Wiping at her mouth, Veronica took a sip of her water and looked up at the clock, fifteen minutes left for lunch. Who in the hell could eat lunch in thirty minutes and feel content after? She sure couldn’t, what she wouldn’t give for an hour lunch. Staring down at her half-eaten salad, she picked up the container and tossed it in the garbage, she couldn’t eat anymore anyway, it just wasn’t sitting right with her today. Sitting back down, she drank some more water and stared at the TV screen blankly. She had so much to do when she got home, laundry, make a few phone calls, pay some bills, and make dinner. Veronica capped the bottle and rested her head on her hand, she wished she had something to look forward to. Her life was so boring, she never really went out or did anything, too self-conscious, but always was a homebody.
Standing, she grabbed her bottle and headed out the break room. It wasn’t that she didn’t like going out, she did, but it was a consistent struggle for her to let her guard down and actually have fun. Veronica wasn’t typical for someone her age. She didn’t drink, much to the dismay of her friends, and didn’t have swarms of guys calling her. This was fine in some ways, but sometimes it would be nice to have a guy call her. Then again she hated talking to guys on the phone, she would much rather see them in person, she didn’t know if that was worse since she could not seem to talk to guys that way either. She was a mess.
Veronica punched back in and headed back to her department, it seemed the days just dragged by, it was already the first of the month and that…she stopped suddenly. The first of the month, which meant Nick, would be coming back from London at some point. He hadn’t mentioned it in his letter, but she’d read online that he’d gone to do some promotional stuff for his next album, he’d be home sometime this week, and that meant he would get the letter. The nervousness rose fast and hard, her stomach churning. He was going to read her letter and either throw it out, or write back. It was so easy; there wasn’t really room for any other possibility other than him throwing it out. Veronica brought a hand to her heart, oh but what if he did write back? How would she deal with that? Walking over, she washed and dried her hands, tossing the crumpled paper towel out and pulled some gloves on. She would be mature, that’s how she would deal with it. She’d read the letter and then write him back again. What had happened? She’d gone through all this before.
“Hey V!”
Veronica’s head whipped around, her eyes widening.
“Hi James!”
“How’s it going?”
“It’s going.”
“Just get back from lunch huh?”
“Yeah, it’s never long enough though.”
“Oh yeah, I know,” James smiled before heading into the kitchen to get something.
Veronica slumped back against the counter, her heart racing. He’d taken her totally off guard, she wiped her hands on her apron and then remembered she had gloves on and groaned. She had to busy herself somehow, stop her hands from shaking before someone noticed. Grabbing a rag, she started wiping the counters and slicers down, tensing a bit as James came back out, heading over to jaws (or the automatic slicer) and started cutting up meat for the sub list. What else could she say to him without sounding stupid? Lynne said she needed to take chances, but she just couldn’t where he was concerned. Veronica watched out the corner of her eye as James talked with Carla and sighed. She wanted to be that confident and calm.
For some, it was just that easy, Carla could talk to anyone, everyone loved her. Veronica smiled a bit, she was pretty too. She’d gotten hit on at work more times than she could remember, but Carla had been so cool about it and Veronica found it kind of amusing at the same time. Amusing and also kind of depressing, she’d never been hit on while at work. The times she did get hit on were far few between and nothing ever came of it, that or they were guys she wasn’t into. Maybe she set her standards too high; sometimes she expected too much out of people, it was a major downfall. Looking back over at the two, she cursed herself for not walking up to them and joining in, for not being more outgoing. She simply didn’t trust herself.
Shaking her head, Veronica stepped forward to help the customer that had just come up.
