moving up

Chapter 7

"Thanks so much for covering my break," says Toru, as she joins Momo in the fitting room. It's a slow night, and Momo offered to be the one to watch the fitting room while Toru took a fifteen minute break. In that time, she barely had any customers to deal with, and she was able to tidy up the departments in the immediate area, so it was almost as if she never left the sales floor to begin with.

"Any time," she replies. "Do you have anything else you need me to do while I'm back here?"

"Not that I can think of," says Toru, pausing for a moment. "Say...Mashirao went home for the day, right?"

"Yes, his shift ended around the time you went on break," replies Momo. Mashirao is another sales floor associate.

"Alright, good," she says, before leaning in closer. "I know this is gonna sound weird, but I just have to tell someone! And please don't tell, like, Tenya, or whatever, you know he has a total stick up his butt, and he'll probably tattle on me, or at least lecture...anyway! I really, really like him."

Though her choice to confide in her takes Momo off guard, she has noticed the two of them talking a lot. She didn't necessarily suspect anything, but now that she's hearing it from Toru, it isn't all that surprising. "You do?" she asks, because she doesn't know what else to say.

"I do," she says, before leaning in closer. "I think he might like me too. I know it's weird, cos we work together, but, yeah..."

"Well, I know that others have attempted relationships with coworkers in the past. I can't say I necessarily condone it, but I wouldn't report you over it either, as long as you were both able to remain professional. You wouldn't be the first ones to try something like that, at least, and you work in different departments, where he's on the sales floor."

"Yeah, and Rikido is on register," says Toru, more to herself, and Momo cocks her head.

"What about Rikido?"

"Oh!" Laughing nervously, Toru turns away for a moment, before turning back and saying, "Well...it's kind of the same situation with him? I know that's really weird! I know it is, but I really like both of them, and I'm pretty sure I could end up dating either one of them."

"E-either one?" Now, Momo really isn't sure what to say. It's surprising enough that Toru would confide any of this in her, but to venture into a topic like this, when it's completely outside of her range of experience is unheard of. This isn't the sort of thing she ever expected to discuss with friends- or maybe just coworkers, she doesn't know if it's presumptuous to consider herself one of Toru's friends or not.

"Yeah, I don't know, maybe I'm just full of myself," the other woman replies with a laugh. "I just get that feeling, you know? From both of them, so I must be pretty lucky!"

"Um, yes, you do seem lucky," says Momo, mostly to be polite. "So, if it came down to it and both of them were interested in you, what would you do?" She hopes that this won't lead to some sort of conflict breaking out at work, which is the main reason she is so curious.

"Okay, this is going to be the weirdest thing I've said all night, so brace yourself." Toru takes a breath before she says, "I'd probably want to see if they wanted to all date? Only if they wanted to, I mean, but I think it could be fun! I think they could both get along really well, and then I wouldn't have to choose...you know?"

"Oh, I...I see." That concept is entirely foreign to Momo, and she wonders to herself how it would work. Would they just talk things out and make a schedule, or spend all of their time together? How would they be able to keep things even? Wouldn't that just cause more conflict than her choosing one of them? How would it affect their work performance?

"Enough about my love life, though! I've been wondering this for a while, but you like Shoto, don't you?"

That is enough to snap Momo out of her thoughts, and enough to cause her to go cold. Toru...knows? Somehow, from how little they talk at work, Toru has been able to figure out one of her best kept secrets? Maybe it was obvious to Kyoka, but Momo has been doing everything she can to keep it to herself besides that! Her heart begins pounding as she tries to think of a response to convince the other woman that there is absolutely no truth to her accusation, but as her face grows red, she finds that she can't speak.

"Yeah, you definitely do," she says. "I don't blame you, he's so hot, you know? Everyone notices, I think, but he's usually pretty distant with people, so anyone who likes him usually gives up. Not that you should give up! He's kinda different with you, so maybe you have a chance!"

All of this is far too much for Momo to deal with right now, and she mumbles, "I really need to get back to work, we shouldn't stand around talking like this," before she turns to flee. Her face is still red for quite some time after she walks away, and she knows that it's stupid, but she can't get what Toru said out of her head.

He's kinda different with you, so maybe you have a chance!

As if, she thinks, trying to stop herself from thinking along those lines. Toru doesn't know what she's talking about; maybe she's content to try to date a coworker, or even two, but Momo knows that her own crush is unrealistic, and that she wouldn't ever have a chance with a manager.

"Mezo! Hey, come over here!" She's snapped out of her thoughts when she hears a voice, and looks down an aisle to see Mezo passing Minoru. The stock associate stayed late because they had a big truck and a lot of call-ins, and he's finishing putting things out for the night.

"What is it?"

"I need your help to lift something! And maybe you can put it on the shelf too, cos I don't know if I can reach it," Minoru replies.

"What do you do when you're the only sales floor person on the schedule?" Mezo asks.

"I either leave stuff or make someone in the fitting room help me, duh," he says with a shrug. "Say, Momo, you can help me too, right? Since you're so tall."

"Of course," she says, walking down to join the two of them. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Trust me, I can think of a lot of things I might need, but they're not all work related," he says, going so far as to wink at her, and she winces.

Mezo gives him a small smack on the back of the head, saying, "Seriously?"

"You can't blame me for trying!" he protests.

"Just let me know if you need anything," she says, then corrects herself. "Work related." Mezo continues scolding him as she walks away, and though the encounter was less than pleasant, she's almost grateful, because, for a moment, she was distracted from what Toru said.

But only for a moment, unfortunately.