Chapter 14
After a week of working at Aiden Jane, I’m starting to feel a little guilty for getting paid. Sure, it makes me leave the house each day and takes away my free time, but it’s not actually work. I’m having a blast being here and I’d actually do it even if I wasn’t getting paid. Of course, I don’t tell Julie that, because the paychecks are nice. Plus, even though I don’t need money now, I’ll need it when college starts.
Today we’re reorganizing the baby wall, which is a small part of her shop that sells gifts and items for newborns. Since this is my last summer before college starts, I try being all proactive and pretend that decorating the store is similar to decorating my future classroom. After all, the goal is to make everything appealing to the customers, and in classrooms, you want the kids to be excited to be there as well.
This tactic only helps me forget a little bit about Josh. Okay, it doesn’t actually help me forget at all.
I’m thinking about him constantly.
What exactly did it mean, him following me out to the parking lot the other day? Asking to hang out again sometime?
It’s all just a joke, right? But it sure seemed like he was going out of his way just for a joke. The thing about guys is that they don’t like going out of their way for anything, except maybe sex or sports.
Of course, maybe he still felt bad for hitting me with a stray football, and as much as that theory makes me feel stupid, it’s probably the correct one.
Maddie calls me on Skype when I’m home from work. I answer it while lying in bed, so my face is all distorted and gross from the angle of holding my phone in the air above my pillow.
Luckily, I don’t have to impress Maddie by looking cute 24/7. That’s one good thing about friends compared to guys.
“What’s up?” I ask her. The reception is a little blurry, probably because she’s so far away and the signal has to bounce around on satellites or whatever. Maddie’s formerly bright pink hair is now back to golden brown, cut shoulder length in a bob that looks cute on her. I remember when she dyed it pink over Spring Break in our senior year. Everyone suddenly noticed her for the first time, and she got really popular. Of course, it also helped that she became the new step-daughter of this hella rich guy from Shady Heights, the neighborhood of mansions on the other side of town. I’m lucky I was friends with Maddie before her rise to popularity, otherwise I would have been left behind.
“Remember when you suddenly got all popular?” I ask her.
“You mean the day my life went from horrible to wonderful?” she asks with a blurry smile. “What about it?”
“Well, I suddenly have one person noticing me, and it’s kind of making me insane and turning me into someone who over analyzes every single detail. I don’t know how you did it with lots of people. I can’t even handle the attention of one guy.”
Maddie laughs. “Fake it till you make it. That’s my only advice.”
I roll my eyes. “Very helpful.”
She leans in, her face getting huge on my cell phone screen. “So who’s this guy suddenly giving you attention?
“What makes you think it’s a guy?” I shoot back so quickly it sounds like I’m being defensive.
She gives me this conspiratorial grin. “Because if it was a girl, you wouldn’t be freaking out.”
“I’m not freaking out,” I say with a little shrug as I hold the phone up in front of my face. “And it’s just some guy who said we should hang out sometime while we’re both working. Weird, huh?”
“It’s not weird,” she says. “He just likes you.”
I snort so hard I almost drop the phone. “He definitely does not like me.”
But isn’t that what I’ve been daydreaming about all morning?
“Yes he does,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me.
“You don’t know anything about him,” I say, trying to prove my point. In reality, shedoesknow him because he’s her boyfriend’s best friend. But I’m not about to tell her that because then she’ll confirm that there’s no way Josh Graham likes me. For now, it’s just fun to pretend that maybe there is a possibility for something truly amazing to happen to me.
I resist the urge to sigh. That’s my life. Floating through day by day on nothing but the daydream of possible amazing things.
***
I don’t bring healthy snacks to work today. I don’t bring anything. Losing weight only works if you stop eating junk. This morning I had an apple, and now I plan to work my butt off all day, moving and bending and lifting inventory as a form of working out. Then, for dinner I can have a salad. I would have gone all day without eating any calories, so my diet will be in kick starter mode. That’s the best part of having this job. If I were at home all summer, I’d be just a few feet away from the kitchen where all the snacks are. Now, at work, I’m stuck without the ability to eat food unless I leave. And I don’t plan on leaving.
Things are going really well by lunch time. I pretend that I’m not feeling very well and tell Julie I don’t feel like taking a lunch break. She takes her break and leaves me at the store, and I use the time alone to do squats and weight lifts with heavy boxes in the back room.
I’m feeling pumped. And awesome. And like I’ll be thin before I know it.
