Posted: 17.o5.o8

- X –

Tide Down: Chapter Six

.

“Seymour!” an angry voice boomed. “Get your ass here - pronto!”

Massaging my head, I got up from my seat and waddled over to where the voice had come from. I had three cups of black coffee early and it obviously hadn’t done my headache justice. The caffeine wasn't kicking in at all. I partly blamed Aiden for this since he had shouted waytoo many drinks the night before. Then again, it was my fault for accepting them. My head was throbbing so badly that it felt like it would explode at any second.

Ambling past a few of my curious coworkers, I finally strode into my boss' office. Their staring was bound to happen because it wasn’t normal for me to go into it. The last time I had been there was when I had been accepted to join the company.

There were two reasons why the boss would call you: it was if you had done something wrong or you were getting a pay raise. My case wasn’t likely to be the latter. This was mainly since rumour had it that you had to sleep with him to get a promotion. And me? Like hell! I would never steep that low. If I had wanted easy money I would have worked at Tender Touch.

Nevertheless, I was getting nervous because I really didn’t know what Mr. Roberts wanted from me. I steadied my breathing, smoothing my skirt and trying to remain calm. My throat felt raspy, so I gave a soft cough and spoke up, "You wanted me, Mr. Roberts?"

The man swiveled around on his chair. His eyes were blazing, jaw taut. There were also way too many folds that gathered up on his oily forehead. The sight wasn't really my cup of tea - then again, I preferred coffee. If my boss continued to stare at me like I was the devil's incarnate, I wouldn't be surprised if his forehead gained the permanent folding wrinkles. The stress marks seemed to be contagious to the rest of his face, for more creases were digging around the corner of his mouth as he openly scowled at me.

Figures.

“Seymour,” Mr. Roberts said tersely. “Accounts.”

How in the world was I supposed to figure what he wanted? I blinked. The man had only spoken two words! Guys like him really knew how to drive me bonkers. I would have lost my temper if it had been Simon speaking, but this was my boss and I needed to keep my cool. Seriously though. The man really needed to clarify himself.

“Pardon, sir?” I said through gritted teeth. “What’s wrong with the accounts?”

“You screwed them up,” he growled like a feral cat.

I winced. It wasn’t because of the tone of his voice, but because he had spoken so loudly. His words echoed in my mind, sending the sensation of needles pricking on my head. Damn alcohol.

“Didn’t you hear me? Chop, chop! Get back to it and fix them all up-”

Not bothering to reply to my boss, I pivoted on my heel and turned around to exit out of the door.

Just as I was about ready to walk out, I doubled over and started clutching my stomach. Before I knew what was occurring, I let out a burp and all of a sudden the contents on my stomach streamed out.

Shit!

My eyes bulged at the vomit that had splattered the once pristine-white carpet. God, I hated hangovers. Even worse? I had vomited right in front of my boss! I had made such a fool out of myself! It was absolutely humiliating. Oh crap. At least I hadn’t had anything for breakfast besides the strong hits of caffeine.

Sheepishly, I looked up to see his reaction. Let’s just say he wasn’t the least bit pleased. I think his glaring gave it away. Mr. Roberts snapped, “Now, what was that?”

“I threw up,” I said in a raspy voice, stating the obvious.

“Well I can clearly see that, Seymour ! I’ll be withholding your paycheck for another week for doing that! And, while you’re at it you could do us some good and apologise!”

Jeez. It wasn’t like I had committed murder. I threw my pride aside and ended up apologising like Mr. Roberts had practically ordered me to do. “I’m sorry, sir.”

Before I was about to reach for his box of tissues, realization struck. My boss had said he’d be withholding my check! I wanted to move out of Aiden’s apartment and I need the money to-

“But I need my paycheck!” I panicked out loud.

My boss arched an eyebrow at me, bemused.

I continued, “I really need to be paid this week. Could you at least take it into consideration? You can’t withhold my-”

“But I can.”

“Please,” I pleaded. I paused, trying to think up something else to say but there was nothing that came to my mind. My throat had dried up. It wasn’t fair. Out of all things to do, why did I have to throw up in front of my boss? If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be in that whole mess in the first place. “How can I make it up to you? I'll do anything.”

"Anything?"

"Yes," I replied, surely. "Anything."

“Then close the door, Seymour,” Mr. Roberts ordered, folding his arms as he leaned back on his chair.

With legs feeling like jelly, I stumbled to the door and closed it. Just as I turned back to face him, I caught my boss gazing down at my legs, dirt-brown eyes slowly rising up my body and then looked at my face through his framed glasses. He pushed the glasses higher up the bridge of his nose as he surveyed me in a peculiar interest that I had never seen him do before. I didn’t like it.

Bluntly, I asked, "Is there a problem, Mr. Roberts?"

"How badly do you want your paycheck?"

"Badly.”

“Okay. Then I’ve got a deal for you,” he said, scrunching his nose. He could smell the sickening scent of my vomit. “It’s a pretty fair deal and you won’t even need to clean your mess. I’ll make sure that the cleaners do it. So, it’s all up to you now. Will you accept my offer?”

“Yes,” I replied, desperately. “Just tell me already and I’ll do it for you. I really didn’t mean to make the mess and I really need the money this week. I’ll work over time – just tell me what you want!”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Seymour, come over here.”

Nodding, I approached closer towards him. Mr. Roberts picked out a card from his top drawer and handed it to me over the documents that had been stacked on his desk. Taking the card carefully into my hands, I read the card. "Mr. Patrick Roberts. 17 Glengala Court. West Melbourne. What exactly is this for?"

I watched him prop his hands behind his head as he leaned further back into his chair with a smirk.

“Why’d you give me your address, Mr. Roberts?”

“My wife’s not home.”

My eyes widened when I felt his hand touch mine. Instantaneously, I yanked my hand away from his. He wanted me to go to his house because his wife wasn't home? How absurd! I could feel my face turning red. How dare he!

“Now, don’t do that,” Mr. Roberts laughed, wryly. “You asked if there was anyway to get around-”

“Over my dead body,” I glowered. “What the hell is wrong with you? You want me to sleep with you for spewing on your damn carpet. How dare you even think about this! I’ll report you!”

“I’d like to see you try," my boss grinned. "You want to get fired, Seymour? Because if you don't come over tonight, I can arrange for that to happen...”

What. The. Hell.

He was resorting to blackmail now to get me to hop into bed with him? I was not going to be his fuckbuddy and I definitely was not that desperate to sleep with my own boss to keep my job. I had dignity and I wasn’t letting him get any of me. I had dealt enough from Simon and, right then, I was too pissed off and annoyed to deal with anything else.

I had had enough.

“You know what? I QUIT!” I spat, giving him the finger. "Screw you.”

“You’ll regret it, Seymour,” Mr. Roberts words lingered in my mind as I marched out of his office.

What a bastard!

Oh, you couldn't believe how disgusted I felt as I threw my folders, stationary and my other belonging into a box. Colleagues flashed me confused glances as I hurried to pack my things up. The quicker that I got out of there, the better.

Once everything was packed, I walked outside and was welcomed by thunders and a shower of raindrops started to sprinkle down from the sky.

“Great. Just great!” I hissed.

At that moment, I would have thrown my hands in the air to block the rain, but my arms were hugging my box of belongings. Trying to balance the box in one arm, I let my left hand drop into my shoulder bag's pocket.

I frowned, suddenly remembering that I hadn't brought my umbrella with me that morning. Why was everything going wrong in my life?

First Simon, then Tessa and now I was quiting my job. Fucking fantastic.

There was no way that I would take transport in the rain. As much as I loved Melbourne, I hated when the weather did this to me. During rain or shine, it was always best to take an umbrella with you no matter what.

I stepped closer to the road. I waved for a taxi, but they sped past me in yellow blurs. Tessa had always been the one in charge of successfully flagging taxis down after a good night of clubbing or bar hopping. She had a knack for that, something that I didn’t have.

Deciding to wait until the weather would hopefully calm down, I stepped back under the building's shelter and slithered myself to where my smoking ex-colleagues would hang out for their ciggy break.

“Aren’t you meant to be inside?” someone asked. The person had a alluring accent and I immediately picked out who it was. The voice belonged to someone I wished that I didn’t know.

“How about you, Brielle?” I drawled her exotic name.

She took a puff from her cigarette, holding it with poise between her perfect thin fingers. Her deceitful lips were painted with blood-red lipstick, while half of her blond hair was clipped behind the back of her head with a brown leather barrette. She wore a plaid gray and black skirt and a tight buttoned up white shirt with puffy sleeves that showed off her curves.

Brielle shrugged, rolling her light blue eyes. “What do you think I’m doing?”

Ever since Brielle had joined the company, she had been on my back. It was a mutual hatred that we shared between us. She was too arrogant and it didn’t help that she was beautiful (though I painfully hated to admit that). I had always been a perfectionist, and Brielle was always slacking off yet she still wasn’t fired.

There was just something that didn’t click between us. Then again, my work had always had an competitive environment. Everyone wanted to beat each other for a higher position. I was glad that I would no longer be a part of that.

“You’d better run along inside now,” Brielle said, rather sarcastically as if she were lecturing to me like I was a little child. In a nonchalant manner, she breathed out smoke and spoke, “Don’t keep Mr. Roberts waiting. Be careful, he might not see you at your desk!”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Now you’ve lost me. What are you talking about?”

“Come on, Seymour. You’ve been sucking up to him ever since you joined the team,” Brielle snarled, snidely. “You might have as well sold your soul to that prick. I’d rather quit than keep kissing his ass the way you do.”

“That’s right.”

“Huh?” Brielle stared at me with a quizzical glance. “You weren’t supposed to agree with me, Seymour. We never agree.”

“Well, for once, you and I agree with something,” I said. “I guess miracles do happen.”

“And why would that be?”

Brielle had been outside the whole time so she wouldn’t have seen me storm out of the building. But now, she was observing the box that I had put down with a speculative look.

“That’s because I did quit.”

“What? Since when!” Brielle splurted. “What did you do? I don’t believe someone like you would quit. You’re the biggest workaholic that I know! As if you’d quit. I don’t believe it.”

“Well, I did.”

“Then what happened? What caused someone like you to quit?” she questioned.

“I threw up in his room.” I let the cat out of the bag.

“Well done! You should add Mr. Roberts as one of your references for a future job – if you have one, that is. He probably sacked you. I doubt that you, of all people, quit. You wouldn’t have the guts.”

“Excuse me?” I said, dryly. “I didn’t quit because of that. He just said something a bit too risqué for my liking.”

“What did he do? Ask you to bless his bed or something?” Something in my face gave it away because I saw Brielle’s blue eyes widen in shock. “You’re kidding me? This is absolutely priceless!”

“Thanks,” I grumbled.

“You’re so stupid! All you had to do was sleep with him. I’ve done it so many time-”

“I’m not that sleazy and don’t make me vomit for the second time today,” I warned. “I don’t want to know anything about your sex life with my ex-boss. Plus, didn’t you say that you’d rather quit than suck up to him just a minute ago?”

“So what? He would have promoted you anyway,” she said offhandedly, taking a drag from her cigarette. “Didn’t you know that?”

“No.”

Brielle’s words were getting to me. I hadn’t heard that Mr. Roberts was going to promote me. It was a shame that I had thrown up because I might have been promoted. Oh well. I had quit and it was over. There was nothing I could do about it, and sleeping with him was not an option. That certainly didn’t count.

“I personally think you’re an idiot for leaving.”

“Why?” I laughed, bitterly. “Will you miss me?”

I doubted that.

“No, of course not!”

And I was right.

“I’ll probably fill in your shoes and take over your higher position,” Brielle declared. She had no shame whatsoever. “Are you jealous?”

“I really don’t care,” I said. It was true. Now that I was packed and ready to leave the company, I felt numb. It was like I knew that the day I quit would eventually come, and now it had.

It was like I had never wanted to work there in the first place. I had only kept the job because it made Simon happy I was earning a substantial amount that was about to be saved for our dream suburbian house in Richmond.

“It’s going to be difficult finding another job that matches up to this. You’re an idiot for tossing it all away.”

“I think that’s what makes us different from each other. And if you call me an idiot one more time, I may vomit on you,” I threatened. I wasn’t queasy anymore, but it was a good threat to make her shut her mouth. “You know what? You’re the one that better get inside soon. You know how Mr. Roberts gets when he’s in one of his bad moods.”

“Hmm, especially when his favourite worker quit,” Brielle sniggered. “But yeah, I’m going in. I want to see how bad you threw up on his floor.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. See you around, Seymour. Actually, I take that back. I’ll see you around on the streets,” she said, stepping on her cigarette before swaying her hips and entering back inside the building.

“Once a bitch, always a bitch,” I mumbled to no one but myself.

Brielle reminded me of one of Joel’s ex-girlfriends that I hadn’t approved of.

When Joel had invited his ex-girlfriend over to Lorne for one dinner, my parents adored her. On the other hand, I didn’t. I hated the girl’s guts. I think that it might have been a sisterly instinct, but I had known that something wasn’t right about her. During that same night, I had caught her at a local pub, chatting it up with some older man and later throwing himself at him. It was kinda disgusting because she was underage and the man was nearing his forties.

As soon as her lips had touched the man’s, I had slapped her on the spot. It was a good thing that Joel wasn’t too serious about her. I didn’t really like anyone messing with my baby brother.

Thinking about Joel made me nostalgic. It also caused me to realise that I needed to tell my parents about how I had broken up with Simon. And now that I had quitted work, I knew that I had to tell them the bad news. Perhaps they’d let me stay with them again. It was better than staying with Tessa.

I pressed my home number onto the keypad and smiled when I heard a deep voice groan, “Who the fuck’s this? I’m trying to sleep.”

“Good morning,” I said, brightly. “It’s already fifteen past eleven. Give the phone to mum or dad if you can’t be bothered talking to me, dweeb.”

“Hillarie?” the voice didn’t show any sign of fatigue anymore. “How are ya sis?”

“Not too well. Pass the phone to mum, will you?”

“They’re not home. She went with dad to go fishing at the dock,” Joel explained.

“Joel, have you considered moving out? Don’t you think it’s time? You’re almost twenty-two,” I said.

“I’d move out if I had enough money. I think the air in Melbourne is polluted,” Joel replied.

“Oh, stop making excuses up and get your ass up already and find a job,” I muttered. “You can move to Melbourne then.”

“No way!”

Joel was too attached to home and my mum had a soft spot for him. I think we all did. Joel was capable of going far and doing things (he took an IQ test and thwarted my score, and I’m pretty smart if I do say so myself), but he’s too lazy to get out of his comfort zone.

“So what was that I heard about you not doing too well? Care to enlighten me?”

“Don’t change the subject. You need to do something, Joel. You can’t stay at Lorne forever.”

“But Lorne’s home.”

I sighed, “I know.” He had a point there. Lorne was home. Sure, I’d work for years in Melbourne or maybe overseas, who knew? But in the end, I knew that when I retired I’d want to reside back near the ocean and be home again. “Joel, you need to get out of Lorne for at least a bit. You need to grow.”

“Could I live with you and Simon then?” he asked. The rascal probably didn’t want to pay for rent, that’s why he had asked. Nevertheless, that wasn’t possible, so I told him. “You can’t, Joel. I moved out.”

There was a pause. I guess that hinted it enough for him to make an assumption because the next thing I knew, my younger brother was guffawing like a hyena.

“Wow. You can’t be serious!” I didn’t need to be back at Lorne to see him smirking. “You broke up with that bastard, didn’t you?”

“Bastard?” I repeated. “You thought that Simon was a bastard after all this time and you never told me?”

It was like déjà vu again. Like Aiden and Tessa, Joel had nicknamed my ex-boyfriend with ‘bastard’ instead of ‘asshole’. All of them had had their own nicknames for Simon that I hadn’t been aware of.

“You did! You really did! You broke up with that cunt!”

“Why are you so pleased? Shouldn’t you be a little bit supportive and say, oh beautiful sister of mine, you will find someone else more divine?” I rhymed.

“No. I mean, it’s about fucken’-”

“Language!”

“-time!” Joel continued. “He’s kept you hidden for so long. You were so whipped that no one could see you. Even mum and dad didn’t like him.”

“What?” I gaped. I must have looked strange to a person walking by since my jaw felt like it was literally hitting the ground. “Mum and dad didn’t like him? I thought they loved him!”

“Hillarie, are you blind? He was crazy stalkerish and freaky. No one didn’t want to tell you. Well, we did try, but you weren’t listening to us. You never did. You said that nothing else mattered because you loved him and he loved you. That was always your answer.”

“I said that?” I cried. I was starting to get a migraine.

How high up in the clouds had I really been? Not only had Aiden and Tessa known, but my whole family had thought there had been something wrong with Simon too!

“You’d better believe it. The last time Simon and you were over, he threatened me that I’d never see you again because Trent and Cody were over.”

“Why?” I asked, puzzled. “Why did he do that for?”

“Simon thought that Trent and Cody might take you away from him. Something like that. I mean, I know people think you’re pretty, which I find completely and utterly disgusting, but seriously…what was up Simon’s ass?”

“Obviously a stick,” I answered. “I can’t believe I didn’t see that.”

“For someone as smart as you, it took you a while. How long has it been, three years?”

“Something like that,” I muttered.

“You know what? I think Aiden would have been a better pick. Too bad he’s gay.”

“Joel! How many times have I told you? Aiden is not gay!”

“A man sewing clothes? Really, Hillarie! If he didn’t do that, I’d think he’d be your perfect match. You guys really get along so well. It’s a pity that-”

“Can we please not talk about this?” I said. “There’s something else that I need you to pass to mum and dad.”

“Hey, I’m up for anything now!” Joel snickered. “You’ve really made my day with telling me that you broke up with that bastard. Come on then! What is it?”

“I quit.”

“Woah. Now that’s another crazy revelation. You’ve got to be shitting me!” Joel exclaimed. “You’re the biggest workaholic I know.”

That was the second time someone had called me a workaholic that day. Why were there so many things that I hadn’t seen for the past three years? What was wrong with me?

“Why’d you quit, Hillarie?”

I didn’t want to answer that question. It felt weird saying something like ‘My boss hit on me and was blackmailing me to sleep with him so that I could keep my pay’. So, I decided to partly tell him the truth, “I didn’t like it anymore. I didn’t enjoy it. I actually never did.”

At that moment, I realised how much Aiden’s words had gotten to me. Aiden had said that he was going to help me find what I enjoyed and liked back, and quitting my job was one reason. I had hated working as an accountant.

“Okay. I getcha,” Joel replied.

I heard a shuffle from his side of the line.

“Ey, I think I have to go now. Cody’s knocking on the door. We’re playing old school games. Some Tekken or maybe some Street Fighter. Who knows?” Joel rambled. “Who needs a Wii when you can be lazy?”

“You do know that I don’t understand what the hell you’re talking about?”

“Yes,” Joel chuckled again. “Anyway, I’ll pass your message to mum and dad. I can’t wait to see their reaction!”

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll try visit some time.”

“You should, especially now that Simon’s not holding you on his leash.”

“Joel.”

“Okay okay. I really gotta go now. Love ya, sis.”

“Love ya, dweeb.”

I hung up. I stared up at the sky. It was cloudless now. From one phone call, the rain had disappeared. I bent down to take my box of office supplies. With nowhere else to turn, I had no option but to walk to Aiden’s apartment. It was a good thing that he lived in the city.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one that would be there…

(a/n) As promised, a longer chapter this time. Not a lot happened, but a couple new characters were introduced. Keep an eye out for Joel in the future. Other than that, I don't think there's much to say. Thanks for reading so far!