Perks of the Job

Chapter Fifteen

A few days passed without having a shift with Nick. There was a notable drop in social pressure as I found that I wasn’t constantly checking myself in case he was around. I was more comfortable at work without him there, but at the same time, I couldn’t wait to see him again.

Kathryn had worked on a day that I hadn’t and, naturally, Nick was there. Don’t schedule us on the same day, Maxine. It’s not like I liked him or anything.

“How was work yesterday?” I asked Kathryn as I grabbed my English books from my locker in between classes that Wednesday.

“It was pretty slow. We were getting ready for inventory so we just kind of worked around in groups.”

“Who did you work with?”

“Becky, Katie, Nick,” she answered, mentally checking off her list of names as she did so. “It was pretty fun actually.” I bet it was.

It didn’t matter how mundane or tedious or mind-numbing the work was; if it was with Nick, it was worth it. He would talk to pass the time, I would laugh at his jokes and smile at his charm, the only problem: I wasn’t there.

In my mind, it all went back to the god-damn universe. Whoever was up there, playing with the controls on the videogame of Evan Baker’s life sure seemed like they had a really shitty sense of humor. It was as if the gods knew that I liked Nick and wanted to do anything and everything in their power to keep us separated, and not only that; they were throwing in wildcards. Give Nick a shift with Kathryn and Rebecca, the girls who didn’t like him and just leave love-struck Evan all by herself, forever in her solitude.

My theory was holding up quite nicely, much to my dismay. I didn’t end up seeing Nick for another week, and that was only because I was coming in just as he was leaving. We didn’t say a word to each other, barely offering so much as a smile to acknowledge each other’s presences.  

It was raining really hard so instead of walking home, I called my dad to come pick me up, the only problem was that he was half an hour away.

I waited in the back room with Lorraine while my dad came to get me. Lorraine was Nick’s sister who had come to work during her winter break from university. I’d never really talked to her before, but she was nice and funny and seemed cool enough.

She was on break, eating her dinner, while I caught up on some homework. We didn’t really talk much; just the occasional exchange regarding the rain or how I had been doing since I was finally put on register.

“So how was it; you’re first day working up front?” she asked casually as she tried to open a bag of almonds with little luck.

“It was okay. Register isn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but I’m still learning.”

“You’ll be fine,” she said, finally busting open her bag, a few almonds falling out followed but whispered profanities. “Oops. Sue said you were great today, and trust me it gets easier.”

“Thanks, I hope so.” Lorraine gave me a smile before popping a few almonds in her mouth. Just as I’d focused my attention back on my social studies homework, someone else took it right away. The door beeped and Nick walked in.

He said hello to his sister and barely looked at me. He grabbed a hoodie and threw it on before zipping it up and zipping out of the room. Two chances for us to talk, neither of them utilized.

Sure, I could have said hello, but Lorraine was right there and I was sure Nick would much rather talk to his sister than me.

I wasn’t mad at Nick; the only reason I was avoiding him was because I was done. I was done with our one-sided friendship and I’d decided that if anything was going to happen between us, he’d have to be the one to initiate it. I figured that was the only way for me to know for sure whether he actually wanted to talk to me or was just being nice when we’d first met.