He cut me off again. “I’ll take it!”
“Hold your horses, Milton,” I said with my hand in the air. “It ain’t that cut and dry. I need some time to think about this.”
He shook his head and glared at me with his eyes looking like slits. “I can start next Monday.”
I knew when I was fighting a losing battle. If the corner I’d been backed into got any smaller, I’d blend into the wall. “Okay,” I mumbled. “Be here at nine o’clock sharp.”
“I’ll be here with bells on.” Milton winked. Then he clapped his hands and danced a jig. “I can’t wait to see Yvonne’s face when I tell her I’m going to be working at the famous MacPherson’s store! Wahoo!”
“Don’t tell her until I tell Joyce first,” I pleaded.
“Man, you got Joyce in the bottom of your hip pocket! You can do whatever you want and she won’t give you no trouble. Don’t you know that by now?”
I nodded real slow because it was true. For how long though? Now Milton had me in the bottom of his hip pocket. But I believed that as long as I kept him, Joyce, and Betty Jean happy, everything would be all right.
“I’ll come over to your place this evening after I talk to Joyce about hiring you. Even if she do go along with it, I’d still have to run it by Mac and Millie.”
“Wait a minute. You just told me to be here Monday morning at nine o’clock.” Milton’s eyes darkened. He screwed up his face and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, which was shaking as hard as mine. That didn’t make no sense, because I was the one on the hot seat and had the most to lose.
Now that it had sunk in that I was in one hell of a mess, I was scared to death, to say the least. I tried to keep my voice firm, but it wasn’t easy. I wanted to put my fist through the wall and upside Milton’s head. But for everybody’s sake involved, I had to stay as cool as I could. “Yeah, but I spoke too soon.” My tone was more gentle now.
“Bullshit! You trying to tell me you didn’t know what you was saying!”
“Man, you can’t expect me to be thinking straight when you came out of nowhere with this thing! I just said the first thing that came to my head!”
“Well, you better start using your head for something other than a hat rack.”
“Milton, put yourself in my place. You got me over a barrel and I want us to handle this right. Now, like I said, I really do need to make sure it’s okay with my wife and my in-laws for me to hire you.”
“All right. What we going to do if they don’t go for it?”
I was so exasperated, I could barely keep on talking. “Look, Milton. I don’t know what ‘we’ going to do if they don’t. I’m still just one of Mac and Millie’s employees.”
“SHIT! I ain’t no fool,” he shot back. He slapped the top of my desk and for a second I thought he was going to slap me. “You married to their only child and they got you running that damn place, so I know you more than just a employee. Don’t tell me you can’t get over on your wife and them old geezers!”
“Will you keep your voice down!” I hissed with my hand in the air.
“I guess you done forgot you told me that they said you can hire and fire anybody you want to.”
“Yeah, I did tell you that. But you ain’t just anybody. You know Mac and Millie is real religious. They have some concerns about me and Joyce being friends with you and Yvonne. And I don’t blame them.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“You have a criminal background.”
“Don’t be bringing up my past. I’m a changed man. I ain’t been involved in no criminal activity in years!”
“Oh yeah? Bootlegging is against the law. A lot of people would have a problem with a bootlegger working in a family, Christian-owned store like MacPherson’s!” I shuddered and my eyes got big as I peered at Milton with my mouth hanging open. “My preacher would think I done lost my mind.”
He gave me a threatening look and puffed out his chest. “Reverend Jessup would probably think the same thing if he found out about you having a outside woman and three babies. Now, I advise you to go up to Joyce as soon as you get home this evening. If you win her over, she’ll help you sweeten up Mac and Millie. We straight?”
With my head hanging low, I mumbled, “We straight.”
“Good.” Milton let out a long, loud sigh and licked his lips. “Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you was doing. I hope when you come to the house this evening, you’ll have some good news for me.”
“I hope so too. We done here now?”
He gave me a thoughtful look and shook his head. “I want to bring up one more thing.”
If my heart started beating any faster and harder, it would leave a tattoo on the inside of my chest. “What? If it’s about the pinstripe suit, we ain’t got no white ones in stock right now. I put in a new order this morning, but they won’t come in until next week.”
“I can wait. And what I wanted to talk about was your girl, Billie Jean.”
“Betty Jean.”
“Whatever. She sure is a cutie pie. I been thinking about her ever since I seen her. She must be the finest-looking woman in Hartville. That booty she got on her ought to be served on a platter.”
I wanted to gut Milton and hang him out to dry. The thought of this slimy devil trying to get his paws on Betty Jean almost made me puke! “Don’t you even think about it!” I shook my fist
