What You See (Sons of the Survivalist #3) - Cherise Sinclair Page 0,64
an unspoken invitation for her to handle it.
Okay, she could manage. “Harvey, I enjoy working with you. You’re always on top of the job, give a hundred percent, and are friendly with everyone—customers and staff. However, your friendliness is making some of the staff uncomfortable.”
He stiffened. “How’s that?”
“Some of your jokes and comments are sexual in nature. In addition, I’m afraid that touching another person, male or female, in the workplace isn’t appropriate.”
“For God’s sake. Is someone sayin’ I’m…what’s it called…sexually harassing them? I would never—” He turned to Bull. “I never grabbed anyone’s ass or anything.”
Bull didn’t respond. He really was leaving it to her. Best boss ever.
Frankie leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, recapturing Harvey’s attention. “You touch the young women, Harvey. Shoulders, arms. You’ll put your arm around a woman’s waist and tell them how pretty they are.”
“I’m just being friendly!”
“To you, it’s friendly.” And she…mostly…believed that was how he meant it. “To them, you’re a big, strong, older man who is touching them without permission.”
He shook his head, not seeing what she was getting at…which was why she’d come up with this role-play.
“Do you agree that you’re bigger and stronger than the young women we have working in the roadhouse?” When he shrugged agreement, she nodded toward Bull. “Kind of like how Bull is bigger and stronger than you?”
Harvey snorted. “Bull’s bigger than just about anybody.”
“That’s the truth,” she muttered.
A corner of Bull’s mouth tugged up.
“So, Harvey. I want you to imagine…oh, let’s say you’re in prison.” Frankie smiled at his surprised expression. “Hey, the staff think the kitchen feels like a prison sometimes, right? Just bear with me, here.”
That made him laugh. “Okay, I’m in prison.”
“You just got dumped in there, and naturally, you’re worried about the really hardened criminals. Like Skull.” She pointed to Bull. “A mass murderer from one of the worst LA gangs.”
Bull rose without her asking, and she blinked because he appeared…different. Cold, dead eyes. His expression was cruel, his body language predatory, as if he really did torture his victims.
He stalked over to Harvey and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, look, fresh meat.” His deep voice held a brutal anticipation.
Harvey froze.
“Fuck, aren’t you a pretty one.” Bull’s hard mouth curved up, and somehow grew even meaner. “Even better than that new guy last week. Had me a good time with him.”
Harvey gave him an appalled stare, cleared his throat, and edged sideways on the couch. “Listen, I—”
Bull ran his massive hand up and down Harvey’s arm. “Nice shirt. Soft. I like it.”
Harvey shoved his hand away. “Jesus, stop. This isn’t—”
“Bet all the girls think you’re hot shit, huh,” Bull said. “You got a great mouth, you know that?”
The implication, totally unspoken, was that the mouth could be used for sex—the same kind of suggestive comment women got all too often from men.
Harvey had apparently never been on the receiving end of that kind of innuendo.
“Always like the ones with soft hair.” Bull tugged on Harvey’s wavy hair, something Frankie realized she’d seen Harvey doing to servers in the kitchen.
Harvey turned pale.
Bull glanced in inquiry at Frankie. Done?
She nodded and motioned to his chair.
As he sat, she waited a moment for Harvey to process his feelings. “If I was to ask Bull what he was doing, he’d say he was just being friendly.”
“Yeah, friendly.” Harvey scrubbed his hands over his face. “Felt like I was being set up for a gang-rape in the shower
“Because you’re not sexually attracted to him, and he’s a lot bigger and stronger. When there’s a discrepancy like that between two people, then what feels friendly to the powerful person comes across as intimidating—even frightening—to someone smaller.”
Harvey stared at Bull, then Frankie, before turning his gaze to the window. Hopefully, he was recalling the way he’d behaved with the women employees and realizing they hadn’t seen his actions as friendly at all.
“Holy hell.” He met her gaze. “I get your point.”
“You’re not the first or last man to have discovered he…”
“Tripped over his own dick,” Bull contributed.
Yes, that. Frankie shook her head. “I don’t think you deliberately scared them…although you probably thought their discomfort was a bit funny.”
Because most guys thought that way.
“I never thought of myself as an abusive asshole.” Harvey scowled. “My old man was one. Hit my mom. I never wanted to act like him. Ever. And I have been.”
Progress. “If Bull agrees, let’s see how it goes.” Frankie paused. “What you must remember when you interact with other employees,