Chapter 4 – Call for Obstruction

So far, Barry collided with a courier van, and when he called the courier service to let them know, it resulted in a job offer he accepted over the phone. He signs a contract to work for his new boss Margery, but doesn’t remember doing so. When Barry fails to show up for work the next morning, he finds Margery has the ability to manipulate his body and make him sick. When Margery convinces him to show up for his new job or face a worse fate, she also tells him to pick her up a cup of coffee on the way.

Sleigh bells hanging on the inside of the Coffee Hut’s door announce my entrance. The pungent aroma of dark roast is like a punch in the face. It turns my stomach just when I thought the gut wrenching, I’m now convinced Margery caused, had ended. I don’t know why anyone drinks this nasty stuff anyways. An energy drink is more my speed.

The place is deserted, except for the clerk behind the counter. The guy drops a rag onto the butcher-block counter then dries his hands on the dirty apron hanging below his Metallica t-shirt. Sporting a nose ring, earlobe plugs and arms covered in black and white tattoos, the guy looks like he headlines in his mother’s garage, playing guitar with his buddies.

The clerk leans over the counter and smirks. “Can I get you something?”

“Picking up for Margery?” My tone wavers, a little unsure I was in the right place.

The guy jerks, like a whip’s been cracked across his back. He skips to the end of the counter, grabs a tall capped-off cup and rushes back. “Five twenty-five.”

My eyes widen. “She expects me to pay?”

“Five twenty-five,” he repeats and rolls his eyes as he places the cup beside the cash register. “Trust me, you don’t want to show up without her coffee.”

The cost of the coffee is about all the money I have to my name. Bitch better pay me back. I sigh while reaching into my back pocket for my wallet.

The sleigh bells sound off, announcing a new customer. The coffee jerk’s eyes pop-out and the toothy grin on his face makes him look like a pervert.

I peer over my shoulder. Too gorgeous to notice a guy like me, is the first thing I notice about her. Messy though, dressed all in white with bare sculpted legs stretching out from under a wrinkled mini-skirt. Her blouse is only partly tucked-in and her long brown hair is untidily tousled up into a clip. It looks as if her boss had chased her around his desk before he sent her out for coffee.

“Morning, Trisha. In for an espresso boost already?”

The guy’s openly ogling her chest now. What a dirt bag.

“Too hot today, Harvey. Frozen cappuccino, like yesterday.”

Now I get it. She bounces on the balls of her feet while she speaks and I’m not sure she’s wearing a bra. A welcome distraction from the whiney, high-pitched tone of her voice, which seems to have failed to mature past the age of five.

“One minute,” Harvey says, then turns up his palm and demands payment from me, the smirks back in his expression.

I dig in my wallet, reach in for my last five, but instead pull out a twenty-dollar bill. I wrinkle my forehead. “I know that wasn’t there yesterday.”

Harvey reaches over the counter and snatches the bill out of my hand. “You don’t know Margery, do you?” he asks while he counts out change from the register.

“Margery?” Trisha backs away.

I hate to admit this is a common reaction pretty women have around me. This time I’m sure it’s not all me, even so I give her a dirty look before reaching for the coffee and the change.

“Good luck,” she says then she and Harvey burst out laughing.

Not wanting to be a part of their inside joke, I back away and turn to leave.

She calls after me, “Tell Margery, Trisha says, ‘Hi.’”

I keep forward and let the noisy sleighbells announce my departure.

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