Still Standing Page 51

Easy.

Ordering, easier.

The boys just told me what they needed, I wrote it down, found out who to order it from by asking Chap (who now was on speed dial), and I ordered it.

Invoices, even easier.

Bill paying, even easier.

Payroll, not so easy.

But I got the gist of it after I talked to Buck, who okayed me paying for an online tutorial. I took that, it made sense and was far from rocket science, so I got relatively up to speed, ran my first with only one guy reporting an error, and I suspected the next go would be a breeze.

Gabbing on the phone with current and prospective clients, the easiest.

I found, oddly, they kind of liked the fact I had no clue.

They thought it was very “Ace” for some clueless chatty chick to gab with them and promise a callback from someone who did have a clue (this callback, incidentally, usually came from Buck, or Ink, or sometimes Chap).

In fact, some of them had become phone friends.

Not much had changed in those three weeks, except the fact that I had a job and it could be the best job I ever had (yes, even better than the Hunter Institute, where I’d actually seen pages of Galileo’s diary when it floated through to be on display for a traveling exhibition).

I loved getting up and having somewhere to go and something to do and none of it was fretting or hiding from repo men or bill collectors.

Not to mention, I had complete control of the office and no one got in my business.

In fact, they let me have at it and seemed relieved paperwork no longer threatened their day-to-day existence. So the job had a built-in popularity quotient, which didn’t stink.

Further, the guys and gals who worked there might be rough and tumble, but I was sharing Buck’s bed, his home and coming to work on the back of his bike. I learned fast that this afforded me more than a modicum of respect.

It was like I was Queen Biker Babe.

They were nice, they were courteous, and they deferred to me instantly.

In the beginning, I found this slightly bizarre, but I had to admit, it was pretty awesome.

Moreover, the office had no hours.

When I began my job there, Buck had not plugged his alarm clock back in, and hadn’t set it before I’d unplugged it, because, he explained, “I go where I go when I go, and if you’re with me, and until we get you your ride, you’ll be with me, so that’s where you’ll be.”

(Interesting side note: Buck was a journeyman cabinetmaker, so for the most part, he worked in the workshop in the warehouse building cabinets that they then took to jobs to be fitted. I’d seen his work, and like everything else about him, it was amazing. Bonus to this, unless he was off doing MC things, he was around a lot and made a point to have lunch with me every day. Which I thought was really sweet.).

Thus, I showed at the office when Buck was ready to come into Phoenix. I left when Buck was ready to go home.

Sometimes, Driver or Cruise would take me back up to his place, but that was rare.

Mostly, even if Buck was off doing non-store/non-contracting, president of the Aces High MC things, he’d come back and get me.

I found this an immense relief, and after giving it thought, I understood why.

And the why was because I had been responsible for every move I made for so long, doing all the right things, being where I was supposed to be, taking care of me, it was nice to have someone else making the decisions for a change. It was nice to be wherever I was whenever I got there.

It was nice to be able to just be.

As the days slid by, the guys got used to me and the deference became friendliness. I always had a fresh pot of coffee going, sometimes they’d hang in the office as I’d work, and they’d joke or tease or whatever.

I liked this so much, I facilitated it by bringing in baked goods. I made boxed brownies first. Then I graduated to store-bought cookie dough cookies. Those were so well received, I made from-scratch cupcakes.

And I found that the way to badass bikers’ hearts (as well as the other guys and gals) was through their stomachs.

I had not yet tried out my biker babe apparel, but I was gearing up for it. I needed my librarian blouses and high heels as familiar armor as I got used to my new life.

But since the biker life was embracing me, and it felt good, I was preparing to embrace the biker life. Which meant donning my biker babe gear.

Just…eventually.

In other news, Mrs. Jimenez was on the move (thankfully).

Raymundo had found her a first-floor apartment in a secure building in a better part of town. The rent was more than she could afford, so her kids were all kicking in to cover it each month.

Without Mrs. Jimenez knowing it, and with my very first paycheck coming my way soon (as in, the very next day, Friday), I called Raymundo and told him I wanted to kick in my share.

He tried to argue with me, but I wouldn’t hear of it. Since he had five kids and nine nieces and nephews, he eventually gave in.

Making all this good even better, Minnie, Pinky, and Lorie often showed and hung with me in the office.

This was because Minnie and Pinky both worked as waitresses in the same biker bar and they did the nightshift, so they had the afternoons to hang with me.

Lorie was a hairdresser, and if she had a quiet morning, afternoon or day off, she hung with me too, and a couple of times, on my breaks, we went out and got coffee.

I’d never had a girl posse, and it felt good.

Okay, no.

It didn’t feel good.

It…felt…great.

And it felt better because they were looking out for me. I could ask them anything and they’d slip right into their Professor Higgins role and offer advice and guidance into the biker babe world (and yes, F-words were not verboten for biker kids, but only those in their teens).

When we weren’t hanging in the office we texted, and once I went out for drinks with them while Buck was busy, and he picked me up when he was ready to go home.

The good got even better in the sense that I was bonding with Gear.

He was a good kid and he didn’t make any bones about liking me and liking me with his dad.

The second weekend he showed without Tatiana, which was a bummer and something I knew Buck felt, though he didn’t say a word.

Then, when her weekend alone with her mother and Knuckles didn’t go well, Tatiana decided she’d put up with me and came down the next weekend.

It was clear she took my advice and she didn’t throw attitude like she did that first weekend, at least not around Buck.

It was also clear she didn’t intend to extend the olive branch of best-friend-dom anytime soon.

For my part, I didn’t push, but I was unwaveringly nice and made it clear I was open to the olive branch whenever she felt like pointing it my way. Even when she and I were alone and she let it show she didn’t like me by slipping into her pouty, juvenile brat mode, I kept it up. I kept it up for Buck and for Tatiana. She didn’t have it good at home, and I wanted to make it as safe as it always had been for her at Buck’s.

I made this clear, left the rest up to her and hoped.

My start with Buck didn’t change, except after he broke the seal on sex, that was a frequent and extremely welcome addition to our lives.

Being with him was easy.

If we were home in time, he always cooked dinner, I always cleaned up. In the morning (after sex), I always made coffee and toasted the Pop-Tarts (unless it was Saturday or Sunday). And I nearly always fell asleep with my head on his thigh in front of the TV.

Prev page Next page