That Woman Over There || Abby Gerhard X Reader.

Four | Can I Walk You Home?

——

Waking up was difficult on that Friday morning. I hadn't slept at all since that nightmare, and I was still ill. But nether the less, I had to go to work. I couldn't afford to miss another days pay.

"Come on, it's nothing you haven't done before." I attempted to mumble words of encouragement to myself whilst I got changed. I managed to find one more skirt in my closet, it was about an inch shorter than the one I'd worn two nights ago, the night all the men had commented about me. I know, people would think that I was 'asking for it', and of course you would, but you'd have to understand the full depth of I need the money.

Breakfast consisted of a glass of water and a mint. I could only have one meal in the day, and I'd rather have dinner when I got back from my late shifts, it would at least boost me up at the end of my working day.

I still had a pounding headache and my body kept switching from burning to freezing. Looking in the mirror it was quite evident I wasn't up to scratch. My eye bags were awful, my nose was pink for some reason, even though I didn't have a cold and my skin looked paler than usual.

Well.

-

"Can I do a late shift today? And I'd like to work over this weekend as well as my five days a week." I asked nervously, not making eye contact with Elton. Yes, I was asking to work seven days a week, fourteen and a half hours a day. I didn't even know if it was humanly possible, but I'd make it happen.

"Wow, are you sure? You look pretty damn ill right now." Elton looked at me through surprised eyes and he crossed his arms.

"Yes I'm fine and you know that I need the money." I finally glanced up at Elton.

"Very well, but if you overwork yourself, I won't empathise with you." I just nodded in response and started my shift.

-

My eyes were trained at the door. It was quarter past eight and I was praying to my imaginary gods that a certain brunette would walk in. The men had already got settled in and I'd finished their first round of orders and I had nothing to do, except for daydream about Abby. It wasn't like I wanted to, I'd tried hard not to think about her but she just kept creeping up through my thoughts infuriatingly.

Finally, the door opened and there she was.

Abby.

She gave me a smile as she pulled out her purse and I returned it.

"A whiskey please." Abby seemed to watch my movements and I couldn't help but feel a little self conscious under her gaze. Whilst I was filling up her glass she leant against the bar counter, a curious expression on her pretty face.

"I didn't see you here yesterday."

My eyebrows raised slightly. She'd noticed?

"I was ill." I replied, placing her drink down in front of her. Abby's eyes remained on me for a few seconds but eventually she just nodded and walked away slowly to her normal seat, lighting a cigarette and pulling out a book from her bag.

That was strange.

Two hours later I was still in a daze.