Northern_Lights_2021

32 Alex insisted that he needed someone to start the next day, as he had no help. Victoria then asked if High-Quality Clean was his store. Alex answered with a long story about how it has been in his family for six generations and he must keep his family legacy alive. Alex offered to pay Victoria fifteen dollars an hour, which showed how much he needed an employee. Victoria, with wide eyes, accepted the job. Alex then told her that she would be working forty hours a week and that the schedule would be mostly eight to five but could change based on need. Victoria was thrilled about her job and couldn’t wait to tell Jett all the details. When she told him, Jett was filled with rage. He yelled at her and told her it was a bad idea to work with a guy by herself all day and that fifteen dollars an hour seemed too good to be true. They then had a screaming match which ended in Victoria crying and Jett storming out. Jett was mad that Victoria put in no effort and found a job in two days when he had been looking for weeks and found nothing. He was also jealous that the love of his life was going to spend eight hours a day alone with a guy that neither of them knew. Jett didn’t come home until three in the morning and he was extremely drunk and angry. He yelled at Victoria for being asleep and then passed out on the couch. Victoria was upset and confused. Firstly, she was asleep and awakened by her screaming boyfriend. Secondly, she didn’t know how he could be drunk, as they were only eighteen and she thought she would know if he had a fake ID. She paced around the bedroom trying to calm down, but it took her until 5:30 a.m. to finally fall asleep. Victoria woke up at 6:30 a.m. and expected Jett to still be asleep, but he was making bacon and eggs that made the apartment smell like a different place entirely. He apologized for what he had said, for leaving, and for getting drunk. Victoria was shocked that Jett was apologizing so quickly. In the past when they would fight, they wouldn’t speak for days before one of them apologized. She was very pleased that he was apologizing though, because she didn’t feel that she had done anything wrong, and she didn’t want to have to be the one to apologize. Victoria didn’t have much time, so she got ready for work, ate the breakfast Jett made her, kissed him goodbye, and took the SUV to work. She arrived at High Quality Clean at 7:45 a.m.; the door was still locked, and the lights were all off. Since she didn’t have a key, she took a seat on a bench in front of the store. Alex rolled up in his rusty old pickup at 7:59 a.m. and waved her in. He started training her immediately after he unlocked the door. He showed her where the light switches were and which ones she needed to turn on. He then showed her the ins and outs of what she would need to do during her shifts. Alex explained that he would be the one to clean the clothes. Victoria’s responsibilities would be to create a system that showed the names of each customer and the type of cleaning that was wanted. He told her that she would also oversee transactions, but that he would be counting the till every night to make sure that the money was all there. He also told her that he would be the only one with a key, at least for the time being. After the extensive and grueling four-hour training, he set her loose in the store to figure things out. Victoria was overwhelmed with everything that she was told and took a moment before she began to investigate her responsibilities further. By the time five rolled around, she was ready to get out of there. When she got home, Jett was lying on the couch with a half-empty bottle of tequila between his arm and his chest. Victoria was exhausted and she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with drunk Jett again, so she walked through the apartment to the bedroom and shut the door. She changed out of her work clothes and into some comfortable pajamas and sat on the bed. She grabbed her laptop and started writing in her online journal when Jett burst into the room and jumped on the bed next to her. Victoria quickly closed her laptop and put it on her bedstand. She looked at Jett lying there next to her and tried to gauge his mood. He was smiling at her and kept inching closer. She concluded that he was in a good mood and let her guard down. Jett kissed her gently and she kissed back, but she didn’t like the taste of the tequila on his breath, so she pulled away. This made Jett angry and he grabbed her arm and questioned why she didn’t love him anymore. He was hurting her, and she told him so, which made him even madder. He grabbed her other arm with the same intensity and said, “Answer my question.” Victoria answered with an “I do love you, I’m just tired and not in the mood.” Jett didn’t like that answer, so he pushed Victoria so hard that she fell off the bed. She left the room crying and went to the kitchen to find something to eat.