Loose Ends

Chapter 45

Adrian woke up bright and early Saturday morning and stretched. Today's my first day of work she thought with a smile as she rolled herself out of bed and began to get ready for the day. She found her dad eating breakfast at the kitchen table when she came downstairs.

"Morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling this morning?"

"Good." She went to the fridge to take out the ingredients to make some scrambled eggs."

"Excited for your first day?" Adrian nodded as she got to work fixing her breakfast. Ruben checked his watch and then stood up, downing the rest of his coffee.

"I've got an early deposition so I won't be here to see you off," he informed her as he placed his dishes in the sink and ran water over them. He kissed Adrian's temple and then grabbed his briefcase. "Have a good first day. I'll see you tonight."

"'Kay. Bye, dad," she called as he headed out the door. Across town Ricky was dropping John off at his parents' house.

"You have fun today with Grandma Margaret, okay?"

"'Kay," John replied from Margaret's arms. She bounced John slightly with a smile.

"We're gonna have lots of fun today. We're going to John's first swimming class. Isn't that right, John?" John nodded his head but Ricky and Margaret knew he was responding more to the tone of her voice than her actual question. Ricky kissed John and then his mother and headed off to work while Margaret took John inside to feed him his breakfast. At the Juergens household only Anne, George and Robbie were up, Ashley and Amy sleeping in since it was the weekend.

"I'll see you all tonight," George told Anne before kissing her cheek and then ruffling Robbie's hair, causing him to laugh. "Don't give mommy or your sisters a hard time today, okay little man?" Robbie just smiled in his high chair. Soon after George left to head to the furniture store, Adrian got into her car and headed to Rose's Reads, the bookstore she'd be working at. She parked in the small employee parking lot behind the store and went in through the back, making her way to her boss' office. Finding her boss seated at her desk with her office door open, Adrian knocked on the doorframe to get her attention.

"Good morning, Adrian," Rose greeted her with a smile. "Ready for your first day?" Adrian nodded. "Follow me and I'll show you were you can put your things." Adrian was given a tour of the employee spaces, which was brief as the building wasn't that big, and then Rose showed Adrian how to clock in and out for her shifts. "Since we don't want you on your feet too much right now, I'm gonna start you off with the computer side of things," Rose explained with a smile. She lead Adrian to a computer work station off to the side of the main registers and they both sat down in the chairs in front of it. "Basically I'm gonna put you in charge of crosschecking online orders with our inventory. Since people can order books from us online, we need to double check that we have the books they want in stock and if so, we process the order. If not, we need to order them from our wholesale supplier." Adrian nodded to let Rose know she was following along. Rose gave her another smile, which seemed to be as much a fixture on Rose's face as it was on Grace's. "Let's get to it then."

At the butcher shop Ricky and Ben were hard at work. Ricky noticed Ben seemed a little quieter than usual and looked for a chance to ask him about it. The opportunity came when Bunny asked them to flatten empty boxes and pile them into the large recycle dumpster outside.

"You okay? You seem a little quieter than usual," Ricky told him. Ben nodded.

"Yeah, I've just been thinking about our talk yesterday." Ricky gave him a concerned look and Ben was quick to reassure him. "I'm not freaking out anymore, honest," he declared as he tossed a flattened box into the dumpster. "There's just so much to think about. You know?" Ricky nodded as he tossed a couple of flattened boxes into the dumpster. In another part of town at a Burger King, a small group of girls were eating breakfast and looking at their phones while they chatted.