Paper Wishes (#1)

Chapter Twenty-Four: Paper Wishes

 The next day Nox told me that Kai had asked him to come in to work for a little while and although he wasn't excited about being apart from me, Nox had excellent work ethic. He hadn't wanted me to be home alone, so he encouraged me to call Jez up to see if she could hang out. I did, and she could, so we made plans to meet up at a nearby cafe for coffee and snacks while we figured out what we could do today.

Nox dropped me off at the cafe ten minutes before the time that Jez and I had agreed to meet, but she still beat me there. She had her planner open and some papers splayed on the table.

"I didn't order yet, I was waiting for you," she said looking up from her paperwork. "Would you mind ordering for both of us?" She slipped a twenty dollar bill in my hand.

"Sure," I agreed. "What would you like?"

"Er..." Jez's favorite thing in the world other than crafting and working on her planner was coffee. "Get me the same thing you're getting."

"I'm going to get a chai latte."

"Ugh," she sighed, "I need coffee. Get me a regular latte, with skim milk."

"Okey dokey, can do," I said before leaving her to get in line.

Ten minutes later I put the cup and her change down on the table in front of her.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

"No, thank you," I said with emphasis as I held my cup up. "So, what's up? What are you looking at?" I wave my hand, gesturing at the papers spread across the table.

"I'm uh, scheduling interviews," she said, "and I thought you could help me pick candidates out."

"Whaaat? We're hiring again?!"

"Sort of - I mean, yes, I will be hiring new people but it's because there's some um... restructuring... going on."

I raised my eyebrows questioningly, but didn't say a word. When Jez didn't offer any more information, I held my hand out and said, "Let's see who you've got here."

I rifled through the applications and created two piles on the table: NO and Potentials. The NO pile was full of applications that were crumpled, had mystery stains on them, or were riddled with spelling errors. One application caught my eye and I presented it to Jez with a flourish. "Kim Morgan," I announced, ecstatic to see that she'd applied for a job at Heartful.

"Oh!" Jez said, sounding surprised. "I know Kim. I'll call her for an interview right now."

Jez pulled a pen out of a zippered pocket in her planner as she waited for Kim to answer her phone.

I didn't want to eavesdrop, so I pulled my phone out of my wristlet to text Nox.

(Me) Hi. Guess what I'm doing?

I waited a minute or two before my phone vibrated in my hand.

(Nox) Thinking about your handsome boyfriend?

Oh, haha.

(Me) Yes, that and Jez is having me help her pick out potential new Heartful employees!

(Nox) No guys, right? I worry about you enough.

I laughed. Even though Kai and Nikki were very happy together, and my relationship with Kai had been cemented as strictly the brother-sister type; Nox was still wary of any guy within arm's reach. He had said that it wasn't my fault that I attracted guys like ants to sugar. I shook my head at the memory of that conversation.