jonah and amy - come back

chapter 1

"can i have a bag for these?" the customer asked, handing jonah back the few items she was holding. sighing mentally, he showed her a fake smile and nodded, giving her the bag and waving her off.

he was getting tired of the fake smiles, constantly being forced to pretend everything was fine when it clearly wasn't was beginning to grow old. days flashed by within a blink, each one feeling the exact same. for months, he hadn't felt a single spark in his days like he did a few months ago.

his life was missing that spark. his spark was amy.

"jonah, emergency meeting in the break room," glenn passed by him in a flash and was gone before he could turn his head. he turned the light off on his station and saw garrett.

"what's his meeting about?" he asked him.

"no idea. but it got me away from this customer trying to return a bikini without the tags, so i'm going to roll with it."

it was almost funny, but still didn't get a laugh out of jonah. he couldn't recall the last time he laughed, truly laughed. sure, every once in a while he'd slip one in, but they weren't real.

sitting down next to mateo and cheyenne, he couldn't help but listen in on their conversation. "did you hear?" she whispered to mateo.

"no. hear what?" mateo asked.

curiosity built up inside of him, but before cheyenne could continue, glenn cleared his throat and everyone turned their heads to the front.

"as many of you know.." he began. "i've been here for many, many years. some of the best years of my life."

uh oh. jonah saw cheyenne and mateo glance at each other out of the corner of his eye. glenn had a serious tone, and he never took anything seriously.

"jerusha and i talked it over, and we both agree that it's best for me, mentally and physically." he took a pause, sucking in a deep breath. jonah could see the nervousness in his face grow bigger and bigger as he went on. "dina is going to be taking over my position as manager."

what? looking over at garrett, who's eyebrows were raised, jonah's shoulders fell. he has never had a manager as understanding and nice as glenn. first he lost amy, and now he's loosing his manager, too?

"so, you're retiring?" cheyenne asked what they were all thinking.

"no, i'm just going to be a floor worker."

jonah sighed in relief. he wasn't sure what the others were thinking, but glenn was the only manager he had ever had that he had a genuine connection with. he could come to him, any time of day, and sit down and talk with him. admittedly, most of the talks were about amy. they both discussed how much they missed her and what they could have done to keep her at store 1217 as if they were good friends, not just a manager and co-worker.

a few hours later, the night grew older and before he knew it, it was 8 o'clock. the store would be closing soon, but customers constantly filled the entrance without a care in the world.

the ringer of his phone snapped him out of his thoughts. who would possibly be calling him this late? everyone who would want to talk to him at this time of day were in the same building as him. pulling his phone out from his back pocket, the familiar face lit up his screen and his heart dropped.

a happy amy kissed jonah's dimple. it was a selfie they had taken the night jonah had offered to move to california with her. he double read the contact name to make sure he was reading it right. amy, it was amy.

he stepped outside into the dark night, into the darkness with the stars and light poles being his only source of light. looking around, his shaking fingers slide over the accept button as he held it up to his ear.

"amy?" he asked quietly, still wondering if he was imagining this. the two of them hadn't spoken in the past 3 months. not even a single text message, let alone a phone call. sure, he had typed out texts to her, most of them asking her how california was or if she needed anything. but he never actually ended up sending them. he figured if she wanted to talk, she would let him know.

there was nothing but silence on the other end of the line. he could hear her lightly breathing, almost as if she was right next to him. but she wasn't, she was almost 2,000 miles away.

"jonah," she said, so softly it was almost a whisper. his heart stopped as she said his name, he had missed her voice so much. she waited a few more moments before speaking again, making him more and more anxious every second.

"can i come back?"