Bait and Switch Ch. 20

I found Robin and Dennis sitting in the main room of the apartment, when I got home. They were watching TV and not screwing, which I was thankful for, considering the conversation I’d just had with Shanna.

“Hey,” my roommate said, as soon as he saw me, “Did I see you coming out of Mrs. Polkins office earlier?”

I had almost forgotten about the blowjob I’d gotten in her office, until he spoke up. “Yeah, I got a small cut on my hand, and she insisted she take a look at it. It turned out to be nothing, though.” I showed him my clean, undamaged palm.

“Is it true what their saying?” Robin asks me excitedly, leaning on the arm of the chair to grin up at me. I have no idea what she’s talking about, until she continues. “That she is giving blowjobs to every guy that goes in there,” the redhead clarified when I gave her a blank stare. I felt my face turning red, and knew that they had their answer, as I went to my room, accompanied by their snickers.

I had to work tonight, so I jumped in the shower, and furiously cleaned up. Sometimes I hated showering before work, knowing that I would need another one, after working at the grill, but I hated going to work dirty, also. I should have asked if Shanna had to work, but it hadn’t crossed my mind at the time, and I didn’t dare call to find out. She had made it clear she would talk to me when she was ready.

I thought about what Dennis had said about Mrs. Polkins. Had my switches turned her into a horny woman, or just given her the ability to live out that lifestyle? She’d told me that she used to be a swinger with her late husband. I wondered if she had suppressed her sexuality in her older age, until I’d helped her body feel younger with my switches.

It was my first night back to work, since I’d left for Winter break, and Shanna was working tonight, though she didn’t pay me much attention. I tried to talk to her, but she only gave me a small smile, before turning, her dyed red hair flinging out as she walked away. It hurt to be treated like that after pouring my life out to her earlier, but there was little I could do about it, short of using my switches. A quick sense of her ‘happy’ switch, informed me that she was a little more happy than not, which was at least something.

Bradley was just as ornery as ever, however. There was a new waiter, which he actually made cry, after he’d made a simple drink order mistake. There was another mistake on one of Shanna’s tables, and when Bradley started to chew her out, I stepped up, and claimed it’d been my mistake.

“Sorry, Bradley, I misread the order. It wasn’t her fault.” It really had been her fault, but I was trying to win her back over, though with the way she was treating me tonight, I wasn’t sure why I was bothering.

“It’s coming out of your paycheck then,” Bradley informed me heatedly. “And you, Shanna, make sure your orders are clear enough, that this doesn’t happen again!” Our boss turned and stormed away, to start berating someone else. I couldn’t remember the last time her had been this miserable to work with.

“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me,” Shanna informed me as she turned away to go back to the front. “Thanks, though,” I barely heard her add, before she was through the doors separating the kitchen from the dining area.

I felt a bit warmer inside after that, though she still refused to talk to me.

I was so distracted by worrying about Shanna, the demons, and dealing with Gina, that I actually DID screw up an order, cooking a steak medium-well, when the customer had ordered rare.

“Where is your head, tonight, Nick?” Bradley nearly screamed at me after Shanna brought the plate back. “That’s twice now, you’ve screwed up. I can’t believe how incompetent you are tonight. What did you spend your vacation doing? Giving yourself brain damage, by running into walls? Someone is going to have to cover the cost of that steak, and since I know it wasn’t me that screwed up…”

For some reason everything seemed to come to a head, and just seemed to be too much: Shanna testing me and then ignoring me tonight, Bradley chewing me out, the world likely ending soon, and people expecting me to somehow save it. Didn’t they all understand that the weight of the human race was on my shoulders? Well, Bradley didn’t, but Shanna did. I was just so sick and tired of listening to my bald boss rant and rave, I almost blew up.

For one second, one split moment in time; I considered walking away, and leaving them all to their fate. Who knows… Maybe the world could take care of itself. I mean, the human race had made it this far, without my help, or even my interference. Why should I be the only one to defend it? I’m just a geek, after all. Not some military strategist or even a skillful negotiator. What chance did I really stand against the technologically advanced and alien demons?

The moment passed, however, and I saw Bradley still staring at me, waiting an answer. I looked around, and saw that everyone was staring at us. A part of my mind wondered at that; I mean, Bradley is almost always yelling at someone. Why should they stop and stare now?

Then I realized that the big man wasn’t just staring at me. His mouth was moving, and so were his arms, but no sound escaped his lips. Everyone stared in shock as the man tried to yell and scream, but no volume came out. It wasn’t that he was choking; I could easily see and even hear him breathing heavily. Then I felt the switch I’d inadvertently created in him, shutting him up. I had in effect, switched off his vocal cords.

I couldn’t help but laugh. The whole thing just seemed too comical. Here was a man I’d feared ever since I started working here. Wider in the shoulders than me, even with the extra muscle I’d gained, he still stood taller, and with his shaved head, he had this intimidating demeanor that usually put me in my place. But as he tried to talk, his arms waiving, and occasionally pawing at his neck, he no longer scared me. Somehow the loss of his voice seemed to remove any sense of a threat from him.

“I quit,” I told him calmly, getting my laughter under control. “I’m sick of dealing with your attitude. You run around here, yelling at everybody, chewing them out for perceived issues, and I’m done with it. Take that steak out of my paycheck too, but I’m through.”

I calmly untied my apron, and threw it at his feet. Shanna stepped up next to me, untied the apron that she kept her tips and orders in, and threw it at his feet, right next to my apron; after removing her tips, of course.

“I quit, too,” she told him breathlessly. “I only put up with your bullshit for one reason, and now I don’t have to. You can eat my paycheck, for all I care.”

Suddenly everyone around us was quitting as well, throwing in their aprons, tired of the way the big man had bullied us, and only now that he couldn’t speak, did they lose their fear of him.

Shanna grabbed my hand, and pulled me out of the kitchen, as the aprons piled up at Bradley’s feet. Only as I was walking out the front door, did I think to turn his vocal cords back on, and smiled slightly as I heard his roar from the kitchens.

The restaurant had been fairly busy tonight, and now he had no one to do the work.

Shanna still had a hold of my arm, and was dragging me to her car, but I planted my feet, and she took a few extra steps, before she realized I wasn’t following her anymore. I felt heady with power. The episode with Bradley had flipped my perspective, and right then I felt like I could take on the demons, even without my sister’s help. I knew that thought was foolish, but right then I didn’t care. Only it wasn’t demons in front of me right then, it was Shanna.

Sweet, loving, sexy, geeky, devious Shanna; the woman that had taken care of me after the marathon sex session with Lela, who could equal or beat me in video games and was just as geeky as me, had shared her sister with me, and then tested me. She had ignored me most of the night, barely acknowledging me, when I’d tried to help her out with Bradley. And now she stood there with a half uncertain, half smile look on her face, looking so innocent and cute. I was sick of games, and sick of deceit.

“No,” I told her, my voice quiet, but underlying it was solid granite.