Chapter 20: Who cares!
Chapter 20: Who cares!
"Of course not. He is the most annoying, obnoxious, irritating human being on earth and don't even get me started on his brat. So no! I don't like him" Pepper answered.
"Hmm" June knew something was off but she didn't know what yet.
"Then I am sure that as far as you stay away from his comfortable hot chest, you will be fine but please, for the sake of horny women out there including myself, can you please bang him already…for me?" June asked with a serious face.
"I will think about it…i will do it for you and all the women out there but mostly for you as soon as I figure out how not to be vulnerable around him" Pepper said in a quiet voice.
"Good. Come on, you need to set the record straight with Marks. You need to insult him. The poor dude must think your niceness must mean you've hire an assassin to kill him" June said and offered her hand to Pepper.
She took it.
They both walk out to go the Marks office but when the got there, everyone was standing in groups, whispering.
Pepper stopped walking.
"What's going on?" Pepper whispered.
She saw a coworker passing by and she stopped her.
"Hey you!"
"Her name is Janice" June reminded her.
"Janet, what is going on?" Pepper asked the junior staff.
"KWX has been sold to a group called Knights conglomerate and…my name is Sharon"
"Who cares what your name is?! We may not have jobs!" Pepper snapped at the young girl.
"I really thought your name was Janice. Sorry" June murmured to the girl and hastened up to join her friend.
June hated that Pepper's attitude was beginning to rub off on her. She wasn't the type to forget a coworker's names or worse, address them by a wrong one.
June eventually cut up with Pepper in Mark's office. She could hear the sound of Pepper's shoes as she paced. Marks must have confirmed the rumors.
"What do you mean KWX was sold? Isn't Liam Queen the richest man in the country? How can the CEO of a billion dollar company just sell his company to…" Pepper was pacing just as fast as she talked.
"Mr Queen lost his fortune. Calliope, this isn't news? Didn't you read the email HR sent to every top official two weeks ago?" Marks asked her.
Pepper stopped pacing. He looked at marks like he was talking about an alien technology that crashed on earth without warning.
"Who checks their emails these days?!"
"Everyone" Marks murmured.
"I don't. Why didn't you just tell me? I thought we were friends"
Pepper blamed Marks for everything. He could have told her and he chose not to. Now, she might be jobless and worst, she could have warned her best friend June about it.
"You are not exactly an easy person to approach, Callie and we are not exactly friends. You find every opportunity to make life miserable for everyone around you!" Marks pushed back the blame to Pepper.
Pepper froze. it stung just a little.
She turned and she walked out of the office. She walked right pass June too.
Maybe Marks was right, she brought this on herself. She almost made it to her car when June finally caught up
"Pepper, wait!"
She stopped and turned around to face her friend.
"I am sorry Junie. I can't believe that not checking my mail would do this to us. I have to go home"
Pepper entered her car and drove off. She was feeling a lot of emotions that she hated and normally, baking helps calm her down. When she got home, her roommate was absent and so was his annoying daughter. Pepper took a deep breath and took in the quietness.
She went into her room and opened her wardrobe. Everything she owned was either too classy or uncomfortable to bake in and the rest was in the laundry basket.
She saw that Asher had moved some of his stuff into her room and was currently occupying a quarter of her wardrobe.
She simply took one of his t-shirts and put it on. It was the least thing her annoying roommate could do for her.
She was half way through mixing the dough when the door opened and Starr came inside.
"It's you" Pepper said regrettably.
Starr dropped her school bag on the sofa and came inside the kitchen.
"Hello, you are home early!"
"Yep…my company was sold and I might be jobless" Pepper didn't sugar coat it for the little girl.
"I am sorry" Starr murmured.
"It's fine. I will find something else if it comes to that. How was school?" Pepper asked her.
Starr was surprised. Was she really interested in knowing about her day?
She took a bowl and took out some eggs from the refrigerator.
"Noah, pulled my hair again. My teacher thinks that he has a crush on me" Starr told her as Pepper started breaking the eggs.
"That's bull crap!" Pepper dropped the bowl and came around to meet Starr.
"Next time, he pulls your hair. I need you to curve your palm and jam it to his nose. If that doesn't cure his crush, nothing else will. Here, I will show you"
Pepper showed her how to do it severally. Pepper watched her closely as she practiced severally.
"You can't let people pick on you, kid. Sometimes, you have to hit back. Keep practicing"
Pepper went back to breaking the eggs for her cookies.
"I am sorry about locking you out" Starr stopped practicing for a moment to tell her.
"No…no, apology doesn't cut it. I will reciprocate when you least expect" Pepper told her with raised eyebrows.
"But I am a child!"
"Yeah, you are…. Keep practicing"
When Asher opened the door, he could hear his fake wife and daughter in the kitchen.
Kitchen!
If Pepper plans to kill his child, the kitchen would be a good place to do it because of the different sizes of knives and other deadly weapons.
Asher dropped his bag and raced to the kitchen. He met the surprise of his life.
Not only was Starr still alive and well, she was decorating cookies with Pepper.
"....that does not even look like a cat, Stacy. It's more or less tortoise shaped if you squirt your eyes, kid" Pepper's criticism only made the little girl laugh.
"It is cat shaped. What about this one?" Starr showed her another one.
"Lame…"
Starr smiled. She got her mother daughter activity with Pepper after all.
Asher watched both of them from the doorway, reluctant to interrupt them.
Maybe the goddess of nasty wasn't made of stone after all.