Owen dropped off Cristina at the Mercantile after breakfast. He also dropped off Meredith at Miranda Bailey's office. Cristina was going to speak to Jackson about the job. She saw his grandfather at the cash register and asked for Jackson.
"Good morning, Mr. Avery. I am Cristina Yang. I am here to speak to Jackson," Cristina said.
"Ah, Miss Yang," Mr. Avery said. "Jackson told me all about you. He is quite taken with you. I heard he offered you the job of buying of the entire clothing department. I do hope you would take it. That would certainly be a burden off my back. I am totally at home, purchasing weed wackers, drills and paint brushes but choosing the latest clothing is beyond me."
"Well, that's what I came here to do. I am going to take the job," Cristina said.
"That's wonderful, young lady. Let me just page Jackson. He sees about all of the administrative stuff for the store," Mr. Avery said. "He will tell you about the salary, benefits and vacation."
Mr. Avery went on the intercom and decided to embarrass his grandson at the same time. "Would Jackson Avery please make his way to the cash register? There is a beautiful young lady here to see you."
In a matter of three minutes, a breathless Jackson came around the corner. "Grandpa," he scolded. "People are laughing at me in the stockroom."
"Well, I didn't want to keep the young lady waiting and I knew it would make you come running," Mr. Avery. "Miss Yang has decided to take our job offer. Why don't you take her over to the office and do the needful?"
Jackson turned to Cristina with a brilliant smile. "Come on, Cristina. I am so happy that you decided to take the job." He led her to their office, which was surprisingly neat. There were two desks and computers – one for himself and one for his grandfather.
"Have a seat, Cristina," he said, pointing to a chair near one desk. He sat at the desk and turned on his computer.
She handed him a folder. "That has my resume in there. For your files."
He opened it. "Ah, I see you went to UCLA. I wanted to go there but Grandma didn't want me to go out of state. I ended up at the University of Iowa."
"Yup," she said. "Go Bruins!"
"No, go Hawkeyes!" he countered, laughing. "I just need to fill out some information here for your official application."
"I see you're 25," he said. "I am 24, by the way."
"Ah, so I am an older woman. I will try not to lead you astray," she said with a smile.
"You can lead me astray, anytime," Jackson muttered to himself.
"What did you just say?" Cristina asked. "Nothing important," Jackson answered.
"And the Hunts' home is your current address and contact? Is that right?" he said, typing away.
"Well, only temporarily, I hope to get a place soon. That's one of the reasons I am grateful for this job so I can afford a place. I cannot be living on the Hunts' hospitality forever," she said.
"You're looking for a place? I have a place for you to rent," Jackson said. "My grandma had this cottage, just outside of town. She used to go there to paint and sometimes, she used to stay there when she wanted some solitude, while she was painting. Well, since she died, it has been unoccupied."
"Ooh, that sounds great. Tell me more," she said.
"It is two bedrooms. Fully furnished. Would be good to have someone living there to take care of the place," he said.
"I'll take it," she said. "Meredith and I can live there, if she decides to stay with me."
"Okay, then. Would $600 rent sound okay to you?" he asked.
"$600! That is just awesome. You can't get anything great in LA for that price," she said.
"Great. I will show you the place after we're finished with this paperwork. I've gotten most of the information off your cv. I need to ask you a couple of things for health insurance. Your height and weight?" he asked.
"I am five foot five. I weigh 110 pounds," she said. Jackson took a cursory glance at her body, thinking that sounded about right.
"Any chronic diseases or history of chronic diseases in your family?" he asked.
"No," she said. "I am healthy and so are my parents."
"You will still have to do a medical exam. I will schedule that for you at Dr Webber's later this week," he said.
"Alright," she said. "No problem."
"Good," he said. "Okay, here is your letter, informing you of your salary, benefits and vacation. See if that is okay with you."
She perused the letter, taking into note the salary. It was actually a little under par what she was getting in LA but she expected that, given that it was a small town and the cost of living was lower in Huntsville. Benefits included health insurance, sick days, travel allowance and employee discounts on all merchandise. She was allowed 10 days of vacation for the first year, which would increase with years of service.
It sounded good to her, she thought. "It seems fine to me," she said.
"Well, okay, then, just sign here and from next Monday, you will be our newest employee at the Mercantile," he said. "Do you want to see the cottage now?"
"Yes, please. I have already stayed four nights at the Hunts and while Mrs. Hunt is very nice, I don't want her to have to keep making meals for me," Cristina said. "I need to do that myself."
They headed out of the office. "Grandpa," Jackson said to the old man at the register. "Going to show Cristina the cottage. She is interested in renting it."
"Great," Mr. Avery said. "Would be good to see the old place get some use."
They headed out to Jackson's truck and drove a little way out of town. Cristina noted the distance and realized it was totally walkable into Huntsville. She kept wondering why people even bothered to drive their cars.
"Okay, here we are," he said, stopping in front a small but pretty cottage with a porch and a flower garden to the front.
"It's pretty," Cristina said.
"Yeah, we try to keep the place up, in memory of my grandma but if we get someone to rent it, they will help to keep it up, too," he said.
He opened the front door to reveal an open floor plan with kitchen, living room and dining room. Then he showed the bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and a half bath for visitors. There was also a utility area, with a washer and dryer. The house was nicely decorated with quite a few paintings on the walls.
"Are those your grandma's works?" Cristina asked, pointing to the paintings.
"Yes, we like to keep them around. Reminds us of her. I hope you don't mind keeping them up," he said.
"No, that is fine with us. She was actually very good," Cristina said.
"We think so," Jackson said. "So do you like the place?"
"Yes, very much so," Cristina said. "I think I will be very happy here."
"Great, I brought a lease agreement in case the place was agreeable to you. Do you wish to sign now?" he said, handing over a contract.
"Yes, thank you," she said, reading the agreement, noting the low rent and even lower security deposit. She signed on the dotted line. She now had her own place in Huntsville.
They headed back to town, where they found Owen waiting outside of the mercantile. He didn't look too happy.
"Hey," she said, skipping towards him.
"Where have you been? I've been waiting for you and nobody could tell me where you were," he said.
"Really? My grandpa didn't tell you we went to look at my grandma's cottage so Cristina could see it," Jackson said.
"No, I didn't see him. There was someone else at the cash register," Owen said. "And no one else had any idea where you were."
"Oh," Cristina said. "Good news I have a job and a place to live."
"Alright," Owen said. "I assume you're going to live in the cottage."
"Yes," Cristina said, excitedly. "It is lovely."
"Well, Cristina, this is what I will do for you. If you can come by tomorrow, I will have a copy of the lease agreement, your work contract and the cottage keys for you, as well as you will be able to go to Dr Webber for your medical check-up. Is that okay?" Jackson said, recognizing that Hunt was still peeved.
"Yes, yes," Cristina said.
"Okay, I will see you tomorrow," Jackson said, making a quick escape back into the Mercantile.
Cristina recognized Owen's foul mood had not dissipated. Owen really did not trust that Avery kid. She took his hand and squeezed it. "Hey, I am staying. That's good news, right?" she said, as she reached up and kissed him on the lips.
"Yes," he said, responding with an even deeper kiss. "Let's go pick up Meredith and see if she has good news."
They found Meredith outside of Bailey's office. She had a big smile on her face.
"So, good news?" Cristina asked.
"Great news, I got the job," Meredith said, as she got in the back seat.
"And I got us a place to live," Cristina said. "Jackson has a cottage just outside of town. It is very walkable. Really cute. Two bedrooms, two and a half baths, living, dining, kitchen and a utility room. Everything we could want. It also has a lovely flower garden to the front. All we need to do is to get Neeta to ship our personal belongings to Huntsville and we're good to go."
"Stop, stop," Meredith said, spotting Sheriff Shepherd outside of his office. "I am going to tell Derek." She quickly hopped out of the car. "Don't wait for me. Derek will drop me off." Owen drove off and headed back to the farm.
She ran up to the well-coiffed sheriff. "Derek, I have the best news. I got a job. I am now Miranda Bailey's assistant."
"You got a job? That means you're staying," the sheriff said, breaking out in a huge smile. "What about your job in LA?"
"I got fired from that, this morning. Cristina is going to be fired, too. So we are both staying," Meredith said.
"Oh, so I guess Hunt must be as pleased as I am," Shepherd said.
"Well, it was the Mayor's death that forced us to stay. How is the case going?" Meredith asked.
"Well, Dr Burke will have definitive results by Friday but so far, it doesn't look good. He is definitely leaning to foul play," Derek said.
"You mean, someone in town could be a murderer?" Meredith's eyes widened.
"Yes, and I have many suspects," Derek admitted. "It's very hard to believe. I have lived my entire life in this town and I have known most of these people for years and years. It just doesn't seem possible. Well, enough of that, let's go celebrate with some lunch."
Meredith and Derek held hands as they walked to the diner.
Cristina and Owen drove to the farm in relative silence. He was glad that she was staying but he didn't really want her to move out of the farm.
"Why are you so quiet?" she asked.
"Just thinking that it was so nice to have you at the farm and I am going to miss you when you move out to the cottage," he said, glancing at her.
"Are you going to miss me or the easy access to sex?" she asked, giggling.
He looked hurt. "Why would you say something like that? This relationship is not just about sex, Cristina. I am not in it just for the sex, even though I really enjoy making love to you."
"Oh," she said.
"I thought we were starting to build a relationship, here," he said. "Please don't tell me that this is just about sex for you."
"Um, no. I like you; I really, really like you. I wasn't sure where you stood on it," she said. "After all, we've really only known each other for four days."
"Well, I like you, too. Nope, it is more than that. I think I am starting to go crazy for you," he said. "Do you understand that? Four days or not, when it's right, it's right."
"Yeah, I think you're pretty great, too," she said. She reached over and put her hand on his leg. He took it and kissed it.
"So we're together, right?" he said. He wanted to establish that, in the light of Avery's obvious flirting.
"Yeah, we are together," she said.
A/N: Please leave your reviews. Thanks for your comments. I enjoy reading them.