Scott, the assistant manager, was entering something into the mini communication device. He put his finger on a button. "Rosalind, if you're not with a customer, come into my office, please." 

 

Twenty seconds later, the ever-so-familiar voice sounded through the speaker: "Umm, okay..." 

 

Jonah heard her voice emanating gently from the speaker, filled with stress and apprehension; he'd wondered how much of this he was responsible for. 

 

The carelessly orchestrated sentence where he teased her on her wardrobe...

 

The skirt, referencing Catholic school girls...

 

Which made his male coworker blow up at him, "defending" her...

 

Which led to the awkward visit to this very office...

 

The eyes of two of his superiors burning into his retinas right through his skull and through back of his head. He'd made her uncomfortable... He's a sexual harasser... How much sexual went into the actual words he used didn't seem to matter then.

 

Now he's back in the office, after about a dozen awkward encounters, a write-up, gentle threats to avoid her company, to not so much as nod in her direction. He was starting to wonder how comfortable exactly she was expected to be with so much nonsense and unwanted spotlight... Yet, it was he who was in hot water for stealing her comfort. And she was on her way over there. 

 

The door was being opened from the other side tentatively, with hesitation. His eyes met with Rosalind's, her fake eyelashes, big hazel pupils, and exaggerated eye shadow frozen in place as they met his own small green eyes. She stood between the door and the door frame, looking at him with not so much anger, as pain and resentment. "How could you let this happen... How could you let it get to this..." Is what he read on her face. 

 

Scott motioned her inside. "It's okay, come right in."

 

The door opened wider. Rosalind sauntered in, swiftly but hesitantly, taking a place 4 feet away from him, her hands clasped behind her back just like his.

 

"So..." Scott spoke leaning back in his giant office chair, hands clasped together. "I've had just about enough of you two." He paused, his eyes jumping mercilessly from one to the other.

 

"First Jonah gets accused of sexual harassment towards you, though what he actually said was not sexual as all. It was lewd, careless, tasteless, stupid. He was not being a gentleman. Martin overheard it and spoke up, Jonah was dragged into the office, and now you two are under constant spotlight and told to stay away from each other. Then a few messages with attempt to apologize were sent to you on these (he held up the communication device), now he's in trouble again.

 

"Well this is how it's going to be. We need both of you here. If you can't manage to get along... I may have to transfer one of you out..." 

 

They both looked at him with eyes open wide.

 

"You don't have to do that..." Rosalyn mumbled.

 

"Then we do this my way. Jonah, take your glasses off." He obeyed. 

 

"Rosalind, I want you to slap him hard across the face.

 

She looked in this belief at Scott, Jonah and Beck. 

 

"Isn't that assault..?" 

 

"Well, you can go back to work and continue the charade of ignoring each other and I'm not sure you'll both still be in this store tomorrow. The managers are talking about you, your co-workers too. Jonah, you screwed up, you said the wrong thing in front of the wrong person. So, I want you to slap him. It's a direct order. Don't worry about the cameras, that's my problem." 

 

Rosalind looked at Jonah, tentatively raised her hand to his face and gently tapped his cheek. 

 

"Yeah, you're going to have to do better than that..." Scott persisted.

 

Her hand went up again, then back down. 

 

"Come on, I know you have it in you. Do this and this issue goes away, I promise... He did hurt your feelings, no? How much more stress and awkwardness do we need?" 

 

Suddenly her hand went up and connected to Jonah's cheek hard, hard, stinging his skin and making him wince and look away.

 

"Ouchhh..."

 

"I'm sorryyy..." 

 

"That's how we did things back in my neighborhood..." 

 

Rosalind stood there for a few moments, biting her forefinger on her hand that she held up, folded into a fist. Then quickly, without missing a beat, she stepped up and her arms clasped around his upper back.

 

Jonah's fingers went up and was soon lost in her hair. 

 

Scott looked at them, chuckled.

 

"Now I don't want any more problems from you two."

 

Jonah's eyes met Scott's. His mouth formed a silent "thank you." 

 

Scott nodded. "Anytime, bro." He then turned to look at his computer.

 

The door opened. Another one of the managers looked inside, saw the two hugging, her eyes as big as an owl's. She looked at Scott and shrugged. 

 

"It's all good." He said.

 

Tears had formed on Rosalind's face. Most of the stress from the last week had disappeared.