February Night

Chapter 7

The following days, Lucy spent most of her time looking for a job. She had told Luke that she couldn't just sit around doing nothing. That wasn't what she wanted. She had come here because she had felt like she needed to escape New York City and she intended to start all over, even if she couldn't forget what had happened back there in the city that never slept.

With a huge cup of Latte Macchiato, Lucy sat on the kitchen table and surfed through the internet. "There must be a goddamn job for me", she murmured to herself as she took a sip of her coffee. And then, while she scrolled through all the jobs available in and around D.C., she finally stopped at an ad from a Starbucks store in the city. Washington Harbour at K Street. "That's not exactly what I was looking for, but it'll do at the moment", she grinned, closed the laptop and called Roxy. "Come on, girl! We take a walk!" The dog came running towards her excitedly.

Lucy went to the Starbucks and there, she let Roxy outside. She patted the German shepherd. "I'll be right back", she said smiling and then walked in. Thankfully, it was in the middle of the day, so there weren't many customers in there.

"Hi, how can I help you?" A friendly young woman looked at her, patiently waiting for Lucy to tell her what she'd like to drink.

"Oh, I...I'm not here to buy a coffee. Not yet. I uhm...would like to ask if one of the jobs here are still available?" Nervously, Lucy played with the hem of her jacket. Although this wasn't her dream job at all, she really wanted it. She wanted to earn money again, she wanted to be independent.

"Oh yes, it is! Wait a minute, I'll look for Jason." She hurried to the back of the coffee shop, the part that was only for the staff. Lucy waited about a minute until the woman came back, followed by a man. He looked nice and when he reached out a hand to greet Lucy, she grabbed it.

"Hi, I'm Jason. I heard you're interested in the job?", he said. Lucy nodded.

"Yeah, I...I could really need a job."

"Okay, so did you ever work at a coffee shop?"

Lucy shook her head silently.

"What about any experience in working at a restaurant or something similar?", Jason continued asking. Once again, Lucy shook her head and she started to feel as if this wouldn't turn out any good.

"But...but I'm good with people and I learn fast!", she said, a bit too hastily and loud as she had intended. When she realized, Lucy bit her bottom lip. Damn, this was the only job she had found and was interested in at least a little bit. There had been nothing that would include linguistics and no bookstore in the city had a free job. She held back a sigh while she felt Jason examining her.

"Alright. Since you're the first who reacted to our job advertisement and we're in almost desperate need for another barista, I think we can try it with you", he eventually said and a smile formed on his lips.

~

"Can you believe it? I actually got the job after ten minutes of talking to Jason!" Still overly excited, Lucy was walking through the living room, Roxy by her feet. Since Luke wasn't at home, the dog was the only one who would listen to Lucy's outburst. She was so happy to finally have something again to earn money. She wouldn't have to sit at home all day long anymore and could get her mind off the thoughts she was having since months. And even if it was "just" a job at a Starbucks coffee, she was happy to have something to get up for in the morning.

When Luke came back home after a day full of paperwork, Lucy couldn't keep the news to herself for longer than three minutes. And Luke pulled her into a hug before he wanted to know where she'd work. "Oh, that's on Spencer's way to work", he grinned and Lucy hit his shoulder with her hand.

"I don't care if it's on Spencer's way to work!", she exclaimed, but deep inside, her heart had jumped in her chest when Luke had told her so. And of course, her brother knew that. He just continued grinning and then suggested to order pizza to celebrate Lucy's new job.

"I'm proud of you, you know that?", Luke murmured just right before he took a bite of his pizza slice. Lucy just smiled but didn't say anything. If you knew why I left New York, I guess you wouldn't be, she sadly thought, but tried her best to not let show her thoughts. He was a profiler and would immediately sense if she would only give the slightest sign. So, she started to ask him about his day to have some distraction – for him and for herself. And it worked. Lucy listened to what Luke was telling her; that paperwork was mostly boring but that there would always be someone around that would make some jokes and distract everyone from what they were currently doing. This ended in them having to sit at their desks for longer than they had expected because all these files would have to be ready at a certain time and couldn't just stay on the desks unfinished for some more days.

Lucy chuckled while she ate her pizza and she had to admit that she was glad that Luke was here. If she would have been alone now, the memories of last February would have been too overwhelming once again and she would have most likely ended up in bed crying her eyes out. And she had done that for too long before she came to D.C. No matter how many good things were happening in her life, there would always be that shadow that wouldn't disappear and break through sometimes.

It was good that Lucy was here now and with that new job she'd already start tomorrow, she had finally a chance to make a new start. Maybe...maybe she would even have the courage to tell her brother what had brought her here in fact. Maybe she could forget about everything. But she wasn't ready to reveal that yet. She was too scared of what Luke or anyone else could think of her if she'd tell it. She was too scared of what might happen. So, she kept the pain to herself and tried her best to be as happy as she could be.

"When will you start your new job?" Luke's voice pulled her out of her thoughts and Lucy's head shot up. She hadn't realized that she had been staring at the slice of pizza in her hand for almost five minutes. "You okay?", Luke asked and Lucy thought he had to ask this question way too many times lately. She needed to get herself together again before he would start asking questions she probably wouldn't be able to answer.

"I'll start tomorrow", she told him before she hurried to eat her pizza. Luke nodded.

"I think it's great you've found something. Sitting around at home or just strolling through the city every day is something I can't imagine you doing for longer than a week or so", he explained with a smirk. Lucy had to agree. She was that kind of person who needed to work. She needed a job, something she could look forward to when she woke up in the morning. So, she was excited to start tomorrow. It would be another step towards a new start, it would be great.