Annika gave me a lopsided grin. “Whenever? Yes. Buy? No.” She moved her arm around in a circle. “All of this is included in your benefits.”
I figured I must have heard that wrong. “You mean…”
Annika nodded excitedly. “You can have whatever you want.”
Wow. I knew I was lucky to have gotten this job, but it turns out, I didn’t realize just how lucky I was.
“Don’t get too excited,” Annika said with a laugh. “We get so many perks because they work us to the bone. They expect a lot, but unlike many other places of employment, they give a lot back to us as well.”
There was so much food, I had no idea what I wanted, but I settled on a cheeseburger, French Fries, and ice cream. I couldn’t eat like this every day if I was going to keep fitting in my nice pants, but I could splurge every once in a while, and today felt like a good day to splurge.
Annika led me to a small table tucked away in a corner of the cafeteria. “It gets a little loud in here,” she said with a wink. “I’ve learned this is the best place to sit if you actually want to hear the person you’re eating with.”
Throughout lunch, I found out Annika was thirty-three years old, had been married for two years, and was currently trying to get pregnant with her first (and only) child. She was easy to talk to, and I found myself getting lost in our conversation.
When we were nearing the end of our meal, Annika pointed her fork at me. “I like you, Carter. If you don’tcompletely hate me after everything I make you do these next two days, I think we’ll be good friends.”
“That’s great, because I could use some friends in the city.”Or in general.
By the end of the day, my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen all day and I was pretty sure I had never signed my name so much in my entire life, but I definitely didn’t like Annika any less. When I was done with everything that needed to be completed on day one, she walked me down to the lobby and gave me her number, so I could give her a head’s up when I was arriving the next day.
“I promise you’ll have your badge by the end of the day tomorrow, and then you’ll have free rein of this place without needing me to escort you everywhere.”
“Sounds great. Thank you so much. I appreciate all of your help.”
I gave Annika one final wave, before leaving the building and heading in the direction of my apartment. Even though I was exhausted, I was also excited, which gave me the energy I needed to walk back.
By the time I got back to the apartment, all I wanted to do was get changed and lay in my bed. I hadn’t heard from Jax all day, so I didn’t know if she was home, but if she was, I hoped she didn’t mind if I wasn’t very talkative.
When I opened the door to my apartment, I found streamers hanging from the top of the door frame. On the floor were papers printed with arrows that led me to the kitchen bar, where there were balloons and a cake. I walked over to get a closer look and noticed that the balloons said Congratulations, the cake had a picture of a computer on it, and there was one candle in it.
I was about to yell for Jax to ask her what was going on when she walked out of her room holding a lighter and startedsinging to the tune of Happy Birthday. “Happy first day to you. Happy first day to you. Happy first day, dear Carter. Happy first day to you.”
Before I could say anything, Jax lit the candle on the cake and wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Congrats on finishing your first day. Make a work wish, then tell me how it was.”
I took a few steps, but I was still having trouble forming words. After blowing out the candle with a shaky breath, I turned toward Jax. “You did this all for me?”
I didn’t know if I was emotional from being tired or because this might have been the nicest thing anyone ever did for me, but I had to fight back tears.
Jax shrugged as if it was no big deal. “You deserve it. Plus, random acts of kindness are on my list, and no one deserves that more than you.”
It made more sense that she did all of this to check that off of her list, but that still didn’t take away from how sweet it was or the fact that she wanted to do the random act of kindness forme. I just wished it didn’t mean so much to me when I was trying my best to ignore certain feelings that kept threatening to creep up on me.
There was a knock on the door, and Jax pointed toward it before walking in that direction. “I also ordered pizza, because I figured you wouldn’t feel like cooking after your first day.”
My stomach growled. Pizza sounded wonderful. Having no responsibilities sounded even more wonderful.
After Jax set the pizza on the kitchen counter, I pulled her into my arms. I normally wasn’t this affectionate with someone who wasn’t family or my significant other, but I wanted her to know how appreciative I was. “Thank you. This means so much to me. You really didn’t have to do all of this.”
Jax pulled away from the hug, but kept a hold of my arms. “I know I didn’thaveto. I wanted to.”
After stuffing ourselves with pizza and cake, Jax asked if I wanted to watch TV with her. What I really wanted to do was go to bed, but after everything Jax had done for me, I felt bad telling her that, so I agreed.
I had no idea what the show that she put on was about, because within a few minutes of sitting down on the couch, I passed out. As I was falling asleep, I heard Jax say something to me, but I was too drowsy to make it out. She stood from the couch, and I figured that meant she was probably going to bed, which was what I should do if I could get myself up.
A minute or two later, something warm was draped over me and I realized Jax had given me a blanket. She sat back down, and soon I felt fingers running through my hair. I thought about asking her to stop, but not because I wasn’t enjoying it. The problem was, I liked the feeling way too much. I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to stop, because I really didn’t want her to. I let the feeling of safety and warmth overtake me and drifted fully to sleep.
When I opened my eyes again, the room was pitch black, and I was still covered with a blanket. The only difference was, it felt like there was now a pillow, or at leastsomething, underneath my head. After a few seconds, I realized it wasn’t something, but rathersomeone.
