Page 71

God, she was tired. She wasn’t sure that she’d ever been this exhausted in her life.

She was finding it so hard to restock the shelves.

As she bent over, then stood, the whole world tilted, and she had to grab hold of the metal shelf to keep herself upright.

“You all right, Aimee?” Jeremy asked. She’d been working with Jeremy for a while now. He was young, in his last year of high school, and trying to save money for college.

“I’m all right, thanks.”

“I can cover for you if you want to go take a break,” he said.

She’d somehow forgotten that they started earlier on a Monday night and had actually arrived thirty minutes late. So Mr. Hendricks, her boss, had told her that she had to work through her break.

The only issue was that she had barely eaten all day or drunk anything, so that was just adding to her overall exhaustion.

She could barely see straight.

“You two aren’t chatting instead of working, are you?” Hendricks said as he strode toward them.

Jeremy quickly went back to working, and she attempted to do the same.

But the whole room was now spinning, and she felt hot then cold. Her face was flushed, and a sweat was building on her forehead. There was no way she was going to get through the rest of the night.

“Aimee! You’re moving too slow! I gave you a job out of the goodness of my heart, you know. And I’m coming to regret it. Lots of people wanted your job, and I’m thinking I should have given it to one of them.”

“No, Mr. Hendricks. I’m working. I’m good.”

Jeremy shot her a concerned look, and she just gave him a small smile back, hoping that Hendricks didn’t notice the younger man’s concern.

“Don’t you help her, Jeremy. She has to do this on her own.”

What a load of bull. They were a team. They should be helping each other out. When Jeremy had been injured from a football game a few months back, she’d worked overtime to cover for him. Old Hendricks was just a bully and an asshole, but unfortunately, she also needed this job, or she was going to be in an even bigger financial pit than she already was.

“I’m not sure she’s feeling well,” Jeremy protested. “Maybe she needs a break. I don’t mind finishing her part.”

Shit.

She knew Jeremy was just trying to help. But Mr. Hendricks hated when anyone argued with him.

“You will not!” Hendricks snarled. “If she can’t do her own work, she’s fired.”

“I’m fine. I got this. Thanks, Jeremy.”

“You’ve both wasted my valuable time with this!” Hendricks boomed. “Both of you can work until twelve-thirty.”

He strode away.

“He can’t do that,” Jeremy said. “I’m going to tell my father. It’s not right that he makes us work for longer without paying us.”

“You’re right, it’s not, and you should mention it to your father,” she told him. “You need your sleep. You’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t mind me saying, Aimee, you really look like you could use some sleep too.”

She gave him a small smile. “You’re not wrong, Jeremy.”

“My mom went to your husband’s funeral yesterday.”

“Right. Yeah. That was interesting.”