.
It's been a week and Dale has hired someone new - to replace her when she leaves - and while Beth likes to pride herself on being nice to everyone and always giving someone the benefit of the doubt, she can't help but feel a little wary about Cesar Martinez.
He's a few years older than her and has a cocky attitude most of the time and Beth finds it really annoying - and also a little weird - that he prefers to just be called by his last name. So she tries to find the good qualities in him, like the fact that he has a friendly personality (even though it might be deemed a little too friendly at times) and he picks up the work pace pretty easily - not that it was very hard - and that at least makes her job of training him a little easier.
She tries to distance herself from him though, which is why she finds herself out on the floor, reorganizing the shelves when Daryl comes in that night. She looks up when the door opens and Martinez gives Daryl a curt head nod in greeting and Daryl pauses, his hand still on the door as he seems to give the guy a once over.
"Hi Daryl," she calls from over the boxes of cereals she was trying to face.
His head whips over to her and he seems to relax a little, beginning to make his way to the cooler - which was only a few feet away from where she stood.
"Who's the beaner?" he asks gruffly but quiet enough to where Martinez can't hear.
She gives him a disapproving look at the name but when she sees a faint smirk form on his lips she can't help but to smile in return.
"New guy...Dale hired him to be my replacement when I'm gone." she explains, abandoning her work and walking closer to him, now fixing up the display of chips right in front of the cooler door.
Daryl grabs his water and lets the door shut and he surprises her by leaning against it, giving her a look before he glances back at Martinez who is sitting in the desk chair, his feet propped up and looking bored, though he pays them no mind.
"Ya don't like him," Daryl deduces lowly, cocking an eyebrow at her.
Beth frowns and shakes her head slightly. "He's alright...he's a little...different, but still nice enough." she struggles to explain.
Daryl makes a humming noise in the back of his throat and looks at her again, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"He givin' ya any trouble?" he questions, a slight protective tone in his voice that surprises Beth and she looks back at him.
She shakes her head again. "Nothin' I can't handle." she shrugs.
Daryl grunts, a disgruntled sound that makes her believe he doesn't like that answer at all.
"Come on, I'll ring ya out," she says then and begins to walk to the front of the store and even though she knows he is right behind her, she's surprised at how quiet his steps are.
She gives Martinez a small smile as she walks behind the counter and motions for him to stay where he is - not only did she know Daryl wouldn't want the guy ringing him out, she also didn't want to let him - and she grabs a pack of smokes and begins ringing Daryl up. They finished the transaction silently and when he left, he almost seemed like he didn't want to.
"Ya still got my number?" he whispered gruffly, so low that Beth had to strain her ears and lean a bit forward to hear him.
She was surprised by his question but nodded anyways, smiling slightly and he nodded as well before giving a rough sigh and heading out the door. He seemed to linger longer than usual but Beth figured maybe she was just imagining it and she let out a small sigh as she pulled herself up to sit on the counter.
"Pretty quiet around here," Martinez speaks up.
"Yeah but it's nice, I think," Beth says, giving him a smile and he smirks. "It's also pretty easy, I mean, this store is pretty much empty after midnight. You'll get a good few hours to yourself before the morning rush starts to come in."
"Hmm," Martinez hums with a look that makes a tingle run down Beth's spine and she isn't sure why she suddenly feels the need to distance herself from him once again.
She hops down from the counter and makes her way out onto the floor, looking for anything to do. She manages to busy herself for the next few hours and when a truck pulls into the lot and a man comes in, introducing himself as Philip and as one of Martinez's good friends - the latter of whom decides to go outside for a smoke break that lasts almost a good hour as he converses with the equally off putting man named Philip - Beth decides that the end of the week can't come fast enough because not only would she be rid of this place but she would also not have to deal with the uncomfortable feeling that seemed to be taking root in her veins as she kept an eye on the two men outside.
Later when she's driving home that morning, she decides that good manners be damned, she doesn't like Cesar Martinez, or his good friend Philip, at all.
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Alright! You asked for it! Now here's a little warning...this was the last chapter I had prewritten so I can't guarantee there will be an update tomorrow but I will definitely try!
Thank you for reading and please review! :)