Upon the Gaze (Ghostface X Reader 18+)

CHAPTER 22 - Oversaturated Emerald

I rushed out the door, frantically pulling my coat on. Ghostface called to me from the front door, and I stopped and turned to look at him. "Forgetting something?" He held up my car keys, and I thunked my head with my knuckle. He tossed them across the yard  and surprisingly I caught them.
"Have a good day at work, beautiful." He said. He winked at me as he went back inside and closed the door. I rushed into my car, now slightly more flustered than I was before. Hopefully nobody would mind me being a little late.

"Good afternoon, (Y/n)!" Shayna called to me as cheerful as always from behind the front counter. "Afternoon, Shayna." I called back with a weak wave. I clocked in and came around to the back side of the counter. I began sorting through the endless pile of books that only ever seemed to grow. They  really ought to get another person besides myself and Shayna to go through all of these, I thought.
"Feels like forever since I saw you here last." Shayna said, as she adjusted a hair pin keeping her bangs up.
"Yeah, it was a nice couple days off." I responded, looking for books starting with A titles. "You called out one of those days, were you sick?" She asked.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry did you have to cover that shift for me?" She simply nodded and said, "Mhmm" but in a playful manner.
"I'm sorry about that." I said, getting frustrated with the amount of L titles when I was looking for B's.
"Oh no worries! I got to train the cute new guy because of it!" I looked up from the books. "New guy?" She mhmmed again and I grew curious. "Who's the new guys? And does he work often? 'Cause this book pile is absurd. Would be nice to get some extra help sorting these more often." I said agitated because I couldn't find any C titles knowing there would definitely be C titled books in a pile this big.
"Hoping to get a shift with a cute guy?" She prodded. "What? Not really. I just want less work." She huffed a bit at my disinterest.
"Aren't you at least curious as to what he looks like?" She continued to try to build my interest. I decided to play along and pretend to act interested just so she would get on some long tangent where I wouldn't have to respond for a while.
"He's a cute burnett boy, named Jarret!" I nodded my head, only half listening.
"He's so polite and listens well. He wears this hot leather jacket, and he has these green eyes!" As she continued I caught the glance of a stranger behind the counter. I assumed it was a customer dropping off books. He had brown hair, green eyes, a leather jacket-
"Shayna." I interrupted her gushing, and pointed behind her. She looked over confused at first but seemed to assume the same as I did originally, at there being a customer. She nearly jumped out of her skin once she laid eyes on the boy.
"Oh gosh! Jarret! H-hey!"
She tried to take a casual position like she hadn't just been talking loudly about how attractive she found the boy to be. I simply laughed and shook my head.
"Afternoon, Shayna." The boy had a big smile on his face, a prideful one it seemed, having caught her gloating about his features. The more I stared at this boy from my nest of books, the more he looked like he could be from a commercial trying to sell you something like tooth paste or hair products. His smile showed a set of perfectly straight, white teeth, and his hair was styled slightly similar to Ghostface's in length, but pulled slightly more to one side. It was more of a chestnut brown, rather than Ghostface's dark, almost black hair, and his eyes had a complete opposite hue to Ghostface's cerulean blue orbs. This boy's werr more of what I'd describe as an oversaturated emerald. Another thing that felt unnaturally perfect about him. After a while of staring, I realized the boy's gaze drifted from babbling Shayna to me. I immediately looked away upon noticing and went back to my own business, trying not to get anxious.
After a few minutes he walked off to clock in, as he was apparently working a shift with us this afternoon.
"Oh my GOD! Why didn't you say something sooner! He totally knows I was talking about him!" Shayna fussed. "Sorry, I hadn't even met the guy before. How was I supposed to know immediately that it was him standing behind you?" Shayna groaned at my responce as she sat in the only chair behind the counter and leaned down into her knees. I shrugged her off and continued my sorting.
I was at the F titles when I felt a presence behind me. I saw a hand extend out to me in my peripheral vision. I turned to look, and saw the oversaturated emerald eyes of the Jarret boy above me.
"I don't think we've met yet, have we? Names Jarret." He beamed with confidence. What the hell is with all these confident men, I thought. I shifted in my position on the floor and reluctantly took his hand to shake. "(Y/n)." I responded. "We haven't met yet. You started during my days off."
"Makes sense then why I didn't recognize you." He responded. No shit sherlock, I thought in my head. I wondered why this attractive young man was being so talkative with me. "Need some help with the books?" He asked. "No, I got it." I said, though immediately remembered I had just been complaining about wanting the help.
Damn my anxiety.
"Nah, it's fine. It's my job to sort too." He said as he began to cycle through the titles as well. I felt conflicted as I didn't like being so close to him, but also did want to cut my work time in half. Regardless, I explained to him where I had left off in titles and we began to sort. Shayna usually handled the people dropping books off in the front, stamping check-in and check-out cards, and putting the returns in a new bin to be sorted  through by me. It had become a sort of dynamic between us, so it was odd to have a third person here now. However, the books would likely get sorted more efficiently now. I often didn't get through all of them on my own before my shift was over.