Two Weeks Later…
“Have a nice day,” Veronica smiled at her customer and grabbed the meat from the slicer, putting it back in the case. Sighing heavily, she turned to the cheese slicer, slicing some cheese down for the display case. It’d been two weeks since she last heard from Nick and unlike before, it wasn’t good. They’d talked pretty much non stop for the last few months and now all of a sudden he’s never online and he never emailed her.
She hadn’t thought that a picture frame and some poems would be offensive, but maybe it was to him, she had no idea what he was thinking. Ok, so maybe the poems were a bit presumptuous, he had yet to talk to her about what was going on with his family, and honestly, she didn’t expect him to. Should she email him? What was the worst that could happen? He could either ignore her, or email her back telling her he didn’t want to be bothered with anymore. Would he even waste his time to do that?
“Veronica, could you work on the gourmet prep please?” Shelly asked, holding up the laminated pieces of paper.
“Sure,” Veronica smiled, but inwardly she groaned. She hated cutting for the gourmet sandwiches. It was long and tedious and stupid. Sliding the tray back into the case, she headed over and looked over the first sheet, heading into the kitchen to get the proper cambro’s, plastic dishes and containers they held food and the such in. Bringing them back out, she grabbed the proper piece of meat and started cutting, making sure that each set was a certain amount. Her thoughts drifted back to Nick.
Maybe the fact that she’d made one of those frames for him for his album, maybe he was mad because it hadn’t been a real official one, even though he already had one. It was such a fan thing to do, but she couldn’t help it. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time. She’d spend so much time trying to decide what to get him, knowing good and well that he could get anything he really wanted. The poems were personal to her, so she thought she’d share that bit of herself with him, just so he knew he wasn’t alone, that had obviously backfired in her face. The card too, apparently that was a mistake since he hadn’t even thanked her for it since he got it. That’d be the last time she’d send him anything.
“Hey V!”
Veronica looked up quickly, her heart beginning to race.
“James, hey.”
He gave her a smile before turning and heading into the kitchen to talk to Shelly.
Veronica let out a sigh of relief, going back to slicing. The faster she got it done the better; she didn’t want to do anything around him that could end in a catastrophe. A short time later, she was just finishing up when James came back out of the kitchen.
“What’s up?” James asked as he made his way over to her.
“Oh nothing, just finishing up gourmet prep.”
Just then a customer came up and she stopped, moving to help the customer. James came closer, the light scent of his cologne filling the air.
“So how has it been today?”
“Uhh, n-not too bad,” Veronica replied weakly.
He stopped right next to her, looking into the case to see what in wafer needed to be filled. She snuck a quick glance at him, still cutting for her customer. She wished he’d move away, she couldn’t think when he was that close. Sighing she set the paper with the meat on it on the scale.
“I only wanted a half a pound,” the customer spat.
Veronica could feel her face burning, if she hadn’t been watching James…
“Sorry,” she mumbled, reaching out to take a few slices off.
She caught James’s eye and he gave her a small smile and a wink before grabbing one of the trays out and walking away with it. Shaking her head, she quickly priced the meat up and handed the package to the customer.
“Sorry about that.”
The woman rolled her eyes and quickly walked off. Sighing again, Veronica grabbed the meat off the slicer to put it back when James came back over.
“God, what was her problem?”
“I cut too much.”
“So? That doesn’t mean she had to be nasty. So you had to take some off.”
Veronica smiled, “Yeah well, you know how it goes.”
“I know, just don’t let it bother you. Customers can be so damn nasty.”
She nodded, forcing herself to relax. She grabbed a cloth and started wiping a slicer down.
“So how have you been? We hardly ever get to work together.”
“I’ve been ok, ya know, same ole crap.”
“Yeah, I hear ya.”
“How bout you? How have you been?”
“I’ve been good actually. Working and going to class, hanging out a bit, ya know the usual.”
“Oh, so do you go to clubs and stuff a lot?”
“Yeah sure, I usually go with a couple of friends every Friday, well when I’m not working that is.”
Veronica nodded; she really should just ask him out sometime. Maybe one of those Friday’s she could go with him, or at least meet him at a club.
“How many people do you go with?”
“Mmm, there’s usually three or four of us, depending on if everyone’s available or if they want to ya know?”
They were quiet for a while, both involved in what they were doing. She should just ask him, just do it now. She looked over at him; he was finishing putting the meat on the tray, getting ready to bring it over to put in the case.
“James…”
“Hey guys!”
Veronica turned to see Carla come out of the kitchen, smiling, making her way over.
“Hey Carla!” James smiled.
“Hey,” Veronica whispered.
“What’s up?”
Veronica watched as James went over to talk to Carla as she washed her hands. She made her way over to the other slicer and she could hear James and Carla talking.
“…So yeah, he set me up with this friend of his, we’re supposed to go out this evening,” James announced.
“Oh yeah? Has he told you anything about her?” Carla asked.
“Not much, she’s my age, goes to the same college as me, so I may even have seen her around.”
“Where you guys gonna go?”
“Not sure, I’m thinking maybe bowling…”
Veronica frowned; she should’ve just asked him. Then again not that he would’ve said yes, he was already going out with someone now. She was stupid to think that someone like him would even consider it.
“Hey V, what’s up?” Carla asked as brought the tray that James had over and slipped it into the case.
“Hey Carla, not much,” Veronica responded as she watched her with the tray. “I thought…”
“He had to take the chickens down, Shelly cornered him,” Carla groaned.
Veronica chuckled, “Lucky him.”
“I know,” Carla winked.
“Better him than me I always say.”
“You should just ask him you know,” Carla announced suddenly.
“Ask who what?”
“James, ask him out.”
“What?! I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Carla I just heard him tell you he’s going out with someone tonight.”
“That’s a blind date, that doesn’t count.”
“Yes it does; besides, I’m not his type anyway.”
“How do you know that if you don’t even try?”
“I’m telling you, I don’t have to actually go out on a date with him to know. I can just tell.” Veronica finished.
“Aww Veronica,” Carla sighed.
Two hours later, Veronica made her way out of the department, waving bye to everyone. She gave James a small smile as she passed, hearing him as he talked to some of the other guys about his date that night. Feeling thoroughly depressed, she made her way to the back to punch out.
