Meeting you | LisRene AU [BOOK 1]

3

Irene was sprawled across the floor of her space in the warehouse, trying for the life of her to put together the huge Ikea shelf she'd finally gotten. It had taken far too long to get a hold of it. She'd driven the hour drive to the nearest Ikea on Sunday with the intention of returning with her shelf, but the one she found on display, which was perfect, had been out of stock. She'd driven back up to it on Thursday, finally picking up the huge box and needing help from an employee to get it into the back of her car.

She hadn't had time to bring it back to the warehouse until today, Friday, because of work. Now, she was quite glad that she had no Friday classes because it seemed that putting the shelf together was going to take a long ass time.

When she heard the shuffling of someone walking past her room, she stopped and dropped what she was doing, hopping to her feet. "Jackson? That you?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm alone, don't worry," he called, his voice getting quieter as he made his way back to his shop. Irene hurried out of her space and headed toward his.

"Wait up, Jackson, I need to talk to you." Jackson didn't stop, though, so Irene finally caught him once he'd entered his area.

Jackson coughed awkwardly. "The middle school in town is putting on a play and they need sets built, so I've gotta get my stuff and head over there. What's up?"

"Speaking of underage people," Irene muttered, furrowing her eyebrows, "were you aware that the girl you almost slept with on Friday, Lisa, is seventeen?"

Jackson's eyes widened. "What? Seriously? No, I had no idea, I thought she was at least eighteen..."

"You thought wrong, and you need to start asking girls that if there's a chance you might get arrested for hooking up with them," Irene chided, crossing her arms.

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"She left her wallet at the counter at The Bean on Wednesday. I peeked," Irene admitted, dropping her hands to her sides now.

"Didn't she know that I'm over eighteen?"

Irene nodded. "She knew, but you're the one who would be held responsible either way if something had happened and someone had found out. So just... next time you're about to hook up with someone who isn't sure is in college, could you just ask them? None of us want you to end up in jail, even though you are kind of a prick."

"Gee, thanks," Jackson said, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, sure, I won't get arrested. Anyway, I gotta get to work if I'm gonna finish the sets today and tomorrow. They need them done by Monday when school starts for them."

"They're lucky you're fast and cheap then," Irene stated, snickering. "See you later." She turned and quickly made her way back to her room. She set it back up next to the shelf, or rather the pieces of it that were strewn about.

She was finally starting to get a feel for how it was supposed to be put together when Wendy suddenly popped her head into the room. "You know whose Mercedes is outside?"

"None of us own a Mercedes," Irene said, raising her eyebrows at her friend.

"Precisely why I'm asking." Wendy looked pointedly at Irene and asked, "You gonna go out, or should I?"

"I'll go," Irene muttered, setting down the screwdriver she'd been using and getting up. Brushing her hands off on her pants, she left the room and headed back toward the entrance of the warehouse. After her space was set up, she wanted to start making the entrance at least look sort of nice. It was currently the most abandoned-looking part of the whole thing. On the bright side, she supposed that it might make the rest of the warehouse seem pretty damn impressive.