I was still struggling to keep my head above water at the new job. Thoughts of the hypothetical werewolf stalking my house were nearly forgotten. Perry was proving to be a pretty unhelpful boss the more time I spent at the convention center. He was either hovering constantly over his employees’ shoulders, or he wasn’t around at all. It was one extreme or the other. Matt was no longer rude to me, just uncaring. He didn’t bother explaining the work tasks or even acknowledging my existence when I was in the room. He didn’t do much of that to begin with, but previously he at least explained tasks to the group while I was standing in the room. It was a small act of kindness to make sure I overheard what to do, even if his words weren’t directly to me specifically. Nowadays it was as though Matt purposely made sure not to say anything if I was within earshot. It felt worse than his disliking me for no reason. At least when he showed he didn’t like me, he was acknowledging me as a person.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t quite figure out why the other departments at the resort feared the banquet setup boys. Although the group of young men barely interacted with other departments, it didn’t stop servers or housekeeping from avoiding them in general. The maintenance people, line cooks, and sous chef couldn’t avoid them entirely, but they made sure not to interact too much with them, either. When the setup guys swore or said something outrageous, people smiled or said nothing, not daring to challenge or contradict the boys’ twisted inappropriateness. I had met a very nice girl who was a bartender on the weekends. We immediately bonded over sharing a laugh at a bridezilla running around the convention center screaming that this was her special day only and not her husband’s. I felt like I had finally made myself a friend. Lilly was nice to me up until she discovered what department I was from. As soon as I revealed I was in set up, the girl’s pretty tan face fell. She murmured that was nice, but she then avoided me the rest of the night. When I saw the same girl the following weekend, I politely said hello to Lilly, only to be ignored. She then avoided me the rest of the day and even the next. It was as if we had never met and hadn’t originally spent an hour talking animatedly to each other. The same was being done with other female or male servers. Whenever I would attempt to start a friendly, innocent conversation, I was ignored or merely smiled at politely before being ignored. No one seemed to like me as soon as they discovered what department I was in.
It was unfathomable as to why that was. The shipping department didn’t like me because I was friendly; these individuals didn’t like me merely because of what department I was in. Was this small-town syndrome where it just happened to be everyone in town hated they were a part of a small town? Did central Wisconsinites hate friendly people? I couldn’t figure out what the problem was.
Before I knew it, weeks passed while working in the conference center. I vocalized my thoughts to Darren one afternoon. “Do people think the setup department is a cult?” He and I were still bonding when we worked the same shifts. We had the same love for movies and books, and I felt more comfortable with Darren than anyone else I had met in the department. Today we were the only two outdoors setting a wedding ceremony. Two hundred and fifty white fold-up chairs needed to be settled facing the white arches up front. It was a tiring, tedious process making sure every chair lined up evenly. Our other coworkers were inside the ballroom setting the reception that was to take place after the wedding tomorrow. Personally, I thought it was too chilly to have a wedding outdoors, but Darren explained the outdoor weddings occur well into December in Wisconsin.
Darren laughed at my question. “Feels like it, doesn’t it? I guess this department is ignored because everyone knows it’s full of morons. You know, minus us, of course.” He winked.
I laughed. “Seriously, though, the entire group is just…weird.”
I didn’t know the opinion of others, but it seemed like the group of boys only got along with each other and no one else. No other department liked them, and the setup boys couldn’t care less about that. Part of me even doubted any of the young men had friends outside of their little clique here at work. They seemed too close with inside jokes and their mocking of each other. “I think I’ll die if I wind up stuck with Matt as a brother-in-law,” I muttered as I spotted Matt through the window of the ballroom. He was laughing with the guys inside the building at something Cale was saying. Another guy who looked like Jamie whipped what looked like a biscuit at the back of Cale’s head. Once it made impact, everyone howled with laughter. I rolled my eyes, trying not to be annoyed that all of them were goofing off while only Darren and I worked.
Darren stopped setting his row of chairs to look at me funny. “Say again?”
“Matt’s dating my sister.”
Darren snorted. “You sure about that?”
“Um, yeah. He was in my house picking my sister up.”
“Huh.”
There was a tone attached to his comment. “What?”
Darren shrugged as he returned to setting chairs down. He unfolded two and set them down before speaking. “From what I’ve learned of Matt, he doesn’t like people.”
“What are you talking about? He gets along with our idiot coworkers…”
“Yes,” Darren agreed with a nod. “Our idiot coworkers. Anyone else? No. The guy’s a loner. Hates everyone and prefers to be alone.”
“Seemed pretty cozy with my sister,” I recalled. Granted, I haven’t asked for details of Miranda’s newest relationship. Ever since the fiasco of Matt picking her up, Miranda’s been very careful not to divulge to me anything about the two of them. She won’t even mention him to me. It seemed plenty obvious to her that I didn’t approve and would have nothing kind to say about Matt.
“Then that’s very uncharacteristic of him,” noted Darren. He and I made it to the last row of chairs. We both set down a few more before I thought of something.
“Do you know something about him that you’re not saying?”
“Nope,” Darren replied as he finished the rest of his line.
Together we finished out the remainder of my line. He didn’t say anything else, but I strangely couldn’t help but feel Darren wasn’t being honest with me.
CHAPTER 5
At the grocery store the following day, I had collected everything around the market to make fettuccine Alfredo for dinner. Sure, I could afford to lose a few pounds, but I was not about to sacrifice my carbs in the process. I would instead make sure to cut down on my Oreos and Doritos, I thought cheerily, proud of myself that I had walked past the snack aisle without placing either in my cart. As I pushed the cart toward the first available checkout, someone intentionally moved their cart faster to cut me off from the line.
“Wow,” I murmured to the rude stranger. The old man that stood in front of me whipped his head back to cock a glare.
“You say somethin’?” he snarled. Taken aback by his hostility given he was the jerk in this situation, I didn’t back down.
“Yeah, I’m marveling at how rude you were for cutting me off.”
“Shoulda moved faster,” sniffed the old man indifferently.
“I hate this town,” I muttered under my breath.