Chapter Three:

Willy woke up a few hours later, and found that Jenni was still watching over him.

"I'm... I'm sorry..." he said, feeling embarassed. "I've been so much trouble today, and... I'm sure you have things to do... and..."

Jenni smiled. "Don't worry. The only other thing I had to do today was work."

Willy smiled back at her. "Well... as your boss, I give you permission to take the rest of the day off. But-" As he tried to sit up, he suddenly let out

a gasp in pain. "Ow..." he said, rubbing his right hand.

Jenni took it and examined the back, and he blushed slightly. It had two long scratches on it that looked like they had been bleeding. Sure enough, she looked at her sheets and at the discarded blanket from before, and there were a few faint blood stains on them. "How did this happen?" she said, frowning.

"I don't know," said Willy, wincing as he pulled his hand back. "Those weren't there before, were they?"

Suddenly, it hit her: he must've scratched his hand when he fell over earlier. "It's okay," she said assuringly as he glanced at the stains, looking embarassed. "Oh, I know what happened. Are you okay? Is there anywhere else that hurts?"

Willy tried to move his ankle, but let out a moan in pain. "That..."

"I'll get you some bandages." She left the room, then returned with some bandages and hydrogen peroxide.

"This'll sting a bit," she said, and she rubbed a cotton swab of it on his cuts, and she felt him flinch, but he didn't complain. She then carefully wrapped his hand in one bandage and his ankle in another.

"Thank you," he said gratefully. "I owe you a lot for this... All of this..."

"It's nothing," she said, blushing a little herself. The two sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes. Jenni was known to be good with people, but she felt a bit more concious about herself in front of Willy. And Willy didn't really mingle very well, so his silence was understandable. A loud growl broke the silence. Willy blushed.

Jenni grinned. "Either you're hungry or there's a lion outside my window. You didn't have much for breakfast, did you? And then you skipped out at lunch."

Willy tried to grin back apologetically. "Actually... I didn't eat anything at all. I didn't feel very good this morning..."

"You didn't? Why?"

"I don't know... You guys were right about me looking bad these days... I've felt just as bad..." he said, sighing. "I guess it's because..."

"Because what?"

"Because... my... my dad... he's in town." Willy gulped nervously.

Jenni's eyes widened in surprise. "He is? Why?"

"I think... I think he heard about my shop. And... he wanted to come. I'm not sure why he'd want to... He despises candy." Willy frowned slightly.

"So... you feel bad because you're scared your dad will come to your shop and judge you?"

Willy blushed again. "Um... yes... you're right. Wow, you really have a knack for hitting the nail on the head with the hammer, don't you?" he said sheepishly.

"People tell me that," she replied, smiling. "But no matter what... you shouldn't let things like that get to you. So what if he's coming? Be proud of what you became and how successful you are. He may even be proud of you."

Willy muttered something that sounded a little like, "I seriously doubt that," but his stomach growled again, and Jenni laughed.

"If you're hungry now, I can go make you some lunch. Do you want something?" He nodded. "Okay. I'll be back up in a minute." She headed towards the door.

"Wait! I can come with you," he said quickly, making a movement to get out of bed, but his ankle throbbed. "Ow..."

Jenni shook her head. "You're upstairs, there's no way you could make it down there without falling. Plus, it won't take very long."

Willy sighed and let his head fall back onto his pillow. She had done so many things for him... had he ever done anything nice for her? Sure, he gave her a job, and sure, they were friends, but he felt indebted to her. She even carried him up the stairs when he was unconcious, and as light as he was, that didn't seem like a very easy job.

He didn't have much time to think about the topic in his mind because Jenni returned quickly, just as she had promised, and she set a small tray in front of him on the bed. "I brought you some spaghetti. I hope you don't mind, it was leftovers from last night."

Willy took his fork and ate some of the noodles. "These are great!" he said, slurping some more. "Who made these?"

Jenni blushed for what felt like the millionth time that day. "I did... they're not that great, really..."

"Yes, they are." He ate fairly quickly, and Jenni guessed that he hadn't eaten much for the past week. When he was finished, she took the plate away from him and set the tray aside.

"Y'know, Willy," said Jenni as she set the tray on a table nearby, "you're really polite. Sure, we've been friends at work, but getting to know you like this... it's really nice. And I think you're sweet, too."

Willy turned a deep shade of red. "Umm... I... I don't know... I don't know what to say... t-thank you..." he stuttered nervously.

Jenni had hoped that he would've taken this sort of admission a different way, but the more nervous he got, the cuter he seemed to be. "You're welcome." And, deciding to do it at the last minute, she kissed him on the cheek. His face turned even darker red.

"Now... I hate to leave you alone again, but I have to run some errands," said Jenni. "Do you mind waiting here? I need to call Joe and Dennis, too, to see if they got any replacements." Willy nodded, still blushing, and Jenni waved as she walked out the door, calling "See you later!" over her shoulder.