Lando heaved a sigh. “It really doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” Violet insisted. “For a lot of different reasons.”
“Don’t you have access to payroll?”
“Not at this moment. Please, Lando.”
“A little over two hundred and fifty.”
Violet’s face fell. “I’ll figure out how to get you what you deserve to be paid. It’ll take me a little bit of time, but I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”
Confused, Lando eyed her suspiciously. “What do you mean? The expenses were taken out.”
“There are not expenses. And this is, apparently, not the first time she has done this.”
“What do you mean?”
Violet squeezed Lando’s hand. “The person who worked with us last year has worked with us for several years. I finally got him to call me back yesterday, and we had a very long talk, but the sum of it is, he quit because Diane didn’t pay him. She started pulling expenses from his check, like you say she did for you, and he couldn’t afford that. I didn’t know.”
“Don’t you check those things?” Lando lobbed at her.
“I skimmed them. I’m guilty of not paying as close attention as I should have. I trusted her. I grew up with her, so I had no reason not to, but… well, I’ve learned she’s not as trustworthy as I thought she was.”
Lando snorted, pulling her hand from Violet’s. She grabbed the box she had her other hand on, shifted it off the pallet, and moved it toward the display she was building. She had nothing else to say, nothing else to add to the conversation. The image of Violet she’d had before they had gone chasing together had been absolutely shattered, and she wasn’t sure anyone could rebuild it.
Violet didn’t leave, however. Lando had meant the move as an obvious dismissal, but Violet hadn’t taken it. Instead she hovered near the forklift, as if she wasn’t going to move until she got what she wanted from Lando.
Ignoring her, Lando grabbed another canopy and brought it to her stack. She was going to keep working until Violet left. It was the only way she was going to get around it, the only way she was going to be able to make it through her day. By the time she returned for the next one, Violet stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“I’m really sorry for everything that happened. This isn’t … that isn’t the way a chase should go, and certainly not your first time being on a team. I apologize for everything. I should have taken a firmer stand with her, for you, for everything.”
Lando stared at the floor, not making eye contact. She wasn’t sure what to do. She wanted to comfort Violet again, but after doing that over the last few weeks, she wasn’t sure she had it in her anymore, or that Violet deserved it this time. In a lot of ways, Violet was every bit as guilty as Diane—even if she didn’t know what Diane was doing, she should have. Lando wasn’t sure that was something they could easily gloss over.
“I hope you’ll come back to school.”
Lando snorted. “That I can tell you won’t be happening for a while.”
“Why’s that?”
“No money.” Lando gave her a hard stare. “School costs money, and I don’t have any. I took time off from work when Nan got sick, and I just started working again. I have back bills to pay, family to pay. I need to focus on that before I can figure out school.”
“I was serious when I told you that you were one of my best students.”
Lando’s cheeks heated. “You can stop with that lie.”
“It’s not a lie,” Violet insisted. “I don’t look for students who have the best grades, Lando. I look for students who have passion for what they’re learning. You were never lacking in that. When we were chasing, you were the highlight of every storm, I hope you know that. You reminded me how much I used to love it.”
Canting her head to the side, Lando stared at her in disbelief. “I suppose not everything about the two weeks chasing with you was bad.”
Violet’s eyes crinkled in the corners as her lips twitched upward into a small smile. Lando was glad to see it. She was tired of the glowering and pained Violet who stood before her, and she couldn’t help but try to bring her some small comfort in their exchange.
“How did you even find me here?” Lando gripped another canopy and moved it.
When she got back, Violet actually looked embarrassed.
“What?”
“Don’t all lesbians work at stores like this?”