The Dairy Queen

After Work Bonding?

I walk into the ice cream shop, Matty is taking payment for an order at the register, Gunther is in the office doing some paperwork, and there is another worker I haven't me yet.

"Hey, you must be Violet." A tall, skinny, red-headed guy shakes my hand, "I'm Noah, the other shift supervisor. I'm going to be doing your last night of training since Kim is out with her injured hand."

"Nice to meet you, Noah. Poor Kim, have you heard how she's doing?"

"She's sore, it was 12 stitches, but she didn't cut completely through her finger, so I guess that's good."

"Yeah, for sure." I nod my head and look up at Matty who gives me a smile and a wave. I wave back. "I'm going to go punch in and grab an apron." I turn and walk into the office.

I'm at the computer clocking in when I feel someone come up behind me. "I want to talk to you later." His mouth is right by my ear. Something between a whisper and growl. It's not a question, more of a demand from Damon.

"Mmmhmm." I finish clocking in and turn the opposite way from Damon and head back into the lobby of the shop.

***

Noah and I work most of my shift on other types of sundaes and using the register. For the most part he just stands back and lets me work, only budding in if I miss something or have a question. He has a ridiculous sense of humor and I find myself laughing at his jokes all night.

Matty leaves at 8, I'm actually a bit relieved because the entire time we were working he used every opportunity to put his hands on me. So much so that Gunther came over to me while I was on break and said, "You and Parker, is that going to be an issue for me?" He laughed half joking. I assured him it was not, that we are just friends. Damon definitely noticed too. In fact, Damon probably noticed everything I was doing tonight because he never took his eyes off me. Every time I looked up at him, he'd look away.

The shop closes at 10 and Gunther leaves just before. A couple of other workers came in for short closing shifts, I met Angela, a college student home for summer break, she was super sweet. And James, also home from college, very quiet and rather shy.

Wednesdays seem to be a really busy night for some reason so it's nice to have extra help. The last customer leaves at 10:05 and we collectively sigh in exhaustion as Damon locks the door and flips around the closed sign.

"Alright kids, lets get this place cleaned up and head over to the beach for some 'after work bonding'," Noah laughs.

"The beach?" I ask Angela.

"Yeah, sometimes in the summer we walk over to the beach to blow off a little steam and swim or play volleyball."

"Cool, sounds like fun."

The volume of the music goes up and we are all signing and dancing around as we clean and break everything down. I'm enjoying myself and even allow Damon to spin and dance with me a bit. He squeezes my waist and looks me in the eye before returning to mopping. I can feel that old familiar tingle and I try very hard to push it away, but then I look over at him and he gives me a big goofy smile and I allow myself to swoon for a second before returning to the milkshake machine.

It's about 10:50 when we finish up. We head out to the parking lot so people can grab some drinks, a speaker, a ball, and bathing suits before walking across the street to the beach.

Once we get there the music is loud and we start playing a little volleyball, which is ridiculously hard because there is very little light. Angela hands me a bottle and I take a swig. The sweetness of the cherry helps dull the burn of the vodka. I'm having a really great time, even quiet James seems to loosen up, I'm sure the 3 Bud Lights he has consumed helped.