Down But Not Out

Chapter 11

"Right I think that was an eventful day" Josh announced after he'd closed the door behind our last customer of the day. I groaned and sunk onto the counter, where I mimicked Josh's position from earlier since I was so tired. He laughed at me and I groaned in annoyance.

"I'm working you too hard?" he asked and I snorted.

"You could say that" I replied holding back a yawn.

Today had been much better. We'd had more customers than what we'd had previously, some of whom had come back today just to see if the new range had come in. They'd been ecstatic when it had.

"I've just realised something" Josh stated sitting down next to me. After two and a half hours his bruised ribs couldn't cope so I'd handed him some of the painkillers I kept in my bag just in case someone needed them. Being a girl you could never be too careful! He'd accepted and had swallowed them, but never listened to me when I told him he should go and rest, instead he'd worked through the day and I was selfishly happy that he had, otherwise I would've been even more tired than what I was now.

"Yeah what's that?" I asked, just remembering that Josh had said something. He turned in his seat to face me.

"I didn't thank you for yesterday" he said and I smiled.

"I'm sure you did" I replied. He did say a brief 'thank you' to me yesterday before I'd left to go home. He smiled, and I knew he remembered that he did.

"True but I'd like to say thank you properly. Let me take you down to Marie's and I'll buy you whatever you want" he smiled and I thought about his offer before nodding. He grinned a toothy grin before we grabbed our stuff from the back room and made our way down to Marie's.

When we walked in I told Josh what I wanted and he gave me a weird look but placed our orders anyway. Marie smiled at me and winked when Josh wasn't looking. I glared at her but she giggled causing Josh to ask what was so funny. Great, if it hadn't been for Summer teasing me yesterday- which was getting to be real annoying as she teased me a dozen times each day- then Marie wouldn't have a clue about my feelings for Josh, plus it had pissed me off because my best friend had been flirting with him the whole day. I have to admit that I did act like a bitch on the journey home because Summer had actually hurt my feelings, but I realised that Summer was practically my family so I apologised for my behaviour. She'd asked what she'd done wrong but I didn't tell her just saying that I'd had a bit of a bad day. She'd accepted.

"Lizzie?" Josh asked and I blinked up at him, realising that I'd zoned out. He was holding out my vanilla ice-cream milkshake. I thanked him and followed him past the counter to the tables at the back, where we took a seat at the table we had previously occupied when Josh had asked me to help him out.

I sucked at my milkshake for a little while in silence, but felt too tired to start up a conversation.

"So, since you found out a little bit about my life earlier can I find out a bit about you?" Josh asked and I started at hearing his voice. I bit my lip, feeling slightly worried as to what he would end up asking me, but found myself nodding anyway.

"Yes of course, as long as I can ask you lots of stuff as well" I smiled and he bit his lip, also looking a little worried but also nodded.

"So, do you have a boyfriend?" he asked I shook my head, "-a girlfriend?" he asked a little more hesitantly and I snorted but shuck my head again. I saw him frown.

"Really? I find that hard to believe" he stated before quickly taking a sip of coffee. I guessed he hadn't meant to say that, but I found myself smiling a little. He made it a part of his job to embarrass me, so for once I was going to embarrass him, if that was even possible.