Eddie wakes earlier than he wanted to but the first thing he thinks is to check his phone, he feels his heart drop when there's no message, though looking at his last one it hadn't been read, but he remembers that Buck had said they were waiting for another call so guessed he must have gone on one and forgot.
Eddie didn't know how to feel about not being answered, it was a mix of understanding but annoyance. He liked Buck and was finding it easy to talk to, and the fact Buck was hot helped and annoyed him. Neither had come out and said what their preference was and Eddie was worried, if he told Buck that he liked men that Buck would regret sending Eddie that picture.
But the more he thought about Buck referred to the picture as a thirst trap and then sent one himself, so did that mean he liked men too.
"Ugh!" Eddie grunts out loudly. It was too early to be thinking over things like that and he had work in a few hours.
As he couldn't go back to sleep he got up and decided to do some quiet and easy workouts. As he worked out his thoughts turned to Chris, he knew that there was a conversation to have but how was he going to do it without sounding like an idiot. Maybe having a conversation with his sisters might help, but then he didn't want his parents finding out as they would be over quicker than anything.
"Edumundo." He feels a slap on his arm and turns to see Abuela standing there, but he stays in position.
"Oww, and what?" He asks, to be honest he hadn't heard her come up to him.
"Well you ignored me, so you get a slap, three times I shouted at you but you carried on doing press ups in your own little world, workouts you were told not to do might I add." She states.
"I know I just need to work through things." Eddie replies.
He knew that was the wrong thing to say as it would give her something to worry about, she knew how he was and he knew it, she would panic that all his workouts would get more and more excessive until he collapsed but that was one path he wasn't going down again.
"You know what I'm going to say, so let's cut to the chase, no more exercise today, or tomorrow. Don't make me watch you or I will call your parents." Abuela says and Eddie sits up and looks at her.
"I know, I'm sorry, I'm stressed ok, with all this with Shannon and then with Chris needing more support and then I flirted with Buck and don't know where I stand with him…" Eddie says falling quiet realizing what he just said.
"You are stressed, you would never ramble on about anything like that, but it's good you are as I find out all the details." Abuela smirks.
"Dad, what's for breakfast?" Chris's question makes them look down the hall at the sleepy boy.
There's a slight panic in Eddie in case Chris had heard him mentioning about Buck, last thing he wanted was bringing up someone his dad likes when they hadn't really explained the whole Shannon never coming back.
"What would you like?" Eddie finds himself asking.
"Pancakes." Chris says as he walks up and gives Abuela a hug.
"Well let's see, Abuela will make us some." Eddie says and smiles at her.
"Fine, go get ready and I will start, we got to take your dad work in a bit." Abuela says.
Chris makes his way down to his room and Eddie stands and starts making his way out the room hoping to escape Abuela's questioning.
"Hold it right there sunshine, first you need to tell Chris about his mother, second I want to know about Buck?" She asks.
"I'll tell Chris after work and Buck I'm not sure. I think I need to talk to him more about what he's about, it's not like I can bring anyone new into mine or Chris's life just yet." Eddie explains, he had to think about Chris, there was going to be tears later he just knew it.
She doesn't argue and let's Eddie head off and get ready, he has a quick shower and gets changed, he squirts a bit of extra aftershave on, hoping he be on the post office open plan side and maybe give Buck a whiff of his sent., he starts to chuckle at himself at how much he found himself wanting Buck so much, it was weird, he really didn't know Buck at all it was crazy.
Breakfast they kept normal and soon there on the way to drop Eddie at work. The drive in Chris rattles about what they will get up to which makes Eddie slightly jealous that he wouldn't be there to enjoy the day, but also knew he needed to work to pay for Chris's care, which was the other thing he had to sort out.
"Have a good day." Abuela says and Eddie looks to see his workplace he hadn't even noticed they had arrived.
"Thanks, you two have a fun day, I'll see you later mijo." Eddie says as he climbs out the car.
"Say hi to Buck for me." Abuela says as Eddie closes the door.
He watches as they drive off an obvious smile on Abuela's face after that little comment. Eddie did hate his mind sometimes getting him into trouble, but at least work would keep him busy. Walking through the doors
Walking across the floor he can see Nick behind the counters and waves to him, there's another man with him.
"Eddie, come here for a second." Nick shouts.
Eddie makes his way over to them, when he thought about it he could swear it was Ruth this morning which was something he wasn't looking forward to but it was the way work went some people you liked to work and others well there best staying at home.
"Hey Nick, is everything ok?" Eddie questions.
"Yeah, this is Nathan. He is a cover man as Ruth phoned in sick so he's going to help out today. Can you do a rotation shift?" Nick asks and Eddie smiles. It was what he was hoping to do.
"Yeah of course, who is on the floor when I'm behind the counter?" Eddie asks.
"Brill, and I will be helping out also, Nathan is new, only been with us just over a month so will need help, I got Claire in later so you won't have to work longer." Nath states.
"Thanks, ok cool, give me a few minutes to sort myself out and I will be with you." Eddie explains.
Eddie quickly heads into the back and sorts himself out, once he's got ready he heads to the main office where Nick is at the desk typing away, Eddie grabs his till from the safe and places it down on the side so he can grab some change.
"Sorry to put you on with a new lad, I know you're not 100% better yet." Nick says.
"It's fine, the way it goes. It isn't the first time looking after a new person and I doubt it will be my last, right I'll get my till set up next to Nathan and then check he's ready then set up outside." Eddie explains.
"Thanks, once I have the emails and paperwork sorted I will be out." Nick explains.
Eddie wanders out and starts to set his till up, he can see Nathan is sorting bags out behind them, Eddie continues to put his till away and log on, once he's logged in and set up he turns to Nathan who has taken a seat at his till, he can see the nerves.
"Hey, it will be fine, go at your own pace and don't rush, that's the worst thing you can do. I will be next to you or on the shop floor just call me if there is a problem and Nick will be about." Eddie explains.
"Yeah, just nervous, after the other place was attacked." Nathan says Eddie freezes for a second obviously he didn't know Eddie was in it.
"Look, there's security at the door checking things before they come in, and it will be silly for someone to try it again. Life is too short to focus on the what if thoughts. Trust me. I'm going to set up the outside, why don't you go make us a brew before we open, mine is a coffee black." Eddie says with a wink.
"Thanks Eddie, yeh I'll go make them now." Nathan says.
Eddie gets up and starts to walk to the main door to get out, he can her Nick and Nathan chatting, most likely Nick will tell Nathan that Eddie was there, but Eddie presses the release button and exits the secure counter and walks on to the outside, getting to the till he logins and starts to open the draws to check what cash ect there is.
"Really?" Eddie moans as he sees the draw.
It was a mess, cash in wrong slots, part bags which he didn't mind but they weren't marked to what was inside, then he opened the stamp book and it was chaos. His inner ocd was screaming.
"All ok Eddie?" Nathan asks as he walks over with the coffee.
"Yeah, well no, first piece of advice Nathan, keep your draw and stamp book neat and tidy, when you take stamps off the sheet take in rows as makes counting on balance day quicker, this here is prime example of not what to do." Eddie chuckles, showing the book to Nathan.
"Mentally noted and call me Nath, so would you just use the till or are you going to check it?" Nath asked.
"Advice number two, if you're using another persons till or someone has used yours always check it before you use it, so if your off and in next day come in a bit earlier and check, yes you aren't paid for coming in earlier but it's better than coming in not checking and then your till is down $100 as you will get blame for not checking." Eddie explains.
"Ah, so should I check the till I'm using?, I haven't been in for a few days." Nath asks, Eddie had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, you know how to print reports off? We open in 20 mins so best be quick." Eddie asks.
"Yeah, well there's your coffee, I'll call if I need any help." Nathan says and walks off.
Eddie starts sorting the till he's at and within 10 minutes it's all set up and sorted. He walks through the shop quickly checking everything is there and picks some rubbish the cleaner missed, making a mental note to pass on a message to Nick that the cleaners need to make sure to get under the stands.
Walking to the secure door he hears his phone and then the vibration from his pocket and he mentally curses himself for not putting it away, once through the door he checks it just in case it's Abuela but he knew if it was an emergency she would call the office. Swiping the screen he smiles at the message.
'Hey, I'm so sorry, we got a call. It was a big fire and we just got back, but I'm finished so I'm gonna pop in to post some letters for work and as an apology what drink would you like?' Eddie smiles, Buck was talking and he was right about Buck being called out.
'Surprise me ;) see you in a bit got sort of tills out.' Eddie quickly replies, hearing Nick coming he slips his phone on silent and puts it back in his pocket.
"All set up guys?" Nick asks.
"Mine and shop tills are sorted after I tidied them." Eddie states walking to his desk.
"Cool, I will jump on the shop for the first half an hour or so, can you and Nathan deal with the main queue, got love the morning rush, Nathan you ready?" Nick questions.
"Think so, my till is ok and balanced." Nathan smiles.
"Good, right let's get the day started." Nick says.
Eddie gets on his chair and starts fiddling with things, it was going to be a long shift but he knew he finished at 2pm so it wouldn't be long. He watches as Nick talks to the security guard and then the door opens and the guards start checking things before the first one arrives in the queue. Eddie calls them over as he can see Nathan looks hesitant.
"How can I help today?" He asks.
"Can I post this here please?" The lady asks as she places the bag of clothes on the scales, it was open and not ready to go.
"We can do it, but you will need to pack it and prepare it to be sent, as it won't be secure as it is, so we are unable to take it." Eddie explains.
"Well I'm paying to post it so you can prepare it for me." The lady snarks at him, Eddie has to bite his tongue.
"Exactly miss, you're paying to post it, which means it needs to be ready before you get to the counter as the signs state. We have packaging and tape available to buy over in the shop with Nick, pop over to him and he can help you." Eddie says polity.
"Oh stop being obtuse, just send my package." The lady says.
"I'm not being anything, you just need to pack your own parcel, if you can't then I suggest you take it home and pack it there, now if you don't mind there are people waiting who are ready to post." Eddie says polity.
"I'm not moving, till you send my package." She shouts and Eddie is getting fed up with being kind now.
"Oi, stop being a goddamn Karen and move on, some of us have work to go back to, not listen to some whiny cow who is far too lazy to have her shit together." Someone from behind shouts and the lady turns but stops turns to Eddie and huffs before walking off not another word said.
Eddie tries not to laugh as he watches the woman walk over to the shop and start looking at the packaging, he carries on serving hoping he would get the person who shouted at the woman but he didn't, soon they were flowing and the queue soon disappeared and it went quiet.
He explains to Nathan he was going to go on the shop floor and if he needed any help give him a shout, as Eddie walks through he can see there's a few people browsing the shop side so knew he would end up with someone.
"Well she was a joy." Nick chuckles.
"Always one, though when it's the first customer it normally means the rest of the day is going to be the same." Eddie replies.
"Well good luck, shout if you need me. Oh looks like you will have fun Ruth's favorite guy just walked in." Nick states and Eddie turns to see Buck walking in.
There's a smile from Buck and a quick wave, Eddie notices Nick disappear leaving Eddie alone on the till, Buck starts to walk over Eddie notices the tight sweatshirt he has on hugging the muscles to which he knew was under there, but his eyes take notice of a red headed lady thats walking next to him and is way closer that he would like.
"Hey Eddie, as promised a surprise drink, it's a salted caramel hot chocolate, oh and a muffin." Buck cheerfully says as he hands the drink and muffin over.
"Thank you Buck, but there was no need, what can I do for you today?" Eddie questions.
As much as Eddie wanted to bluntly ask who this woman was he knew he couldn't it would be so rude. He can see she's staring at him most likely wondering who he was too.
"Oh just need to drop these off and get a receipt to say we posted this one as it has important documents in it." Buck says, passing through the letters.
Eddie quickly checks that they are all stamped and the one that was important was done as registered mail so he puts it through the till, the whole time he can feel eyes on him and it was annoying him. Soon enough he finished it off and passed the receipt over, subconsciously he was praying Nathan would need him to get him away from the awkward position he found himself in.
"Buck, are we done, you promised me breakfast at this rate it will be brunch." The woman spoke up.
"Yes Taylor, give me a minute." Buck replies.
"All done Buck, anything else?" Eddie polity asks. He may be pissed at whoever this woman was demanding to go but his job was to be polite to everyone even when they needed a good slap.
"Eddie, can I get you to come back and help Nathan with a check and send." Nick shouts from the fortress door.
"Sorry, I have to go, unless there is anything else I can help with?. Have a good day." Eddie replies, his mind wished Buck would say yes but knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Nah all good thanks for help, speak later." Buck smiles and god dam Eddie had to fight the urge to jump him.
"Thanks for the drink. See ya." Eddie says and walks off before anything else can be said, he pressed the buzzer and waits for the door to open.
There's a shout from Buck but the door opens and distracts him as he walks in with his drink and muffin. He moves over to help Nathan and explains the whole process and goes through the correct way of checking the forms and sending them off, he moves to the side to take a drink and Nick walks up to him.
"See Buck likes you, he only brings drinks on special occasions or if he likes someone." Nick says Eddie tries not to think about it too much, his mind was on the woman.
"Yeh, he is a kind man." Eddie replies, eating some muffin.
"Unfortunately he's going out that stuck up reporter, Ruth hates her more than she hates Buck." Nick chuckles.
Eddie tried not to choke on the muffin, first he had to try to swallow the muffin, second his mind had gone into overdrive. Buck had a girlfriend, Buck had sent that thirst trap but he had a girlfriend.
"That was his girlfriend " Eddie says and he knew his day was ruined.
Buck had a girlfriend and was off the menu but Eddie was more pissed that Buck had spoken the way he did and sent that picture when he had a girlfriend.
But his mind couldn't get over the fact, Buck had a girlfriend.