Fire & Brimstone (Neighbor from Hell #8) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,79

pissing Rebecca off, not only because she was once again getting stuck doing all the work, but because this was the ninth time that she had to deal with this bullshit today.

Everyone, and she meant everyone, had found a way to corner her this morning to ask her for a favor like she had some magical power to control their fate now that she was dating Lucifer. They’d hinted around for what they wanted and when that didn’t work, and it didn’t, they tried to give her some bullshit sob story to manipulate her into asking Lucifer for time off, to switch their shifts and, of course, for a raise.

When they weren’t trying to get her to do their dirty work, they were ignoring her, which was just the best time ever. Yup, there really was nothing like being ignored by the people that she’d busted her ass with for the last five years. Whenever they saw her, they would walk away, pretend to suddenly find cleaning tables and counters interesting or acted like she wasn’t there. Dating the boss was the best, she thought dryly as she popped the bottom off another saltshaker and began filling it.

“Will you ask him?” Marcy asked as she continued to toy with the saltshaker.

“No,” she said, not even bothering to explain herself as she placed the saltshaker that she’d been working on back on the table and walked away, leaving Marcy to do the chore herself because she’d had enough for one day.

She’d told Lucifer that this wasn’t going to work out, but the stubborn bastard had insisted that she give it a chance. The only reason that she’d gone along with it was that up until now, the rest of the staff hadn’t acted differently since they’d found out. Apparently they’d been waiting for the news of their relationship to become public before deciding to pounce on her.

“Are the salt and peppershakers filled?” Adam, the supervisor who she normally avoided working with because he was an asshole, asked as she walked past him, reminding her of the other problem she’d been having today.

She’d been there longer than any of the other staff, which normally granted her the freedom to decide what needed to be done, when it needed to be done as well as working the best section in the dinning room. All those perks were gone now, because Adam, the real asshole of the Fire & Brimstone, had been on her ass all morning, letting her know that he wasn’t happy.

She’d barely punched in when Adam was chewing her out for punching in a minute late. While he was screaming at her in front of the rest of the staff he’d failed to remember that he’d been standing in front of the clock, blocking her from punching in on time. When she’d pointed that out, he’d snapped at her and told her to go pick up the trash in the parking lot. It wasn’t part of her job, but she’d needed to leave before she said something she would regret.

When she came back inside, he’d told her to go scrub the ovens, which also wasn’t her job. She was a waitress, not an hourly wage employee and he seemed to have forgotten that, but she hadn’t. She fully planned on putting in for those hours at the busboy rate, which was ten dollars an hour. At least that’s what she told herself when he made her scrub the windows, clean the sinks at the bar, fill the ketchup bottles, do dishes for an hour, scrub the bar stools, and finally, fill the salt and peppershakers, which was Marcy’s job.

She’d considered telling Lucifer what was going on, but she wasn’t a snitch and she also wasn’t going to run crying to her boyfriend every time someone treated her like crap. Instead, she was going to be that girlfriend that quit and found another job.

“Did you fill the shakers or not?” Adam snapped when she kept walking.

“Nope,” she said, fully intending to go upstairs where she could feel sorry for herself in private, but Adam had other plans in mind, plans that included getting in her face and yelling at the top of his lungs, announcing to one and all that she wasn’t going to get special treatment for fucking the owner and ensuring that her resignation was going to be memorable.

Chapter 39

“Oh, shit!” was his first clue that something wasn’t quite right at the Fire & Brimstone this morning. The sound of