Bank Manager Pt. 1

The first delicious, foamy sip of my latte was about to grace my lips and tongue when I heard the bank's front alarm go off. In an instant, I rushed to the teller's desk trying to remain standing as my heels went from tiles to carpet. I glanced at our new employee, Luca.

"Sorry. It's quite inconvenient, that button. I'm just so bloody tall and--"

"It's okay," I said cutting him off. "But it sends me a notification on my phone each time it happens and also the cops get kind of upset if we do it too many times in a week."

"But it's only twice this week, yeah?" Luca nodded hopefully.

"Four times in two days."

He ducked his head then said, "I'm daft, I'll be better."

"I know," I said to him with a smile.

I went back to the vault to count the delivered money from Tuesday, two days ago. No matter how many times I recounted, it was under, and I couldn't figure out why. I didn't want to assume it was the new guy, but it coincided with his hiring date.

This wasn't a cashier or customer position where a few dollars could go missing here and there. In this case thousands were gone. I'd had a call in at the local armored truck branch to see if anything was amiss, but their reports provided no new information. Our records were clean as well.

After finally sipping on my pumpkin spice latte, I began the count again. It was unusual to hand count for sure, but I didn't want to use the machines.

Using them would produce an official report. I was worried that this could be my mistake and it was a bad idea to jump the gun and create recorded data on it.

I took another sip enjoying the spicy goodness while also noting how gritty my heels felt as I stood against the metal shelving. The floor in the vault was dusty, which was unexpected with how meticulous our cleaning crew was.

I leaned down noting the dust trail leading toward the back but as I followed that line, I heard someone call my name.

"Ms. Garnet! Manager needed!" It was Luca, again. He sure needed his hand held but I reminded myself that we were all there at one time or another. I exited the vault and went to the front teller booths.

"Yes, Luca, what can I help you with?" Luca pointed to the man standing at the window. I heaved an exasperated sigh. It was my ex-husband, Chase Barrington. Sensing the tension Luca stood up and mumbled an excuse that he had to wash his hands.

"Janessa, you look great." Chase flashed me a grin.

"What can I do for you, Chase? Would you like some of the money you stole from me? If so, cash or check?"

"I never stole anything from you." He leaned in closer, his chinstrap facial hair complimenting his sharp jaw. He flipped his sunglasses up over his ink-black hair and I couldn't help but admire his mahogany-colored irises.

They were one of my favorite parts of him. My memory flashed to him handing me our divorce papers and in an instant my anger returned.

"Yes, you did. You told me to 'get out and don't take anything'. Remember that?"

"C'mon. Can't we move beyond that? That was four years ago," he asked. Four years? Had it really been that long?

I watched him as he blinked his almond-shaped eyes at me, his brow furrowed. He was still attractive even when he was an *ss.

I masked my annoyance as he waited for me to answer. I scanned his attire noticing he was wearing warmer clothes. In fact, his entire wardrobe appeared to be thick black leather.

"Going on a bike ride again?" I asked knowing this was the time of year he rode with his Harley club. Chase wasn't much for hobbies, but he had grown to love his motorcycles over the years.

"Yeah, and I need money for the trip."

"Well, how much?"

"Three hundred dollars."

I pressed my small, cold fingers to my forehead. Chase always overcomplicated the simplest of tasks. My tension headache began to wrap around my head like a tight strap.

"You could have gotten that at the ATM or from Luca for that matter," I said, raising my head. "Why did you make me come to you?"

"Are you kidding?" he whispered leaning in. "I love looking at you."

"Chase--" My voice was rising.

"I just want us to talk, again."

"About what?!" I exclaimed loudly. Employees and customers alike turned their heads. Upon recognition of who it was, my colleagues were instantly disinterested. They all knew what Chase was like.

Instead of continuing our banter, I aggressively pulled the drawer open, counted, "twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred," three times and provided him with fifteen crisp bills.

Once I passed him the money, he teasingly squeezed my hand in his black glove, not letting me go. I tried to yank my fingers away from him, but he held on tighter and laughed.

"Stop this. You're acting like a little boy," I whispered through gritted teeth. Suddenly, his smile dissolved, and he released his grip.

His face became stoic as he slid his sunglasses back on, leaving the bank. I watched the perfectly polished glass doors swing shut after him. To my right the window gave me a view of his parked bike as he mounted it.

His hand movements were jerky as he threw his helmet on, tugged the chin strap, started the bike, retracted the kickstand, then sped off.

I closed the drawer and walked to the bathroom. I could see strands of my hair falling in my face from our small interaction. On the way there, Luca was coming out.

I glanced up at him and he gave me a small smile. Even though I didn't know much about him yet, I could tell he was very well-mannered and cared about his job.

After entering the bathroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked tired but that wasn't unusual. In fact, tired was my new baseline. I dropped my hair out of my bun letting it fall to my shoulders, then twirled it back up securing it with my pin.

As I turned around, I almost bumped into one of the loan managers, Gemma. She was about to pop she was so pregnant. I cleared the entryway, leaving her some privacy. Then I left the bathroom to go back to the vault.

***

That night I stayed longer than I had anticipated still unable to figure out the money issue. The evening cleaning crew came in, but I never heard their keys jingle.

When I ran into Remy, we both jumped in surprise. We apologized to one another, and I locked up the vault. As I was leaving, I admired the last rays of sun before they slipped into darkness.

While I was walking home, I had a strange feeling that someone was watching me. Each time I turned around, nobody was there but the weird sensation persisted. When I came up to my modest home, I rushed inside then triple locked myself in, feeling instant relief.

I took a shower to get the vault dust out of my hair. Once I was finished, I exited stepping on my soft, white, cheaply made bathmat and wiped my feet. I glanced in the mirror at myself. How had this become my life?

I let my long jet-black hair air dry and went to my bedroom to get changed. I threw on some shorts and a comfortable T-shirt fully committed to vegging on the couch after eating a microwaved meal. I opened the freezer and pulled out a squash-filled ravioli dish, peeling off the plastic cover and putting it in the microwave.

As I waited, I went through my bills. They were stacking up, and I was in the horrible habit of keeping them in a pile, rarely opening them. Tonight, I dared to look.

When I got to the envelope with my electric company's letterhead, I opened it. Inside I found a strange, folded, very much non-electric company letter. I unfolded it then spread it on the counter.

"Janessa,

I miss you. I can't stop thinking about you. Every day, I regret what I've done. When you called me a little boy today, I realized you were right. And then I proceeded to behave just like one again. I know. I have been a child and I need to own up to it. Consider this my admission. Now, I'll do what grown men do. Tell you the truth.

I want you back. I'm sorry and I'm hurting. I realize it's my own fault, but everyone makes mistakes, don't they? I really miss you. Is there any way for us to be together again?

-Chase"

I was touched by the kindness and his owning the mistake but why did he put this in an envelope from a bill collector? Everything he did had an extra level of sneakiness or dishonesty to it. It didn't matter how he had presented it, however. I had opened it and with the turned, torn flap of that envelope came the same figurative opening of my heart.

I worked to put him out of my daily thoughts and I had mostly moved on, but he kept coming back to me, always dredging up my stability. Every time I had gotten to the point where I didn't regularly wonder and ruminate, he returned.

It wasn't just him I felt badly about. I didn't know why he would want me anyway. I was a bank manager, and he was still the CEO of Shetland Tech just as he was during out marriage. My own insecurities were keeping me away from him too.

Sometimes, I believed that he divorced me because he thought I'd come crawling back so I made sure I would never give him the satisfaction. Once we split up, I realized just how much of our relationship had been based on mind-games and power struggles. It had been freeing for me to be away from him.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about him.

Suddenly, I heard my phone notification go off. Was someone breaking into the bank?