The Cycle

Chapter 9: After

"Hey,Tues."

After being scared out of my skin, I slowly turned around to face the inevitable. I knew my face had to be drained of most of my color, but I couldn't just stand there staring at the pop machine like an idiot.

"Um, hey Harry" My voice was too high, but the words already left my mouth.

He smiled at me. A knowing smile that hinted to the fact that he was replaying last night in his head as he was staring at me.

"So, last night was really fun. I hope you felt the same?" He reached around me grabbing a to-go cup & then standing next to me to fill it up.

So much for my color being gone, as I could feel the heat in my face rising. "Yeah, I had a great time last night. I'm really glad you showed up."

"Me too." He unwrapped a straw & stuck it through his drink.

A few seconds of sightly awkward silence passed before he spoke again.

"We definitely need to hang out again." He flashed me a very charming smile & walked back towards the dish room.

I was left standing up on the front line to wrestle with my brain screaming at me. So, that didn't go as I had thought it would. Or the way that Alex had innocently scared me into thinking about.

He wanted to hang out.

Again.

This was good news!

A smile snuck its way onto my face, as I turned around to the sound of the door opening & people filing inside.

The night carried on somewhat slowly; people coming in here & there. It gave me time to give the front line a good scrub & straightening up. I also took as many chances to be able to go into the dish room for cups; each time Harry & I would steal not so sly glances at each other.

Before I knew it, I was locking the doors. Luckily for me, I had already done all of my work except for the ice cream machine. I finished locking the last door & came back inside to store the keys away. I made my way into the back for lexon tubs for the ice cream & then headed to the bakery.

I removed the base & the top coverings of the ice cream machine & took them into the dish room. I walked back into the bakery & started draining the ice cream. I started to zone out as usual; this was the worst part of my job.

"You need any help?"

I shivered at the sound of his voice & turned my head back to look at him. Ever since I met him, I knew he was good looking. But after seeing him in street clothes, seeing him in his uniform definitely masked quite a lot.

"No, thank you. I do this all the time, so it's kind of monotonous."

"I know, you're always working. I like that in a woman." He smiled, his green eyes extremely bright under the bakery lights.

"Well, I like to have money. So, working helps in that aspect." I laughed at my bad attempt at a joke.

"Money is quite nice to have. One of the biggest reasons of why I need to get the hell out of this shit hole."

I switched lexon tubs & began filling it up when I asked Harry a question.

"You can't make that bad of money here. I mean, I know it's not great, but still."

He smiled again. "You're right, it's not bad. But, I want to be able to make you really happy & this job will not allow for that."

I'm extremely glad that I was no longer holding either tubs of ice cream or they would've ended up on the floor in a huge mess. I can't wrap my head around what he just said. He wants to make me really happy? I felt this flutter in my stomach & a smile spread across my face. I can't lie, I loved the way he made me feel when we were together.