The Three No Evils

Today I woke up to the second worst day in my life as this was the day I had to go to work and face Jojo and pretend nothing had happened. I had decided that I was not going to be in love with a freak ape boy extreme sport lay about meatnut who was planning to start a crazy business so he can play all day instead of work.

I went downstairs and Mother looked pleased with herself which as I knew would bode ill for me one way or another and I was not about to get mixed up in whatever crazy plan she had going this time so I ate my breakfast in the kitchen with Maritka who was nodding and glaring at me at the same time. She kept telling me that my mother was a good mother like tiger and I had no idea what she was on about as her English required an alert mind to decipher. She was fond of merging words so instead of her learning English properly we learned Maritka speak and since he has been with us my entire life she was more like some dotty Aunt than a housekeeper. I know Mother would be lost without her help, we would all be lost without her help.

I left Mother in her sitting room burning the wires with one of her boods and drove the longest ride to work, once there I sat in the car park for about ten minutes dreading having to face Jojo. We had to work together so I was trying to be all cool and aloof plus stand a foot away from him all day long without throwing myself into his arms. If today was a total disaster I would have to leave work and tell Mother I had given the work thing a try but it was not for me, and leave her to splutter in her gin.

I walked inside not knowing what to expect from Jojo, I saw him working out an order while sitting at a table and he stopped for a moment when he saw me. I didn’t know what do to so I nodded and kept walking to the back room where I discovered Chantal was waiting for me which was unusual as when angry she calls people up to the big office upstairs, that way the shouting is less public, not much but less. I stood there nervously wondering why she was waiting for me in the back office and it was weird cause she looked as nervous as me. She started asking how I was which confused me more so I said ok and then she said she had been speaking to Mother. Now I was really lost as Mother had said nothing directly to me this morning, but she did look rather pleased with herself when I left and I could feel my heart sink as I wondered what she done to me now.

Chantal then asked how things were working with Jojo. I ransacked my mind, Jojo asking myself what she knew about me and Jojo. Surely Jojo didn’t run home and tell his mother he kissed a girl cause that would make him even more a freak boy than he already is! Chantal continued asking if there was a problem from the Opener and then I realized what mother had done, typical interfering parent, she had called up Chantal to complain about Jojo abandoning me. Mother actually did something that was almost like defending me and I didn’t know if I should be impressed or cringe.

I told Chantal that Jojo and I had no problems which was a lie, Jojo and I had not even started the problems between us as I planned on spending every fibre of my being resisting my urge to throw myself into his arms. I was not going to get tangled up with a no good freak boy as if I was going to have a guy in my life, I want a proper man not some boy playing games.

I left Chantal and went behind the bar to help Jojo stock it and we stood there like robots doing our usual routine while not saying much, except Jojo kept looking at me as if expecting me to say something about yesterday. I went about work keeping myself closed off while trying not to reveal my inner turmoil to him. Jojo couldn’t take it and barreled me into a corner asking if anything was wrong. I acted surprised at his question and told him I was just fine which bewildered him more and he kept starting conversations but I wouldn’t take them up. I talked to him as little as I could because inside I just wanted to kiss him, I wanted to drag him into the back room and kiss him for hours and hours and hours. I couldn’t look at him and standing too close made me feel dizzy when he brushed against my arm it made it so I could barely breathe and had to hold onto the counter to steady myself.

The lunch crowd soon came and we were too busy to worry about conversation and for a second I thought Gervais had the arrogance to come in but it was the sleek head of another metro wannabe that I saw and I breathed a sigh of relief. Of course that is exactly the moment when he did come in, right after I thought I was safe from him, right after I decide that I could not take Gervais and ignoring Jojo at the same time. I blanked out the creep much as I could but nothing stopped the sensations of his eyes burning into my back the entire lunch and life was getting far too complicated with men scattered everywhere. I wondered how Coco was doing with her pretend boyfriend Royce and if Tiah had come up with a better plan for breaking up Jazz and Braith she trying to find someone to seduce Jazz. Although come to think of it I would pay money to see that, as creepy Gervais would say, it would be very entertaining.

One person who came in for lunch which was a little eerie was Elyce, she sat down with her awful Aunt Ladonna and the pair of them ignored Gervais who was just across the room--what a freak family! Ladonna does everything with huge noise, she talks in this extra large voice as if she was shouting over a noisy bar and she would laugh so loudly people would turn to stare. Unfortunately whoever was sitting with Ladonna would hear her opinions about half the town said in an extremely loud voice and have to bear the dirty looks of other patrons.

While Ladonna was insulting half of Bishop Vale Elyce was glaring at Jojo and me like we had stolen her diamonds which caused Jojo to ask me in a whisper what was up with her. I shrugged and I had no idea what any of the Dubois were up to at any time nor did I ever care to find out but in reality I knew it probably had something to do with Coco stealing Royce. As soon as our shift ended I was out the door before Jojo could corner me for any private conversations as I did not have the strength to fob him off anymore and if he had got me alone I would have broken down.

I knew that I was not going to break my heart over Jojo and his games so I went to Djini’s for some quiet only to discover Coco and Royce having coffee. I joined them and to my surprise their pretend relationship was going rather well in fact it was going so well that anyone could tell there was nothing pretend about it. Coco and Royce got along perfectly as neither was very complicated and as pleased as I was about their new found friendship it was hard seeing them so happy and getting into each other so I got up to leave. Just then Royce got a short call, he talked for a minute, closed his phone with a sharp snap and glared at me. I asked what the problem was and he demanded to know what was going on with Jojo and me, I was not about to be interrogated by him so I told him nothing was going on and that was how it was going to stay. I left before he could reply as I had enough critics in my life without adding the opinions of a meatnut.

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