Chapter 6

When Monday finally did come, Christie was busy packing their lunches. She made two PB+J sandwiches, cut carrot sticks, she put in two bottles of apple juice, two granola bars, two strawberry yogurts, some ham and cheese cubes, and two cookies that she spent all day Sunday trying to perfect. It wouldn't all fit in lunch bag, so she had to improvise and double bagged it in grocery sacks. She put the lunch in the breakroom fridge when she got to work and went to start her first day of sales.

Meg noticed her mood change almost immediately. "Feeling better?" She asked Christie as they put on their headsets. Christie gave her a thumbs up. She felt so happy; she even made a sale on her first dial. The rest of the morning flew by and Christie was doing great. When it was finally time for lunch she raced into the breakroom and grabbed the lunch. As she walked out, Meg asked where she was going.

Christie hesitated. "Umm… I have a friend who works nearby and he invited me to have lunch with him, sorry I can't eat with you guys though."

"Ooooh, a lunch date." Meg teased.

Christie blushed. "No… I... it's not like that… I have to go." She said quickly and walked over to the elevator. She rode it down to the basement and walked down the long hall and opened the door at the end. He was sitting at his desk waiting for her. She grinned when she saw him and he smiled back. He stood up and stepped towards her and took the bag out of her hands. He took her now-empty hand and started walking along the back wall.

"Come with me." He said.

She followed him and he pulled her to a door that she hadn't noticed before. He let go of her hand and opened the door. The room beyond was small, with shelves along the walls. But it had been turned into a mini break room. There was a small round table with two chairs at it. There was an industrial-looking sink in one corner and a small mini-fridge next to it. The lights were off in the room, but it was lit by several candles placed on the shelves, with three in a cluster on the table. Unlike the main storage room, this room had a small window in the corner that let in a little light.

Erik set the bag down on the table and turned to Christie and hugged her tightly. He pulled her up to her tiptoes and she wrapped her arms around him.

"I didn't get your message until this weekend, so that's why I never responded." She said into his shoulder.

"This was the longest weekend of my life." He muttered softly into her curls.

He let her go and stepped around her to pull out her chair. She sat down and started unpacking the lunch.

"I didn't what you like, so I brought a lot." She said when everything was laid out. He grabbed the sandwich and unwrapped it. She watched as he took a bite.

"Is it ok?" she asked.

He swallowed. "I haven't had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in ten years, I think…" he mused and took another bite. She smiled and opened her sandwich too. They ate mostly in silence. Not needing to say anything. When they got to the cookies, Erik took a bite, chewed once and stopped. He smiled. "Good." He said after swallowing. Christie tasted her cookie and almost gagged. Apparently, she had forgotten to add the sugar or perhaps swapped the sugar and the salt because her cookies tasted terrible. She made a face and forced herself to swallow.

"Ugh, don't eat that!" she exclaimed, taking the cookie out of his hand. He started laughing and she looked mortified. She eventually couldn't help but laugh as well. She had never heard him laugh like this before and his laughter was contagious.

"I'm really sorry! I'm not a very good cook…" she said once they both could breathe again.

"I wasn't going to say anything." He said, still chuckling.

Christie put both the cookies and all the trash into the bag and got up and put it in the bin. She turned back to Erik with her head held down in shame. He stood up and went over to her.

"It's ok, don't feel badly." He said gently.

"I worked really hard on them is all. I wanted them to be perfect."

"I know." He said. "Sit down, tell me how your day went."

She told him about her first sale and a crazy old man that she had called by mistake and everything else that happened. "I just hope I do a good job here." She said afterwards.

"I know that you will. You could sell me anything." He said with a smile. Her break was almost over and they walked over to his desk together. "Thank you for lunch… even the cookie." He was fighting back a smile.

"Hey!" she said in mock offense and playfully nudged his shoulder. He chuckled and rubbed his arm as if she had hurt him. She rolled her eyes.

"I guess I should get upstairs." She glanced at the clock on his desk.

"I wouldn't want them to send a search party down here."

"I'll see you around I suppose… do you umm want my number?"

Erik smiled down at her. "I'd love to." She wrote it down for him.

"Text me sometime, ok?" He nodded and put the paper in his pocket as she walked to the door and left.

When she got back, Meg grilled her. "How was the date? What's this dudes name? Are you gonna go out again?"

"It was fun. And I don't think that it qualifies as a date, we just had lunch." Christie said.

"Then why can't you stop smiling?" asked Meg with a smirk.

"I'm not smiling." Christie said as she brought her hands to her cheeks self-consciously. "We had better get back to work." She ducked her head into her cubicle.

Erik texted her before she got off work, asking her if he could walk her home again. She said yes and he walked her home every day that week. They hadn't started up her French lessons again, but they would speak French on their walks home some days. He claimed that it wasn't safe for her to walk home alone, which became evident that Friday. They were walking down the street; she was telling him about something funny that Carla had done that day when a man, obviously drunk, was leaving the convenience store. They were a yard or so away from him when he noticed them and called out.

"Hey…" he said to them, his speech slightly slurred. He pointed at Erik. "Do you guys have some money? Why are you wearing a disguise, man?" Christie looked up at Erik; she supposed that he did look a little strange wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night. Erik's hands were clenched and he started walking very stiffly. As they passed the man, he reached behind Christie and slapped her butt. Christie gasped and flinched away from the man. Suddenly, Erik stepped around Christie, cocked his fist and punched the guy. He fell backwards and started swearing and clutching his face.

"You don't get to do that." Erik growled, looking down at the man menacingly. Christie pulled on Erik's arm.

"Erik! Don't fight him. Please, let's just go." She said quietly, embarrassed that he had to defend her. Erik looked over at her and saw how rattled she was. He nodded and led her away. Erik glanced back to make sure that the man wasn't following them. After they turned the corner, he relaxed a bit.

"Are you ok?" He asked her. Christie's heart was still beating pretty hard and her head was swimming. She nodded but didn't say anything. They had reached her apartment; she took one step up the stairs and suddenly blackness swirled in around her and she passed out.

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