Diet Mountain Dew☆Jess Mariano

Chapter: Twenty-Three

                  ☆ Diet Mountain Dew ☆
                       ~ | Season 3, ep 17:
                  "A Tale of Poes and Fire."

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"Two burgers and fries." Maren told Ceasar the order before she went around to fill up cups of coffee.

"Hey, could I talk to you for a minute?" Luke asked Maren as She looked up to the older man.

"Yea, of course." Maren spoke as she followed Luke to the supply room.

"Has Jess told you how he made employee of the month for his job?" Luke asked as Maren smiled widely.

"No, he hasn't."Maren said as Luke nodded.
"Well, they are having a little ceremony for him today, and I was wondering if you wanted to suprise him by being there." Luke wondered.

"I would love to be there. That's amazing, I'm so proud of him."Maren said joyously.

"Great, I'll pick you up a little bit before, and we can suprise him there. He never actually told me about it, I had found it out." Luke explained.

"Sounds good." Maren spoke as Luke nodded and left the storage room.
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"He's gonna be so surprised." Maren whispered as She and Luke entered the room where the little ceremony was taking place.

There was a man speaking on a podium with rows of walmart employees sitting listening.

"Oh, and there's 200 bucks in it. I think that's how we got our honoree to even show up. You know him as a trooper, our mister reliable. The first time this young man sat down in a forklift, it was like an extension of himself. Yeah, he's not one for small talk, but this boys' production is out of sight. It's Jess Mariano, everybody." The manager at the podium spoke brightly as Jess walked towards the podium.

Maren and Luke clapped along with the others as the manager wrapped Jess into a side hug. Jess's eyes widened at the sight of his girlfriend and Uncle standing in the crowd.

"Would you like to say anything, Jess?" The manager asked.
"Nope." Jess mumbled.

The man laughed. "Well, that's our Jess. Give him another hand, folks. And uh..have a good one." The man spoke as everyone clapped again. He handed Jess a sheet of paper as he took it and walked down the sideline of chairs.

"What are you two doing here?" Jess asked, confused.

"I'm so proud of my boy." Luke spoke in a high-pitched voice and squeezed Jess's cheek.

Maren kissed Jess's cheek and brought him into a hug before letting go. "This is amazing, Jess." Maren smiled proudly.

"Do you have a tissue? I think I'm gonna be emotional." Luke jested.
"Stop." Jess warned, slightly embarrassed.

"It came with cash, which is why I'm here." Jess explained.

"Don't forget the plaque. You should hang that over your bed, shine a little spotlight over it." Luke joked.

"I gotta get back to work." Jess spoke plainly before bringing Maren into a kiss and leaving to go back to work.

"Welp, I think that went well." Maren laughed as Luke shook his head.

"Yeah, the forklifts going, "where's the extension of me?" Luke joked, but Jess was long to gone to have heard him.

"Hey, saw you jawboning with our boy there. I'm Bill Borden." The man introduced him. He was the one that was speaking on the podium.