sweet tooth - karl jacobs

chapter 8- wall

for once, i have absolutely no problem getting up in the morning. in fact, i get up eight minutes before my alarm. crazy, right?

i quickly get changed, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, and zoom out the door. i even arrive to work three minutes early, which pleases my manager tremendously.

"good morning, haven," ms. jenkins chirps happily. "good to see you didn't sleep in today."

"good morning, ma'am," i reply, clocking in for the day while ignoring her snarky comment. i rush to the back room and throw on my apron.

"good morning, sunshine," garrett says to me, who's also in the room tying his apron.

"hi," i reply, adjusting my hair in the mirror.

we don't speak for a couple of seconds, until garrett sighs heavily.

"i gotta ask, who's the hottie that's been coming in to see you the past two days? is he a sneaky link or something? cause i fully support that, but maybe don't bring him to work-"

"garrett!" i whisper-shout. i give him a displeased look, while he flashes an innocent smile. "number one, his name is karl. number two, don't call him a hottie ever again. that's disgusting. number three, he is NOT my sneaky link. that's even more disgusting. and besides, i don't HAVE sneaky links. you of all people should know that!"

garrett raises his hands in defense and pouts his lip.

"sorry, sorry! i thought maybe you turned over a new leaf! like... you're finally starting to believe in love or something! it was cute!"

"hah! as if."

i walk out of the back room quickly and start restocking shelves. this surprises my manager, since i'm usually very slow in the morning. plus, my shift technically hasn't started yet. so why would i be working now?

"haven," she calls out to me. "i want you working the register today."

i groan. damn it.

that means if karl walks in, i won't be able to help him. or more importantly, talk to him and confront him about what the hell is going on.

"understood. i'm just going to go to the back and grab something really quickly," i reply. without waiting for a response, i speed walk to the back and rush to garrett.

"back so soon?" he asks as i suddenly grab his shoulders.

"ms. jenkins is making me work the register," i say. he raises a confused eyebrow.

"congratulations..?"

"no! that's bad! i really need to talk to karl today... god why today of all days?"

"ohh!" garrett laughs as he takes my hands off of his shoulders. "i got it. i'll ask the devil- i mean ms. jenkins- if i can work the register today instead. but you owe me."

"thank you so much..." i put a hand to my beating heart and nod. garrett walks off and i peek around the corner at him. he talks to ms. jenkins for a couple of seconds before she nods and pats his shoulder, guiding him to a cash register. when i leave the back room, she tells me to ignore what she said earlier and continue restocking shelves. i mentally pump my fist in the air.

now i just have to wait for karl jacobs to show up.

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every single time i hear the little door bell ring, my head snaps to the entrance of the shop. but every single time, karl isn't at the door.

after an hour and a half of swiveling my head like the exorcist, i give up. he said he'd come at the "same time tomorrow," but that would've been at the beginning of my shift. so maybe he's not coming today.