The Thirst Wars

Chapter Nineteen: ... YOU AGAIN!?

Jolie rushed around helping various customers as Wayne and his strange friend talked.

A nasal voice would cut the chatter of the busy self-checkout area. "Jolie Mary Carter... I need you to go over to the computer station."

Jolie ran over to Angela... actually happy to see her " Hey! I heard you're mentoring me."

Angela scoffed " Oh Honey I wish, But someone's gotta man the checkout while you're off adventuring. Look. We hired a new Team lead on here, he's a manager at another store who's transferred, He knows his shit and will be in charge of you. He's just at the computer station though. Hurry over."

"Jolie?" Wayne called behind her. She looked over her shoulder at him, giving him a playful smirk and ignoring him. Suck it, Wayne.

She marched down towards the computer station where a tall dark-haired man was standing at the computer, smiling away. The closer she got the more she got worried.

"What the... YOU AGAIN!?"

He stood up taller, sucking in a breath, smiling behind his spectacles "Hi Jolie! How have you been!?"

She gawped, reaching for her forehead. She was having a migraine. her head hurt... things were tense between her and Wayne Rashfield and now Eddie was her new Mentor of all fucking people.

She felt lightheaded, began to wobble and prepared to faint. However, He remembered she was a fainter, and grabbed at her quicker than lightning and steadied her. "Shit! Are you okay..." He watched her with a worried gaze.

He gathered a few of his sheets and began fanning her " Jolie, sweety, look at me. How many fingers am I holding up?"

She was barely aware of what the fuck was going on even though she was trying to collect her thoughts, her brain currently factory resetting.

"Uh... 3.." she mumbled.

"Good... Want me to get a chair? Oh hey, let's go over there how about that? Meeting rooms will be better for this conversation."

She clutched his hand to steady herself and he held onto her carefully, leading her past the self-checkout and towards the office spaces.

Wayne was worried, hurt and distraught. After everything, after the awkwardness these past two weeks and the avoidance and her pushing him away he had to come clean and tell her all the truths. It was hard to with fucking Ryan here though asking him how angry he was feeling today on a scale of 1-10.

" Ten. Definitely a ten." He leered at his precious guardian angel.

Ryan made a note in his phone, semi-hanging over the gates of the self-checkout quad.

He then blinked back up at Wayne " Oh, that's a shame and how likely are you to punch someone today on a scale of 1-10."

Wayne nodded indefinitely " 10. Definitely a 10."

Ryan giggled " I can see you're not in a good mood buddy... Uh.. busy around here huh?"

Wayne succumbed to being nice "Yeah man pre christmas rush..."

Ryan gawped " A shit. sorry. Okay look tomorrow I know you're not working... we should get breakfast, and then we can talk out the details sound good?"

Wayne chirped " Yeah sure."

Ryan gave him a childlike wave and bounced out joyously.

Angela gave a snooty laugh "He's famous that guy. Ryan Blanco, Crazy smart too. I've seen some of his cases and he is brutal."

Wayne mumbled softly to her " I admire him...His Cut throat work ethic and his playful personality I wanna be like him one day."

She glanced at him with a smile " Work harder."