Dating Game ☆ Bucky x Reader

Chapter 11

The next morning your skin still feels grimy even though you showered twice before going to bed. Sleep didn't happen, not for a lack of trying though. You spent half the night in your bed with the soft comforter up to your chin staring at the ceiling before getting up and trying to find ways to keep your brain occupied. You took a third shower, read a little of the latest time waster romance book you had on your nightstand, made a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on toast, and now you can see the sun poking over the top of the buildings outside your window.

"This is Christine Everhart with WHiH Newsfront. It seems gang violence is ramping up on the outskirts of Hell's Kitchen. Police report several bodies recovered from a crime scene this morning..."

You pick up your remote and turn the TV off with a sigh. Maybe if you just pretend none of this ever happened you can go back to your boring life with your quiet routine. No rogue assassins on your doorstep. Only coffee, your morning walk playlists, your quiet job, and your books.

It's difficult to feel anything but numb. Your thoughts are pins and needles and hard to keep ahold of.

A ding blared through the room, a lot louder than it should be. You don't even want to look at it. The thought of facing another person, even digitally, is exhausting.

There's another ding. You look at your phone and realize there was a nearly ten minute gap between the alerts. It felt like seconds.

The screen goes black on your cellphone as you just turn it off instead of checking the messages.

Your feet feel like lead as you walk down the stairs to the door of your restroom. You splash water in your face from the sink, avoiding your own reflection. Last night staring at your tired eyes looking back at you lifted the hairs on the back of your neck. It felt wrong and out of place.

A little while later you have curled back up in your bed and wrapped up in several blankets. There's a chill you can't seem to shake that has sunk into your core. Maybe tomorrow things will be different.

-

You walk through the glass doors of FuturePharm promptly at eight Monday morning after spending an hour trying to hide your dark circles with layers of concealer and foundation. You are pretty sure you failed. The brilliant white lighting in the building is like a knife to the brain almost immediately.

Walking past the planters with fancy exotic tropical plants that they probably paid a fortune for, you nod at the security guard in the corner. The clicking of your heels on the floor is exaggerated in the quiet of the mostly empty lobby. You plop less than gracefully down into the leather chair behind the large front desk. It only takes you a few minutes to get logged into the system.

The sound of the morning shift walking in pollutes the air. The next forty five minutes consists of scanning employee badges before putting their personals in a basket and passing them to security to check as they file through the metal detector beside your desk. It is repetitive and you zone out while asking for badges, purses, watches, and other items repeatedly.

"Badge please?" you say as you hold out your hand without looking up.

"Excuse me?"

"I need your badge, please, sir. Personal belongings go in the box there." You gesture at the basket beside the metal detector.

"I don't think she knows who I am. Do you not know who I am?" The man's voice echoes loudly in the nearly empty lobby.

It is at that moment you snap out of your brain fog and finally take in the dark haired man standing on the other side of your desk in his dark grey suit and red and black patterned tie. His eyes are hidden behind very expensive looking sunglasses. Your heart threatens to beat itself out of your chest and your eyes widen.