Page 109 of Feeding Hope
“Don’t be. I like somebody who stands up for the underdog. You’re not in trouble. Please see me after breakfast,” he replied. With that, Mr Armstong walked away.
“Holy crap,” I gasped, sinking onto the bench.
Alex stood there looking torn. “Katy, I should leave, but one question: how did you know I’m ex-military?”
“Oh, easy. Military is in your bearing. Ex-armed forces are a familiar sight at the foodbank and soup kitchen. I can spot you guys a mile away. Even beaten down, you’ve still got a certain stance. Although it was wrong to blab like that.”
“No. It felt good having someone like you stand up for me,” Alex replied with a small smile.
“Like me?”
“Yes. I’ll move along. Katy, I don’t want any problems.”
“Come back for lunch, please,” I asked, and Alex shook his head.
“That bitch is out for blood. She won’t stop causing trouble.”
“Screw Tiffany. What she thinks doesn’t count. Meet me,” I glanced around. “Please, Alex.”
“I’ll see Katy, but know that this last day meant a lot.” Alex smiled and then left.
Damn. What had started as a brilliant morning has gone badly wrong. Resigned to a shitty day, I headed into the building and onto my floor. Tiffany was smirking as I entered, with her little cronies crowding her. I dropped my purse and walked over to Mr Armstrong’s office. The two guards were inside, and it appeared they were taking a real bollocking.
“Please wait, Katy,” Mrs Ellison said, and I took a seat. Moments later, the two men came out, and I was sent in.
“Sit, Katy,” Mr Armstrong ordered.
“Mr Armstrong, I’m sorry about what happened outside,” I blurted.
“Why? From what I witnessed, an innocent man was being harassed and threatened by guards who worked for me. You stood up for his rights and dignity,” Mr Armstrong replied. “Were you wrong to do so?”
“No. And I don’t regret that either, but I need this job,” I responded honestly.
Mr Armstrong began laughing and slapped his hands on his desk.
“Katy, I like the honesty. It’s very refreshing. Call me Aiden. Those two have been dismissed; they’re not the type I want working for me. Now they reported that a member of staff said you were being harassed; unfortunately, she could have misinterpreted his actions. However, there was no mistaking how those guards spoke. His name is Alex, correct?”
“Yes.” I wondered where this was going.
Aiden opened a drawer and pulled out an envelope. “This is a company card. You have a budget of two hundred and fifty pounds a week. Please buy Alex whatever meals he needs and any other items he requires. If you find further homeless people, you’ll receive another two hundred and fifty pounds for each one. I ask you keep me updated on how many we’re feeding,” Aiden said.
Shocked, I gasped and stared at the card. “Sir, I can pay for Alex’s food.”
“Yes, no doubt, but society should do more. This is the company stepping up. Return to your desk, and before Mrs Ellison yells at me, please get receipts and hand them in to her each morning. Oh, and you may take an extra fifteen minutes to fetch his lunch.”
I stood up, surprised not only that I had kept my job but that I had support in feeding Alex. “Thanks, Aiden.”
“Keep up the good work, Katy,” he said, and I was dismissed. When I left the office, Mrs Ellison winked, and with a beaming smile, I made my way back to my desk. Tiffany scowled when she witnessed my grin. Yeah, bitch, the meeting didn’t go as you expected.
Alex
Damn. Katy was in trouble, and that was my fault. I wanted to hang around and make sure she was okay, but I saw the guards leaving, and they didn’t look happy. Frustrated, I headed down to the park. I needed a way to fix this situation, but I wasn’t sure how. That flaming woman who believed she was the bee’s knees, Tiffany. She’d orchestrated this mess because Katy was a threat. Katy was; her looks may not have been as beautiful, but she blew that bitch away.
Katy was pretty, don’t get me wrong, but in a girl-next-door way. The sweet sixteen kid. Katy was worth a million of those nasty colleagues. I recognised Tiffany’s kind from my own school days. The spiteful cow who needed to be Miss Popular, the bully who destroyed those who disagreed with her. Sadly, I’d met them in my army career, too, and even out here on the streets, men and women with egos and attitudes existed.
Anxious and upset, I sat on a bench, staring at the water in the duck pond. There was an easy solution to smooth this over, but I couldn’t use it. That meant reaching out, and I was too damaged to contact them. Everyone was better off without me. People cut wide paths to ignore me or suddenly discovered their phones fascinating. Shit, was I really that scary? A homeless man with nowhere to go?
I was clean; I used a public toilet to wash in every day, and I rinsed my one change of clothes in there too. I probably still smelled, though; deodorant was something I’d not had for ages. And I needed a haircut. The buzz cut from my army days was long gone. I screwed up my nose. Katy had recognised me as ex-military immediately. That had been a surprise. I again wondered what soup kitchen she worked in; it had to be one for veterans. There were loads of ex-military personnel on the street.
