Dragon's Omega Bride (Shifter Marriage Service 3)

“I’m sure you don’t, but others have a different opinion and I have to be cognizant of everyone’s morale, not just yours. If you can’t keep adequate customer service standards, then I don’t know that there can continue to be a place for you in this office.”

Aileen thought she might lose her mind if Maria uttered “customer service standards” one more time. It was if the phrase itself had a life of its own. She was dimly aware that Maria was still talking to her, chastising her further and then she used the phrase again, once too many times for Aileen to not lose her shit.

“I see. I tell you what. I’ve got some customer service standards for you. Go fuck yourself.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused,” Aileen replied, turning to walk out.

“Where are you going? We aren’t done here!” Maria demanded.

“Oh, we’re done. I’ve taken all I intend to take from anyone at this shitty job.”

She was at the door to Maria’s office, having opened it to look out on dozens of people. With the exception of a couple of them, they were all trying to pretend not to hear her or on the phone with clients. So far, she had kept her tone even. She had not shouted, only stated her thoughts as clearly as possible when dealing with a moron like Maria.

Aileen unclipped the employee badge from her shirt and pulled the key to her desk drawer from her pocket, tossing both across the room to clatter across the desk of her shocked boss. Maria jumped up indignantly and yelled at her. “You’re fired.”

“You can’t fire a person who is literally in the process of quitting, you stupid bitch,” Aileen shot back, feeling oddly liberated.

“You’ll never be allowed back, Aileen. What with your family history and this outrageous outburst of anger!”

“Fan-fucking-tastic!” Aileen replied, making a quick exit out of her office and toward the front entrance.

Stepping out into the sunshine, she felt like she could now conquer the world; but by the time she got back home, she was a nervous wreck. What would she do now? Realizing she still had her phone on silent as was required at work, she pulled it free and looked down at it. There was a message from Mary with a name and a number from her daughter Anna, followed by two words - Good Luck!

Well, her timing was admirable, that was for sure. Rather than wasting time, Aileen dialed the number and spoke briefly with a woman named Charlotte about her situation. The following day, she was seen right away upon her arrival.

Past that, the appointment with the agency had gone by much quicker than anticipated. Aileen had filled out some forms, answered some questions and asked a few of her own. In the end, they accepted her as a client. Because she was not requiring any relocation services or a new identity, her fee was just a small registry fee to cover the cost of a background check.

She paid the fee, but didn’t put a lot of stock in finding an out through the agency. Who knows how long it would be before they found a match for her, if they found one at all? There was no time-line given. There was a moment of serious anxiety as she considered that perhaps she had been a bit hasty in quitting her job. Things only got worse when she arrived back at her place to find a man in a blue suit waiting for her.

“Aileen Venegra?” he asked, looking about as sinister as a stranger could appear.

“Yes, that’s me,” she replied, all the while debating whether she should lie about her identity.

“I’ve been instructed to serve you with these papers,” he said, handing her a folded document.

“Papers for what?” she asked, glancing at them and them looking back up at him, but he was already retreating down the sidewalk.

Aileen took the papers inside her modest one-bedroom cabin and opened them up to read through them. Her heart dropped to her feet. Great. Another blow from this clan from hell of hers. She threw the papers across the room and went to the bedroom to slip into a pair of pajama pants and a tank shirt before returning to throw a pizza in the oven and pop open a beer from her fridge. She looked at the papers again then around the room, completely disgusted.

“They did what?” Cassie asked a bit later on the phone.

“They are evicting me. The council owns this cabin and they claim that since I’m no longer an employee of their customer service group, they need to free it up for actual employees.”

“Did you know that when you got yourself fired?” she asked, already having been told about the incident leading to her departure from work.

“I didn’t get fired. I quit and I don’t know. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time.”