Disclaimer-I do not own characters used in this story. I merely borrowed them.
Chapter 3-Getting Familiar
I always liked my job. I found simple pleasure in doing my tasks. Odd I know but I was usually happy. Like all jobs there are things you don't like, mine are customers that act like they know more than you and are rude about it. I don't know everything, but I do try to research things online when we get a new item in I am not familiar with. I ask my buyer or team leader about the item first then if there was not much info to work with I will hit the internet. The things you find out about things. I remember when I found out that California actually dyes their oranges and Florida does not. I thought it was odd. At first I did not believe it. I also found out that they gas the bananas to make them ripen.
But I got off my original train of thought. Let say I now love my job. The reason is that 4 days a week I see a particularly handsome man who makes me incapacitated by just smiling at me. I don't see him on my Saturday shift. The one shift I don't look forward to any more. I use to love it because we were so busy the time flew. But today is Monday and I know I have the next few days to look forward to.
I was standing near Ben just wasting some time. The department looks great and Monday is one of our slow days. The rush would start soon and then we would have more work to do. He was telling me about his weekend. He and his girlfriend Angela, who works in the bakery, went to Boston to take in the sites and check out a few colleges. They decided to attend college at a larger city. I don't blame them. I went to college in Boston so I definitely understand the draw. I miss it, but it is not too bad here.
We see one of the store leaders walking around and decided to split up and check out the department. I was in the front while Ben took the back. Tyler our department team leader was on lunch or reading emails. Does not matter too much what he was doing. He rarely left the office.
As I was fronting the department to bring back the nice clean lines of our display I looked at the front door that opened bring in a nice breeze. What I saw was my favorite customer. He looked like he left the house right after taking a shower. As I look at him I noticed the gym bag. Ah, he must be a member of the center across the street. I have not been in there but a few of my team members joined and say it is nice. They even have a pool. I could just imagine the hurt I could cause myself if I were to try to run on a tread mill or use one of those elliptical machines. I would be visiting the hospital a lot more. Thank goodness for the health insurance I get here. It is really good.
He spots me and wanders over. Since it has been a few weeks since I first met him, we have actually started to ask no-produce questions. I know his name is Edward. I have found out in this time that he usually cooks for his siblings and their dates once or twice a week. The rest of the time is just him. He says that he refrains on the weekend due to trying out the local restaurants on Saturdays and family dinners on Sundays. He also mentioned that the cooking thing is pretty new since he recently moved out of his parents house into the condos across the street. I always wanted to see those. They were build just last year and dreamed about living in one. The guys at work said the view is amazing. The way it is situated you can see into the city. Some actually went to check it out when they were available for viewing. After hearing the cost for the units it killed my dream right there. Why even bother when it just isn't going to happen.
He said that he knew how to cook. His mother taught him, but never actually did it that much before. Having his own kitchen he is really enjoying his newest hobby.
The featured performer of dream stops in front of me. His hair is so tempting right now being all wet. " Hello Edward. Are you a member of the fitness center across the street?"
"Yes I am, I joined that one recently." We continue to talk about the gym and he mentioned it was part of his normal routine. He mentioned that he will be mixing up his schedule now that he starts his new job.
"Oh really, what is it you do?"
"I am a doctor. I will be working with my father at his practice. It is in the town center located in the new medical building. We are pediatricians."
He works with children. I am about to continue on but I actually see that my boss has come down from his bat cave and is checking out the department. I don't want to get in trouble so I ask if there is a new recipe he need help finding things for. He takes out a book from the bag and flips to a page he bookmarked. I saw that he was making Washabinaros Chili. This looked good. Not sure what he would need help with. There were a list of varied hot peppers. Maybe it could be that. It was definitely an interesting recipe. It even included coffee. I decided instead of asking what he needed I walked him over to the peppers and started picking what he needed. I gave him some information such as the heat levels of each pepper. I told him if he wanted to make it less spicy we can replace the habanero for jalapeño instead. He seemed to like it spicy. I looked over and saw my boss was still around so offered any more assistance. He asked about some of the spices. I walked him over to Mike in grocery and said my goodbyes as Mike started to help. I noticed Mike was paying more attention to me than Edward who had the book opened for Mike to view. I all but ran to get away before Mike could get it in his head that I wanted to visit with him.
I did not see Edward again because Tyler asked me to take out the trash and he was gone before I finished. I was looking forward to heading to Rose's place. We planned on going out to dinner and stop for a few drinks at a bar downtown.