Sparrow of the Dawn

Digging a Hole

I instruct the irritated customer to go with Jake without making eye contact with either person. As Jake and the customer turn to walk back to the aisles, I begin to stare again. Is this the new employee Christa mentioned?? As I walk to the break room to do my training and eat my lunch, I purposely walk as far away from the hardware aisles as possible. I can't risk the new guy seeing me drooling at him.

"Hey girl, you ready?" Christa asks as she sits down next to me in the break room.

"For what?" I ask. I hope she's not still trying to go talk to Jake.

"To get acquainted with the new guy! Remember?" Damnit.

"Uh yeah, right," I answer nervously. "I kind of already met him... do I still have to go with you? I don't know if it's really a good idea for me to—"

Christa laughs loudly, "Don't be a bitch, bitch! At least come with me so I don't look like a loser with no friends!"

"Fine."

Christa and I walk from the break room back to the front of the store where the hardware aisles are. My mind is racing with questions and irrational thoughts the entire way. The worst case scenario is that I trip or say something weird. I can always blame it on lack of sleep! What if a pimple just appeared on my face since the last time I looked in the mirror? What if I run out of things to say? Talking shit about customers is still cool right? No? God maybe I should just stay quiet.

He's there. This time in aisle 13, doing inventory. As we approach him all I can do is stare. At this point I think it's involuntary. He hasn't even turned around to notice us yet.

"Hi! I'm Christa," Jake turned and looked a little startled. "And this is Lex," she motioned to me. "How's your first week on the floor?"

"Oh, hey. I'm Jake, nice to meet you Christa. I think Lex called me to help a customer a little bit ago; nice to see you again," he smiled. "First week is going well. I've only been yelled at by customers four times so far."

"Sounds like it's going well!" Christa is noticeably looking at Jake like she wants to eat him for dinner. "I'll be at register 4 if there's anything I can help you with." She meant anything.

"Uh thanks," Jake said. He turns to look at me.

"Well, I'll see you around! Lex, you coming?" Christa turns and walks away.

"Uh huh," I say without moving, still staring at my new coworker.

Jake waves his hand in front of my face. "When you give an affirmative response to a question like that, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to follow through with whatever it was you were agreeing to," he says.

"Oh, I... I'm uh, I'm sorry!" Great. Exactly what I didn't want to happen; I don't know what's wrong with me. "These customers are crazy right?!" Lex shut up, you're digging a deeper hole I say to myself.

"Yeah..." Jake says, confused.

Before I could open my mouth to do any more damage, Kris yells, "Lex! Your break is over, get back to the registers! Jake, inventory doesn't complete itself!"

"These managers are crazy, right?" Jake laughs. I grin awkwardly before shuffling away.

What the fuck was that, Lex? I can't even answer my own question.