Seven

Chapter 70

LILIANNA'S POV

I shove open the glass door lined with too many drink posters with expired deals. I'm sure we don't even sell half of the liquor advertised on them but neither Jeremy nor myself can be bothered taking them down so up they stay. They match the ones now lining the windows which are also about to expire.

"Did Kate drive you?" Jeremy asks as soon as I enter the store for my shift. He leans behind the counter to try look out the small gap in the window to the parking lot.

"No, some guy name Davi did." I answer honestly, simultaneously dashing Jeremy's hopes of seeing his beloved Kate. I'm actually sure her name was Kay but he insists it was Kate. She was my Uber driver to work last week and Jeremy found her rather attractive. So every time I Uber to work, which is every day I'm working as I no longer have a car, Jeremy checks if Kay - I mean Kate - drove me. I wonder what he'll even do if I said she did. Probably nothing but stare at her out the window or try talk her ear off for five minutes like he did the day she drove me.

"You know those rides to work may seem cheap day to day," Jeremy begins as I round the counter and pull out the green pinafore, tying it around my waist and mouthing the rest of Jeremy's sentence in perfect timing, my back to him so he can't see me mimicking his words.

"But over time those trips add up." He says, like he does at the start of all my shifts recently.

"Yeah well, I don't have a car anymore and I'm not so keen on driving yet. I don't know if you know this but the last time I drove a car it didn't end so well for me." I remind him sarcastically.

"Oh don't be so cynical Lily. You're focusing on the wrong thing here." Jeremy says and I turn around to face him. His ageing blue eyes dance with humour and I take the bait.

"Oh really?" I cross my arms waiting for the punchline buried somewhere in his words.

"Yes, its not the driving that didn't go so well for you. It's that shitty eyesight you've got, I'm not even surprised you drove into a bloody truck. You've been working here how long and still can't see the damn time on my clock." He points to it, a smirk tugging at his lips.

"You were meant to start five minutes ago." Jeremy teases and I roll my eyes but chuckle at his dark humour.

"Now stop slacking and get to work. I haven't unpacked yesterday's stock." He adjusts the baseball cap on his head and moves to serve a customer behind me at the counter as I swan myself out to the back to unpack and shelve the new delivery.

Jeremy leaves me to manage the shop about twenty minutes later and returns just before nine at night as usual. The majority of my shift is quiet but the few customers begin to pick up the later it gets. My ride is late so I stay behind the counter and help Jeremy serve the handful of customers that have come in.

When Mesha, who is almost ten minutes late in picking me up, doesn't show up I almost consider texting her but she pushes her way through the glass doors just before I can.

Her long curly hair is tied into a large messy bun at the top of her head. Her small arms are swallowed in an oversized white t-shirt and black spandex tights cover her legs. She must've just come from school, the only place Mesha doesn't dress up.

"Sorry I'm late, my tutor got on his high horse and overran our night class by almost twenty minutes." She apologises as I pull the drawstrings from my waist and remove my work apron.

"Do you need an eye test too?" Jeremy asks Mesha as he walks in from the back drying his hands on his blue flannel.

Mesha raises an eyebrow confused by his comment and I give a breath of laugh and shake my head at her. Giving her an, "I'll explain later," kind of look.