Cedar and Finn

Chapter 1

“Cedar, have you finished this week’s order yet? Someone is asking if they can order something and I need to know what shipment to expect it from,” Logan asked Cedar, putting his hand on the microphone on the phone as they sat behind the computer in the comic shop that the two of them worked at.

Cedar didn’t respond right away, finished what they were doing on the computer, followed by a sigh. “Yes, Logan, I sent it out this morning. If you came into work on time, you would have known that,” they explained, annoyed with the question, turning back to the computer and going back to playing a new game of solitaire.

“Jesus, you don’t need to be so rude,” Logan said before walking away from the counter, back to the manga section of the shop, talking to the customer, switching back to his customer service voice. Cedar continued to play solitaire, knowing that if they got up, they would have nothing better to do. Logan was already doing the daily counts and the customer’s they had were usually respectful and didn’t disturb the merchandise much. So there wasn’t anything to clean.

No one said much about the lack of general work they did since they were the only non-management staff that would do orders and most of the other computer work. Plus they ran the cash register all day, so solitaire made the time pass by faster.

“I told you, they always have what you could need here,” a customer said to his friend as the two of them entered the shop. Cedar didn’t say anything to them, not being required to greet them.

“Ro, I get it, okay? Let’s just look around. I doubt they’ll have what I’m looking for,” the shorter of the two friends said to his taller blond friend. The two of them walked into one of the sections and started looking through the merchandise. Cedar never looked up from their computer, but they were instantly noticed by the shorter of the two friends, Finn, as he stared at them through the shelves.

Time slowed down for Finn as he looked past the shelf and stared at Cedar. He’d never seen someone who was that attractive in his life, at least to him. Cedar’s blue-dyed hair was shaved on the one side and was clearly greasy, except it seemed to work for them. Their ears were covered in piercings, along with their nose, eyebrow and lower lip. Plus they looked like they could be covered in tattoos, since their exposed neck and arms were covered in tattoos, which was impressive for someone who looked to only be in their early twenties.

“Woah, that cashier is really hot,” Finn said without thinking. Rowan, the friend he entered the shop with, looked past him and hummed in agreement.

“Yeah, that’s Cedar. They’re just a part-timer. They’re also in one of my classes I think. They’re pretty quiet, and kind of rude, honestly,” Rowan said and then went back, looking through the products for something he wanted.

“I don’t know, they honestly just look a little tired,” Finn said, smiling softly as he felt his heart skip a beat. Shit, he hadn’t felt like this in a long time. He wanted to get to know this person, learn their story, and see them smile. But he didn’t know anything about them, so he didn’t know what feeling it was. Maybe he was just horny and thought that they’d be someone, based on how he imagined them to be, would be someone fun to date.

“Don’t waste your time, dude. You could do way better,” Rowan added and continued to look through the products. But Finn was determined to get this person to hang out with him. He grabbed what he wanted to buy and walked up to the register.

“Hi there!” Finn put the product on the counter and waited for Cedar to acknowledge him. They closed their solitaire window and glanced down at what he was getting.

“Hey there,” they replied and grabbed the book he picked out. Not what he was there to get, but he thought it’d be good to read. “This series is good. I hope you enjoy it,” Cedar added and then did a few things on the computer. “Alright, your total comes to $14.79. Cash or card?”