OVERRIDE

Chapter 5 A Present

Subject: Lia Coleman

Place: Chick-Fil-A Management Office

Time: 6:45 pm

Reason: Subject was filling out pay raise paperwork.

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As I was waiting to finish a conversation with my boss, I was thinking about my encounter with Jordan.

I had known him since kindergarten, but we weren't really associates. We talked when it was necessary, but otherwise, I just didn't hang out with him.

There was nothing wrong with him, he was a sweet guy with killer looks. He was very sensitive, and caring, but the one thing that pissed me off the most about him was that he was, and has been, part of the Rounds, where stupid men go and shoot stupid things just to scare the population. Fear is a power.

I didn't know whether to like Jordan or not, for that matter. He always told me that being part of the Rounds was what he was created to do, which really kind golf annoyed me. When I asked  him if he enjoyed it, he simply answered "no." which confused me even more. If you were created to do something, as in, you are so passionate about it that you end up thinking you are born to do it, or whatever, why wouldn't you enjoy it? Sometimes, that guy really confused me. I feel like there's a part of his life that is of utmost significance, that not many people know about.

Anyways, my boss turned around in his office chair, after ending a phone call.

"Lia?" he asked. Mr. Wilson was a burly guy with a mustache and beard, but always dressed appropriately and was really nice.

"Yes, Mr. Wilson?" I said.

"Reception seems to...have paged you." He said, even though I don't work in the management offices. I actually work in the kitchen.

"Oh, alright, I guess I'll see you later then." I said, picking up my satchel, and putting on my leather jacket, which was my mom's.

I took the elevator down three floors to the first floor, and made my way to reception.

I looked at the woman behind the desk with a confused look, and then she pointed over to a group of couches.

There, was Jordan, whom I was just trying to contemplate.

Even more confused, I slowly walked over to him, my hands in my pocket.

"Jordan?" I asked when I was standing right behind the couch he was sitting on. On the floor, in front of him, there was a toddler crawling around.

He turned around. "Oh! Um, Lia, hey." He said, blushing a bit.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you see, I kinda, well, there was..."

The boy literally couldn't speak in front of me.

Jordan sighed. "Look," he said, pointing to the small child.

"He's so cute!" I said, smiling at the blonde boy playing with some blocks.

"I know," he said. "I found him on the streets with no mother or father."

He was an orphan, like me.

"So I took him."

"What?!" I cried, walking around the couch. "Jordan, you can't just assume that his parents just left him there purposefully, I mean, they could've just gotten temporarily separ-"

"I saw it." He said. "I saw his mother put him on the ground, kiss him, then run in the other direction, I saw it!"

"Okay, okay." I said, plopping down next to him our thighs were touching. "So why'd you come to me?"

"I...I don't know what to do." He said. "I can't take care of him, my mom will kill me if I brought home a random kid, but you-"

I stood up. "Oh no, no, no." I said. "You don't expect me to take care-"

"Please." Jordan said. It was his voice that got me to stop though. His trembling, cracking voice, just as if he was about to cry, and I had NEVER seen him cry, even when a kid punched him in the nose in sixth grade.

I sat back down again and sighed. "What's his name?" I asked.

"Something tells me he could be a Cody." He said, "Or maybe a Chris."

I giggled. "No, silly." I said, playfully hitting his knee. "I'm serious."

"I don't know." He said, solemnly. "I mean, he's only two so we could rename him."

I though for a second. "Charlie." I said.

"Charlie." Jordan repeated.

The small boy looked up at us with his bright blue eyes and smiled.

"Momma, Dada!" he cried.

Jordan and I laughed.

"Hold on." He said, a minute later. "I think he's dead serious."

We exchanged looks, then looked down at the child.

Charlie knocked over his block tower, by accident, and began crying.

"Aww." I said, picking him up and cradling him in my arms. He stopped crying and began to suck his thumb. Jordan leaned over kissed his forehead.

Suddenly, I heard a click. It was coming from outside. There were three camera men taking pictures from outside the glass doors of the office building.

I handed the kid to Jordan. "Jordan... Stevens, he'll have a fit if he finds out-"

"I'll make sure he doesn't." He said, looking at me dead in the eye. "If you promise to take care of him."

I glanced down at the small child curled up in his arms.

"Okay." I said.