A/N: I know, I know. I am slack. Inspiration strikes so randomly these days. When I get an idea, I have to write it then and there. Enjoy.
iGET A LIFE
Chapter 2
Dearest Fredward,
Dinner with my friend, Elaine, is at 7pm sharp tonight. Please dress in smart casual attire. Her very attractive and very single daughter will be there also. I need you to make a good impression please.
I love you to the moon and back, baby boy.
Mom
Fredward. His nose scrunched up in disgust.
He didn't like his name. Apparently he had been named after his grandfather who had died in some war, somewhere, doing something heroic. He had heard the story many times, but he never really listened to it.
The neatly hand-written note from his over-protective and slightly over-bearing mother sat on the kitchen counter, and Freddie just stared at it as he ate his sensible breakfast. It was just like her to go ahead and plan his whole future for him, lay it all out in tidy little rows. Especially when it came to his love life. In the back of his mind, Sam and Carly are rolling on the floor in fits of giggles just as he thinks about his (non-existent) love life.
Way to go, mom, Freddie thought, sculling the rest of his luke-warm coffee. He held onto the empty mug and stared at the ring around the bottom.
The young man got up from the kitchen counter, put his coffee mug in the sink and then headed back into his bedroom to pick out his outfit for the dinner with some random lady whom he knew absolutely nothing about. Elaine? And her daughter...
He sat down and tried to visualize what the daughter may have looked like. Red or blonde hair? Nice smile? Green or blue eyes? he shook the image from his mind. whoever she was, he would try his best to impress her, despite not even knowing her from a bar of soap. Thanks, Marissa. But considering the lack of love in his present life, he would at least make an effort.
At least it was his day off. The bar didn't need him to work that night. Fortunate, right?
Just then, his phone rang. He didn't recognize the number on the screen but answered it anyway to be polite.
"Hello? Hello? Freddie?" It was Sam's voice, but she sounded a bit upset. Maybe her cafeteria was out of bacon bits. "I need help."
"Sam?"
"No, the boogey woman... of course it's Sam, you idiot!"
This is the reason why he was desperately trying to escape the madness that were his best friends. Although he had heard more from Sam than he did from Carly.
"What do you-" he started to say, but was cut off.
"Get your butt to the Food Network building, now."
Her voice was making that 'listen to me or I'll kill you' tone, and Freddie knew instantly that it would end badly for all if he didn't strictly obey her command. She had him wrapped around her little finger. Perhaps it was because he was fearful and attracted to the woman at the same time.
But if he went there and she said: "the cafeteria is out of bacon bits", he would be slightly pissed off at her. He grabbed his keys, his wallet and his phone and headed out of his apartment.
"YOU'RE ALL SCUMWADS! YOU HEAR! SCUM-WAAAAAARDS!"
Freddie winced as he heard Sam's not so pretty voice bellowing through ground floor. He saw a bunch of people scattering around like furious ants trying to please their queen. Well, he thought, she IS the president.
"Uhhh, so-"
"Fredamamay," called Sam, with a cheeky smile. "Like my bossy athoratation?"
"Athoratation is not a word."
"Oh, you haven't changed, nerd."
"Neither have you."
It was true. Sam was also twenty-three like Freddie, but she pretty much looked like she was still that rambunctious teenager ready to fight people and eat a truckload of fat cakes. Speaking of fat cakes...
Sam pulled out a fat cake, tore it open and began eating it obnoxiously. She offered some to Freddie, mouth full. "Waah so-e?"
"Huh? Why did you call me here?" Freddie sighed, eager to leave. The past was creeping into his mind. The kisses were so fresh... he had forgotten them and wanted to keep it that way.
Her lips were covered in pink fat cake frosting.
"We are down a technical producer, he quit for some reason," explained the young woman, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "Actually, he did a shit job, so I fired him."
Freddie winced. Whoever passed on this position of power to Samantha Puckett, he thought. Must have been high, or drunk, or both. She had always thrived on power, and would abuse its privilege constantly.
"I don't know, Sam..."
"Don't make me beg."
He would have loved to see her on her knees just pathetically begging him to work for her. He smirked, until Sam slapped his shoulder. "Quit it, Benson. That is sick."
"Fine."
"Really?"
"Yeah, when do I start?"
"Excellent." Sam walks over to where a desk is, grabs a big thick-looking book and hands it over to Freddie, who doesn't expect so much weight so falls to the floor as she lets it go.
"What the?!"
"The employee manual, read it, memorize it, and yes... there will be a quiz."
Sam smiled. Freddie stared from her to the manual, and the process repeated a few times, like his brain was trying to calculate some way of rejecting her idea of his working for her. He wanted to be free. He wanted to be his own man, away from the torturous girl who made life hell. Why was she back in his life, why?
"Sam I-"
"Look, I won't quiz you. But you have to read the manual, it's policy."
Freddie nodded.
"You can leave now."
Freddie grabbed the thick, heavy employee manual and walked out the Food Network building. He winced as he attempted to lift it in a more comfortable position. He heard Sam's voice in his mind, circling around as if it was an echo. "Read it, memorize it, read it, memorize it, read it, mem-"
What had Freddie gotten himself into?
Elaine and her daughter arrived after Freddie and Marissa. They had been sitting at the reserved table in the restaurant for a good fifteen minutes, but Freddie wished they had of been the late ones. He had to listen to his mother lecture him on making "good life choices" and that "working for a blonde headed demonic female" was not one of those.
How did she find out about Freddie's new job? He told her, unwillingly. He was sick of the women in his life controlling him in every way, shape and form.
His mom stood up to greet her friend and the young lady standing behind her. She seems shy, thought Freddie. He stood up, made his way around the table and pulled the chair out for her. She quietly said "thank you" and sat down.
"Elaine, is this your daughter?"
"Yes, this is Rosetta. Say hello, Rosetta."
"Hel-"
"She's such a shy little thing," interrupted Elaine. "But I keep saying that she ought to speak up, be loud and proud, she's always been this way though."
"Hello Rosetta," Marrisa says to the girl, smiling. "Lovely to meet you. This is Fredward, my son."
"Hi," said Freddie, looking over and studying the young woman opposite him.
Rosetta had long curly brown hair, but he couldn't see what colour eyes she had because she was staring at her lap. But Freddie found himself wanting to find out about her, and wanting to tell Elaine to put a sock in it.
"Rosetta has one so many ribbons for her horse riding, isn't that true darling? Tell Fredward about your horse riding... Go on, tell him..."
She slowly looks over at Freddie, smiles a little at him - she has green eyes, he notices, and she opens her mouth. Her voice is soft, but she seems to like to choose her words carefully before speaking them.
"I really love riding horses," she says.
"What do you love the most?" Elaine asks her, obnoxiously stepping in.
"Elaine, dear," said Marrissa, most patiently. "I think we should have a drink at the bar."
"Oh, OH!" Elaine grinned, and tapped her own nose knowingly. "Yes, I am rather thirsty, let's go." Her voice followed her as the two women left the table.
Freddie and Rosetta were left at the table, in silence. Rosetta lets out a breath, and Freddie just stares at her. Not rudely, but just staring softly, taking in how beautiful she looked.
"Fredward?"
"Please call me Freddie," he says, quickly.
"Oh, Freddie then," she says, and looks at him again. "I'm very sorry about my mother."
"Oh don't be. My mother is practically the same. She conned me into meeting you."
Rosetta's face fell slightly.
"Wait, no, I didn't mean..."
"I understand," she whispered, not looking at him. "I am too shy for anyone to befriend me, let alone date."
Freddie kicked himself for letting his mouth run away with him. He was an idiot! Here was this really sweet and seemingly perfect girl right in front of him, trying to be nice and he just goes and says something stupid like that.
"I think you are the prettiest girl I have ever seen," he blurts out, loudly. "I'm glad that I had a chance to meet you."
Rosetta's cheeks go pink, as she blushes.
Before she has a chance to reply to his randomly blurted out comments, the two mothers return and the four of them order their dinners. They eat their respective dinners and Elaine talks about anything and everything. The other three just listen, and politely nod occasionally.
At the end of the evening, Rosetta hugs Freddie and whispers in his ear: "I'm glad I had a chance to meet you too." and presses something papery into his hand.
It didn't turn out to be so bad, after all.