Aftermath | Fred Weasley

08. Date

With Halloween coming up in a few weeks, owl orders were coming in nonstop. All the school kids were trying to stock up on pranks and joke candies before any celebrations. We had Halloween parties in the US, I'm sure the students in Europe did too, at least it seemed that way with how many orders had come in. Unfortunately for me, today was my day to fulfill the orders. We each had two days of order packing, mine were Wednesdays and Saturdays.

For the most part, I didn't mind the days I had to pack orders. I found packing to be oddly satisfying. I'd throw on some music and just vibe in my world. These days it certainly helped that Fred would have a few orders packed by the time I got to work. I'd be done by lunch with his help on regular days. I'd probably be fulfilling orders all day today though, and that's with the fifty Fred had already packed before I showed up.

Truthfully, I didn't expect Fred to help me with orders today. I thought all the niceness and flirting would stop when he heard I was going out with Thomas. But he carried on like normal. Not only was a good chunk of orders done, but there was also still a coffee waiting for me in the staff room. Maybe I imagined things and was the only one catching feelings. For all I know, Fred saw me as nothing more than a friend and here I was thinking we both hoped for more.

"How's it going in here," George asked coming into the room.

"Good, I think I'll be in here most of the day, but good."

"Well, I just wanted to let you know, that you can leave early today. Once you finish the orders you can head out."

"Any particular reason," I questioned.

"Well, I heard you got yourself a hot date tonight. Fred and I thought you might want to leave early to get ready. Maybe you're trying to impress him or maybe it was a pity date and you need to go home and devise a plan to blow it."

"Shop closes at six on Saturdays, my date isn't until seven. I think I have plenty of time to get ready."

"Suit yourself, we were just trying to look out for you," he smiled.

"You know I didn't think I'd ever have bosses so invested in my personal life," I joked. "Am I that ugly that I need more than an hour to get ready?"

"Don't go twisting my words now. You should be honored that you have such amazing bosses who care so much about their employees. People would kill for the workplace environment you take for granted. But does that mean you are trying to impress him?"

"Employee," I corrected, "you two have exactly one employee. And a great work environment has nothing to do with what I do after work, so again why do you two care if I have a date today and whether or not I want it to go well?"

"Truth be told, I don't," he said bluntly, "but seeing as how Fred hasn't stopped talking about it since you told him, call it twin telepathy, something tells me he does. I care about my brother and his feelings, which leads us to have this conversation."

Maybe I wasn't wrong about the two of us feeling the same. "Why would Fred care how this date goes," I ask playing dumb.

"Please, we both know you two have something going on. Do you think I don't hear him sneak away in the middle of the night? Now there are a few options as to where he's going but the coffee in the mornings, the fact that he doesn't flirt with everyone that walks through the door anymore, 'Ria'. I'd say it's pretty obvious."

"I'm just helping him work through some stuff, it's all just thanks."

"It's that what the kids are calling it these days?" A grin spread across Georges's face. "Listen you two can do whatever it is you please, I just ask that you guys don't let it affect the shop. I talked to Fred about this last night as well."