The Boy Who Didn't Love

14 - thank you

  She had to admit: working at customer support was much less stressful. Only it wasn't because of the position itself, it was because of her sociopathic coworker.

Every time a customer came up to her station, Sawyer would jump at the chance to intervene, unless he was with a customer himself. She found it strange, considering he didn't do the same for the other two customer support employees.

She decided to confront him about it, now knowing that he was willing to open up to her if she did.

"Hey, Sawyer," Ali called when there was an idle moment to spare. She watched as he stuffed his phone into his back pocket before coming up to her, staring above her. "Let me ask you something."

"Okay."

Ali cleared her throat. "So don't get me wrong, I do appreciate how much you've been helping me, but can you tell me why you're doing it exactly? Like—"

"No," Sawyer cut her off sharply; she blinked.

"No?"

"No."

"Um, why?" she questioned, puzzled. "I thought you were okay with answering these type of things."

"I am," he assured her, but she only grew even more confused. His eyes dipped down to her face for a split second, before she could even react to it, then pursed his lips. "It's because I don't have an answer to your question."

Ali looked down. "Oh."

"Yeah," Sawyer replied, and knowing that was his equivalent of 'bye', she quickly continued the conversation before he could leave.

"Well, that's okay. You don't have to have an answer to everything," she smiled up at him, emanating nothing but warmth. "That's normal."

Sawyer froze at the charged word, and she furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed the sudden unease in his expression. She stepped closer to him, hearing his breath become shallow. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry if I said something wrong. I didn't mean to upset you. I'm so sorry, Sawyer."

Ali tried to reach for his hand to comfort him, but he quickly drew back. She frowned, although more worried than offended. Before she could speak again, he slowly parted his lips as his eyes passed over her.

"No," he whispered quietly. "Don't be sorry."

She looked up at him while his gaze fell down to her hands. He hesitantly, almost nervously, inched his hand toward hers until he finally touched her warm skin. He swallowed roughly before murmuring a soft: "Thank you."

And with that, Sawyer walked away from the customer support section, deciding to take his break. Ali blinked, her eyes following him in bewilderment.

Ali glanced down at her hand as she felt her heart clench. She didn't understand what had just happened, and she guessed he didn't either, but she knew it meant something. Something important.