim would settle into his office by that time. Another of her coworkers, Tricia, told her that Jim was looking for her while she was briefly in the bathroom. She laughed it off and said that Jim probably wanted to tell her about his weekend. In her defense, she was fairly certain that Jim had gotten up to story-worthy antics over the weekend, as he always did. But she wasn’t ready to talk about Richard yet.

Scarlet was pretty certain that Richard would not ask her to do anything that morning. Even he didn’t have that sort of gall. Whatever tasks he would ordinarily delegate to an assistant could wait until Cody’s return. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he was trying to find a way to leave Mainsport early and address whatever issues remained from his office at the Local Citizens headquarters. As for Scarlet, she resolved to work on some longer-term projects, since she was not yet back on the shift rotation for tellers. This allowed her to stay behind the scenes, working at one of the desks behind the row of tellers.

The hours passed by as Richard and Scarlet tried to lose themselves in their work. Before she knew it, it was time to have lunch. For the first time since she started at Local Citizens Bank, she worked through lunch. She got her bag out of the fridge, brought it back to the desk, and wolfed down the sandwich and chips she packed. There was no hunger to satisfy. Since Saturday morning, she had no appetite to speak of. Food was only sustenance to make sure that she wouldn’t pass out after a particularly grueling spell of crying.

“Hey, Scarlet, can you come in here for a minute?” Jim said, emerging from his office for the first time since getting to work.

“I’m working on this pretty important thing that needs my focus right now. Can we talk tomorrow? I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and I think I should just push through and get it done.”

Jim knew exactly what she was working on and he knew that she was full of it. He persisted.

“I think it can wait. This is pretty important.”

He had successfully called her bluff. To the rest of the branch, it just appeared that Scarlet’s boss was asking to speak with her and had explicitly told her that she could ignore her work for the time being. She would raise too many eyebrows if she brushed him off again.

“Okay,” Scarlet sighed.

The two walked back to Jim’s office as Scarlet tried to stare a hole in the side of Jim’s head. In her mind, he should have known that she didn’t want to talk about this right now. Ordinarily, Scarlet would have found him in order to brag about what happened over the weekend. The fact that she didn’t should have been a significant red flag for him.

“Well, how did it go?” Jim asked playfully as he sat down in his chair.

Scarlet stared at him with a dead gaze.

“How do you think it went? Don’t you think I would have come to you and talked to you about this if I wanted to discuss it? I always burst into your office when I have good news.”

Jim’s grin soured and turned into a look of concern for his friend.