He Sent You

SEVEN

Juniper

The whole thing with Aiden Memphis slash boss is weird, and the fact that he has a kid and that said kid came to my house. I shiver at the thought and move along with making my dinner and packing things up for tomorrow.

Just before jumping into bed my phone sings.

"Hello?" I answer right away.

"Junie baby, how was the first day?" My dad asks on the other end.

"It was good, it really kept me busy." I say honestly.

I hear my dad sigh on the end of the phone. "You know you don't have to be working, right? Chris took care of you." My dad says.

"Dad, I know. But I need this normalcy otherwise I'll- I don't know what I'd do." I say again honestly.

"Ok baby, as long as its what's making you happy."

I smile, "how are things there? Do you see any of Chris's parents around?"

"No, no I haven't seen them since I last called you, you know you could call them instead of us all the time, they would like that."

I stare down at my empty bed from the foot of the frame, I clear my tears away and speak as confidentially as possible. "I know, I just don't want to make them sad."

"Oh Junie, you will not. They miss you just as much." He says. I hear Kathy in the background asking for the phone. "Hang on, Kathy wants to say hi." I hear the ruffling and few choice words.

"Hello?" Kathy's voice sounds the other end.

"Hi!" I say sounding as happy as I can muster. I try to keep my emotions at bay when talking to them because I don't want to worry them anymore than they need.

"Dad tells me the first day went well?"

"Ya! It was alright, met lots of people, did lots of standing. Tomorrow will be the real first day, where I get to cover stories. Today I just kind of did an introduction story." I tell her.

"What are the people like there? I was reading about the business and apparently its pretty big, are they snobby?"

I laugh breathlessly. "No, not at all everyone was super nice today. The CEO or well the owner was nice enough - a little weird." I shrug to myself and lay my outfit on top of the toilet seat in the bathroom.

"You met him? Apparently he's hard to meet or well see." She says like she's read up all about Memphis Outskirts before this call.

"Ya, he lives here in Portland." I inform her, not wanting to give too much info. "Hey listen, I need to get off to bed, I have an early morning and long day - I'll call you again soon, but I'll text tomorrow." I say cutting her off.

"Did you want to talk to dad again?" She asks.

"No, tell him I'll text tomorrow and that I love him. Love you."

"Love you. Stay safe."

And the phone goes silent. I wipe my eyes and look at myself in the mirror. The purple bags, under dark brown, long lashed eyes hold all my problems.

"Goodnight Chris." I say against my pillow and I shut my eyes as hard as I can as if to force sleep.

The next morning is chilly, I curse myself for not bringing thicker sweater, but I walk faster which makes me early. I head past the guard who suddenly doesn't care that I'm here. The ladies at the front aren't even in yet. I make my way to the elevators and climb slowly up to my floor.

"Good morning, Junie" Martin says sounding half asleep.

"Morning. You're here early." I observe out loud.

"Yeah, got to get these stories up before 9am, Landon called in sick otherwise I would be in at the same time as everyone else." He smirks slightly. "Why are you here?" He then asks looking me up and down.

I shrug and peer at the clock behind him, I'm only an little less than an hour early. "I guess I wasn't paying attention to the time. Would you like a hand with the stories while I'm around?"

"Sure you know what that would be nice, I'll buy you a coffee for the help." He smiles handing me a folder with a handful. "Just scan them into your computer and make it into one file and then send to floor staff number four."

"Got it." I say taking myself to my cube.

We get all the stories posted for grabs before 9am, Martin is cleaning up the remaining papers when the elevator pings, we both look up.

Martin stiffens then straightens and I finally glance up to see exactly why he reacted. Unlike him I take in Mr. Memphis and get back to filing the papers.

"You're early." He says rather roughly.

"Landon called in sick, Ms. King called urgently asking to a fill in, its not a problem." Martin says.

"I understand you Martin but why is Juniper here?" His voice like venom.

I finally look up, meet his tired gray eyes and smile the biggest, sweetest smile I could muster. "Good morning to you too, Mr. Memphis. I lost track of time, got here early and instead of being useless, twiddling my thumbs until nine, I offered my help. Don't worry about compensating me, if that's what you're worried about." I say, giving him another mega watt smile.

I can see Martin jaw drop.

I see the vein in Aiden's neck bulge, he's mad, and this may get me fired, but honestly I don't need this job, I could work at Mcdonald's. So instead of being treated like trash, I'll stand up for myself.

Before he says anything I turn my attention back to Martin. "Are we finished?" I ask a little more politely.

"Yes, thanks." He says, all the color draining from his face.

"Great, no worries, glad I could help you. I'm going to head back and bid on some stories. I'll see you at lunch. Don't forget coffee." And just because I knew Aiden was watching I threw him a wink and turn around and walk back to my cube.