STATIC BLUE | carmen berzatto

ii. 'deal?'

the bird - anderson paak
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There was little breakthrough of a friendship between Margaret and Carmen. He didn't go to another meeting and she stayed out of his way. It was easy like this. Pretend the other didn't exist.

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"Why the fuck is no one avalible for catering today?" Carmen yelled out as he walked into the kitchen with the calendar in his hand. He skimmed over it 3 times now to make sure he hadn't missed anything but no. Almost everyone was not able to help with catering today.

Tina shrugged, "Someone's gotta manage the kitchen while you're gone." she babbled her spoon around as she spoke, "Everyone can't have taken off, that's ridiculous."

Before Carmen could speak, Ebraheim walked by with box, "Corner!" he called out. He set down the box by the back door, "I don't do kids man,they don't know how to eat food properly. Always have it all over their face." he chuckled.

"Only super young kids eat like slobs." Sydney cut in, walking over to Carmen to look at the spreadsheet. He showed her in defeat. "Ah, wait." She pointed a finger at a name and lit up. Carmen shook his head, looking up her. She nodded rapidly and called Margaret over.

"Sydney, no." he said under his breath before Margaret approached them. Carmen let out a sigh and he made sure Margaret heard it.

She did. She made a sour face towards Carmen then turned her attention to Sydney.

"You're free today, right? You up to help Carmy with catering for a kid's birthday party?" she asked, waiting for her response. Margaret's eye flicked over to Carmen, then back to Sydney.

"You can't do it?" she asked.

Carmen threw his hands up, almost in relief, "See, she doesn't want to do it." he looked at Sydney, "I can do it by myself, it's no problem." Carmen started to turn around but stopped by Sydney as she put an arm out in front of him.

"Weren't you just complaining not even 5 minutes ago how no one was available to help you today?" She raised her eyebrows, knowing she had Carmen in a hole that he would not be able to get out of.

He gently pushed her arm back down to her side, "I wasn't complaining, I was just questioning why everyone wasn't available for today."

"Sounded like you were complaining, Cousin." Richie called from over the counter. Margaret say his head pop up from the ground.

"Richie, shut the fuck up." Carmen yelled back, which was responded with a snicker from Richie. "Fuckin idiot."

"You wanted help," Sydney turned Carmen's body back towards Margaret, "There's your help."

He groaned but didn't resist the idea of Margaret helping. Kids were a lot and it would be nice to have an extra set of hands. He stared at her for a good 5 seconds before he made his decision.

"Go start loading the boxes into the car out back. The boxes are towards the front of the car, come get me when you're done." Carmen ordered. Margaret bit her lip, hard, but didn't object. She brushed past him, making it known that she was annoyed with him bossing her around like that. She went out the back doors and began to load the car up.

Sydney looked at Carmen with a disappointed "mom" expression, crossing her arms, "Go help her." She pointed to the door, waiting for Carmen to leave.

"I got stuff to do in here. She'll be done soon, she's a quick worker." Carmen shrugged. He retreated to his office, closing the door with his foot. He flicked on the plug-in fan and began to organize the stacks of bills he'd been tackling for the past couple weeks. He had waited around 3 minutes before Margaret came back to get him.