Levi took a breath then asked Alex “Wait, is that new girl who started the other day.”
Alex replied with a slight smile “If by the other day, you mean a few weeks ago, then
yes. Don’t worry, I haven’t had any bad experiences with her and I don’t expect you too either.”
That last part was Alex’s way of telling Levi to be nice.
“Where is she?”
“She’s in the locker room right now and should be out in a minute.”
“Just send her over when she’s out, I’m getting to work.” Levi walked away towards the
pallets and started working on one.
After a couple minutes Alice came out and walked up to Alex who was watching Levi
work. “Hey Alex!” Alex gave her a wave and she asked, “Is that him?” she then pointed at Levi
who was already wrapping up the pallet he had started working on just minutes ago.
“Yup, that’s Levi. I already briefed him on everything, so just go introduce yourself and
he’ll point you in the right direction. Anyway, I guess I’ll see you around…”
Alice gave him a hopeful smile “Alright and I hope so.”
She made her way over to Levi; she grew a little anxious as she took each step closer.
Levi finished wrapping the pallet and turned around coming face to face with Alice who gave
him a shocked look. To be surprised is an understatement of how Alice felt as she looked into
Levi’s mismatched eyes, she couldn’t believe that this was the face that was hiding under that
mask. He was much younger than she expected, around or even the same age as her, and
attractive to say the least.
Levi started to feel some discomfort with this extended eye contact, people usually
avoided looking at him. He also wondered why she walked so close and wasn’t saying anything
to him, this new girl was easily an arm's length away. “Um hi.”
Alice looked away, caught off guard and embarrassed. “Oh uh, nice to meet you. I’m
Alice.”
“Levi.”
“So, what’s the job today?”
“Building a pallet and then another one, until we caught-up and we can go home.” Levi
began moving over to the next aisle where boxes were coming down. He started working on it
and Alice stood there trying to find an opportunity to hop in and help, but he was working almost
3 times Alex’s pace. Levi stopped and looked at her, realizing she might need a little more
guidance than Alex was letting on. He stepped back and said, “I’ll grab the boxes, you stack
them.”
Levi grabbed a box handling it as if it were filled with tissue paper and handed it to Alice
with one hand. Alice grabbed it with one hand, almost dropping it. The weight caught her off
guard, it was 30lbs minimum. The way Levi moved it, she was expecting it to be substantially
lighter.
“You good?” Levi asked with a smile.
“Yeah, sorry I just didn’t have a good grip on it.” Alice was again a little embarrassed.
“My bad, I’ll be more careful.” Levi grabbed the next box and waited for her to grab it
with both hands before letting go this time. The 2 continued stacking for the rest of the day in
overall silence and every time she set a box down, Levi already had the next box for her to grab.
By the end of the day, Alice understood why Alex considered Levi his best worker. He even
worked through lunch without Alice. He insisted she take a break, even though Alice said if he
didn’t need one then neither did she. But Levi persisted because he could tell Alice was looking a
little pale and he didn’t need Alex riding him for working her too hard.
When Alice came out of the locker room with her bag, Levi was already gone for the day
without a word “Bye, I guess.” Alice said to herself.
“What?” a man replied and surprised Alice. She turned around and saw a man across the
room. He was a scrawny man with blonde dreadlocks, gages, and a colorful sleeve of tattoos on
his right arm.
“Sorry, I was just talking to myself.”
“Oh, are you the new girl?” The man started walking towards Alice and something about
the way he carried himself made her uncomfortable.
“Yeah, I’m Alice.”
“Nice to meet you Alice, I’m Kevin.” He put out his hand for her to shake and she did
with some hesitation.
“I didn’t see you today, what do you do here?”
“I work loading the cargo into the back of the trucks. Since you’re still fresh I’m guessing
you’re on pallets?”
“Yup, I was with Levi today.”
Kevin laughed and said “Ew really? That sucks. I’m sorry to hear that.”
Alice slightly recoiled at his words. “Why do you say that? He didn’t seem all that bad.”
Kevin looked befuddled by Alice’s words “You can’t be serious? That freak is no fun and
is nothing but trouble. Plus, with you working with him, it’s like a beauty and the beast duo.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“I think he’s just a hard worker, from what I saw at least.”
“That’s just because he doesn’t take breaks, I mean he kinda has to though. That’s mainly
because all the trouble he brings, that alcoholic weirdo has to do something to make-up for
always showing up to work drunk and smelling like the dumpster outside a liquor store.”
“Wow you really don’t like him.”
“Yeah, me and everyone else. Not like it’s without good reason, he even got in trouble
for ‘allegedly’ sleeping with Rick’s daughter who was here on vacation from college.”
“What are you talking about and who’s Rick?” Alice was shocked by this accusation.
“Rick drives the forklift driver who was grabbing your pallets all day, bald with a bushy
grey beard and beer gut.” Kevin motioned over his stomach, mimicking being overweight.
“Yeah, one day there were a bunch of rumors going around and Levi even got called in to the big
man’s office.”
“He wasn’t fired though, so doesn’t that mean it wasn’t true.”
Kevin leaned in and whispered to Alice “That’s because they couldn’t afford to fire him,
we’re already short staffed as is.”
Alice thought to herself about how his is drastically different from what Alex had told her
Levi got in trouble for. She knew that whatever the truth that both stories were nothing but
gossip in the end. The only people who really knew what happened were the ones who were
there, whether they’d tell her or not is another thing and extremely unlikely.
“Well, it was fun talking to you, but I really need to get home and get some rest.” Alice
began to leave and turned around.
“Yeah... alright, see you tomorrow.” Kevin sounded disappointed.
Alice waved without looking back as she left back to her car. As she drove back, she
recognized the man walking on the side of the road and pulled up next to him. She rolled down
her window and drove alongside him. “Levi!”
He lowered his mask and let out an unenthusiastic “Yo.”
Levi turned his masked face towards her and all those interactions clicked at once, the
one who brought her the check and the one who’d she’d offered a ride to was him. All the
sudden a wave of happiness hit her. “Get in.” She opened the door with a smile.
Levi sighed and thought to himself ‘Fuck, not again.’ Then said to her “I’m good,
thanks though.” He began to walk off, but she wasn't letting him walk and drove her car in front of him.
“Fine.” Levi begrudgingly got in and said, “Just don’t try anything.” He was both uneasy and annoyed at the situation he was now
in.
Alice laughed, thinking it was a joke.
“I’m serious.” Levi said to her with a deadpan look on his face.
Alice realized it wasn’t a joke and said “Oh um, yeah of course not.”
“Good because I will get out of the car, even if it’s moving.”
“Jesus, I get it. I won’t do anything to you. Paranoid much.”
“Yeah.” Levi buckled his seatbelt and he gave her directions to his house.
After a couple minutes of driving in silence, Alice decided to ask Levi about the rumors
about him.
Levi just sighed and said, “People really do love to talk.”
Alice just laughed awkwardly “Yeah, but you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t
want to.”
“Nah it’s fine, ask away. In all honesty, no one’s ever asked me about my side of the
story since I’ve been here.”
Alice was shocked to hear that “Really? Alright then, what about the stuff with you and
the cops in the bar.”
Levi chuckled “God, that was one hell of a night. I think it was my first month here and I
was just minding my business and this guy came up to me and started meowing.”
“Meowing?”
“Yeah, like a cat. He just kept going meow meow meow. So, I asked him what the hell
was he doing?”
“And?”
“He said something about me being a stray cat because of my eyes and every time people
talked to me I never answered so he thought he’d try talking to me like a cat instead of a person.
At that point I stopped paying attention to him, finished my drink, and got up to live. As I started
to walk away, he yelled something along the lines of no punk will ignore me and punched me in
the back of the head. Then it all gets kind of fuzzy after that and I woke up in the hospital with a
broken nose, 3 broken ribs and my hands were littered with hairline fractures.”
“Oh my god.” Alice wondered how people made Levi out to be the bad guy after all that.
“What else?” Levi remained monotone.
“What did you get in trouble for at work? I keep hearing different stories, someone’s wife
or daughter or something.”
“Ah, that whole mess. Well one night I was out drinking and this girl starts touching me
and all kinds of weird stuff. I didn’t like it, so I went home that night. Next thing I know I’m
called into the boss's office.”
Alice was bewildered “What, so nothing happened?”
Levi shook his head “Nope, but some guys must’ve seen it all and were friends of Rick’s.
It turned out that was his daughter and she was in town for something, I don’t know much more
than that though.”
Alice pulled up to a stop sign and looked at Levi, he was just staring out the window. She
felt like she was the only one who was really looking at the man behind the mask, both literally
and figuratively. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is. What other things have you heard?” He looked at her, for the first time he
noticed her bright green eyes. “You have pretty eyes.”
Alice looked away from him and started driving, she appreciated the compliment but was
slightly offput by it since it came out of nowhere. “Thanks. Anyway… why do you drink so
much. That’s the other thing I hear a lot about you.”
“Why do I drink so much?” Levi repeated the question as if he was asking himself the
same thing. “I don’t know, why not?”
Alice wasn’t too happy with that response “To me at least, It sounds like you’re doing it
to hide.”
“Am I now, what am I hiding from?” he asked with curiosity.
“I’d say yourself and others.” Alice was projecting a little when she said this, being
outcasted herself in the past she had times where she also wanted to do whatever she could to
escape others as well as herself.
Levi answered, “Maybe you’re right” and laughed it off. “Here on the right.”
Alice pulled up to the small grey disheveled house. “Alright, I’ll be here for you
tomorrow at 5:30.”
Levi stopped in his tracks and “Excuse me?”
“Until you get a car, I’ll be your ride.”
“Um, thanks. But I’m good.”
“Too bad, so sad. I’m not going to let you walk there as it gets colder every day, what if
there’s a snowstorm?”
“You’re not going to let me? I’ve been doing this for over a year, even walking to work
through snowstorms and the cold doesn’t really bother me.”
“Well now you don’t have to. I live barely 5 minutes away from here and it’s on the way,
so I might as well and that’s final.”
Levi knew that this is one fight he wouldn’t win. “Fine.”
“Really?” Alice didn’t think it would be that easy and didn’t entirely believe him. “You
won’t just take off tomorrow?”
“Now who’s paranoid?”
“Well now that, that’s settled, give me your number so I can text you when I get here.”
“I don’t have a phone.”
Alice laughed sarcastically “Seriously, what’s your number?”
Levi emptied his pockets “Seriously, I don’t have a phone.”
Alice had a look of complete shock “We’ll talk more about this tomorrow, just be out
here on time tomorrow.”
“Or what, I’ll have to walk? Oh no.” Levi said sarcastically.
Alice just rolled her eyes and drove back home.
Levi went inside and poured himself more than a few drinks before calling it a night.