Never Again.

Chapter Twelve

It took ten minutes, but I finally convinced Lily to let me work the second half of the day. She was going to do errands, but the blizzard came early, so she opened instead. She wouldn't let me open with her so I was pacing the upstairs, doing dishes, and was just finishing up cleaning my room. Lily had stuff to do today, inside, so I convinced her to let me close tonight. Noon to eight.

The morning dragged on forever, finally it rolled around to eleven, so I jumped in the shower, trying to kill time. Then, I blow dried my hair and stood I front of the mirror. I hadn't worn my hair down since... Charlie... made me. It had to be down everyday, it was a little thing that made him mad, which started beatings. I hated wearing it down because it was choppy, having cut it myself, and its always been so thick, that it was really hot in that stuffy room.

I had worn it mostly in a ponytail since I escaped, but some days I would throw in a bun, nothing fancy. Today was the first time I actually debated wearing it down, but decided against it. 'Maybe tomorrow,' and I started throwing clothes on.

I walked downstairs and Lily pointed to the clock as soon as she saw me. There was still twenty minutes. 'This is going to be the longest twenty minutes'.

"Not until noon," she warned.

So I grabbed a cup, made myself hot chocolate and sat at the end of the counter. 'Eighteen minutes to go,' I started counting down, watching the second hand go around the clock.

"This your day off?"

I jumped. I didn't place the deep, smooth voice at first. Then I turned to the guy beside me and let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding in. 'I could get lost in those blue eyes' I thought, before telling myself to look down. 'You knew that wasn't Charlie's voice, stop jumping like a deer,' I scolded myself.

"Yeah. Well, half day off, yesterday was my day off. But I'm supposed to be cutting back my hours, apparently." 'Stop rambling,' I thought, 'he doesn't care about your hours.'

"So a day and a half off is cutting back?"

"Yeah."

"And?"

"And? And what?" I don't get why he always leaves his questions so open-ended.

"And, how do you like all your time off?"

"It's horrible." He chuckled, and it was the best sound ever. I started wondering what his laugh sounded like.

"What's so funny?"

"You." I stared at him confused, but he was looking at his cup. "Most people love their days off, and dread going to work."

"I'm not most people." I regretted it the moment I said it and stood up, walking away. I hope he didn't hear that. 'Why can't I just shut up? What if he asked why? What would I say then?' I looked at the clock, one more minute.

I put my cup in the sink, when Lily walked up.

"I'm not working yet, honest. Just cleaning the cup I used."

"Okay, you still don't have to, I can keep working if you want."

"No!" I just about yelled it to her, "Sorry, its just... I'll work, you can go run your errands."

"Okay, see ya later."

"Okay."

"And take it easy," she warned before jogging upstairs.

It wasn't very busy in the store, just one couple by the window, who walked here when the hydro went out, because we had a generator and hot coffee. And Mr. Black Coffee. He was still sitting there.