Chapter Text
“Hey, how's your morning been?” A coffee cup is gently placed next to your desk along with a simple cream cheese bagel, Josh’s face looking down at you with a buoyant smile.
It’s been about two weeks since he’d found out about your second job and obviously, being as predictable as he is, you were right and he is trying to weasel his way into your life. You can’t complain much since now you’re being blessed with hot coffee and great bagels but you can’t help but be suspicious.
“As good as it can be.” You take a sip of your coffee while he takes his seat behind you, expecting you to turn your chair.
You set your cup down and finally turn to him, letting him try to fill the silence.
“So, how’s the second life?” He gives you a smug grin, obviously very proud of his comment.
“Uneventful.” You roll your eyes, a small sigh coming with it. “Why are you asking?” You raise a brow, turning for a moment to grab your coffee.
“I’m curious, you don’t tell me anything.” He mirrors you, sipping his own coffee. “What about other stuff, friends? Your boyfriend?” Josh moves his chair from side to side, waiting for an answer.
“My boyfriend is fine.” You try to play it cool. “Get to work, Teitelbaum.” You retort playfully, trying to distract yourself from the trainwreck you’ll have to go home to.
He smiles again, this time softer and with a paltry laugh that makes you embarrassed to even notice.
You start to type away, hearing the clatter of Josh’s keys joining your own. The office today feels oddly serene but you can’t quite place what is keeping your mood up so high.
The air conditioning isn’t different, everyone is the same, Josh is still annoying so what’s changed? Is it the coffee? Maybe it’s the bagel.
Staring at your computer for a moment you let yourself drop it, no use in figuring out what’s caused this change just let it happen. It’s weird but it’s the best you’ve felt in a long time even if you’ll get home and it’ll all melt away. Quite frankly, you think it’s a bit sad that the best you’ve felt is sitting in an office chair writing articles no one will read but whatever helps pay the bills.
It’s not like you don’t like it, obviously you’ve done a lot of studying in order to get here and live in an apartment you can barely afford but you always think it wouldn’t hurt to become a more famous journalist, one that pretentious people can name when talking a topic to impress someone and actually interesting people can name in order to cite sources about the latest well documented topic in the news.
One can only dream.
During work is the only time you can feel sorry for yourself for not doing any better because now, unfortunately, your lunches now are filled with the blabber Josh adds into your day.
“I mean I do a lot in this office, I’d expect I would be treated less like an outsider by now!” Josh’s voice rings through your ears, not allowing for your mind to wander like he’s holding you focus hostage.
“Yeah, anything but your job.” You scoff, taking a sip of your second cup of coffee, “People don’t like you because you’re such a kiss ass.”
“Okay, first of all, rude.” He looks as if you’ve lied, “Second of all, I’m not a kiss ass, I'm just kind and use my resources.” He retorts, stabbing his plastic fork into the salad in front of him.
“Oh my god, you’re such a liar!” You laugh.
“Am not!” Josh speaks through his chewing of lettuce.
“You are, all the time you are constantly doing things in order for them to like you. I feel like if you did your job you’d get further.” Your voice gets lower the further your sentence gets, taking a bite of your sandwich.
Josh’s jaw drops for a second, clearly taking offence to your comment. “Okay, I do do my job, very well might I add and I just happen to be a giving soul who provides the people of this office what they need.” He battles.
“I’m just saying…” You murmur, taking the last bite of your sandwich.
“I used to debate in high school, I could do this all day.” He crosses his arms, waiting for you to continue to try and put down his ‘efforts’ of being a kind soul.
You give him a small laugh, “I’m gonna go back to work, Josh. You should do the same and maybe the people in this office would like you more.” You walk to the trash and throw away your scraps.
You don’t turn to look as you walk out but you can feel his gaze on your back. There is something that feels so good about that, getting the last word. It gets you through the rest of your day and the thought of having to clock into another job after this one doesn’t sound so bad if it means getting to bask in the thought of having put a man in his place.
The subway ride to your house isn’t so bad either, despite all of the chaos around you it still felt nice. Your headphones in, listening to music that would make you avoid the thought of blowing your brains out and an argument you had actually won makes the minutes melt away until you get to walk up your apartment complexes stairs and walk into your apartment.
“Hey, babe.” You mumble, walking past him on the couch and he follows you to the room.
“Hey, on your way home can you stop by the store? There’s like no food.” He speaks as you change out of your work clothes into different work clothes.
“Can’t you?” You ask, pulling your pants up.
“Well, I mean, you’re gonna be out already…” A whine can be heard in his tone, something you don’t want to unlock right now.
You leave the question unanswered and walk to the bathroom to touch up your makeup.
“Will you?” He stands in the doorway, phone in hand like a child.
“I’ve got work.” Is all you say, pushing past him to go to the front door.
“Babe!” The last thing you hear before shutting the door.
‘Way to ruin the vibe..’ is the only thing you can think of on your way to work, the sun starting to retrieve from the place it was this morning once you step into the restaurant.
You get yourself through your shift by thinking about the one good thing that happened today and all though you don’t smoke, it’d be a great time to start because even with that you have to think about the fact you’ve got to go to the store after this or else you’ll starve to death.
Waiting tables is usually fine, nothing special so you’re able to push past it all. Getting yelled at for getting an order wrong? Not so much but luckily you’re not spacing out too bad today so you avoid all major fuckups.
Tables come and go, no memorable faces and weird things. This is shaping up to be a not so shitty day, right?
“Fancy meeting you here.” Josh grins, sitting lone at his table.
“How did you end up in my section again?” This time, you could muster the courage to be a bit mean because this was clearly purposeful.
“I just asked for your name.” He looks proud of himself.
“Why?” You hold your pen to your small note pad, forgetting all about taking his order.
“Can’t I say hi to a friend?” He grins wider this time and you feel the urge to punch him in his face.
You take a deep breath, looking up again. “What would you like, Josh?” Your normal customer service smile morphs into something less appealing.
Now, this is an order you cannot mess up because that would mean he’d probably give you shit for it the next day so you take more caution than usual. You try to avoid his table more than the rest but tend to him enough to where your manager wouldn’t be suspicious and to your relief, it’s over. You come back to his empty table and there it is, the one thing you work for, tips.
Left there is a nice forty dollars, a number you’ve never seen so high in all of the tips you have ever gotten and on the recipe is a small little note.
“Kind soul, I told you :)” Scribbled there for you to see and you can’t help but smile down onto it.
“Kiss ass..” You whisper.
The shift finally ends, you shiver stepping out into the cold. The sun has fallen and the moon has risen in its place to illuminate your walk to the grocery store.
Once you’re there you feel this sort of rage bubble like a ‘why am I here?’ type of rage. It’s not like you’re the one who is at home all day, you work two jobs! You shouldn’t be here, it’s not something you should have to do if there is a perfectly capable person in your home to do so!
This induces an angry shopping spree from you, buying only things he doesn’t like to eat but you do. It’s the only good thing that has ever come from that man's pickiness and it probably always will be.
You come home tired and put everything away, having used most of your tip money to fund said shopping trip but this somehow makes you feel fulfilled, the most fulfilled you ever have in your life. He’s obviously already sleeping but you can almost taste the nice breakfast you’ll be having once the fight you’ll have ensues tomorrow when he realizes he should’ve listened to you and gone to the store.
“I should be petty more often..” You whisper, sitting in a warm bath and basking in the feeling of freedom of such a great day.