Hard Rider

“Yo, back up. Don’t come over here like you’re gonna start a fight because we’ll fuck you up.” Number Two said it, but it was empty. Even he knew by the time the sentence was half way out of his mouth that it didn’t have any bite behind it.

The trailer’s opening was at my back. The two dickheads were effectively cornered. Despite the logic, I had them outnumbered. I took two more steps and they backed up the same distance. Number One tripped over a stack of papers and fell on his ass. As I got even closer, I could hear his teeth chattering together.

“Mr. Eason!”

The voice came from behind me and it was vaguely familiar. I didn’t turn around. The anger had me.

“Mr. Eason!”

“You guys fucked up,” I whispered. “I gave you a chance to get yourselves off the hook.”

“Troy!”

That’s when it registered. A voice that had sounded far away, as if in a dream, when it was calling “Mr. Eason” ripped my attention to it when it called me “Troy.”

I whipped my head around to see Riley standing on the loading gate of the trailer with her hands on her hips. “What’s going on here?”

Was it Monday already?

The boys in front of me stared over my shoulders at her as if she was their savior. She was.

“Riley,” I started. “I didn’t think you’d be here until the end of my shift.”

Her hands stayed where they were and she only answered me with a cocked eyebrow.

“Go down to the office, I’ll be right in. I think I’m gonna clock out early tonight anyway.”

“I’ll wait right here by the truck,” she said. “It’s cold out here so if you’re done with your work, please hurry.”

“Sure.”

She stepped off the loading gate but held eye contact with me for an agonizing few seconds before she turned and walked a few paces out of view.

I wheeled back around on Numbers One and Two. They threw up their hands in self-defense.

“I’m only going to tell you this once,” I said. “I’ve been busting my ass to get my life on track and if either one of you decides to fuck with that, I’ll kill both of you. Do we understand each other?”

They both nodded like bobble-head dolls on crank.

“No shady stuff when I’m around… as a matter of fact, don’t do it at all. If the two of you think you’re gonna be criminals, you do it somewhere else. Got it?”

“Yes.” I think Number Two even said “Yes, Sir,” but he mumbled. It would have been a wise decision on his part if he did—probably the first one he’d made in his entire life.

I spun on my heel to go catch up with my beautiful keeper. It was possible—no matter how slight—that I could have given her less credit than she deserved. I would have expected a sheltered one like her to run for cover at the first sign of trouble. But to speak up when a bunch of rough guys were staring each other down… it made me think twice.

“You’re joking, right?”

“What?”

I gripped her by the elbow and tugged her toward the supervisor’s office. I wanted to get her papers signed and be away from this place as fast as humanly possible. She resisted my hand at first, but when I didn’t let go on her first attempt to pull away, she let me keep her arm.

“I show up to your jobsite for the first time and I walk in on what looks like you about to start a fight with two of your co-workers?”

“Aw, that?” I asked, incredulously. “We were just playing around. That’s what guys do on jobs like this. I wouldn’t expect that your dad or any of your brothers ever worked any manual labor, so I understand that you’re confused.”

She stopped short of the door and pulled her arm away for real this time. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means,” I challenged. At first I was just giving her a hard time, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“So, what? You think I’m just some clueless kid from a wealthy family?”

“You said it, not me.”

“You’re an as-”

She cut herself off and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry,” she said, changing the subject. How about we go get your supervisor to sign this form and then we’ll talk about what you think your future looks like here with the company.”

The weather was brutally cold so we moved the conversation to her car. I wasn’t surprised to see it was a fully-loaded current year Mercedes with aftermarket accessories.

“I need to verify where you’re living,” she said.

“Yeah, I write down on the millions of papers you guys make me fill out. I’m over on Cardale Road. Hell, your boss wrote the recommendation that got me in the building. What is there to verify?”

Riley started the engine and cranked the heater to the max. It was taking every last bit of effort she could muster not to start shivering in front of me.

“I know that,” she said. “But I have to make sure you’re physically occupying the dwelling.”

“The dwelling?”

“You know what I’m saying,” she said between exasperated breaths. “I have to sign off that you’re living where you say you are.”

“Why would I live anywhere else? Why the hell would I bust my ass to pay rent on a place I’m not staying at?”

“Jesus!” Riley slammed her hands down on the steering wheel. The beep of the horn made her jump six inches off her seat. “Why do you have to question everything I tell you? It’s part of the process, okay? Is that okay with you or are you gonna come up with more stupid questions?”

“Rough day?” I knew I shouldn’t laugh at her, but something about the way she got her anger out touched me in a weird place.

“Yeah,” she said in her smallest voice. “We had this work party last week and I drank a little too much. I’ve been trying to catch up on my sleep ever since and I guess it’s made me a little be short. Sorry.”

My jaw practically hit the floor. I wasn’t expecting her to drop the act long enough to let me see her true colors. The way her face changed when she did it got me a little excited.

“That’s all you had to say,” I told her. “C’mon, let’s go to my place. I’ll take it easy on you for the rest of the night. You can have whatever you need.”

Riley

My poise had always been a strong suit, but now it was more than wavering. After I snapped at Troy, he seemed to calm down a little. Maybe it was wrong, but I was just glad it worked. My nerves were rattled enough just from the pull his body had on me, but when the teasing was added to the top of the pile, I couldn’t take it.

He lived in a corner unit on the building’s west end. I checked my paper and the unit number matched up with the one we had on file. I don’t know what I was expecting to be different. I’d looked over the paper more times than I could count already. I think I just kept doing it because I was nervous.

“Satisfied?”

“I just have to come in and, you know, look around.” It felt so stupid to have to do this, but he was accommodating, if not a decent sport about it.

Of course, I knew he wasn’t lying about where he lived, but I’d always been taught to be a stickler for the rules. There was really no reason for me to have to go in there other than that.

“Whatever you say, Boss.”

“I’m sorry. I know this is an invasion of privacy and it’s my least favorite part of the job but I have to do it. I’ll be quick.”

Troy turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open. I stepped in front of him to walk in, but he caught me by the skirt and pulled me back. “Wait, let me check it out first.”

Looking around, I realized he didn’t exactly live in the greatest neighborhood. It wasn’t a slum by any means, but I guess a person had to be careful. Maybe I was sensitive after all the things he said to me, but it seemed like my brain had to highlight everything that came off as “out of touch.”

“Alright, come on in.” He flipped a wall switch that lit up a small lamp on hi

s side table. “Have at it,” he said, “but if you find my stash you have to promise not to steal it.”

“I’m not a cop, Troy. Even though I know you’re just messing with me, please understand that I’m not here to get into your business.”

“Really? Because that seems like all you guys at Fitting In ever do.”

I took the quick tour of his place. It was a small one-bedroom with a bathroom the size of a postage stamp so it didn’t take long. My head was hammering too hard to focus on the details, but I saw a bed that had been slept in and folded clothes on top of his dresser. That was all I needed.

“Okay, I’m done. That wasn’t so painful, now was it?”

He was kicking off his work boots and looking for something on the kitchen counter. “Not for me, but it looks like you’re struggling a little bit.”

“Huh? Oh, I just have a little headache. Once I get home I’ll throw a hot towel over my eyes and it will go away.”

“How about a couple of aspirin?”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t bother you; but, thanks.”

“Hang on a second.”