Chapter 6

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I knew you would. Your table looked pretty full in there. I need to rescue the new girl from Crazy Frank.”

When Cliff and Katie were gone, Frank turned to me. “Now I see why you used to bang her.”

“What the hell, Frank?”

“You dated her for a year, and she’s sexy, so don’t lie. Of course, that interesting fact has absolutely nothing to do with you helping her get a job here, does it?”

“Do you seriously think that’s why Cliff hired her? What happened between Katie and me was a long time ago, okay? I’ll thank you not to say anything in front of her. Our past is just that – ours, which makes it none of your damn business, and in the past, so forget about it.”

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I’m not a complete buffoon. Besides, I like her.”

“Yeah?”

“She doesn’t act like a dumb blonde.”

“She’s nowhere close to dumb, and she’s a strawberry blonde.”

“Does the carpet match the curtains?”

“Dammit, Frank! Knock it off!”

He chuckled, obviously enjoying my discomfort. “The good-looking ones often don’t have much going on in their heads. She seems like a smart little cookie, and she’s cute piece of ass if you like skinny chicks.”

“Don’t call her a piece of ass!”

“Settle down. I’m just having fun with you. My wife would kill me anyway, so Katie’s all yours.”

“That won’t happen. It’s not like that with us now.”

“Good. It will make it easier working with a girl if no one’s trying to get in her pants.”

“Some words of advice, Frank: Katie is really sensitive about men making sexual remarks, or treating her differently because she’s a girl, or talking down to her. If your goal is to piss her off, do shit like that. Trust me, you don’t want to piss her off.”

“Oh? I’ve heard some things about redheads.”

“She won’t claw you or any of that crap. She’ll destroy you verbally. She’ll prove she’s smarter than you. You don’t want to get in an argument with her. That girl stands her ground. Katie is very independent, and she’s stronger than she looks.”

“You know I’m going to test her, don’t you? Especially now that you said what you did.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Two Mondays later, Katie sat on the bench near the employee parking lot. When I pulled in, she hurried to my car. “I came in early to fill out some forms, and I saw your dad in the hallway. He said I should watch out for Frank.”

“Don’t worry about Crazy Frank. I told him to go easy on you.”

“You didn’t have to do that. In fact, if he starts on me, I wish you’d stay out of it. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can. You won’t have a problem with Frank. You made a good first impression. He’ll tease you like he does everybody, and he’ll challenge you at times, but it’s all in fun. The people in the other departments are fine.” Together, we went to the time clock. She found her card, and we both punched in. I opened the door to our little office.

Her work table was decorated with pink balloons and a hand-lettered sign saying, “Welcome, Katie”. Frank stood by his chair wearing a stupid grin. “He told me I had to be nice to you.”

She smiled. “Thank you, guys. I appreciate it. Ed said you talked about me. Going forward I want you to be nice because I do a good job.”

“What did I tell you, Frank?”

He winked at me. “She’s got a bit of an attitude, doesn’t she? I can handle it if she does her job okay.”

Katie definitely did her job okay. She learned quickly, soon finishing batches as fast and well as Frank and me. We got comfortable together, enough that one Friday Frank asked us to stop for a drink at a little bar we all had to pass on our way home. Katie sat on a stool between us.

The bartender went to her first. “Miss, may I see your ID?”

She pulled her license from her wallet and showed it to him.

“What about you, son?”

I handed him my card.

He glanced at it and turned to Frank. “I don’t have to ask you if you’re old enough to be in here, you old fart. How’s it going?”

“Not bad, Willis. These are the kids I work with, Katie and Ed. This is Willis, best bartender in town.”

“More like the only one who puts up with you, Frank. Young lady, what’ll you have?”

“Scotch and soda, rocks,” Katie answered.