Our Love Under Fire

Chapter 2

The low hum of my motorcycle passing by cars on the city streets echoes in my ears. The way the wind feels against my exposed skin and the adrenaline
pumping through my blood from the danger...it's wonderful. My full face black helmet with a dark visor makes me feel discreet as if no one would know who I was under it. I zoomed past vehicles to get to my destination.

High rise structures surrounded me as I pulled into a parking space. I took my helmet off revealing my short and black undercut with a hard part hairstyle. I let out a sigh remembering this is my first day of work since a year ago. The nerves kicked in quick.

I am now a banker at JP Morgan Chase in Portland, Oregon.

The summer smells of the city smacked me in the face while walking to the bank - the garbage on a hot day, cigarettes, sweaty people walking to work or as a normal activity, and food carts. I felt relieved as soon as I made it inside and escaped from the outside.

Everyone around me appeared to be similar as they wore business casual or formal wear. I blended in well with my navy blue corduroys, tan belt and dress shoes, and my light, almost white, blue dress shirt with a grey tie. My rolled up sleeves revealed my right arm that was decorated with a full-sleeve tattoo. Each tattoo on me signified something important to me whether it was my favorite video games growing up or my horoscope as a Leo.

There was an aroma that made you feel like you were at the beach and everything looked squeaky clean. The environment of the bank almost made me relax until I could feel eyes on me. Surely the employees didn't recognize me from the news, or at least I hoped they didn't. I pushed the thought out of my mind and looked for the bank manager that hired me.

I walked around a couple of cubicles where bankers were already stationed and saw a office with the bank manager in it. He saw me through the glass windows and smiled getting up from his chair. He made his way out of the office to greet me with a handshake which I accepted.

"Hey, Avery. How are you doing?" He asked removing his hand from mine.

I smiled, "I'm doing good. How are you this morning, Larry?"

"Good, I'm good. I can show you where your cubicle will be so you can set your items down, yeah?" He gestured towards the general area where the cubicles were.

I nodded following him to my cubicle. It was a rather large and modern space with medium toned walls surrounding it to separate it from another cubicle. There was a laptop on the desk instead of a desktop. To enter there was enough space for one person to get through at a time. I set my backpack and helmet down on a chair.

"This is a pretty nice setup." I commented still amazed at how up to date it was.

"Well, when the bank looks good the employees feel great. It really is convenient for the bankers as well to have a laptop since it can be freely used when with customers. However, you will have a registered key card to the laptop so you are the only one to be able to use it. Have you ever used a key card in a laptop before?"

"Yeah, when I was in the Marines." I slightly smiled.

"Okay, great! That's a hassle if you are a first time user. Let me show you around and introduce you to everyone." He walked out of the cubicle and I followed him around again.

The entire time he would introduce me to others and talk about nonsense about the company I would drone him out only remembering the important details. This day was going to be long enough as it was and I already had headache after Larry threw all that information at me. I thought we would never get to the part where I trained.

I would study his body language and facial expressions to try and know him a little better. I could usually figure out what someone was like the first few moments of meeting them. Larry seemed like he had a lot going on in his life but he hid it away when working here. My gaydar was definitely going off.

He showed me how to access the training I needed to and it ended up being a virtual training with other people. I had to do this for the next week before I could actually do the job itself. He gave me my credentials to access all my applications.

"Alright, let me know if you need anything. You know where my office is." He placed a hand on my right shoulder, his thumb near where the bullet went through.

Instantly I was startled and felt my heart beating like crazy. The blood rushed to my head and my mind was going somewhere else. I could feel fingers antagonizing me by pressing them into the bullet wound and twisting them around. My screams filled my ears. I swallowed hard fighting against my trigger and I looked at him. He looked a bit confused as to why I just freaked out even though I knew he was there.

"I'm sorry. I will come get you if I need anything. Thanks." I said giving him a slight smile.

He nodded taking a second before turning and leaving my cubicle.

I let out a sigh of relief when he left and closed my eyes feeling my heart beat slow down. I shook my head at myself for being set off from that still. I rubbed my eyes and opened them looking at the laptop screen. It was time to get to work and drain all my energy on a virtual class for the rest of the day.

The day dreaded on until it was finally time to leave and I was able to leave before the bank closed. I pulled my key card out of the laptop and placed it in my backpack. I let out a deep breath stretching and feeling my muscles loosen. I grabbed my backpack slinging one strap over my shoulder and picked up my helmet. The bank was pretty slow at the moment so I walked over to Larry's office to tell him goodbye for the day.

I knocked on the door even though I could see him through the glass windows and he motioned for me to come in. I made my way into his office shutting the door behind me.

"The class is over for the day and I clocked out already too." I said.

"That's good. How was the class? You can tell me if it was boring." He chuckled, his crow feet showed up next to his eyes.

I smiled, "It was okay. I think the first day is just tiring, because you have all this information trying to be stored in your brain. I enjoyed the coffee in the break room though, I can tell you that."

"Alright, well enjoy the rest of your night, Avery. I'm glad to have you apart of the team."

"Thank you, sir." I nodded and exited his office heading home for the day.

-->Authors note: Thank ya for the time you take to read. If you enjoy it feel free to vote for it and leave me comments so I can write to you back! Stay awesome and read on (:

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