My Alpha Stepbrother Called Me a Gold Digger, So I Bought His Father's Note novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Friday Crew

Friday came again, and I walked into the co-op yard at six with my ticket stubs and my chin up.

I hadn't spoken to Soren in six days.

I had weighed two hundred trucks and eaten supper standing up, and every night I'd lain in the trailer with the window open, smelling my own skin and hating that I could still smell him on it.

He stood on the office steps with the cash box.

He didn't look at me.

The hands were lined up at the window and the cash box, and the foreman, a thick man in a clean orange vest, was handing out envelopes.

I stopped at the end of the line.

I watched the first man open his envelope and count it with his lips moving.

His face fell.

"Short," he said to the foreman.

"Forty dollars again."

"Weather deductions," the foreman said.

"Co-op policy."

The next man opened his.

"Short."

I'd seen the pay sheet pinned inside the office door on my way in.

There was no weather deduction on it.

I'd read it twice, because I read everything.

I stepped out of the line and put my box on the step beside Soren's boot.

"Soren," I said.

His shoulders went tight.

"Miss Brennick," he said.

"Did you sign a weather deduction for this crew?" I said.

"No," he said.

"Then somebody's taking forty dollars a man off the top of your cash box," I said, loud enough for the hands to hear.

"Twenty men, forty dollars, that's eight hundred dollars a week.

"Your foreman's envelopes are short and the pay sheet in your office isn't."

The foreman went the color of a boiled ham.

"That's a lie," he said.

"I've been with this co-op eleven years."

"Count the envelopes," I said.

"Count them against the sheet."

It was silent.

I saw Soren's jaw set, and I saw him decide.

He walked down the steps in front of the whole crew, took the stack of envelopes out of the foreman's hand, and tore one open.

← Chapter 5 · All chapters · Chapter 7 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend