Sweet Tooth | joshler

IX

At the bakery the next day, Tyler was working back in the kitchen while Jenna was up front again, so they hadn't talked a whole lot for the day.

While he was working, Tyler couldn't stop thinking about everything Josh had said about his mom. As mentioned, he felt terrible about everything, and he wished that there was a way for him to somehow help.

Eventually the store slowed down though and they had time for a small break, and so he took off his gloves and then headed up front to talk to Jenna.

Jenna was on her phone doing whatever, and she glanced up to him for a second when he walked over. "You did a good job on cleaning last night," she told him.

"Thanks, but it actually wasn't just me," he said, causing Jenna to glance up again at him, "Josh helped."

She stayed silent at first for a few seconds, staring up at him blankly, "...huh. Okay, well... hm." She was unhappy that Tyler kept him there while he closed up, but she still didn't say anything about it yet. Instead, she just asked, "why did he stay so late?"

"Because, we made plans to hang out after I got off, so he stayed til I was done, and he helped clean so we could leave faster," he explained.

"Mm," was all Jenna replied with initially before asking, "so did he pay for the food you made him last night too?"

"Well-" the truth was, he did not, so he told Jenna hesitantly, "...no... but- look, he was out all day and he told me that he hadn't eaten yet, and he was stressed because of... a family problem..."

"The thing with his mom?"

Tyler gave her a blank and confused look before asking, "you know?" Jenna nodded with a 'mhm' and then further explained, "I told my mom how we met him and how his mom knew mine a couple weeks ago, and she told me a little bit about it. All she said was that she was really sick and's been in the hospital for a while."

"Well... there's definitely a lot more to it," he told her, "but I'm not gonna go telling you all his business. But, just-... he's not in a good place financially right now because of helping to pay for his mom's stuff, and he's having some other problems too, so just... take it easy on 'em. And, I wasn't gonna make him pay for the food originally, I won't lie, but, after everything, I wasn't gonna make him do it for sure. If you want the money for it though, I'll pay for it, or you can just take money from my paycheck or something-"

She cut him off, shaking her head a bit as she told him, "no, no, you don't have to pay, it's fine, and neither does he..."

"You sure?" he double checked just to make sure.

"I'm sure, just... don't do that too much, I don't want my mom figuring it out somehow."

"I know, I know," Tyler repeated, and the two went quiet for a short moment after that. After that, he asked out of curiosity, "...other than that, have you talked to your mom at all lately? I haven't heard from her really."

She was quick to answer, "no... not really. I do need to though, to ask about, y'know."

The "y'know" she was referring to was her currently situation on trying to convince her mom to let her run the store. As mentioned before, her mom was the one who technically owned and controlled the place, and it wasn't that Jenna just wanted the control and position, but she wanted it because it would prove that her mother trusted her enough to handle it. She just wanted to show off and prove her responsibility to her, and to make her proud by managing and running it successfully.

Tyler had already known this forever now, and he also knew how difficult her mother was being about it too, so he asked, "and what did she say this time?"

"The same thing as always," she answered with a sigh, "she doesn't think I'm ready and would feel more comfortable if I didn't take the position yet. Which, I don't know how she doesn't think I'm ready when I do a fine job of running it already anyways... but, it's whatever. It doesn't seem like I'm ever gonna change her mind at some point."

"I love your mom, Jen, but sometimes she makes no sense to me," he told her, crossing his arms in the process. "You've already basically been the owner for years. You've been the manager, a great manager at that, so... I don't get why she says she doesn't trust you or whatever. Nothing bad has happened to this place while you've been in charge."

"I feel like she thinks I'm just gonna change up everything or something. Like, I'm gonna set completely different rules and'll mess things up. And yes, I would like to change a few things... none of it's drastic like that. I just wanna redecorate a little, change some of the hours maybe, and increase your salary, those are the main things."

"You wanna increase my salary?" he asked, wondering why she wanted to, but he definitely wasn't gonna argue with the decision.

Jenna elaborated on it after that, "yes, because you usually end up doing more work than I do around here, so it's only fair if you get paid what you deserve."

He took a second to reflect on what she said before he shrugged and nodded, "well... I like that plan," he laughed a bit. "Also, you said you wanna change the hours? Does that mean you'll finally take some time off?"

She gave him a small glare and flat expression before simply answering, "...nope," and gave a sly little smile.

Tyler scoffed a little and then ended up laughing a little more, "wow, whatever. You should take some time off though..."

She looked at him with another bland expression before telling him, "nah, I'm good."

At that, he just gave up trying, "mm, if you insist I guess... but, I dunno. Maybe just wait a little bit longer and try and bring it up again? 'Cause I wouldn't ask again too quickly. And maybe ask her what you can do to make her change her mind."

"I guess," she sighed, "I'll try again. But I've already tried that before, she just didn't really give a clear answer... I don't know. I don't feel like stressing about it right now though, can we talk about something else please?"

"Yeah yeah, sure," he said, about to bring up something else until he heard the door open and he and Jenna looked to it. He smiled though when he saw that it was Josh coming to visit him for his lunch break, and he immediately went to him and greeted him, leaving Jenna back at the counter.

Jenna sighed again and looked the other way, mumbling to herself, "well so much for that..."