Nothing Personal

“Hey everyone, I’m home,” he says as he comes to the living room, looking all over the place. “Hey Nova! What are you doing here? Oh hey, you must be Hunter. Loan, good to see you. I got you some rice crackers from Bangkok.”

Everyone, including Hunter, is staring up at Mike in his obnoxious pink and green Hawaiian shirt, questions on the tip of everyone’s tongues.

Finally, Hunter goes, “Who are you?”

“Well, Hunter. My name is Mike Epson. And this is my house.”

“Oh. You’re the man who likes leprechauns.”

Mike cocks a brow. “Come again?”

“What happened Mike?” I ask him. “Like, why are you here? Now. You said you wouldn’t be back…at all. Ever.”

He sighs and tugs at the collar of his shirt. “Yeah, I know what I said but…What can I say? The course of true love never runs smoothly.” He plops down on the couch beside Nova and puts his hand on her bare knee, which immediately makes me step forward, wanting to punch him in the face.

Nova eyes his hand and gently lifts his hand off of her. “What’s going on Mike? You could have called or something. Then again, you never gave any warning when you left before.”

“Right, right,” he says, wringing his hands awkwardly together. “Here’s the thing. I’m an idiot, so let’s get that out of the way. I met a woman, Patrice, and she was unlike any human I had ever met. I fell in love with her and I think she fell in love with me. I know, who can believe it, right? But it’s true. And what do you do when cupid shoots its arrow into your heart? You follow the dance of love.”

Fucking hell, I hope I don’t sound like that.

“Well, anyhoo,” he goes on. “As you know, I gave it all up to be with her. She was leaving the next day back to Thailand and I decided it was now or never. So I went.” He sighs. “It was beautiful there. For weeks we traveled from place to place and she would visit her friends and I would stay in the hotel room and then after a while I realized her friends were in the movie business and she was acting with them.”

I clear my throat, eyeing Hunter for a moment. “Uh, didn’t you know about her, uh, occupation in the adult film world before?”

“Oh yes, that was part of the appeal!”

Nova makes a face.

“I just thought she was giving it up, you know? I mean, okay, I knew that’s how she made her money but after a few weeks of filming I realized I was kind of jealous. Me! I know. I’m not a jealous guy and yet there I was. At one point I was feeling so left out that I asked to take part in the film and you know what role she gave me? Chinese takeout delivery man. I had to play the part of the guy who interrupts them. Now, I thought maybe I could have a speaking line and it would bring me one step closer to being union but that never happened.”

“Mike, Mike, Mike,” I mutter.

“I know. I really bungled that up! So, finally I told Patrice that I had enough. It was her or me. And I guess she chose all those other dicks instead of mine. Did you know that it’s not actually acting in those movies? They’re actually having sex! Some of it I don’t even think can be called sex.” He shakes his head, looking disgusted and I’m so fucking grateful that Nova has her hands over Hunter’s ears.

Then Mike slaps his knee. “Anyhoo, I left her and now I’m back here. As you can imagine, I’ll be taking back the house and my old job.”

“What?!” Me, Nova, and Loan all yell in unison.

He raises his brows at us, palms raised as he gets to his feet. “Sheesh. I guess I did kind of spring this on you.”

“You can take your house back,” I tell him. “The three of us can find somewhere else to live. But you can’t just take your job back.”

“Sure I can. I gave it away. Now I’m taking it back.”

His smile is so happy and naïve and oblivious that I only want to punch him more.

I glance at Nova and back to him. “No, you don’t understand. When you left, the job became mine.”

“But the three months isn’t up yet,” he reminds me with a hokey wag of his finger. “It was all temporary.”

“Be that as it may,” I say carefully, so I’m not yelling. “We had a meeting today. Me, Nova, George, and Desiree. I gave up my job.”

“What? Why would you do that?”

“Because I realized there are other things I want to do and more than that, there are other people who deserve the job more.”

“People like who?”

Holy fuck he’s dense.

“Me,” Nova says to him boldly. “I deserved the job. I did from the start.”

“You?” He gives her a dismissive shake of his head. “No offence my dear, but you’re not cut out for it.”

“Why not?” I ask, feeling defensive on her behalf, even though she doesn’t need me to defend her.

“Because,” he says to me now, not her. “She’s…too emotional for it. You have to think sharp to be an executive. You have to know how to play in the big leagues, isn’t that a good metaphor for you Kessler? And, hey, I am all for woman moving up in the world, I know the whole hashtag ‘me too’ thing, I know that women should probably get more pay and I especially know a woman like Nova should be paid more attention to.”

Nova’s face is nearly frozen with rage at literally everything he’s just said. Actually, when I look at Loan, she looks the exact same way.

“What do you mean, a woman like me?” Nova asks, nearly spitting out the words.

Mike shrugs a bunch of times, all awkward as fuck. It’s like watching a car crash. “You know. You’re, you know, not white. And I applaud that and all, you know, you go girl and raise the roof and such.”

My head is in my hands. This is painful.

“But,” he goes on. He fucking goes on when he needs to shut up. “I think equality means equal for all and it doesn’t equal special treatment just because you’re a woman or have a nice cappuccino skin tone.”

Nova gasps and it’s like the entire room is vacuumed of air.

This man is dead.

“I’ll have you know that my skin tone is more than someone’s coffee, first of all,” she manages to say, and I don’t know how she sounds so succinct and refined when I know she’s a raging ball of fire inside. “And second of all, everything you’ve just said is not only completely inappropriate, but it’s just plain wrong. I’m not asking to be given special treatment. I’ve worked my ass off extra hard to ensure that doesn’t happen. I’m just asking to be looked at as an equal. You should have always given the job to me, it’s what I’ve been working toward for so long. And I thought you, as my boss, knew that. I thought you respected me. Now I know it wouldn’t have mattered as long as you were above me. You would just keep me down because that’s where you think I belong.”

She gets up and walks right up to him, looking him dead in the eyes with the kind of stare that would make any man’s balls shrivel into prunes. “But let me tell you. Where I belong is miles above you. In the sun and the moon and the stars, motherfucker. I’m a Supernova.”

And with that, she sashays past him, grabbing her purse and heading down the hall.

“Wait!” I call after her, grabbing her before she goes outside. “Don’t go. I mean, that was awesome what you just did, but don’t go.”

“I don’t have to stand here and listen to this shit.” She frowns. “Thanks for jumping in by the way.”

“Baby, it’s my turn to lay into him next. I just know you don’t need an ounce of help in defending yourself.”

She rolls her eyes. “I doubt he gets it.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah, well this is all sorts of fucked up, Kessler. What are you going to do now? What am I going to do? You’re out of a house, I’m out of a job.”

“You’re not out of a job, Mike is fucked in the head. I think he has syphilis or something now because he’s not making any sense at all.”

“What are you going to do then, kick him out of his own house?”

“I’ll take the couch or double up with Hunter.”

“You know you can stay with me.”

“I know. I will if it gets weird.” I look back down the hall to the living room where Mike is watching the movie with Hunter and I can hear Loan swearing in Vietnamese. “It might get weird.”

“Good luck, Kess.”

I exhale and kiss her on the lips. “I’m so proud of you baby. It had to feel good to stand up to him like that.”

But she looks a little sad. “It did. I just wish I didn’t have to do it to begin with. I always thought he was on my side.”

“I know. But it was pretty obvious he wasn’t when he gave the job to a lug like me.”

She smiles. “You’re not a lug. You’re a hunk. And you’re mine.” She pulls me into a deep hug. “I love you.”

“I love you,” I tell her, holding her tight until she’s breathless. Then I reluctantly let her go. “See you at work tomorrow. Wear your armor. We’re going into battle.”

She gives me a small wave. “I’ll bring my headlamp.”

I barely slept last night.

Not only because I had to sleep on the couch and give up the bedroom to Mike, who was doing all sorts of weird things in there. I don’t know if he was watching porn and crying over it or what, but that’s exactly what it sounded like.

But because, well, my life turned upside down in the snap of Mike’s greasy fingers.

One minute I had a house, the next minute I didn’t.

One minute I had stepped aside and given Nova my role, the role she deserves, the next minute Mike thinks he’s my boss. I didn’t give up the motherfucking job for him. I still like the role. I gave it up because Nova was more deserving and it would give me more motivation to concentrate on the hockey school.