Chapter 3
Saturday.
It once was her favorite day of the week. A day meant for her to sleep in and go into the city for some shopping. Well, shopping without to actual shop for anything, but at least she could look at all those nice things she would buy eventually, or never but that was not the point. The point was, Saturdays rocked.
This morning, this Saturday morning would probably go into her very own top ten load-of-crap hit list of all Saturday mornings. The day could not possibly have started any worse.
At first she thought, she was dreaming, when she had heard that sound screaming into her left ear. She thought, no way could this be real.
She was laying on her right side snuggled up into her warm bed, cushion cuddled to her chest with Bane stretched out on top of her left side. He was heavy and she couldn't move one millimeter but she loved it. It made her feel all warm and fuzzy.
When the sound grew more and more annoying and wouldn't go away after opening first one, then two eyes, she knew she wasn't in dream-town chasing blue colored fluffy Koalas with orange butterflies on their head and eating those mind blowing double chilly-cheese-bacon-burgers from Charlie's down the road while singing Ode to joy. Hey, she was a starving human being. It was very much okay to dream about strange colored things like Koalas eating those heaven sent goodies, even if it seemed a bit crazy for other people.
Lack of a balanced nutrition much.
Or any nutrition at all for that matter.
Her mouth still wet from the near orgasm the taste buds on her tongue would have reached, if she could have gotten just one more second to bite into this voluminous, enormous masterwork of burger art.
"What the freaking hell..."
Hitting her pillow, twice, and looking up at her cat she tried to come to grips with her fogged mind. Bane was staring back at her with plain hatred and a dead glance. She could almost feel the burn of the laser beams against her skin.
"Woah, buddy, it's not me high pitching the forgotten vocals here. Don't blame the human in front of you."
Bane stood up, stretched his lazy form, turned and swaggered off of the brunette.
"Drama-Cat!"
Bo forced herself to get up with a heavy sigh. Not even the sun had the guts to crawl up all the way to present her new yellow dress just yet. It was what? Sunrise? The clock screamed for Bo to just lay back down.
"Six in the morning. On a Saturday. Damn Six in the godforsaken morning, on my beloved all times favorite sleep-in Saturday!"
Adjusting her top, that somehow had the habit to roll up all the way to be stopped by Bo's murder assets. Yeah, good to have those. Although sometimes it also was a malediction when the next cat call was thrown her way by one of those ugly, dirty men of the construction crew raising a building across the street for half a year now.
Maybe it would be of help if they actually worked at some point during the day and not only drank beer or ate donuts and of course humiliate all these long legged, well formed, boobs-owners.
Yeah, she knew. Stereotypes and shit. But right now she just was angry. And tired. And hungry.
Speaking of donuts. Those with the gaudy frosting and these little multicolored sugar sprinkles with...
"Oh boy!"
Her stomach growled.
Shaking her head she stood up fully.
Where did that sound come from? It was like Cher and Mariah Carey's voices smashed into one and transformed into a baby that sitting in George Michael's throat singing the song 'Faith' backwards.
It's the stuff horror movies were made out of and at some point, Bo could have sworn she had seen Freddie Krueger or at least his razor glove scratching along the wall opposite her bed.
Tiptoeing around the book shelf, Bo scanned the area behind. Nothing.
„One, two, Freddy's coming for you…"
She walked on while holding up one of the heavier books in both her hands. It couldn't hurt to be armed for the worst. It was not to joke about Freddie Krueger. She had learned that from watching the movies to an extent that could be considered noxious and a little insane.
And maybe that's why her sleep-fogged head made up that Krueger scene in the first place.
Bane watched the brunette tiredly, laying on top of the shelf on his beloved observing place.
"Well, thanks Bane. It's good to know you bolster me up!"
The sound got louder with each step. She must be heading in the right direction then. And there it was. The intruder. Blinking and jumping up and down while vibrating on the kitchen counter.
"What the...? You damn little thing! I give you shelter and that's how you're thanking me? By waking me up at six? On a Saturday?"
The phone.
That smartphone.
What was smart about that phone when it had the moxie to make such noises in the middle of the night. It couldn't be that smart after all if it woke mother bear up from her hibernation.
Throwing the book unceremoniously on the counter next to the peeping scoundrel, she grabbed it up, looking at the screen.
"Okay now what?"
She tipped her forefinger on it. The screen moved, but the sound wouldn't stop. Another tip, still nothing but loudness.
A heavy pounding on her front door made her jump.
"Dennis, shut it, it's Saturday!"
A muffled but angry voice yelled at her. It was her neighbor, in his forties, who was living across the hallway. Mister Douchebag. Actually just Mister Douchés but, he was a douche bag.
"Yeah, I know what day it is. Thank you. Now move!"
She had to yell over the shrieking item in her hands. But she would have yelled with or without the sing-sang.
They just didn't get along well from the very beginning.
Bo had to carry, what felt like fifty cartons of bits and pieces up those one hundred thirty eight stairs - even though it was much likely not more than ten - because the lift wouldn't move a steel robe that day. She met that skunk of a neighbor who was just standing in his door frame, watching the sweaty brunette with a grin and giving her good advice on how to heave the items spinal-protectively without manhandling the content.
This was the first time Bo had thrown something at someone. A pair of socks. Dirty ones. She congratulated herself for that overly genial idea afterwards with a six pack of beer and a frozen pizza. He hadn't bothered her for almost two weeks, but also she had never seen those socks again.
Gross.
Bo could hear heavy footsteps getting quieter. The muffled words spoken to no one in particular which sounded like curses were topped by a big bang of a door crashing in its frame again.
"Okay, that got you some gummy points, but I don't like you much nonetheless. So now shut the..."
With that the phone went silent.
"Was that so hard?"
Bo didn't know what she did to stop the subject yelling at her, but she was relieved. Sleep shivered through her body again. Tired, she rubbed her eyes. She knew she should go back to bed, but she also knew, once awake she wouldn't find her way into slumber-land again anyway.
The day was already pretty hard to ignore as wildlife started to wake up and with wildlife she meant the Jeffersons from the second floor.
Babies were screaming. Bo couldn't imagine what it must be like with six months old triplets, a teenage girl and two dogs. As she could hear the family's voices raising with the whining of the bunch of kids and barking dogs, it surely must be a piece of cake she thought ironically.
No more noises at this early hour, please. So she closed the windows. At least she tried. The one in the small bathroom jammed all the time.
Again, old buildings and stuff.
Fishing for the broom she stemmed the stick between the inner frame and her right knee. A little push here and a small pull there and done. You just needed to know how to help yourself.
Proud of her work she stepped back and went into the kitchen. Coffee. That's all she craved for now. And maybe some eggs, bacon, bread, oh and those little cheesecakes with blueberries and some pancakes, but in that center of non-food-area she called her kitchen she knew she wouldn't find any of the ingredients. So yeah, well, coffee was a good start. Instant coffee that is. That's what she could afford right now.
Bane jumped onto the counter and was sitting next to the phone. He watched the screen turning from black to all kinds of colors and a millisecond later that sound came up again making him jump up about twenty centimeters high. He was landing half atop the counter, paws clawing on the edge to keep him from falling, but failed and he snatched off the screaming, blinking Baby-Micheal with him.
Both were landing on the floor, hard.
The cat fled immediately in the direction of the bed, hiding underneath. Meanwhile Bo was about to put coffee powder into her favorite mug. Spoon in hand she reacted with the same panicked jump in the air, spreading the brown content of the box and spoon in hand all over herself and the floor and the counter top. Ironically nothing managed to get into the cup with the slogan ‚Sounds gay, I'm in' in rainbow colors.
"You stupid caterwauler. Shut the hell up."
Eager and restless fingers tipped and brushed along the screen and the sound just wouldn't stop until she pushed the small button atop.
Silence again.
"Okay, I have to find out how to stop that!"
Looking back at the mess all around her kitchen she could only hope, that the day would get better from there on.
Cleaning off the coffee she turned on the kettle and walked into the bathroom.
It hadn't gotten better from then on.
On her way to get changed she slipped on one of Bane's toys and landed on her butt painfully.
If that hadn't been enough, the brunette received the monthly bills, when she climbed the stairs down like some stork on high heels walking on sand because of the aching pain in her backside, all the way to her mailbox.
Unfortunately, the money she had earned with her last job went into her working suits, Bane's food, one buffalo mozzarella and a six pack of beer.
Again, no need to ask why that mozzarella.
She had checked her wallet. Twice. Emptiness wouldn't even describe that situation in the slightest.
That driver employment came at about the right time. Up to now though it didn't bring her anything yet, but getting on her nerves while dealing with that outrageous, hot, ice queen of a damn hot boss. As if this statement wasn't confusing enough, it described the jolt of emotions and ups and downs of the mood she felt all the time while driving, watching or listening to the blonde to nearly one hundred percent.
So, thinking about the possibilities, it was either asking for an advance or living in the dark and without something to eat for the next week.
For every step back into her apartment she found a new curse. And after she went out of words half way up she had begun to mix already used invectives with all kinds of comestible goods she hated with all her heart.
"Mother-freaking frick-frack of… an Alaska Pollock!"
The rest of the day made her believe it was Friday the thirteenth. Or that little Chihuahua she watched from her living room window must have been a costumed black cat coming from the wrong side, crossing the road - or Chihuahuas were replacing that black cat myth from now on - or all of her mirrors must have been broken at once.
Although she owned only one and it was hanging on the wall above her sink with that small cut it had since Bo had found it at a garage peddler's market some time ago.
This Saturday surely wasn't her favorite at all. A pain in the ass.
Literally.
Her left forefinger was wrapped in a piece of gauze by midday, because she cut herself with the paper from the envelope of one of her bills she opened up.
Bills were evil in more than just one way.
She knocked her left big toe on the corner of her kitchen counter and stumbled backwards into the small table next to her door where her keys were placed and a small cactus tried to grow. All landed on the floor when Bo tried to get a hold on anything in an effort to not fall down, yet again.
Good thing she hadn't spilled salt. She once heard a saying that spilling salt meant a baby was on its way.
Her mind went through her front door downstairs and watched the Jeffersons pampering and cleaning smear off of nearly all the surfaces.
„Yeah. Thanks, but no thanks."
Babies weren't in the picture.
Fighting against cat hair on her clothes and those neatly arranged cat vomit from time to time was more than enough taking care at once.
Today was without beating about the bush, an off-day.
She decided to sit down on her couch, to stare a bit at that beautiful wall and outside the window in the blue sky. Better sit than hurt herself more than she already had.
„How am I supposed to survive this day?"
And why was she that clumsy? She normally wasn't lubberly at all.
And today, of all days, she had to drive that beast of a Hummer with that Lewis-Boss and her date. She wasn't one to whine about life, but right about now she felt like self-pitying. And that all without chips and beer and that music she had dreamed of.
„Garbage!"
Good thing she had to get going within the next hour. Days went by fast when you were preoccupied with staying alive.
And thinking about that blonde Boss of hers. And, no, that was not the reason why her head was in the clouds all day.
The clock in the complex armature of the dashboard showed five fifty pm when she maneuvered the huge car into its parking position in front of Mademoiselle Lewis Maison. French never made a home in her brain as much as she had tried back in school, but some words slipped out of the bowl here and there.
At least she could ask for, where 'le château' was, although she wouldn't understand the answer, but whatever. It's the fact that she could say it that mattered.
She thought of French as a pretty adorable way to pronounce even non-French words. Sometimes even uncharming things sounded like poetry. Sometimes she thought she was a bit crazy, too.
Sitting on her bruised butt, trying to find the right angle to step out with that constant pain staying at a minimum, someone opened the driver's door.
"Bo, good evening. I thought today is your day off?"
Bo looked up to find Bob standing in front of her. Great choice of words. Day off, off-day, nearly the same.
"Hey, Bob. Yes, that's what I thought, too", she leaned in to whisper, "but little Miss Sunshine up there, wants me to chauffeur her and some poor prey around town. So, gone is all the spare time. What ever that may be, huh? You do work all day, every day, or...?"
Bob rushed back to the entrance without an answer but a nod of his head in said direction and a wave of his hand meant for Bo to follow him.
With a sigh, she took her hat and walked up around the car, rubbing her butt along the way, staring at the ground to watch every single step. She wouldn't let herself stumble and fall again this evening.
"Bob, you could have answered before you..." The brunette stopped dead in tracks and mid sentence when a pair of feet in heeled sandals crossed the path her eyes were glued on. Slowly she scanned the view and traveled up two silk like shanks, to well proportioned knees. The hem of a black dress forced her to gulp.
Her eyes fell upon toned feminine forms, unbelievable soft looking skin of cleavage and bare shoulders, over golden curled tresses to stop on that fascinating, gorgeous face of...
"You're staring, Driver."
She tried really hard to swallow that mixture of lust and longing down her dry throat. Really hard. Her eyes never once leaving the glimmering orbs of her Boss. Maybe just once, because that pendant on the necklace laying shortly above the swell of the blondes boobs looked interesting and Bo needed to rethink and gather her thoughts but got distracted somehow because of that small gap between a pair of perfect breasts. When she opened her mouth to respond something, anything smarter than utter bosh, her lips formed one word.
"Wow."
The blonde passed her and got seated in the back of the car, waiting with a knock on the window and pointing to the steeling wheel.
"Bo, get going!"
Bob hissed quietly.
"Huh?"
Bo turned around and for a second she forgot all about that bullshit of a morning and afternoon by watching beauty in its purest form in her car. The Driver's right leg rushed forward without prior signal to the rest of her body and so she tripped, for the second time today, forward and thankfully got a hold on the roof of the Hummer but knocked her head on the window.
"Damn mother f..."
Looking up her eyes met light brown ones through the glass. Yes of course she must have made a complete stammering, floundering putz out of herself on this very Saturday. She once heard a kid from middle school speaking Yiddish and knew this word to call someone being a jerk, unless they were talking about genitals, then it meant something absolutely different.
Anyhow, again she locked gazes with what should be called the enemy. She had to learn to control herself better because fighting against her Boss was the last thought in her mind, and the only innocent one.
Shaking her head and adjusting her hat she went around the car and climbed into pilot-mode.
Embarrassment was best ignored by pushing and pulling various buttons, even if she touched them three or four times. Radio on, off, on and off again. That useless cup-holder made an appearance about twice, the air condition started on the highest level to blow into Bo's face so she had to blink the stinging tears away and was about to loose her hat when a voice spoke up.
"Driver?"
Bo, lost in thoughts, heard her name out of the distance and turned her head to find herself back in full on-boobs view. A cough brought her eyes back up.
"My eyes are up here, and I think you should ask me, where to head to, Driver?"
The brunette's cheeks burned.
Buttons, she needed more buttons. And air, definitely more air. And maybe a new job by the end of the night, if she wasn't able to control her limbs to steer the car any time soon.
"Yes, of… of course. Where would you want me to drive to, Miss Lewis, Sir. Uh… Ma'am!"
Gosh.
If her blood pressure hadn't been so high that she thought a drum was living in her auditory canal, she would have sworn she had heard a chuckle. But she must have been wrong. We were talking about this prodigy of body control sitting in the backseat. Bo was told once, those people never did such things as chuckling.
"We have to meet my colleague at the airport. He is going to stay in town for the night and has to leave early tomorrow morning."
Oh that came in handy. So the rules for a passionate night were clear and no one had to suffer through those 'yes, it was nice, let's not have breakfast' phrases and excuses. Bo was living in a complex and fragile ecosystem of getting laid without letting that person into her home and the rule to never doing the horizontal with that someone twice.
Sleeping in wasn't her thing and she made her intentions pretty clear within the first ten minutes of chitchatting.
"Sure, be there before you could say the words Baba Yaga."
Turning back into her cockpit Bo blinked and held her forefinger up, lightly swirling it in thoughts, "But hm… maybe don't try to say those words. Especially not in front of a mirror with.."
"Driver?"
"Yes, Ma'am?"
"The airport please."
"Yes Ma'am!"
The drive to the airport went quite well. Bo managed to not look in the rear-view mirror and kept all her senses focused on the street in front of her. Traffic was smooth and within thirty minutes she pulled the gear shift into parking at their destination.
The brunette stopped the engine and climbed off of her black horse. At least her butt reminded her of riding in a saddle for too long. She walked around to where the blonde was seated and opened the door.
Stepping back, Bo didn't dare to look up as her Boss walked gracefully up the path to the glassdoors of the entrance. Distracted by the scent of perfume Bo had to shut her eyes for a moment. She kept on standing next to the door waiting for the blonde to come back.
When she heard foot steps and voices she finally looked up.
"Yes, my dear it is so good to see you again. And you look", a whistle caught Bo's attention. "I might call it juicy, Lauren!"
Lauren? Lauren Lewis. Oh.
Bo's thoughts were cut short when she watched the man walking up with her Boss on his arm, grabbing the blonde's hand with small sausage fingers, which laid on his forearm.
Urgh, her Boss had quite an flamboyant taste where sex partners were concerned. He was short, barely up to the blonde's shoulder, which was covered in golden locks. Bo had become a sucker for those tresses.
Looking back to that smurf next to the taller woman, Bo scrunched her nose in disgust. He wore one of those big, round horn-rimmed glasses that made him look like her biology professor back in high school. She didn't like her teacher and she bottled this deep feeling of dislike to shake it hard and open the flask to splash her disapproval all over that blighter.
His hair was non existent on his head and the rolls of too much scalp dominated the back of it.
„I bet I can see my reflection on that shimmering plate of a head."
On his chin and upper lip a bush, of what should have grown on that bowling ball on his shoulders, waved along with every word he spoke. He wore a black suit, which fitted a bit tighter than it should around his bulky form with a dark green, long scarf.
Bo's eyes flew over his face. There was something in the way he looked at her Boss, that made her guts make loops. Her still empty stomach content boiled and she could almost taste its juice on her tongue. He patted the blonde's hand and it seemed as if he searched for every opportunity to touch her.
The clearing of her Boss' throat drew the attention of the brunette back to that beautiful woman who was standing right next to her. Somehow she had managed to get out of the snob's grip.
Bo saw something in those whiskey golden orbs she couldn't place and had never spotted before.
Humiliation? Bashfulness?
But it was gone shortly after this Lauren Lewis, standing straight up, addressed Bo.
"Driver? Would you please escort Doctor Scott and I to this restaurant?"
Her Boss held out a small sheet of paper in her hand. Bo reached for it and when she brushed accidentally along the soft skin of the other woman's fingers, her breath got stuck in her throat. Looking up, she met those deep light brown eyes. The moment grew thick with every passing second and when that tiny man spoke up, the brunette pulled her hand back and looked away fast.
"Oh, Lauren. For you, it is Harry. And now chop chop, Driver, we have a table waiting for us at seven."
Bo forced a polite smile and even that was exhausting, because her whole body screamed in disgust.
Holding the door, the blonde entered after this Harry guy, who didn't even once looked at Bo.
The brunette walked around the car.
"For you, it's Harry. Chop chop. Who does he think he is?" murmuring all the way to the driver seat, Bo inhaled a last deep and soothing breath and climbed behind the wheel.
Self-control, she had to restrain herself.
All the way to the restaurant this roll-scalped man was talking with no end about his work, which sounded pretty boring to Bo. Something about calibrating machines, which produced computer chips. Every now and then he would spit some creepy phrase about several parts of Lauren's body he almost drooled on. Compliments weren't his strong point. The brunette had a hard time trying not to snore or burst out in laughter.
Bo tuned the conversation on and off like a radio station while the commercial was running. But every time she watched the blonde in the mirror she could see her lousy try to put some space between him and herself. Once in a while their eyes met, but Bo couldn't decipher any emotion or what was going on inside that beautiful head of hers.
They arrived at the restaurant in time and her Boss told her to wait for them to get back. When she was alone a long sigh filled the now silent cabin of the big Hummer.
If that was what a date looked like, then Bo had done it all wrong.
„I really hope it is just a creepy business dinner."
Turning on the radio, Bo got rid of the thought, that this date was to get into someone's pants. The blonde had to be careful to not feed that Gremlin after midnight though. On second thoughts, he should eat and get water all over him. The way he acted, irgh! Little shmuck.
Read the room!
Singing along an old Backstreet Boys song Bo closed her eyes. Her head rested on the steeling wheel, while her hands drummed the rhythm of the song on the dashboard. The chorus played and the brunette lifted her head to shout out loud and shook her head to the beat. Opening her eyes she found two amused brown eyes staring back at her in the small rear-view mirror.
Shocked, the brunette squeaked once. Turning around, her Boss was sitting in her seat staring back at her Driver. A small smile was tucking on the corner of the blonde's lips.
"You missed your vocation."
Swallowing, Bo tried to calm her beating heart.
"Gosh, you scared the hell out of me. For… for how long have you been sitting there?"
"Oh uhm… let's say I could watch a pro in their natural environment. After your voice warmed up the first few chords, you really knocked it out of the park."
"Ohh boy..."
Bo's face probably illumined the whole block.
"I didn't hear you got in, I'm… I'm sorry Ma'am, I..."
Words failed her.
"It's okay."
Bo pushed the button to turn the radio off. Silence surrounded them. The clock blinked nine pm. The brunette hadn't been aware that she was sitting there for almost two hours.
"Wh… Where is this, uh, guy... Scott was it?"
"He wanted to get something to drink at the bar and maybe that little bartender for dessert."
Scrunching her nose again, Bo wanted to get rid of those Polaroid pictures in her head of that Doctor Bald Pate in action. Sometimes she hated her imagination skills. Slimy dude.
"So, uhm, where should I drive to now? Get you ho-"
The hunger scream of the brunette's stomach drowned her voice out. It was so loud it could be heard to the moon and back.
"Someone is hungry."
"What?"
"Did you not eat?"
"Uhm, no?"
"Why didn't you eat?"
Bo turned back to the front and let the engine rev to distract the ongoing growling of her lower body parts.
"So, where to Ma'am?"
"Driver?!"
The blondes voice fell back in that soft but demanding pattern.
„You are aware of the fact that a low blood sugar can effect your ability to react appropriate?"
Sighing the motor cut the noises with one twist of the key in the ignition.
"Okay, here is the thing."
Bo shifted in her seat and faced her Boss again. That Lauren Lewis watched her with some kind of interest that was new to the brunette.
"When I said, that I really needed this job, I meant, that I really really need this job. I… I ran a bit short of money this week. So, unfortunately the supermarket wouldn't take the coupons from last year or those paper clips holding them together. My speech of how eight hundred million people in the world suffer because of hunger in hopes that this cashier could help to reduce that number to seven hundred ninety nine million by bestowing the groceries in my cart on me didn't work. Mankind is so fu… what are you doing?"
The blonde listened attentively. Midway through Bo's speech, her Boss' hand fumbled inside her purse to reveal her checkbook. Scribbling something that looked like hieroglyphs reading upside down in black ink. Bo liked black ink. That woman had taste.
Holding out the piece of paper, Bo didn't know how to react.
"Take it. It's yours anyway. Why didn't you tell me?"
A check?
"How was I supposed to tell you that I needed money? I've worked for you for a week now. It's not my place to ask for something like that."
Also Bo didn't think her Boss cared much about a member of staff.
"So, you prefer starving?"
"No, I actually love eating and I try to do it on a daily basis, but, yeah… not at the moment."
Still holding the check in her outstretched hand, the blonde took Bo's hand in her own and placed the abrasive paper on her flat palm. Wrapping her fingers around Bo's into a fist. Flabbergasted the brunette looked up.
"Take it. Think of it as a bonus for working on your day off."
There was something very gentle the way her Boss locked eyes with her and their skin touched. It made Bo feel different kind of things. Things she had to work through to put a finer point on the meaning of them all.
"Thank you."
The blonde let go of Bo and leaned back. Thinking about, where she could get the check cashed at this late hour, she took a closer look, Bo's breath hitched.
A check indeed. Over a shitload of monetos.
"Miss Lewis that is way too much, I…"
"Driver?"
Bo looked back up.
"Yes Ma'am?"
"I want to go home, please."
"Yes Ma'am."