MollyJay Bijou
MollyJay was a woman lost in the world around her, at almost 30 years of age she lived on her own, no family to speak of and very few friends, if she could even call them that as they were all the people she worked with. She was an ordinary enough girl, about 5ft 3 with dull blue green eyes, pretty generic neutral skin and dirty blonde hair. She was the poster child of forgotten. And for the most part that was ok by her.
M.J worked 3 jobs at the moment. A part time job at the slaughterhouse, a part time job as a butchers assistant and a night job as a bartender. It kept her pretty busy so a more social life wasn't something she missed. But on mornings like this one sometimes she wondered what it would be like to have someone to talk to.
The town of Lowder wasn't very big so Mj never bothered with a car. She would have had to maintain it and pay for insurance,and buying new shoes every couple months seemed more cost effective and much less headache to deal with.
She reached the butcher shop and took a deep breath before pulling the door open "that better be one MollyJay Bijou" a yell came from the back room. An older man in his late 60s snakes his head around the door jam and threw one hand up in the air. "What the fuck? You were supposed to be here at 4 to approve the new shipment of cutlets but instead I have a sorry we missed you note hung on my door this morning, care to explain?"
Mj hung her head, of all the mornings to oversleep it had to be the morning Lou was getting a new shipment "I'm really sorry Lou" Mj mumbles as she stuffed her hands in her pockets "I hit the snooze on the alarm clock and fell asleep".
Mj felt really guilty, Lou was a really easy going boss, and a better person. Lou didn't have much family aside from his sister Beth, as far as MJ knew or if he didn't like to talk about them or spend any time with them at all.
Mj was late so she had to pick up the cutlets that she missed this morning by taking the truck. Also, wash the shop front windows and signs after that.
"Alright Moll just get ur ass movin we got lots of work ta do" Lou said in fatherly tone that made Mj smile, she wasn't really fond of being called Moll either, but Lou was the only one who did and it was better than the alternative so she let it slide "you got it boss" she chirped as she bent over and took the keys .
***
The door chime rang and a silky voice spat out "good morning Louisiana peaches" Mj blushed and shot upright. she looked at Lou, half horrified and another voice rang out, just as deep as the first one but not as smooth to the ears. "I think that's Georgia peaches bro but I get what you mean".
Mj could not believe her ears," were they really talking about her ass right now?" She spun around on one heel to face the taunters and pearcherd her hands on her hips. "Excuse the fuck out of you!" she spat with as much disgust as she could muster.
The man standing in front of her was about a foot taller than she was, and had beautiful deep lagoon green eyes. His hair was a dusty gold blond with darker highlights dancing underneath the top layer revealing how thick and beautiful it really was. Build was athletic and firm, his skin looked weather touched with different shades of neutral cream and olive tones. He was standing so close to her that she could swear she felt the air move around her when the corners of his mouth turned upward into a small wry smile but did not expose his teeth.
He leaned forward and almost whispered in her face," I said good morning". This man stood so close she could smell him, he smelled musky but sweet and Mj caught herself inhaling a little deeper to savor the scent. She was seething with annoyance not only had this jackass taken advantage of an unfortunate situation now he was insulting her intelligence.
Mj wasn't sure if it was instinct or just poor choices but she hauled back and headbutted the beautiful man standing in front of her, pushed passed his stunned companion and out the front door ignoring and angry Lou hollering behind her.
It only took about 25 minutes for her to get to the slaughterhouse. Mj pulled the truck off the main road and into the dirt drive up that led to the slaughterhouse main office and loading dock. She backed the truck in next to the loading port so that she wouldn't have to walk too far, in case Lou went overboard and ordered a pallet or something like that.
Mj made her way up the stairs of the office and walked inside. She was met at the front desk by a woman in her early 50s,she had a bubbly and happy little voice all the time. She was nearly 5 feet tall and so when she was sitting at the desk you could almost see a small tuff of her overly curled and teased black bob hair cut. Mj slapped her hands up on the desk and made the small woman jump.
"Morning Beth" Mj said with a start Beth was Lou's sister and Mj had met Lou through Beth 3 years ago. Sure Mj had lived in Lowder since she was small, but she kept to herself mostly because she was just kind of cast aside by everyone. Not on purpose, but people had their own lives. Mj met Beth when she was about 12, Beth volunteered at the youth center in town and Mj was a ward of the state on account of the fact nobody came forward to claim her after the flood and they had to do something with her.
"What the hell happened to your head Mj?" Beth said in an accusing tone "you piss off Lou again and get hit in the head with another flying plate or what?"
"No" Mj said shyly, trying not to make eye contact with the woman in front of her. "Hay, do you think Lou would ever fire me?" Mj asked, still not making eye contact with Beth, which was hard to do considering she was an inch shorter than Mj. Beth started laughing "what in the world happened this morning".
Do you think Lou would fire me?
Mj took a deep breath and explained the morning to Beth.
"Oh sweetie, I bet you Lou is having it out with that creep right now" she said with a matter of fact tone. "Come on, let's get you an ice pack for that forehead before it swells anymore and I will have the guys in the back get the pallet in the truck for you."
"Fuck man I knew it was gonna be a bunch of shit" Mj said as the two of them walked toward the small kitchen to get some ice.
When Mj was done letting Beth fuss over her she went back out to the truck and there sat a large styrofoam barrier now stuffed in the bed of Lou's old truck. There were two guys standing at the back of the truck smoking and joking with each other. "Thanks guys" Mj hollered as she waved at them. "Sure thing" one of them hollard back "oh, by the way it's packed in ice so don't worry about time" the other one mumbled through his lit cigarette.
Mj nodded and climbed behind the driver side of the beat up old truck and drove back to Lou's shop.
When she pulled into the joint parking lot sandwiched between Lous shop and a tailor who worked in the next building Mj's heart skipped a little. She knew Beth was probably right that Lou wouldn't really be upset enough to fire her, she had punched out rude ass customers before. She even once slapped a woman with a nice T bone when she told Mj she smelled like unwanted gutter trash. And Lou just laughed it off and told her to get back to work.
Mj took a deep breath and climbed out of the truck. She opened the side door and yelled "Hay Lou! I got all the fuckin meat you ordered but I dont know where the fuck we are supposed to put it all, you could feed an army with all these cutlets". Mj started to unlatch the bed of the truck when she heard footsteps behind her.
She leaned into the bed to unfasten one of the tie straps so they could unload the pallet in sections instead of trying to pull it out of the truck in one go.
She had now climbed mostly into the back of the truck and was struggling with one of the straps. Mj was on her knees yanking on a knot that had been tied in the strap for god only knows what reason. "Fuck!" she exclaimed in frustration. "Hay Lou, this god damn strap is all knotted to hell and back, can you come help me untie it?"
She knew the old man was standing there and she heard him walk out.
"Dammit Lou" Mj gritted her teeth as she gave one last pull out of frustration.
All of the sudden the strap broke at the knot and Mj flew backwards, she tried to catch herself but that made things worse she only launched herself backwards and stumbled into a hard almost immovable statue like figure. The statue reached forward and wrapped its arms around her and Mj knew then it wasn't Lou. Mj tried to wriggle free but the large fleshy restraints that held her did not give. She managed to wiggle around and see the face of the person she had assumed was Lou.
"An asshat hu"? The low delicious voice hummed, Mj was horrified the man from earlier was still here. And to make matters worse he was now holding her! "Get the fuck off me you creep" Mj hollered as she tried her best to get free.
The olive toned god of a man holding her did not put her down nor did he fall prey to any of her jabs or headbutts and now he was grinning. "Now in all fairness kitten" he purred "you fell into my arms, I just didn't want to hurt those tender peaches of yours".