Nick the Dick seemed to be weirdly busy in the back when we returned from our break. Every few minutes he would head into the back, or he kept smiling and checking his phone.
It was kind of creepy.
Then the business phone rang and he practically leapt to answer it. He left a customer mid-order and literally ran to the back office. I’ve never seen Nick the Dick move so fast since I started working here.
When he returned, there was no other word for it, he was giddy. He had one of the hugest smiles on his face that I’ve ever seen. His round cheeks were rosy, his eyes were gleaming, there was a bounce in his step.
Oh this can’t be good.
“Hey Angie, there’s a call on the business line in back. Andy really wants to talk to you.”
Shit, what did Nick the Dick do now? I bet he insisted I get another write up. He seems to love throwing those at me whenever he gets pissy.
I finished the order I was working on and headed to the back.
Might as well get this over with.
I took a calming breath and picked up the phone.
“Hey Angie, how are you doing today?”
I rolled my eyes and stifled a sigh. Andy did not call me on the business line just to ask me how I was doing.
“Doing great Andy, what’s up.”
He heaved a huge sigh, stalling.
Uh oh, that wasn’t good. And that tone of sigh sounded unfortunately familiar to me.
“We got a complaint about you last month from a customer. They said you yelled at them.”
Uh huh, and that was last month. So why was he calling now?
“And we got another customer complaining about your tone with them a couple weeks ago.”
Again, didn’t happen today, so what’s with the call?
Andy let out another long sigh.
“And we got a complaint about you today. You were confrontational with a customer?”
I rolled my eyes. What, because I asked someone to wait?
“I’m sorry to do this Angie, but you just got three strikes against you, and you know what that means, right?”
Yeah, it meant that I was fired.
At this point, I had lost so many jobs, I wasn’t even upset or disappointed.
“ ‘Kay, got it. I’ll clean out my locker.”
I swear I could hear Andy wince over the phone.
“It would mean a lot to me if you could stay until the end of your shift today, but if you’re too emotionally taxed right now, I understand.”
I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see it.
“No, it’s fine.”
I slowly replayed the conversation in my mind, the way Nick the Dick was sooo happy for me to get this call. Something just rubbed the wrong way.
“Did the last complaint come from a customer?”
I could hear Andy clicking on a keyboard in the background.
“No, it looks like it was a formal complaint submitted from an employee.”
I cocked my head to one side.
“Employees can submit a complaint?”
Andy sighed again.
“Yeah, but it’s not easy. Technically it’s just for store inspectors, but if you go to the regional website and jump through a lot of hoops you can submit a complain with just your employee ID number if you see a customer being under served.”
Yeah, and I could just guess which employee it came from. I wonder how long Nick the Dick had to dig for it to find that little loophole?
“I’m really sorry Angie. I hate to let you go. You wouldn’t believe how much money I’ve saved on equipment maintenance since I hired you. You’re the only one that can unclog that damn juicer. Things have just been running more smoothly since you were around, and honestly, I was even thinking about promoting you to team lead. But franchise policy says I can’t keep you.”
I nodded at the phone.
“No, it’s okay. I get it.”
Andy’s voice honestly sounded like he really meant it.
“Tell you what. I’m going to write you a great recommendation letter, and I’ll send you a code for a  free All-You-Can-Drink month pass. How does that sound?”
Honestly I kind of hated the smoothies here, but Andy was trying to make this better, so I forced a smile into my voice.
“That’s sounds great, thanks Andy. You were a really awesome manager.”
And I meant it. Of all the shitty jobs I’ve had since leaving the force, and all the even shittier managers I’ve had, Andy was one of the better ones.
I went back out to my register at the counter, and Nick the Dick came hustling up to me, a huge smile on his face, his massive gut jiggling with every hurried step. 
He looked happier than a kid in a candy store.
“So, what was the phone call about? Is there something wrong?”
Gods, what a piece of shit.
I whipped on my happiest, most excited smile and turned to him. Unlike Nick the Dick, I could actually fake a believable expression.
“No, everything’s great! Andy just wanted to tell me that things have been running so smoothly since hiring me and he was even thinking about making me team lead. As a bonus, he gave me a All-You-Can-Drink month pass!”
Every bit of that was the truth. The highly edited truth.
Nick the Dick’s eyes were huge, the shocked rage on his pimply face was priceless.
My smile got even bigger looking down at him, and it was completely genuine.
He glared at me so hard, it looked like his eyes might just pop out of his head. Nick the Dick hissed out a huff through his teeth before storming away.
After he shouted an excuse to go into the back, supposedly to check on the freezer inventory, Regina sidled up to me and whispered at my shoulder.
“So, what was that phone call really about?”
I turned to her and shrugged.
“I got fired.”
Her eyes popped open wide.
“What?! Why?!”
I rolled my eyes.
“Why do you think? Nick the Dick complained about me. Three strikes against me, so now I’m out.”
Regina was growling through her teeth.
“What?! That little shit got you fired?!”
I shrugged again.
“Yup.”
Another customer came up to the counter, and she shot back at me over her shoulder as she hurried to her register.
“Girl, we have break in ten, and we are sooo making plans.”
I flashed her an evil smile.
Oh yeah, we were.
And oh yeah we did.