The Retail Store, Part 12

Months had gone by
And in this time I decided to lie low
A part of this was from a feeling of guilt for what I saw myself becoming

Working at the store, helped me pay off my debts and I was close to breaking free. That feeling made me work even harder.

I kept a bit of a distance from the staff keeping our relationship friendly but with no benefits. All seemed to be going well until an ember of the past started burning

"Well you sure have outdone yourself, I'm not even sure if we should still call you Newbie" The boss smirked at me

"I can't thank you enough for the opportunity, when I started I honestly was feeling lost"

"Oh really, well I take it this place feels like home now considering you're always here working" She remarked

"Am I really here that often? I didn't even notice"

She gazed into me nefariously the continued:

"Well it's not really home if you don't have any keys" She held out her hand, with keys on her palm

I reached out to take them, that's when she put her other hand on top of mine.

"This is a privilege, the red room is sacred ground"

A part of me forgot about it, yes The door was in the staff room but I barely noticed. In fact I became so lazer focused that a lot was passing me by.

The day went on, it was now my lunch time. As I walked into the staff room I found Chloe crying

"Uhm Chloe are you okay" I've always been weird around people crying

"He's such an asshole, I can't believe I gave him so much of my time"

"Uhm yeah" clearly confused

She stopped crying and walked up to me

"He really thinks I can't do what he did"

She tried holding onto me, I gently pushed her away

"Come on C this is so unlike you, what's up?"

"He was cheating the entire time, I was playing second fiddle to Jay. He was out here pretending to be better than everyone meanwhile he is just like everyone here" Tears were rolling down her cheek

"Talk about a heart breaker" Samantha remarked.

I didn't even notice her walk in.

"Trade with me" she said this with a stern look in her eyes.

I won't lie, I was hungry but this was too emotional for me to deal with.

"Okay" I left them there. It was a bit funny, Sam always acted tough yet always tried to uplift those that are down.

As I walked out, Candice was in her working section for the day. Which was near the staff room.

"Isn't it your lunch time, or have tou taken up fasting?"

"Yeah this very walk is pilgrimage, I'm a holy man now"

I'm sure she was close to enough to hear everything, why so jovial

As if she was reading my mind:

"I didn't like them together, if I walked in it would seem like an 'I told you so' - I asked Sam to be the super hero"

"So you're what commissioner Gordon?"

"No I'm the girl you had sex with then hardly spoke to for the past few months"

Talk about leaving the pan and entering the fire

"This whole situation with C made me think, if it was just fucking I'd get it but really You, Claire and I can't be in a trigonometry situation our angles don't really make a triangle"

"That's very geeky of you, Candy" trying to make light of the situation.

"That's that avoidant side of you speaking, this isn't a soapie, we can't be in, in a will they won't they situation....

I took her hand and lead her into the staff room. This was abrupt and honestly probably out of desperation. This wasn't a conversation which I wanted to have.

It was the red room which we were headed to, I guess those keys came in handy much sooner than expected.

Like a magnet for walking in on people, We found Samantha and Chloe making out