Platonic My Ass - hizzie

THREE. argument over food is worthy to throw hands

HOPE'S POV

I sluggishly drag my feet down the flight of stairs and greet my parents in the kitchen with a lazy smile. "Morning. No breakfast?"

Mom snickers, pointing to the cupboard behind her head. "Cereal in there. Help yourself." She says, smiling when I groan in response.

"Can someone spear me the strenuous exercise and pass me the box of Cheerios? Please and thank you." Mom sends me a stern look, probably judging me for doing the bare minimum of physical movement. But she can cut me some slack, because it's 6'o clock on a Thursday morning and I have another eight hour shift ahead. And it's almost Christmas, meaning ten times the usual customers.

Dad laughs into his mug of coffee, "what has you so drained?" He asks, placing the cup down on the countertop and retrieving the cereal I politely demanded, handing me the milk, along with a bowl and spoon.

"Thank you, you're a life saver." I fix myself a bowl of Cheerios, spooning a couple mouthfuls into my chomps.

I return my dad's smile, now feeling a lot more chirpier than before. "Work." I finally answer his question with a simple one word.

"I thought you were your own boss now? What's the deal then?"

Mom watches me from the corner of her eye, wondering the same. "I hired this woman, and yesterday was her first day, but it drained all my energy just existing in her presence." I complain, popping a fallen Cheerio into my mouth. "She's just a lot to take in."

"Oh, Dorian allowed for you to be hiring people?"

"Not exactly. I took it upon myself to make the call. I'm hoping he has a positive reaction when I break the news to him."

Mom decides to speak up. "Darling, he will. Dorian absolutely adores you, I'm sure one small slip up won't change his view."

I nod eating my food, then freeze. "Wait, what?" I spit, discarding the almost empty bowl of cereal. "Slip up? I didn't think it was considered to be that. I mean, yeah, I didn't speak to him beforehand, but I don't think it's classified as a slip up."

Mom waves me off, and I catch her send dad a quick scowl, but I don't mention it.

"She just means that Dorian left you in charge, with the high hopes you would follow all his rules, one being not to hire anyone while he was away." Dad covers for mom, successful in doing so. "Speaking of work, shouldn't you be heading there now? It's 10 past six."

My eyes widen and I jolt up, speeding back upstairs and change into my work uniform, not having enough time to curl my hair nor take a shower. I settle with spraying perfume in a criss cross motion, throwing a beanie to cover my bed hair, and toss a large overcoat to drown my self pride. I gruffly deliver a goodbye to my parents on the distance to the front door and charge down the driveway to my car.

I can't believe I'm late.

I arrive to work twelve minutes late thanks to the backed up traffic all over town, but no one seems to notice; well, no one pointed it out. I sit down behind my aisle and make a few adjustments to my till, in terms of setting up the tallying calculator, changing the currency.

I hear the clicking of heels and turn my head to the right, spotting Lizzie headed straight for me. I breathe out lowly, pretending not to notice her and continue tapping on my screen. "Hi, boss."

I barely acknowledge her. "Lizzie."

"Why were you late? One night stand keep you up until the ass crack of dawn?" I scoff at her incredulous assumption, rolling my eyes as I shift my gaze to meet hers.