friday was a hectic day at work for salem. customers kept flying in and out of the store, and she rarely got to leave the register. she had no clue why they were so busy, since most people nowadays either don't read, or read digitally.
she was so caught up with scanning items that she hadn't noticed kevin and ciarán in line.
"oh no." she mumbled to herself as she accidentally made eye contact with ciarán.
anne heard this, and glanced over to where salem's gaze was.
"don't worry, i'll ring him up." she whisper-shouted to her co-worker.
salem grew anxious as they grew closer and closer to the front of the line. when ciarán and kevin did get to the front of the line, anne had just finished ringing a customer up.
ciarán was about to go to the open register, but kevin beat him to it. "i'll go first." he said, causing ciarán's heart to momentarily stop.
"kevin, no—" he said in a hushed voice, but it was far too late, because kevin was already at anne's register.
'sorry.' anne mouthed to salem as she watched the color drain from her face.
salem looked at her co-workers, but they seemed too occupied with their own registers. as the customer she had just rung up left her, she took a deep breath.
to her surprise, ciarán greeted her first. even a simple: "hey." made her heart start racing.
"hi." she mumbled, scanning his items.
"are you, uh—" as he struggled to form a coherent sentence, he looked up at her. she had made eye contact with him, and she tilted her head, waiting for him to finish what he had to say. he gulped, "fuck; you busy after work?"
she shook her head, "no, why?" she asked, putting his items in a bag.
"can we meet up at mr. boba?" he could've asked her to meet at the brockhampton house, or at a diner, but he had been craving boba for the longest time. he just hoped she'd say yes.
ciarán could see the tiniest smile tugging at her lips. "sure. your total will be $47.92."
"cool." he handed her a fifty dollar bill, "keep the change. i'll see you later."
he left her speechless as she handed him his items. soon after, kevin walked right past her. he gave her a discreet wink with a grin on his face. she turned toward anne, her mouth agape.
"did he really just do that?" salem finally asked, still in subtle shock.
"looks like somebody misses you." anne sang with a grin on her face. salem bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling.
she knew if she started, she wouldn't be able to stop, and she wasn't trying to have her cheeks hurt by the time she met with ciarán.
not too long after that, the line grew shorter and shorter until there was only one person checking out.
salem checked the time on her phone, seeing that her shift was almost over. all she really needed to do now was receive her paycheck from her manager.
as she was gathering her belongings in the backroom, anne came by and landed a smack to her ass.
"anne!" salem exclaimed, turning toward her immediately.
"don't have too much fun with ciarán today." she winked before leaving the room.
once she had all her belongings, she hastily scrambled out of the store and into her car. she had been to mr. boba a few times with tavia before, so she didn't need any directions.
much to her surprise, she didn't see ciarán's car anywhere in the parking lot. she could feel the familiar ball of anxiety clawing at the sides of her stomach.
what if he stood me up?
her question was soon answered when she parked her car and walked into the cafe. her eyes wandered around before spotting ciarán's head of messy hair.
she immediately made her way toward him, not bothering to order a drink. when she pulled the chair out from under the table, he looked up from his phone and made eye contact with her.
"you're not gonna get anything?" ciarán asked, noting her empty hands. salem shook her head, watching him take a sip of his boba. she found it cute how he clasped the drink in both of his hands.
the two sat in an awkward silence as ciarán thought about what he wanted to say.
"you invited me here to just sit in silence?" salem chuckled, trying to start a conversation.
"no, i'm finally ready to talk."
a/n:
everybody say thank u kevin doan!
