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Chapter Text

"That was Harry Styles with 'As It Was,' the Song of the Summer, or should we say 'the Song of the Fall' now that it's September? It's been months since it came out and people just can't get enough of it!" the tacky radio DJ barked through the fuzzy stereo. "You're listening to Farm Road 3.141! We've got Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys, and more after these commercial messages!"

Annabeth groaned and cranked the AC when the obnoxious ad for Olympus Auto started. It may have been September, but she couldn't blame anyone who mistook it for July. She was sweaty already just from the fifteen-minute commute!

"Hello, Berkeley area! Are you in need of a used car? Yes, you are! Come on down to Olympus Auto! We'll find your dream car fast, fast, fast with the speed of Hermes himself! Looking to sell or trade in your car? Yes, you are! We offer Kelley Blue Book value with no hassle! So come on over to Olympus Auto! Your chariot awaits!"

That was the latest advertisement for Olympus Automotive, a small used car dealership in Berkeley Hills that despite all odds, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite the ever-expanding Jupiter Auto Trader corporate chain, persisted in annoying anyone within a twenty-mile radius with its very existence.

Annabeth looked out the driver's side window and took in the used car lot in all its glory. The weird thing about Olympus Automotive was that she'd never heard of any experience someone had buying or selling a car there. All that the place was known for was its obnoxious commercials, its obnoxious spokesperson, and its loaded Greek mythology puns and references that not even the average high school graduate would understand.

In summary, Olympus Auto was known for just about anything except for selling cars.

And Annabeth Chase was about to start her first day as a mechanic there.

Yes, she looked at other places, including Ford dealerships she'd heard of, and even that Jiffy Lube place her father always called 'Shady Lube,' but for a female mechanic, the job market was about as big as a paper bag.

The clicking of Annabeth's turn signal finally stopped when she rounded the corner and pulled into the used car lot.

"Shit," she said aloud. Mr. D, the owner of the dealership who'd interviewed her last week, never actually told her where to park. Sure, there were plenty of spaces in the lot, but which ones were designated for employee parking, she had no idea. The chances of her accidentally parking her Mini Cooper with the cars for sale were greater than zero. Talk about a bad first impression.

She turned the radio off and rounded yet another corner before finally settling on a spot near some cars that weren't decked out for selling. If this wasn't the right spot, she could ask someone else who worked here where she could park.

She pulled the key out of the ignition and gathered her things; they weren't much, just a lunch bag, her wallet, and a water bottle.

"Shit," she swore again, dropping her metal water bottle to the floor. The damn thing had been sitting in the sun for the whole drive over and as a result, was hot to the touch. Fantastic. That's precisely what Annabeth needed on her first day at a new job.

The water bottle unceremoniously rolled beneath the passenger seat of Annabeth's Mini Cooper. She couldn't go in without that; she highly doubted the garage she'd be working in would have decent ventilation, so she leaned over the center console and fished into the abyss beneath the passenger seat.

"Gotcha," she muttered, only to come up with a plastic water bottle. She didn't buy plastic water bottles; single-use plastics were horrible for the environment.

She dug a little further, determined that spending seventy-five cents on three minutes with the car vacuum cleaner would be worth it, and then found her water bottle.

"Shit," she swore again when she came up too fast, hitting her head on the ceiling.

Even though rearview mirrors are meant exclusively for driving purposes, Annabeth angled hers downward so she could check her appearance.

She'd be spending hours on end in a sweaty garage, most likely, so she hadn't bothered with too much makeup—just some mascara on her eyelashes that would hopefully emphasize her gray eyes, as she'd been told they were one of her more intimidating features. Her blonde hair was tied back in two French braids since she'd woken up early. Not a single curl was out of place, although she was sure that wouldn't be the case by five o'clock.

She sighed. Nothing she could do—not fixing her appearance, not buying a new pair of jeans that would inevitably be covered in grease by the end of the day—could calm her nerves.

If the clock on Annabeth's car was correct, she'd need to head inside in about four minutes, which gave her that much time to quickly despair over what horrors awaited her within Olympus Auto.

If the real world was anything like her trade school, she'd need to continue buying her jeans a little too large in the ass. She'd have to brainstorm witty comebacks to sexist remarks. The best she could hope for was that whatever misogyny lay within those sliding doors, it might not include forty-year-old men hitting on her. God, that would be so much worse than guys her age hitting on her.

The digital clock in her Mini Cooper changed once more. It was time for her to face the music. Oh, she hoped they wouldn't make her sit alone with only the remarks of sexist pigs and heavy machinery for music!

...And her dramatizations were simply proving that she had done enough wallowing for the morning. It was now or never. Today, Annabeth was going start her first job in the real world, make real money, and spend it on real adult things like rent and utilities.

She stepped out of the car and wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. The September heatwave surely had to be contributing to her nerves. At least, that's what she decided to tell herself. She had to squint to read the sign on the front door; the sun was just that goddamned bright.

OLYMPUS AUTO, it read in bright orange lettering. Coloring everything orange was not an aesthetic choice Annabeth would have made, but what did she know about aesthetics? She was just a mechanic.

The doors opened automatically when she approached, sending a nice whoosh of cool air her way. Within that conditioned air she breathed in was the stench of gasoline, oil, and artificial vanilla. It smelled like home. It put her at ease.

Nobody was sitting at the reception desk. Even when she peered over the admittedly high tabletop, there was nobody. Maybe the receptionist was in the bathroom. She could ask an employee about-

"Good morning, ma'am! First one of the day—lucky you!" chirped a chipper young man in a business suit. His blazer was gray, which must have been a stark contrast to his personality because his tie had suns on it, and each of those suns was wearing tiny little sunglasses. "My name is Will," he said, adjusting the magnetic nametag on his suit jacket.

"I'm Annabeth." She held out her hand. That seemed to be the right thing to do when meeting a new coworker.

He took her hand eagerly and then scurried behind the reception desk. Was it possible that this man was the receptionist?

His mannerisms, however, told Annabeth that he was not a simple receptionist. He was most people's worst nightmare: a used car salesman.

He beamed up at her from behind the computer with the light of a thousand tiny suns with sunglasses. Little freckles held hands and sang kumbaya across his cheeks. Even his blond curls were glowing, and admittedly, Annabeth was jealous. Her curls weren't... happy... like his.

"Okay, so!" he said, clacking away on the keyboard. "Have you ever bought a car with us before? Because if not, I just want you to know, we're not like other places." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "I don't treat ladies looking for cars like they're stupid."

Wow, the bare minimum—how progressive.

"Thanks," Annabeth says, "but actually, I'm here about a job; it's my first day, and I'm not really sure where to go..."

He gasped, and as he spoke, Annabeth finally placed his accent. This man—Will—was from the south, and not like Virginia or something. He was from the Deep South.

"I am so sorry for assuming!" he said. "Let me just... Hang tight! I'll just grab my boss quick!"

"Take your time," Annabeth said, not that he heard her. He didn't run to the small closed-off office, but the way he speed-walked would have made those old ladies at the mall jealous.

She looked around the dealership lobby. They didn't keep cars inside like big-name dealers, and there weren't a ton of people waiting for their cars to be inspected. That was certainly a green flag.

The reception desk was new, although it had a small stain from where someone must have forgotten to use a coaster.

Orange flags hung from the ceiling and a plaque on the wall declared that Olympus Auto was voted number one in inspection services. By whom? Surely the people working at a place like this couldn't be that good.

Annabeth was good enough, though. She should be working down the street at Jupiter Auto Trader. She applied for that job. She interviewed for that job, only to lose it to some man that had compared her ass to the peach emoji back in her trade school.

She shuffled her feet on the orange mat beneath her: YOUR CHARIOT AWAITS, it read. They weren't going to put her in an orange jumpsuit like a prisoner, were they? That would be entirely unsavory, but not surprising. What if they ask her to speak in one of those awful commercials? They couldn't do that, could they?

Annabeth tried to think back to the contract she signed in Mr. D's office, but her thoughts were interrupted by...

By...

The most gorgeous man she'd ever seen in her life. How could somebody that attractive be working at a used car dealership and not as a model?

"Annabeth," Will said, flashing his movie star smile. "This is Percy Jackson, our assistant manager. He'll get you set up." And with that, Will pivoted on his heels and waltzed out onto the lot to greet someone looking at a used minivan.

Annabeth's new boss, Percy Jackson, was a Latino man with a movie star smile that although strained, showed signs of mischief. His stubble and unruly hair were hardly appropriate for a professional environment, but he pulled it off. Good God, he pulled it off a little too well.

He held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Annabeth said, taking his firm handshake. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He hadn't bothered to wear a blazer like Will's, although Annabeth wasn't complaining that she could see every last vein in his forearm.

Feeling that she had held his hand for too long, she broke the handshake.

"Alright, you can just follow me," he said. His fingers ghosted her back as he guided her, and it was at that moment that she decided she could not be attracted to Percy Jackson, nor could she be attracted to any man who would touch her like that.

She didn't protest, however. She wouldn't dare make a poor first impression with her boss on the first day.

"So where's Mr. D?" Annabeth asked instead of sticking up for herself.

Percy—Mr. Jackson?—smiled down at her. Annabeth always prided herself on being tall, yet here was this guy, towering over her.

"Mr. D is... away at a conference. At a spa and resort. In Cancun," he said with a wink. "Between you and me, I think he's trying to use up his vacation days before he retires."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't he own the place?" Wouldn't that make him in charge of how many vacation days he got?

Percy nodded, showing only a hint of annoyance with his boss. "Yep. He says it'll be practice for when I eventually take over— Whoop! This way!" He urges her behind the reception desk. "The chair adjusts with that pedal on the bottom; ask Will to help you if you can't figure it out."

"Uh-"

"There's a stack of paperwork that needs to be sorted and stapled; it's just a bunch of receipts we're behind on because we haven't had someone at the desk in a week," he explained.

And then Annabeth realized that Percy Jackson had the exact wrong idea of what she was hired to do here. "I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't worry, you'll pick it up fast," he said, waving her off. "Just greet people when they come in, sort the paperwork... Oh! And when someone sells a car or does a trade-in, just ask Will to run you through it. He's familiar with the computer system."

"Excuse me, I-"

But Percy just continued like everything was normal. "Well, I've got a super busy day ahead of me, what with doing my job and Mr. D's, so uh, good luck! You'll be fine. No need to be nervous, Nicole. It's Nicole, right?"

"It's actually-"

His shoes thumped against the floor as he walked off into his office.

This was not what Annabeth was hired to do. She didn't know the first thing about... receptioning? Being a receptionist? Whatever.

Eyes stinging with tears, she did what any rational person would do.

She started stapling.  

Chapter Text

In her first hour at Olympus Auto, Annabeth had gotten up close and personal with exactly zero cars.

She will grant, the people-watching from the reception desk was phenomenal. She'd already seen one of the saleswomen convince a man to pay almost double Kelley Blue Book value for an old manual pickup truck. Later, a person about her age with dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail was ushered to the garage, a confused look on his face.

And Annabeth had already landed a new workplace crush to replace the boss! One of the saleswomen who hadn't paid her any attention yet was tall, and had dark hair she wore in two pigtail braids sort of like Annabeth's, but way less juvenile. She made pigtails sexy. Also, she wasn't in any position of power over Annabeth. That was an appropriate workplace crush.

Yes, it was true what they said about female mechanics. Annabeth was bisexual, but aside from her high school prom date, she'd only ever pursued relationships with women. They were her comfort zone. Her past girlfriends understood her struggle being a woman in a male-dominated industry.

Speaking of the struggles of being a woman in a male-dominated industry:

"Hola, Mamacita!"

Annabeth jumped at the sound of a new voice. Leaning over the desk was a scrawny Latino guy. A pair of work goggles rested on his wild curly hair. His face was covered in grease, and his fingerless gloves were darkened with oil, gasoline, and all the wonderful grime that was just a day in the life of a mechanic.

This guy was living her dream.

"Uh, hey?" he asked again, waving his glove in her face. It smelled terrible. Annabeth wanted in.

"Oh, hi," Annabeth said. "I'm Annabeth." She reached her hand out.

"Oh, I couldn't shake your hand," he said. "I wouldn't want to get your manicure messed up."

Annabeth didn't have a decent manicure. Her nails were cut down to pink and she couldn't remember the last time she painted them. In the Venn diagram representing mechanics and sapphics, the intersecting part included short nails.

"You let me know if anyone gives you a hard time around here, Mamacita," he said. "I'll take care of you; just let me know whose lights to knock out!"

Annabeth couldn't help but giggle. She couldn't possibly tell this guy that his boss was giving her a hard time. This guy? Beat up Percy Jackson? She sincerely doubted he could get a good punch in, let alone "knock his lights out."

"Uh, thanks," she said. And then, "Hey, so you're a mechanic?"

"Head mechanic, actually," he said, pointing to his magnetic nametag. Annabeth wondered when she would get a nametag. "You'll meet Frank soon enough; he's one of our other mechanics. I don't think the new guy's going to last very long, though. He's wearing slacks."

Annabeth winced. Now would have been a great time to tell this guy that she was a mechanic. She didn't wear dress pants to work.

"Anyway, I should leave you to it," he said. "I'm mostly trying to avoid going back there. Don't get me wrong; I love cars, but we've got a situation that requires three sets of hands, and I'm more or less working with two."

This was her chance!

"I could help," Annabeth said.

He threw his head back and laughed like a child. "I think you and I are going to get along just fine, Mamacita! Adios!" Still chuckling to himself, he walked away, back into the garage.

"Don't worry about Leo," a soft voice said. "He says stuff like that to women; I tell him not to, I swear!"

Annabeth found the source of the voice towering above her. He was huge. He was even taller than Percy. His gentle voice didn't match his stature. At all.

"It's not your fault," Annabeth said. "Guys are just..." She trailed off, not sure of the right words.

He sighed. "Well, not Leo. He's aroace."

"What?"

"He's asexual and aromantic. It means he doesn't-"

"No, I know what it means," Annabeth said. "I just... I sort of thought he was hitting on me."

"You wouldn't be the first." He took his hat off and wiped his sweaty brow. "Well, back to work. I'm Frank if you ever need anything."

"Did you guys want help with that situation you've got back there?" Annabeth asked.

"Nah, I wouldn't want to take you away from your work," Frank said. "See you around... Annabeth, was it?"

She nodded.

"Cool, have a good one!"

Annabeth could certainly get used to nice people like Frank. He might even be able to restore her faith in men. That is, if she was, in fact, supposed to work as a mechanic for Olympus Auto.

Annabeth practically jumped out of her seat when the bells on the door rang again.

She started her rehearsed greeting. "Hi, welcome to-"

"Oh, shit! Will!" The gorgeous girl from earlier stumbled into the lobby, a massive sign in one hand. The other hand clutched her nose, which was profusely gushing blood.

She stopped at the desk and made eye contact with Annabeth. "Do you have a tissue back there?"

"I... I don't know..."

"I have a paper towel!" Will shouted. "Tilt your head back a moment. Piper! Put the sign down!"

"I don't want to damage it!"

"You've already gotten your blood all over it!" Will shouted. He pressed his paper towel to Piper's nose and squeezed.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked.

In a nasal voice, Piper said, "I was out spinning the sign. I thought maybe I could get the lunch rush to come in." She chuckled, and Will's paper towel filled with a sudden spurt of red blood. "I suppose sign-spinning is one hobby I should give up on."

"Keep looking for those tissues," Will said.

"What the hell is going on here?" asked a third salesperson. Were all the workers at Olympus Auto failed models or something? Annabeth was starting to feel like there was a memo she missed out on. Was Olympus Auto a cover for something?

The woman turned to Annabeth, her sleek black hair whooshing behind her. "How the hell is it taking you this long to find tissues?"

"I... I don't know where anything is!" Annabeth shrieked.

"How is that? Don't they teach you organizational skills in receptionist school or something?" she hollered. She grabbed the back of Annabeth's seat and yanked her out of the way so she could open the drawers and slam them shut just as fast.

"Drew, be nice!" Will shouted as Piper's blood trickled onto his wrist. "It's Annabeth's first day."

"Is receptionist school a thing?" Piper asked in that same nasal voice.

"Do you have any tissues in your purse?" Drew asked Annabeth.

Annabeth's shoulders dropped. "I don't carry a purse."

"What?"

"I'm..."

"No, that is unacceptable! How are you supposed to charge your phone or take notes if you don't carry stuff in a purse?" she asked. "What if you get your period at work?"

"I don't want to hear about bodily functions that aren't mine in my place of work," Will muttered.

"Oh, shut the hell up, Solace!" Drew shouted. "You literally have someone else's blood on your arm!"

Annabeth opens a drawer beneath her feet. "Are Fourth of July napkins okay?"

"Yes!" Will said. "Hand 'em over!"

She passed the napkins across the desk and Will replaced Piper's paper towel.

"See?" Drew asked. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She dropped a pile of papers onto the desk. "I finally managed to sell that hunk of junk van the other day. Get this paperwork in order for me, will you?"

"I... I can't," Annabeth said.

"You can't?" Drew snapped.

"Give me a minute to finish up Piper's nose and then I can walk you through it!" Will chirped.

"No," Annabeth said. "No!"

All eyes turned to her.

Blood dripped from Piper's nose and onto the tiling below.

Drew's jaw was practically on the floor.

Will's eyebrows furrowed, as if he was sad Annabeth didn't want him to teach her how to file paperwork.

Annabeth sighs. "Guys, I'm not a receptionist. I have no idea what I'm doing."

Will chimed in again. "We can help you get acquainted; it's fine. Everyone gets frustrated-"

"I appreciate that, but I am not a receptionist. I was hired as a mechanic!"

Everyone kind of just looked at each other for a while. Piper looked at Will. Will looked at Piper, and then at Annabeth.

Drew's eyes, however, never left Annabeth. "Who put you back here?" she demanded.

"Uh, your boss... Percy Jackson..."

"I'm going to kill him!"

"Let's think about our word choices, Drew," Will said.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Don't file my paperwork. Get up. Get your things."

Annabeth gathered her keys and wallet, and then almost dropped her water bottle before sheepishly looking at Drew.

"You really need a purse."

"You said that already."

What was Drew going to do? She couldn't just throw Annabeth out, could she?

"Follow me if you still want to be a mechanic." She walked off toward Percy's office, not looking behind her to see if Annabeth was following.

Piper gestured forward. "Follow her, dude!"

Annabeth caught up with Drew at the door to Mr. D's office, where Percy was working.

She banged on the door aggressively. If Annabeth were on the other side, she might not want to answer that knock.

"Ugh, asshole," Drew muttered. She knocked again.

Annabeth peered through the window. Through the dirty glass, Percy was at the desk, using the phone. It looked like he did bring a blazer to work, but it was draped across the back of his chair. "I think he's busy," Annabeth said.

"I may be a bitch, but misogyny doesn't fly," Drew said. "We don't care that he's busy." She banged on the door again and shouted, "Let us in, asshole!"

Percy scowled and hung up the phone. He got up and answered the door, wasting no time telling Drew, "I'm busy trying to do Mr. D's job. What could possibly be so important?"

"We're here because you're an asshole!" Drew shouted, pointing a finger at Percy's chest and walking him deeper into the office. "You're an asshole and a misogynist!"

He crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, assuming a power position perched on the edge of his desk. "Oh really? I'd love to hear why you think that."

"Well, I went to get some paperwork filed by..." Drew looked at Annabeth. "What's your name again?"

"Annabeth."

"Your parents couldn't decide so they mashed two names together? Alright then," she said. "Annabeth isn't a receptionist, and you just put her behind the receptionist's desk because she's a woman? Shame on you, Percy."

He looked at Annabeth. "Are you not the new receptionist?"

"I'm the new mechanic," she said meekly.

Percy sighed. "Drew, you can go now."

"You owe her big time." And with that, she turned around and left the office.

Annabeth turned to follow, but Percy stopped her.

"Sit down," he said. "Let's sort this out."

Annabeth took a seat across from him and he opened a desk drawer.

"Do you want a cookie?" he asked, holding out a gallon Ziploc bag of chocolate chip cookies.

Annabeth took a cookie, but instead of saying thank you, the only thing that crossed her mind to say was, "They're blue."

"My favorite color," he said. "It's sort of a thing with my mom and me. Blue food, I mean."

Annabeth nodded.

"Anyway," he said. "I am so sorry for the misunderstanding. That must have sucked."

"It did," Annabeth said.

"I'm sorry?"

"You should be," she said. She might have been digging her own grave, but so what? It was better than working for a man who thought a woman couldn't be a mechanic. "I went to school to work on cars. I am drowning in student debt because I want to work on cars. You don't know what it's like to be a woman in this industry! I have to deal with shit from other mechanics all the time; I certainly don't need to take shit from you."

"If it's all the same to you, I'd like it if you stuck around and worked here," Percy said. "We can barely make it with only two mechanics as is, and you're sort of all the interest we've gotten."

"Funny you say that, because this is the last place I wanted to work," she said.

"So you'll stay?"

"Why should I?"

"Because it sounds like you need us as much as we need you," he said, smirking. "Look, I'm sorry about the bad first impression. That's totally on me."

As Percy rambled about the company's values and nondiscrimination policies, Annabeth peered out the window. Her black Mini Cooper stood small but proud next to someone's monster-sized pickup truck.

She squinted to see better. Her car was worth 17,000 dollars, judging by the orange writing on the windshield.

Wait.

Will was standing outside the car, talking to an eager young couple.

"And yeah, so I hope you'll find a home here at Olympus Auto. You'll like Frank and Leo, and I'd love to buy you lunch or something to make up for-"

"Will's selling my car."

Percy chuckled. "Ah, yeah, that's Will. He's a bit of a hustler."

"No, he's actually selling my car."

Percy looked out the window and whistled. "I think that's a bit above Blue Book value," he said. "Would you be interested in selling your vehicle today, or maybe trading it in?"

"Uh, no," she said. "That's my car."

"I could give you fifteen thousand for it," he said.

"My car is a little over sixteen thousand on the Blue Book, thanks," Annabeth said.

"I tried."

"Maybe don't try to sell someone's car after sticking them at the reception desk for an entire day."

"Noted."

There was another knock on the door.

Percy turned to Annabeth. "Are we more or less done here?"

"More or less."

"Alright, I'm going to get this then." He opened the door and Leo barged in with Frank at his side.

"Boss, it's the new mechanic. He's an idiot. He doesn't know anything about cars," Leo groaned. "He can't even check the oil."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I have your new mechanic here."

"Then who the heck is the guy you gave us this morning?" Leo asked.

"Shit," Percy swore. "C'mon, everyone. To the garage."

Annabeth followed behind Percy, Leo, and Frank. The circumstances weren't ideal, but she was going to get to see the garage! She'd get to see the garage on her first day!

"Drew!" he called when they crossed the lobby. "Go stop Will from selling that Mini Cooper!"

"On it!"

"How's your nose, Piper?" Annabeth asked.

She removed an ice pack from her nose. "Getting better," she declared, firing a finger gun at Annabeth. Even with a bruised nose, Piper was beautiful.

Percy pushed the small door to the garage open, only to reveal a lanky guy with a black ponytail sitting on an orange Homor bucket twiddling his thumbs. "Mr. Jackson," he said. "I think there's been some kind of a mix-up."

"No shit," said Leo.

Percy facepalmed. "I am such an idiot," he muttered. "Nico, is it?"

"You mean you don't know my name?"

"Nico, go to the lobby and tell one of the salespeople you're the new receptionist and you're looking for Will. He'll get you set up with some paperwork that needs to be filed."

Nico sprung to his feet and said, "Thank you, Mr. Jackson" before sprinting out to the lobby.

"Just Percy is fine!" Percy called after him. Then, he turned to Frank. "How bad was it?"

Frank wrung his hands. "I mean, he was very nice. He wanted to help."

"Like I said, he didn't know the first thing about cars!" Leo said. "Can he even drive?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Percy said. "Annabeth is here now."

"Alright," said Leo. "Show us what you've got."

She raised an eyebrow. "You said something about a three-person job earlier?"

***

Annabeth's t-shirt was drenched in a combination of sweat and water, and now soap thanks to the bucket Frank gave her to scrub away the price tag Will drew on her car. That Will Solace had some nice handwriting, but alas, Annabeth wasn't interested in selling or trading in her car anytime soon.

She stood on her tiptoes to reach that one difficult spot. Maybe she could afford to miss it when washing her car regularly, but not now. She couldn't have an orange dollar sign on her windshield.

"Hey."

"Jesus!" she shouted. "You don't gotta scare me like that!"

Percy looked at his feet. "I'm really, truly sorry about what happened today."

"So you've said."

"Yeah, but I clocked out, so technically, I'm not speaking as your boss right now," he said. It was kind of stupid-sounding, but Annabeth figured hearing him out might at least be worth a laugh.

"Go on," she said.

"I'm just some guy who made a mistake," he said, "and you seem like a really nice person."

"Nice?"

"Cool," he corrected. "You seem like a very cool, intelligent, talented person that I might like to get to know better."

"That's more accurate," Annabeth teased.

"Look, do you want this gallon bag of cookies or not?"

Annabeth then noticed the bag of cookies in his arms. "Yeah, those were pretty good. Your mom makes a good cookie."

"My mom makes the best cookies, actually," he said.

"Wow, cocky much?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. I just love my mom. Do you want the cookies or not?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I'll take those. Give me just a sec..." She strained to reach the orange dollar sign. She should have thought to bring a stepstool out with her.

"Let me," Percy said, taking the sponge from her hand. He wrung it out into the bucket and then dunked it into the soap.

"You'll get your shirt all wet," she said.

"It's fine. Day's over anyway." He scrubbed the orange dollar sign away with ease, and even got some of the coloring away that Annabeth hadn't been able to thanks to her height. "There ya go."

"Thanks," she said.

He dropped the sponge into the bucket and grabbed it by the handle. "I've got this. I still have to lock up the garage."

"So you are still my boss."

He blushed. "I clocked out and then remembered that I didn't lock up. ADHD."

"I know how that is."

There was a moment of silence. Sure, Percy Jackson was an attractive guy, and maybe Annabeth shouldn't have let his poor first impression ruin her entire perception of him. Everything in her brain said PROCEED WITH CAUTION, but honestly? Not in that way. She had her eyes on someone else, anyway.

"Well," he said. "Have a good evening. Get home safe and all that good stuff."

"See you tomorrow," Annabeth said. She opened the driver-side door and climbed into the seat, tossing the bag of cookies on the passenger seat next to her. She put the key into the ignition and the radio started playing that tacky ad again while Percy walked back into the garage.

"Come on down to Olympus Auto for all of your used car needs! Buy, sell, or trade! Your chariot awaits!"

He looked over his shoulder and offered her a wave goodbye.

She smirked and revved the engine.  

Chapter Text

"Guess what day it is?" Piper shouted, waltzing into the Olympus Auto lobby with two trays of coffee stacked on top of each other.

Leo came from practically out of nowhere and slid across the just-cleaned floor on his knees. "HUMP DAY!"

Piper set the trays on the reception desk and started handing out coffees. "Oatmilk latte for Frank!"

"Thank you, Piper!" Frank shouted as he took his dairy-free treat. Long days working on used cars and lactose intolerance were generally not compatible, so Percy could understand why Frank usually chose the lactose-free option. He, on the other hand, couldn't stomach the thought of oat milk. Where did the milk come from? Did the barista just squeeze oats? If he thought about oat milk and where it came from too hard... Nope. Not happening.

"Black coffee for Nico."

Nico reached up to take his coffee. "Thanks."

Percy hadn't gotten to know the new receptionist, Nico di Angelo, very well yet, but already he could tell that they'd get along just fine, despite the mix-up from the other day. He still felt bad about accidentally making him spend the whole day in the garage with Frank and Leo.

Nico typically kept to himself and never drew much attention, hence, the simple black coffee, but Percy always thought of himself as the kind of boss who could bring people out of their shells. Nico di Angelo would just be a challenge.

"Of course!" Piper said. "Pink drinks for Drew and Will..."

"Thanks, Piper," they said in unison.

Drew Tanaka and Will Solace were a fun bunch. You'd think there'd be no chance that the upbeat 'golden retriever' boy and the cutthroat textbook mean girl would get along, but the car salespeople did. Drew, Will, and Piper were tight. Come to think of it, it was probably Piper that glued the other two together. She tended to have that effect on people.

Piper groaned and passed Leo his Trenta mocha chocolate chip cookie crumble frappuccino. "Leo."

He slurped the whipped cream from the straw. "Mmm, delicious."

Percy will admit, he wasn't sure about Leo when Mr. D hired him to work as a mechanic for Olympus Auto. He was such a wildcard, having worked for electronics companies, plumbers, and just about anything you can go to trade school for, but not cars. Quickly, however, Leo proved to be a Jack of all trades and an excellent mechanic. When the necessity came about, he was the obvious choice for the head mechanic position.

"Percy," Piper said, handing him a caramel cold brew. You know, something simple. Percy liked his coffee pronounceable, but he wasn't quite as simple as Nico. Black coffee, Percy thought, was for crazy people.

"Thank you," he said. Wednesdays at the dealership were the best because Piper wasn't scheduled to come in until eleven, which gave her plenty of time for her me-mornings. To Percy's understanding, me-mornings consisted of manicures, grocery shopping, and other such self-care activities. Fortunately for Percy and the rest of the staff, me-mornings also included a run to Starbucks for everyone's favorite drinks.

Percy pressed the coffee to his lips and let the caramel cold brew take over. Free Hump Day coffee never failed to hit the spot. As the assistant manager of Olympus Auto, he should have probably chipped in for Hump Day coffee, especially since Leo was so intent on ordering Trenta frappes every week, but he was the assistant manager. He'd pitch in with company funds when Mr. D, the owner of Olympus Auto, finally retired.

"You drink that crap?" Frank asked Leo.

"When you don't have to blow up a bathroom every time you have dairy, you tend to order things like Trenta mocha cookie crumble frappes," Leo declared. Just for show, he gave the straw one long slurp.

Piper waved Leo and Frank back into the mechanics' garage. "Come on now. No talk of bowel movements on the floor please and thank you."

"You're no fun," Leo said.

"No, but Hump Day coffee does depend on me making enough money selling cars to afford your shitty eating habits," she said. "Oh! Annabeth!"

Annabeth Chase, the new mechanic, seemed entirely caught off guard by Hump Day coffee. "Hey, Piper."

"I didn't know what you liked, so I just got you what I usually get for me." She held an iced chai latte out for Annabeth.

"This looks great; thanks, Piper," Annabeth said, taking the coffee. Was Percy imagining things, or did her cheeks turn red?

Annabeth Chase was hard to figure out. Percy couldn't quite figure out if she was still mad at him for assuming she was the new receptionist when really, she was a mechanic. She's a phenomenal mechanic, but as for her personality?

Well, everyone else seemed to like her. Will and Drew were still mad about the incident for Annabeth, Piper bought her coffee, and Frank and Leo were getting a lot more done in the garage since she came. Percy swore he even saw Nico crack a smile the other day when she was leaving work.

So why couldn't he have that kind of friendly coworker relationship with her? He was just the guy in charge. That wasn't supposed to be so scary or anything. Surely, the other employees told her that she could talk to him anytime she wanted? Or at least, they had to have told her that she could call him by his first name. He was just the assistant manager. It wasn't like he could fire her if she spoke freely. Hell, she yelled at him in his office the other day, and she still had the job. She had to have figured that out.

She seemed like a smart girl at least. Woman. Person.

And then it was time for Percy to use his assistant manager powers. "Alright everybody," he said. "Let's get back to work. I see some customers out in the lot."

"I'll grab the father-daughter pair!" Will shouted before running out the door.

"I can take care of the super scary guy in the business suit," Piper grumbled.

Frank picked up the coffee trays and retreated into the garage, Annabeth closely behind him.

Leo took one more long, loud sip of his frappuccino just to be annoying and then followed the other mechanics toward the garage.

Drew looked up from her retro Hello Kitty watch and then said, "I'll take care of the guys in the ugly Jupiter shirts."

Percy snapped his fingers and turned to his office. "Awesome, thanks, Drew!" And then what she said registered. "Sorry, what did you say?"

She raised an eyebrow and gestured to the automatic door, where two blond men with purple ties were entering the lobby. They had laurel pins on their blazers, which told Percy that Drew was right; these were guys from Jupiter Auto Trader.

Percy crossed his arms, hoping it made him look a little tougher. Drew quickly fell into place behind him. If there was one good thing that came out of hiring her, it was her badass demeanor. You didn't want to cross Drew Tanaka.

One time, Percy left a door stop in a walkway that she fell over. She immediately declared that she was in her Reputation Era, and then when Percy laughed, he quickly found out what that meant.

"Can I help you?" Percy asked.

The taller of the two blonds squinted at Percy's name tag. "Uh, yes," he said. "My name is Jason Grace; I'm Assistant to the Manager at Jupiter Auto Trader just down the street. If you pass the Dairy Queen and make a right-"

"I know where it is," Percy interrupted. "Can my associate and I help you with anything today? Because if not, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

Jason frowned, the scar intersecting his lip contorting with his expression.

The shorter, lanky guy sneered. "Look, we can see the situation Olympus Auto is in, so we'll just be frank with you."

Drew scoffed from behind Percy. "We already have a guy named Frank."

Jason cleared his throat. "That's hardly appropriate for the lobby, Octavian. Mr. Jackson, we think this conversation might be better had in your office."

"Uh, whatever you want to say to Percy, you can say to the rest of us," Drew said, motioning throughout the lobby.

Nico made eye contact with Percy and then ducked behind the reception desk so he couldn't be seen.

"Fine then," Octavian said. "Everyone knows Olympus Auto is a shithole that's going straight to hell, so we're offering to buy your lot for our new corporate office."

"Excuse me?" Drew asked. "You can't just come onto our lot and call it a shithole! Nobody gets to call this place a shithole except for me; I earn the right to because I come to work here every day."

Percy started to sense he needed to reign in his attack dog. "Drew-"

"And who do you think you are asking us to sell to you?" With each one of her insults, a small crowd began to grow. Leo hid behind a potted snake plant with his iPhone. Annabeth walked to the women's restroom in slow motion. Frank suddenly had something very important he needed to share with Nico.

"Drew-"

Octavian chuckled. "You're a feisty one. Maybe if Olympus didn't hire people like you, it wouldn't be going under."

"Oh, that's it!" Drew reached for her hoop earrings.

"That's enough," Percy said, throwing an arm in front of her, partially to protect Octavian from her wrath, and partially to protect the dealership from a lawsuit.

"I apologize for my colleague," Jason Grace said. "Respectfully, this is why I was hoping to have this conversation with you and the owner in an office. Consider this our friendly heads-up that Olympus Automotive will be receiving an official offer from Jupiter Auto Trader with some... persuasive justifications for our action. I do hope you'll consider it."

"Consider it my ass!" Drew shouted over Percy's shoulder.

Percy sighed. If this Jason character was apologizing for his attack dog, then it's only fair Percy did the same. "I also apologize for my associate's behavior. Unfortunately, the owner isn't in this week, so I can't get you a face-to-face meeting today. I'll be sure to pass the message along."

"I appreciate that," Jason said, offering his hand. "We hope to hear from you soon."

Percy accepted the handshake.

When they parted, Jason added, "Oh, and Mr. Jackson, I have heard that you are an exemplary salesman. With your experience, I'm sure Jupiter would be open to receiving a job application from you. Who knows? Maybe you could move back to New York."

Percy tightened the corners of his mouth. Jason may have been more professional, but his insults were just as bad as Octavian's. "Thank you for stopping by today, Mr. Grace."

The automatic doors opened, and a cheerful yet unsuspecting Will Solace walked through, a father and a sixteen-year-old girl behind him. "And that, my friend, is how you drive a stick shift. I only ever really did it on my family's property back home in Texas since that old truck was a hunk of junk, but I sure felt cool doing it!" he said with a laugh.

And at the same time, Octavian spun around, bumping Will backward into his customer, and knocking Will's Starbucks Pink Drink into his nice shirt.

"Oops," Octavian said through a shit-eating grin.

"My duck tie..." Will said, looking at his ruined outfit. "Oh my gods, my duck tie!"

"Use this!" Nico said, passing a sheet from a children's coloring book to Will, who took it and dabbed at the stain immediately.

Percy cleared his throat. "Will, why don't you clean up in the bathroom? Nico can take it from here."

He hated being mean to his employees. Hell, he hated referring to them as his employees. They weren't his anything. They were people just like him, and the idea of bossing them around like they were robots made him incredibly uncomfortable. So sue him. He was a pushover, and maybe that made him a terrible boss, or an inadequate one at the least. So what? His momma raised him right, and Olympus Auto was still turning a profit, no matter what those jerks from Jupiter Auto Trader had to say about it.

When he was sure Jason Grace and Octavian whatever-his-last-name-was were gone, he turned to Drew. "Look," he said, "you're not wrong."

She crossed her arms over her hot pink blazer and said, "Obviously."

"But I had it handled. Your outburst was inappropriate. Just let me and Mr. D take care of that stuff," he explained.

"Oh, sure, let Mr. D take care of it," she snapped. "He's out getting drunk in Cancun while we're working like dogs!"

"Is it true?" Nico interrupted, his face finally emerging from behind the reception desk. "What those guys were saying about Olympus going under... is that the truth?"

Piper, who had just come back into the lobby, held her hands out in a time-out T. "Hold up. What?"

Leo tossed his massive Starbucks cup into the recycling can by Nico's desk. "You should have seen it!" With that, he filled Piper and Will in on the encounter with the not-so-friendly men from Jupiter.

"That's great and all," said Nico, "but am I going to have a job in a couple of weeks?"

Everyone looked at Percy with wide eyes.

He sighed. "I'll call Mr. D and we'll get this sorted out. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding."

Chapter Text

Percy sat down at the desk atop the inflatable cushion he bought from a garage sale. It was Mr. D's desk, technically. That's whose name was on the office door and also on a little place card at the front of the desk.

As the days without Mr. D progressed, however, the general manager's office was beginning to feel more like home to Percy. Less time was spent offering favors to the employees just because. Now, he needed that time to file all his paperwork, send all his emails, and attend all his meetings before six in the evening. Most days, his lunch was eaten while on the phone with a client, and his phone calls with his mother were held over a heap of payroll spreadsheets.

Mr. D's vacation was supposed to be a trial run of sorts. It was kind of a glimpse into Percy's near future at Olympus Auto. He was supposed to get just a big enough taste of the used car dealership owner's life so that he'd only see the good parts. However, Mr. D's one-week vacation to Miami quickly turned into a two-week vacation because he wanted to see Key West, and now he's in Cancun, according to Drew Tanaka.

He dialed Mr. D's cellphone number and put his work phone on speaker so he could eat his lunch and talk.

"Jackson, this better be important!" Mr. D barked from the other line.

"This will only take a few minutes of your time, Mr. D," Percy said before taking a bite of his cold leftover pepperoni pizza.

"Well, then don't take any more time out of my massage than you have to! Get on with it!"

For some reason, Percy never thought this was what they meant by 'paid time off,' but he digressed. "I have more of a question for you... You see, I was wondering about Olympus's financial... Ugh." He cut to the chase. "Mr. D, these men from Jupiter Auto Trader came in today and told me that we would be receiving an offer from them to buy our property."

"Why in the hell would those bozos do that?" he yelled.

Suddenly, Percy was thankful that Drew wasn't around when the assistant manager position opened up. No way could he have beaten her when she and Mr. D had so much in common. Take, for example, their attitude problems.

Percy answered Mr. D's question with one of his own. "I was hoping you could tell me that. You see, they had some indication that we were, for lack of better words, going under."

For once, Mr. D was silent. Percy thought he'd lost the connection for a minute, but then he said, "We're not going to sell. At least, not to those Jupiter asshats."

Percy's temporary relief was quickly replaced with worry. "So what are you saying? We're going out of business?"

"I'd prefer we didn't," he said, "but I'm not going to be around much longer, so it's up to you to keep Olympus afloat if you want to run this dump."

Dump was a word Mr. D often used endearingly to describe the business he built from the ground up.

"So how bad is it?" Percy asked. "Do we owe some people money?"

"Think about it this way, Jackson: if we don't sell four cars for every one we buy, we'll probably have to sell."

Percy whistled involuntarily. That goal was higher than his previous roommate.

"Now, I do have a couple of offers that we should consider. For starters, the mega-church wants to buy the property, but they'd tear everything down to build one of those warehouse-looking Churches. Then again, it's not much better than Purina. I can't have you kids jobless and smelling like cat food. Alternatively, there's- Oh, sorry, Jackson. It's time for my mud bath."

"Thanks for the info, Mr. D."

He wasn't sure if his boss heard that because the connection was cut. Percy chose to pretend that the reception in Cancun was bad and Mr. D had no choice but to disconnect.

He leaned back in the desk chair, suddenly no longer hungry for his leftover pizza. The situation was bad; Percy could rarely think of a time when he wasn't hungry.

The situation was bad, but not hopeless.

He opened his email and scrolled through for something he deleted a couple of days ago. Aha! One of the local Girl Scout groups tried to get in touch about hosting a car wash fundraiser using their lot. The corporate Girl Scout organization was willing to pay compensation.

Well, it wasn't going to be all that much compensation, but it was certainly a start. Maybe he could shake them down for more money if he told them they could sell their cookies on the lot. Gods know, he had plenty of employees with sweet tooths. The Girl Scouts would easily make a hundred dollars off of Leo alone.

He was so preoccupied with his email writing that he didn't notice Drew enter the office.

"Now Percy, hon, I know you're not about to rob the Girl Scouts of America," she said.

"Uh..."

She leaned over his shoulder and read over the email. "Way too blunt. And you misspelled 'scouts' twice. Move over!" She pushed his wheelie chair aside and clacked away on the keyboard with her bright pink acrylic nails. They matched the blazer she wore to work.

"Better!" she declared. "Now tell Nico to order some bulk candy from the grocery store that we can put in swag bags for the Girl Scouts."

Percy cocked an eyebrow. "Isn't the point to not waste more money than we have to?"

"So you admit we are going under?"

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Percy said.

Drew squealed and clapped her hands together. "We are going to have so much fun!"

"Drew, focus. Swag bags?"

"Oh!" she said. "So we'll put some candy in the swag bags for the girls, along with some ads for Olympus Auto. It'll be perfect!"

"That..." Percy said, trailing off.

"Is genius," Drew finished for him. "I know. You can thank me later. I have a shit-ton of ideas I need to run by you anyway." She eyed his pizza and wrinkled her nose. "Unless you're busy eating."

"I can multitask," Percy said.

"Fantastic."

***

"Hold the ladder still, you dumbass!" Drew scolded. "You're going to make me mess up!"

Percy wasn't sure how possible it was to mess up hanging portraits, but he was not an interior design expert. Apparently, Drew was.

According to Drew, she'd need a few days to plan and execute her extreme makeover of Olympus Auto. Percy was up until the early hours of the morning responding to her texts and making sure she didn't go overboard. Unfortunately, as the hours bled together, so did his definition of overboard. That was how he found himself at the CVS printing up pictures he and Drew stole from the other employees' social media accounts for a wall that says MEET OUR OLYMPUS FAMILY.

"I can't believe you convinced me to do this," Percy muttered under his breath.

"I can't believe Frank still uses Facebook." Drew climbed down from the ladder and stared at the wall, pursing her lips. "The frames are matched, which is good, but the photos don't go together at all."

"Maybe that has something to do with the fact that these are from everyone's social media accounts," Percy said. "I had to follow employees on Instagram. I hardly think that's appropriate office behavior."

"You're the only one who works in an office, hon, so it's fine," she said, winking. She turned her attention back to the wall, reaching up to straighten a frame every once in a while.

Percy looked at himself, next to Mr. D. Luckily, he had professional headshots taken for his LinkedIn profile before he was hired at Olympus. His photo might have been old, but at least he was wearing a tie in it. Mr. D's photo, on the other hand, showed him wearing an atrocious leopard-print shirt, and his smile was more of a grimace. In Percy's book, he beat Mr. D. Percy's photo showed a boy fresh out of business school; Mr. D's photo had a black square covering the label of a bottle of wine.

The other employees' photos were even more mismatched. Piper's was from a vacation, you could still see that Percy and Drew cropped people out of a group photo that Nico was in, and Percy was fairly certain that he and Drew used one of Frank's senior photos for the wall.

"It doesn't even look like Frank," Percy said. "Are you sure that's him?"

"Yes, I'm sure! He was a little chubby in high school; don't pick on him for that!" Drew barked.

"I'm not picking on him!" Percy shrieked. "It's just... I don't think I know that guy on the wall."

"Wow, in 2023..." Drew trailed off, shaking her head in disdain.

Someone cleared her throat. It was Annabeth!

"Oh, uh... Hey, Annabeth!" Nailed it.

She twisted the loose hair that fell out of one of her French braids. She always wore a variant of the same outfit to work: short overalls, an orange Olympus t-shirt, and French braids. Sometimes, she'd wear a plain black t-shirt if she was behind on laundry, and other times, she'd show up wearing a pair of owl earrings. Percy always wondered whether she wore them on purpose, or forgot to take them off after something else. Did she go on dates? Was she invited to parties often? Percy wanted to know but in the least stalkerish way possible. He was no stalker.

"Frank has this guy up at the front asking if we can do checkered racing stripes on his Volkswagon buggy. Leo told him it would be atrocious but he wants to go through with it anyway, and I was wondering if we had a stencil somewhere I can use."

"You're going to do a paint job?" Percy asked. Olympus Auto was unique in that customers could receive mechanical services on their vehicles, but typically the work done in the garage was kept to making minor repairs on used cars so they'd be ready for the lot, and doing inspections on those vehicles when they were due. Rarely did someone come in for services on their own vehicle, and never had Percy heard of someone coming in for a paint job. Were they even licensed to do that? Did they need a license to do that?

"Well, yeah," Annabeth said. "Frank doesn't know how, and Leo's sort of wrapped up with that minivan that keeps crapping out on us. You know, the one with the bad AC unit."

Percy did know the minivan with a bad AC unit. He knew that minivan all too well. "I don't know, Annabeth," he said. "I don't think we've ever done a paint job before."

"Percy!" Drew scolded. "Let her do the damn paint job!"

Annabeth jumped as if just noticing Drew was there. "Uh, thanks?"

"Do we even have the materials for that?" Percy asked.

"It's called an investment, dipshit," said Drew. "Do you realize what this means? Annabeth can paint cars, so we can advertise those services. I mean, preferably not with a Punchbuggy, but if she does something else, we could post that on our social media!"

Percy pondered it for a minute. He didn't know much about painting cars—just that it's more involved than a can of paint from the Home Depot, but if Annabeth knew how to do it, what was the harm in making a modest investment?

"Alright," he said. "You can put racing stripes on the Punchbuggy. Go ask Nico to order the materials you need."

Annabeth gave a false salute and-

"Wait!" said Drew. "I need you!"

"Me?" Annabeth asked.

Drew rolled her eyes and put a hand on her hip. "If you haven't noticed, Percy and I are giving the place an extreme makeover."

"Is that why you stole that picture from my Instagram?" Annabeth deadpanned.

"Yes, what even is the context for this? I mean, you didn't think to look cute at this concert?" Drew asked, eying the picture of Annabeth giving a rock-on sign from up in the nosebleeds of some stadium. She was wearing all black, and thick eyeliner.

"That was a Metallica concert, Drew," Annabeth said.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "You're a metalhead?"

She shrugged. "Can I go get my paint now?"

Percy said, "Yes," at the same time Drew shouted, "No!"

Drew cleared her throat. "Look, so as part of our makeover, we're launching a social media campaign. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all the works."

"Okay?" Annabeth asked.

Back in the office, Drew had discussed her idea for a social media presence with Percy, and it was a good idea. Olympus Auto didn't even have an old Facebook account they'd gotten locked out of. And besides, paying for ads was starting to become a waste of time; nobody listened to the radio in the car anymore. They just hooked up their Bluetooth and streamed music. If anything, Olympus should have been buying ads on Spotify.

Drew smiled sweetly. "Great, so I need you to make some TikToks of you in the garage. Just have fun; there's no such thing as bad content, even if it isn't exactly relevant. As long as our logo is in it, you're good."

"But I don't know how to make a TikTok."

Drew rolled her eyes. "It's really not that hard. Just copy the latest trends."

"I don't use TikTok," she said, clearly uncomfortable.

Drew gasped. "Well, you must know at least a few TikTok dances... or memes... or anything! What about Reels? Do you use Reels?"

"Do I use what?"

Percy took that as a no.

Drew facepalmed. "Hon, you are useless! What is the point in dying your hair blonde if you're not going to do a hair transition?"

"This is my natural hair," Annabeth explained.

"Well, doesn't that explain a lot?"

"Hey now," Percy said, choosing now to exercise his assistant manager powers. "Why don't you just give Annabeth the login credentials and maybe Leo or Frank can walk her through it?"

Drew slipped Annabeth an orange Post-it note. "Don't post anything without showing me first," she said.

"You got it," Annabeth said. Then she looked at the Post-it note. "Why is the password PercyHeartsBeth123?"

"Because it's so ridiculous, nobody would guess it!" Drew said. "Have fun! Don't post anything without running it by me first!" She pivoted and walked back toward the office, probably to get the balloons.

"You said that already!" Annabeth said. She turned to Percy. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this? We have actual work to do, you know."

Percy waved his hands in defense. "Okay, yes, do your work, but maybe... record yourself doing work? Pick out some fun music, make it interesting for the viewers."

"Uh-huh," she said. "Just for this, I'm ordering a checkered stencil that I could just make myself."

"I deserve that," Percy said.

"Percy, hon! Yoohoo!" Drew called.

Oh gods, Percy did not expect to be putting together balloon arches when he woke up this morning, but apparently, he agreed to it. "Well," he said to Annabeth. "Duty calls."

"Good luck with that," she said.

"Percy! I can't tie off the balloons with my acrylic nails!"

Annabeth glanced at her own nails. "Thank God I have an excuse not to get my nails done with her."

Percy shrugged. "I guess you would need short nails to be a mechanic."

She turned red. "Uh, yeah. Mechanic. That's why. I'm gonna..." She turned around, only to bump into Piper. "Piper! Hi!"

"Hey, Annabeth! Did you like the coffee I picked out for you?" Piper asked. "Let me know if you want something different next time!"

"Okay!" she said.

Piper stood there staring for a minute, waiting for Annabeth to give some kind of indication as to whether or not she enjoyed her cold brew yesterday morning. Percy couldn't decide if watching this was better or worse than tying balloons for Drew.  

Chapter Text

Two balloon arches later, Percy found himself driving down the main intersection, getting out of the car every couple of minutes to place a yard sign on the road. Who was driving slow enough to be able to read those, he wondered.

When he asked Drew, she told him, "People who need new cars. That's who."

The September heat wave wasn't showing any signs of letting up, and the heat from the car exhaust wasn't helping all that much either. By the time he laid the fifth sign by a yard sale advertisement, he was ready to be done.

"Can we go to Chic-fil-A?" Drew asked.

"Why would we go to Chic-fil-A?" Percy asked. "To be honest, a chicken sandwich is the last thing I want right now."

She cackled and turned up the Taylor Swift song on the radio. "Not for chicken, silly! For milkshakes! I'll buy! Come on!"

"Are you sure you want to support a corporation that donates to conversion therapy programs?" Percy didn't want to support a corporation that supported conversion therapy, even though a milkshake would hit the spot.

"No," she said, tilting the mirror to check her makeup, "but I have a gift card, so technically, my Great Aunt Hitomi already did."

Percy tilted the rear-view mirror back where it belonged. "Well, I wouldn't want Great Aunt Hitomi's efforts to go wasted," he said, turning into the Chick-fil-A line. The line was the entire way into the intersection! How long was this going to be? Was this even worth it?

Drew took off her beige heels and rested her bare feet on the dash. Her toes were painted pink just like her fake fingernails. "Guess we'd better get comfy!"

He smirked. "I spy, with my little eye, something..."

"No," she said. "We will not be playing I Spy."

"Got any better ideas?"

"Never have I ever..."

"That is not workplace appropriate," Percy asserted.

She scoffed. "Neither is whatever the hell Piper and Annabeth have going on, but here we are."

It was good that Percy hadn't gotten his milkshake yet because he sure as hell would have spat it out at that. "What?" He always suspected Piper wasn't straight, but that feeling remained a suspicion because conversations speculating about employees' sexualities are not workplace-appropriate.

"I mean, they're not together or anything, so you still have a chance with Annabeth, if that's what you're worried about," she teased.

"No!" he said. "Definitely not. Just a little thrown. Can we move this conversation back into SFW territory?"

Drew said, "Percy, hon, that hardly counted as NSFW. Now the date I went on-"

"La-la-la-la-la!" he sang. "I can't hear you, person I have a professional relationship with!"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine then. File any good papers lately?"

"We can have a friendly conversation, Drew." The car in front of them moved a few inches, so Percy followed suit, maintaining a good following distance. "What are you doing this weekend?"

"Well," she said, "I'd tell you, but that wouldn't be SFW."

He scowled and turned up the radio.

Got a long list of ex-lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane...

Percy leaned out the window far enough for him to glance at the line in front of him. Behind him, four more cars had lined up. There was no escape. The only way out of the Chick-fil-A line was forward.

He rolled the window back up and put the car into park since they weren't moving anytime soon. "Fine," he said to Drew. "Tell me about your workplace romances."

"Oh, I don't have any workplace romances," she said, "I like to play matchmaker in the office and save myself for Tinder. But I'll say I do have some perfect matches up my sleeve! I can't figure out Frank though. He deserves someone who can match his energy."

"Uh-huh," Percy said, only half listening.

"Now, here's the tea," Drew said. "Annabeth is totally into Piper."

"I didn't realize she was... you know..."

"Your gaydar sucks, Percy," she said. "I mean, she's a mechanic."

"Isn't that playing into a stereotype?"

"It's true, isn't it?"

Percy sighed. "Okay, fine. Go on."

"Yeah, so she gets all flustered around Piper, but not around anyone else. She and Nico talk a lot over at the reception desk," Drew explained, "but as soon as Piper shows up, she says something dumb and then hides in the garage! She's a pathetic little dork! It's adorable."

Percy opened his mouth, ready to defend his employee, but then a teenager in a green safety vest came up to their window. "Oh, hey," he said. "Can we get two medium milkshakes? One cookies and cream and the other strawberry? Thanks."

He drove up a few more feet and Drew continued her gossip. "I mean, I say that endearingly, but really? I don't see 'Pipabeth' happening any more than I'd see... Oh, let's see... Ha! I don't see 'Pipabeth' happening any more than I could see 'Percabeth' happening!"

"Why is the idea of me and Annabeth so funny to you?" he asked. After all, that was the second time she'd joked about it today.

"I mean, you guys are just so different," Drew explained. "Plus, I know Annabeth's bi because I stalked her online, but I can't fathom the idea of her dating a man."

"That's kind of biphobic," Percy said, immediately regretting caving into Drew's craving for work gossip.

"Is it? I mean, nothing against bisexuals, but I can't see it," she said. "Annabeth totally would wear the pants in a relationship, and I don't think there are many men out there who'd be okay with that."

Maybe it was just their line of work, but Percy can honestly say he'd never seen her in anything other than pants.

Percy had never been one to consider the traditional gender roles arbitrarily created by society, but if he were to, he can't say he'd mind letting a woman like Annabeth 'wear the pants,' as they say. Hell, Percy happened to enjoy cooking.

"But here's the thing," Drew continued. "I think Will has a thing for Piper too."

"Uh-huh," said Percy.

"But they're wrong for each other!" she said. "And I mean, hello? Nico is right there!"

"Nico and Will?" Percy asked, happy for some reason that the subject was no longer on Annabeth.

"Oh, totally. I'm a slut for a grumpy/sunshine relationship."

"Grumpy sunshine?"

"It's grumpy slash sunshine, hon. Keep up; it's like you've never read a romance novel in your life," Drew scolded.

Percy pulled the car forward a few more feet and rolled down the window so he could pay. "I'm dyslexic, Drew. I can barely read an email."

"Whatever," she said, handing him the Chick-fil-A gift card.

He passed it to the blue-haired teenager in a green safety vest.

"I'll drop it," Drew said, "but if there was a certain natural blonde you were interested in dating, you might want to hurry up and shoot your shot before the ship sails. Or better yet, save yourself the pain." She took a long sip of her strawberry milkshake when Percy handed the drink to her.

Drew held her drink out. "To Great Aunt Hitomi."

Percy accepted the friendly gesture, clinking his milkshake against hers, except it didn't make a clinking sound because the milkshakes were in paper cups. It was not satisfying. "To Great Aunt Hitomi," he repeated.

***

Percy and Drew threw out their Chick-fil-A cups in the lobby. He shook out his hand, missing the cold feel of the drink against his palm. "Alright, Drew, what's next?"

"I'm going to log on to our social media accounts and follow some notable community projects and local businesses."

"What about me?" he asked.

She shrugged. "You're the boss. Do whatever you want as long as it isn't too expensive."

"Oh my god," Nico said from behind the desk.

"Gods, plural, Nico," Percy said. "It's part of our Greek mythology branding."

Nico shook his head. "That's great and all, but I seriously need you to turn around and tell me I'm not the only one who sees the sparkly jumpsuits."

Percy did as he was told, and sure enough, Annabeth, Leo, and Frank emerged from the garage, sparkly and covered in sweat and other assorted grime.

"You guys!" Drew scolded. "You were supposed to keep the new outfits nice!"

Yes, Drew had mentioned to Percy that she was looking into new outfits for the mechanics just to freshen up the look and commit to the new aesthetic. No, he had no idea that it was going to entail sparkly jumpsuits with rhinestones.

"We're mechanics, Drew," Annabeth said. "It's a messy job. That's why we don't have uniforms."

"Why does mine fit so weirdly?" Leo asked.

Frank smiled. "They look nice, Drew, it's just that we can't possibly keep them clean."

"I think there are rhinestones up my ass," Annabeth declared.

"Guys, for real," Leo started again. "It's hugging my waist really tight."

Will came by and gave the mechanics a one-over. "Leo and Annabeth," he said, "did you guys swap jumpsuits on purpose?"

Annabeth and Leo looked at each other and then down at their jumpsuits.

"I don't know what's worse," Piper said through her laughter. "The fact that you guys couldn't just assume the one with the longer name was Annabeth's, or the fact that you guys are the same size."

"Wait, these are supposed to be our names?" Leo asked, looking at the flowing cursive over his breast pocket.

"Why is mine fitted like that?" Annabeth asked. "You can keep that, Leo."

"No way!"

"Guys," Frank said. "Can we attack the problem?"

"Oh, yeah!" Leo said. He cleared his throat. "I present to you, our TikTok content!"

Annabeth unlocked her phone and turned it around so Percy, Drew, and the others could see the video they made.

On the screen, Leo and Frank spun around the garage, waving their wrenches and other assorted tools to the tune of "The Boys Are Back" from High School Musical 3: Senior Year. It was a cute performance, and certainly on-brand for the company. Percy was pleasantly surprised with Annabeth's progress as temporary TikTok manager.

So he told her: "I like this!"

"Thanks," she said.

"What is this?" Drew asked. "Annabeth, I told you to make a TikTok, not one of those lip-syncing videos we all made in middle school!"

"Huh?" It was at this moment, it seemed, that Annabeth checked out of the conversation. Percy wished he could do that on occasion, but alas, his job didn't grant such luxuries.

Drew snatched the phone and scrolled through the other videos Annabeth took. "This is terrible! I trusted you with one stupid thing and you're not even in any of these videos!"

"I wasn't aware I was supposed to be," Annabeth said.

Will's and Piper's eyes followed the conversation like a table tennis match.

"Forget it!" Drew said. "I was trying to be nice and include you, and you had to go and mess everything up!"

"You didn't even ask me what I wanted to do to help," Annabeth said. "You just gave me a mildly hurtful TikTok password and asked me to shake my ass. Did you ever think I might be trying to avoid that?"

Percy felt like he needed to break this up before it escalated. Drew hadn't taken her earrings off yet, but Frank was standing close enough that she'd have someone to hand them to if she wanted.

"Hey," Percy said at last. "Why don't we reorganize this extreme makeover thing? I, for one, have some ideas that I'd like to share. Can anyone who wants to be on the extreme makeover committee please raise their hands?"

Nico, Will, and Drew raised their hands.

Percy couldn't help but notice that Annabeth was not among the group of people who wanted to be on the makeover committee.

"Cool," he said, pretending not to be disappointed by the lack of a certain Annabeth Chase on the committee. "Tomorrow, we'll reconvene over some lunch. I'll order... What do you guys like? Do you like Panda Express?"

Will moaned. "Gods, I love Panda Express!"

"Can you get the orange chicken?" Nico asked.

"Wait," said Piper. "We don't get Panda Express just because we want to do our actual jobs?"

"Well," Percy said. "Yeah." Nothing sounded particularly unfair about rewarding people who wanted to do extra work.

Leo cleared his throat. "Well, if it's all the same to you guys, we're going back to the garage. Annabeth's stencil came in and it's..."

"It doesn't fit on the Punchbuggy," she said. "So now I have to make my own stencil."

"I'm hot," Frank complained.

Annabeth patted him on the back. "We'll get you out of that jumpsuit when we get back to the garage, my guy." She slowly retracted her hand and frowned at the amount of back sweat that soaked through Frank's sparkly jumpsuit.

Percy turned to his new extreme makeover committee, but before he could speak, Drew cut in.

"Okay then," she said. "Nico and Will, welcome to the committee. Will, I'll need you to take over social media, and Nico-"

"No," said Percy. "Look, I hate to play the big mean boss, but this is getting out of control, Drew. All of you are going to go back to work. We'll have Panda Express on me tomorrow, and you guys can all share your ideas then."

Nico went back to the reception desk and answered the phone. "Olympus Auto; your chariot awaits. My name is Nico..."

Will whistled some country tune Percy couldn't remember the name of and walked out onto the lot to greet a group of potential customers.

"Well, it's about time you took charge," Drew said.

"Really?" Percy asked.

She nodded. "Yep." And then she passed him a black gift card. "Panda Express can be on Great Aunt Hitomi tomorrow."

"What would we do without Great Aunt Hitomi?" Percy quipped.

She shrugged. "I don't know yet. She died last week."

"What?" he gasped.

She smiled sadly. "Thanks for letting me use this makeover thing as a distraction. I needed it. And I'm also sorry if I've been mean lately."

"You mean meaner than usual?"

"Shut up, Percy."

Chapter Text

It was a typical day in the garage at Olympus Auto. Annabeth was replacing the AC unit in that goddamn minivan for the third time this week. Frank was perched in the bed of a truck eating his lunch—a ham sandwich on rye—and Leo was drumming on a toolbox with his wrench to the tune of AC/DC's "Back in Black."

This was probably the fourth time this morning that they'd started Leo's mixtape from the beginning. Every day, Leo made Frank and Annabeth do their work while listening to this cassette tape where he'd recorded all his favorite "fixin' tunes." To Annabeth's knowledge, it primarily consisted of classic rock tunes like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Guns N' Roses. She was convinced Leo thought he was Iron Man.

"Why can't we ever get to the end of your mixtape?" Frank asked with his mouth full of ham lunchmeat. "Or could we maybe start with the B side just to mix it up? I can't hear any of these songs without feeling like I should be fixing something."

"That's against the principle!" Leo said. "You have to listen to an album the whole way through!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes as she started the engine on the minivan again, trying her best to blast the air conditioning. "Can't we be like normal people and get a Bluetooth speaker? We could make a garage playlist that everyone could add to."

Leo scoffed. "And listen to Taylor Swift while I'm trying to be a badass? No thanks!"

Annabeth gasped. "Just because I'm a woman, you think I'm a Swiftie?"

"That warning was for Frank."

Frank pouted from the bed of the truck he should have been working on. "Her album Reputation is very badass, I'll have you know."

"What if the last track on the cassette is just 'Free Bird?'" Annabeth asked. "Then what? That has to count for at least three songs' worth of space."

The AC in the minivan kicked again, and against her better judgment, Annabeth pounded her fist against the unit. "Shit! Someone else's turn to work on this damned thing!"

Frank wiped the crumbs off his pants and hopped out of the truck. "I don't understand why they won't just let us scrap that thing. I don't think even Piper could sell this."

"What can't I sell?"

Everyone froze at the sound of Piper McLean's voice.

Leo was the first to speak up. "It's been weeks, and we can't get the AC in this damn minivan to work. I'd like to just take a day and dismantle the entire thing since it's a hunk of junk anyway, but Percy won't let us."

"Well, nobody's buying minivans anymore," said Piper. "Believe me; there's two we've been trying to sell. One has grass stains all over the carpet, and the other has a broken entertainment system, so nobody wants them, even used."

Frank sighed. "It's all about SUVs these days. The kind with the bucket seats."

Leo laughed. "I remember being stuffed into the backseat middle hump with the other foster kids at this one home I was staying at. They said it was because I was the shortest, but we were all like seven years old. The driver could have seen past any of us!"

"That's funny," Annabeth said. "I was a tall kid, and my stepmother used to throw me in the backset middle hump of her Mercedes between my twin halfbrothers just to keep them from strangling each other. I got a black eye doing that once."

"Children are demons," Piper agreed. "Well, I'm leaving early today because I've got a dentist's appointment. Will I be seeing you guys here tomorrow?"

"Yeah," said Frank. "All day, every day."

"Except for the weekends," Leo said. Leo took his weekends very seriously.

Annabeth climbed out of the minivan at last and cut the engine. "Have a good rest of the day, Piper."

"Yeah, I- Oh, black is a good color on you, Chase!"

Did Piper know what she was doing when she said stuff like that? When she called her by her last name? Annabeth could already feel the blush creeping up her face. "It's uh... It's my laundry day." Did she know that Annabeth would wear that same outfit for the rest of her life if it meant getting that kind of attention from her?

"I wish every day was laundry day, in that case," Piper said. "Next time Percy does a merch order, I'll tell him to put in for more of the black t-shirts." She winked on her way out.

Annabeth stood there for a minute, her right foot still inside the minivan and the sound of Guns N' Roses filling her ears.

Take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty!

"Oh, won't you please take me home!" Leo sang along, doing air guitar.

"Annabeth? Earth to Annabeth?" Frank asked gently.

She shook it out. She needed to get a grip. Piper was a coworker, and even though Annabeth learned pretty quickly that Olympus Auto didn't particularly care if employees engaged in unprofessional activities, Annabeth wasn't proud of the feelings in her gut she got every time Piper said something in that honey-smooth voice of hers.

But did she have to throw in a wink? That stupid wink melts her every time. Now, she won't be able to concentrate until she gets home, takes a long, cold shower, and heats up her leftovers from the other night.

"Yeah, I'm here," she said to the guys. "I just got a little distracted. Is my water in the truck, Frank?"

"Leo, she's doing it again!"

"Doing what?" Annabeth demanded.

Frank's cheeks heated up, and for a second, Annabeth was reassured that Frank was even worse at hiding his embarrassment than her.

Leo sighed dramatically and dropped his air guitar. "Every time Piper comes in here, you get all like... like this, and then you ask for your water."

"I do not."

"Yes, you do," Leo said.

Frank passed Annabeth her water bottle. "It's okay to have a crush," he said. "She's nice and pretty."

"Frank, please-"

"If you don't want us to point it out," Leo said, "maybe get a little better at hiding it."

"But I don't have a crush on her!" Okay, that was a lie. Annabeth was totally head-over-heels for Piper McLean. She was gorgeous, and she didn't treat Annabeth like shit. She was perfect. Could you blame Annabeth?

Leo smirked. "Listen, if I were you, I would just shoot my shot. Get it over with, and hopefully, Drew won't find out about it."

"Wow," Annabeth said sarcastically. "It's a good thing I'm not into her because that advice was awful."

"Hey, I thought it was pretty good for an aroace guy like myself!" Leo said.

"Dropping it!" she declared. "We are not talking about this for the rest of the day! Or ever!"

"Fine, fine," said Leo. "Whatever you want, sweetheart."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at Leo's term of endearment and went to find something else to work on; she'd had enough of the minivan for one day.

"Woah!" Frank shouted, tripping on a creeper. The plastic organizer he was carrying fell to the ground, practically in slow motion. The lid popped open upon impact, spilling bolts of various sizes everywhere.

There was something for Annabeth to do! Finally! She bent to the ground and started sorting the bolts back into their cubbyholes. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "I'm just a little clumsy."

"Hey, it happens," she said.

She reached for the same bolt as him, and their hands touched. Instead of retracting his hand like a normal person, Frank held on to Annabeth's calloused fingers.

"For what it's worth," he said, "you're certainly further with Piper than I've ever gotten with my crush. I don't think she even knows I exist."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Frank had a crush, and Leo had yet to tease him? That was certainly news to her.

"I mean, it's not like I know her very well or anything," he rambled on. "We just volunteer at the soup kitchen together. Well, not really together. She makes the meals, and I pass them out to the folks who need them. I've heard she makes delicious chicken noodle soup, and she brings in freshly baked bread... Ah, but you don't want to hear all this."

Annabeth fell back on her heels. Work could wait. "It's okay; you can tell me about her."

"Well, if by some chance, I got the courage to talk to her, or if she miraculously noticed me, it could never work out."

"Why not?"

"She works for Jupiter," Frank said glumly.

Leo clamped a hand over his mouth. "No freakin' way! Sleeping with the enemy!"

Frank blushed. "It's not like that! I swear-"

"Tell us more about her," Annabeth said. "What's her name?"

He seemed to calm down a bit. "Her name is Hazel. She's really pretty and smart, and she's good with kids. That's important to me, you know."

Annabeth nodded, maybe not so much invested in Frank's crush as she was relieved that the heat was no longer on her. That was fine, though. They rarely ever talked about Frank's personal life.

"And she can cook, and she... Well, she must be smart if she's a salesperson for Jupiter."

Annabeth agreed. "She must be."

He sighed. "I really like her, guys. I don't know what to do."

Frank rested his head in his hands and looked between Annabeth and Leo before finally settling his stare on the bolt rolling on the floor in front of him.

Nothing but the sweet sounds of Leo's mixtape filled the silence.

Annabeth squeezed Frank's hand and then let go, pulling herself to her feet and dusting off her knees.

And then her plan hit.

She wished she could replace the AC in the minivan as fast as her plans tended to hit her. The plans and schemes just showed up unannounced when she didn't need them. The minivan was supposed to be fixed... Well, forever ago.

"Frank," she said. "Was that ham sandwich technically your lunch break?"

"Nah, I'm a fast eater."

She turned around. "Leo!"

"What?"

"You had lunch yet?"

"Shit," Leo said. "I forgot to pack one again."

"That'll be our cover," she declared.

Frank scrambled to put the bolts away and asked, "Our cover for what?"

Annabeth said, "We're going to Jupiter Auto Trader to get you a date."

"Woo!" Leo shouted. "Frank's got rizz!"

Before she could beg Leo to never use that word again, Frank jumped. "But how are we going to pull that off?"

Annabeth said, "Leave that to me."

***

"Turn around," Frank said from the backseat. His face had turned an odd shade of green. "I can't do this."

Annabeth pulled her Mini Cooper into a parking space and cut the engine. "I'd love to hear your excuse this time."

"Nervous tummy?"

Leo laughed from the shotgun seat. "Ha! That's great! You can ask Hazel to show you where the bathroom is!"

"Shh!" Frank hissed. "What if someone sees us?"

"That's the point," Annabeth said.

"But what if someone notices us?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "You mean someone like Hazel?"

"Can't we just stay in the car? I'm kind of enjoying music that isn't on Leo's mixtape."

"Hey!" Leo shouted.

Frank put his hands up in defense. "Just for a change!"

"But Annabeth listens to Metallica like one of those high school weirdos that sat on the back of the bus and had a goth phase instead of friends."

"Well, Leo, you won't believe this," Annabeth said.

"I don't want to know," he declared, getting out of the car. He pushed a button that eased the passenger seat forward slowly but surely.

"Can't we come up with some kind of a script before we go in?" Frank asked from the backseat.

Annabeth spilled her coffee into some bushes and then said, "Frank, we already went over this. You're going to be fine; just follow the plan and be yourself."

"I'm just not so sure I want to do this," he said.

"Oh my god," said Annabeth. "Get out of the car."

"Gods," Leo corrected, per company policy. "But she's right, man. Get out of the car before we look weird."

Frank started, "Leo-"

"No buts. We only have our lunch hour."

"That's even a stretch," Annabeth said. It took them about fifteen minutes with traffic to get over here, and they'd already wasted time trying to coax Frank out of the car.

"Frank!" Leo yelled.

"Can you move the seatbelt, please?" he asked, trying to untangle himself from a seatbelt that had gotten caught on the seat.

Frank hadn't even gotten out of the car, and already he'd managed to embarrass himself. Annabeth considered giving him an out; he seemed uncomfortable with the whole idea, and clearly, the plan wasn't going to be a great success.

And then Annabeth remembered this morning in the garage and the accusations Leo and Frank threw at her. They couldn't know about her crush on Piper. Annabeth was on thin ice; she knew that, but she needed to divert Leo and Frank so they wouldn't come closer to the confirmation they'd been looking for. If they broke Annabeth's barrier, they could spread rumors. Sure, they didn't seem like the kind of people who would do such a thing, but she had only known them for a few weeks. You could never be certain.

Therefore, some secrets were meant to remain under lock and key.

Frank took some deep breaths while Leo ruffled his short hair.

"Remember," Annabeth said to Frank, "you're looking to buy a car, and Leo and I are your moral support. Like those douchebags who pretend to know more about cars than the people selling them."

"Except you won't be douchebags, right?" Frank asked.

When neither of them answered, he insisted. "Promise me that you won't be douchebags."

"We won't," Leo said. "We'll just hype you up. I promise, man, I am an awesome wingman!"

Frank grumbled something that sounded close to, "That's what I was afraid of."

Leo clapped Frank on the back, and Annabeth led the guys into the lobby of Jupiter Auto Trader.  

Chapter Text

Jupiter Auto Trader had those turnstile doors that you see in just about every hotel, sitcom, and hotel in a sitcom. Annabeth was surprised that Frank and Leo were able to man up and walk through the door, unlike their usual hooligan selves.

For a second, Annabeth wondered if she'd driven to the right place. The lobby could easily have been mistaken for one of a hotel if not for the vintage Mustang on display. Beneath and also above the lights, it looked like a car out of a dream—a good dream—not like a fever dream.

There was a water dispenser that patrons could use, except, unlike the one at Olympus Auto, the one at Jupiter offered fizzy water.

As much as she wanted to know how good the fizzy water would taste, she had to slap her own hand to keep herself from drinking the enemy's water.

A little bowl of mints sat atop the reception desk, along with a cluster of business cards. Annabeth recognized Jason Grace's face from the other week when he visited Olympus Auto with his colleague... Was his name Augustus? It was something unusual.

Next to Jason's business card was one for a woman named Reyna Avilla Ramirez-Arellano. Annabeth had to squint to read the font because her name was just so long, but according to the minuscule text, this Ramirez-Arellano woman was the "managing partner" at this Jupiter Auto Trader location. That was like being the Mr. D of this place, except she couldn't call herself the owner, Annabeth supposed. Then again, the owner of Jupiter Auto Trader would probably call themself the CEO.

"Excuse me." Leo rested his elbow on the reception desk and spoke to the woman with pink hair stemming from her brown roots. "My buddy here is looking to buy a car from your fine establishment." His acting was good, Annabeth granted him that, but she couldn't help but notice his eye twitching at the insinuation that Jupiter Auto Trader was a fine establishment.

"Sure," she said, typing something away on her keyboard. "Did you have any idea what you were looking for?"

"Something that'll impress the ladies," Leo answered for Frank.

So that her friend wouldn't seem like a total douche, Annabeth added, "But he'd also like something practical. He's not ready for a family vehicle yet, but it would be nice if there was space for a car seat."

"And it would be amazing if those seats could recline the whole way if you know what I mean," Leo said with an obnoxious wink.

"Uh, okay then," the woman behind the desk said, tucking her cotton candy pink hair over one shoulder. She took one of Reyna Avilla Ramirez-Arellano's business cards and placed it in a manila envelope. Maybe if Annabeth tried really, really hard, she could deflect her crush on Piper onto this Reyna person and maybe also walk out of Jupiter Auto Trader with a hot date.

Her staring must have been obvious because Frank gently tugged on her arm and pretended to show her a painting on the wall.

"My grandmother up in Canada used to have something kind of like that," he said, pointing to the art. "Except hers was probably authentic. Shoot, that wasn't a nice thing to say."

"It's okay, Frank," Annabeth said. "You're probably right, and besides, the hot managing partner probably didn't even pick this out herself."

"What did you say?"

"Well, it's a corporation, so some regional manager or hired interior decorator probably picked it. I'm sure the one in your grandmother's house is-"

Frank cut her off. "No, I meant what you said about-"

"Hey, Lavinia! Are these the customers?" said a new, small but commanding voice.

The girl wore a business suit that was probably worth the equivalent of what Annabeth paid in monthly rent, complete with heels and just the right bracelets stacked on top of one another. They didn't match, but they certainly weren't mismatched.

She was short, physically speaking. Maybe it was her high cheekbones or the confidence with which she carried herself, but she didn't exude short girl energy the way you might expect someone just hitting five feet to. Was she even five feet tall, Annabeth wondered, or were the high heels giving her that much height?

When her eyes met Annabeth's, they glowed with excitement, not to be confused with naivete. Annabeth knew all too well not to fall for a car salesperson's charm. It was nearing the end of September, which meant any salesperson or cop living in a rental would be working extra hard to make ends meet.

Her hair was in a puffy bun on top of her head, and damn, if Annabeth thought she had a lot of hair... Well, she mentally swore to never complain about her thick hair again.

Because of the lack of breathing on Frank's part, Annabeth made the bold assumption that this might be his crush, Hazel.

The receptionist—Lavinia—stood up and arched across the desk to whisper something to the saleswoman, taking care to cup her hand around her mouth. This might be a good sign. Best case scenario: Hazel not-so-secretly returned Frank's feelings and confided in her receptionist friend, who now was giving her a pep talk. Annabeth could mentally conjure the conversation:

Hazel: Oh, I'm so nervous! What do I say to such a handsome man?

Receptionist Friend Whose Name Annabeth Forgot: Go get 'em! You got this!

Hazel: Thanks so much, receptionist friend whose name Annabeth already forgot!

Receptionist Friend Whose Name Annabeth Forgot: No problem! Hey, while you're out there, see if you can get Annabeth's number; I'll give it to Reyna Avilla Ramirez-Arellano because they would be such an attractive and unfairly tall couple!

Hazel: Great idea! Enemies-to-lovers sapphic romances featuring bisexual mechanics and women in positions of power are just so steamy!

Annabeth was pulled out of her closet drama when Frank yanked on her wrist. He looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Well," Annabeth said, shaking off her fantasy. "Let's not let Leo spend too much time out there without us. God forbid you actually buy a car today."

"Gods," he corrects.

"We're undercover," she hissed, "and off the clock."

Frank waved to the pink-haired receptionist before following Hazel out onto the car lot. "Thanks for your help!" he said.

It was hotter than balls outside. Leo's curly hair stuck to his forehead. Frank was holding his arms straight at his side in a way that indicated he might have been sweating through his shirt, a tight v-neck that Annabeth and Leo picked out for him.

Annabeth on the other hand, wore a thin tank top and shorts paired with her Doc Martins. She felt like her feet were going to fall off. Everything hurt. If Frank couldn't impress Hazel soon, he'd be mopping a puddle of Annabeth off the parking lot.

"My name is Hazel," Hazel said as if they didn't already know that. "It's, uh, nice to meet you guys. I think we can find something here you'll like!" She led them further down the lot towards the SUVs and minivans.

Leo elbowed Frank in the gut. "Small talk!"

Frank looked at Annabeth for a lifeline.

She only confirmed Leo's demand. "Ask her when she'll be at the soup kitchen next."

Frank cleared his throat. "So uh, will you be at the soup kitchen this weekend, Hazel?"

"Not this weekend," she said. "I have to drive out to the middle of nowhere to give some horseback riding lessons to inmates."

Frank's eyes widened. "Wow! I didn't know you rode horses."

"I do!" she said.

"Horses make me kind of nervous."

"I think they're so sweet, like perfect gentle giants!" she gushed. "You should come by the barn sometime; I could show you guys around!"

Leo cut in before anyone else could answer. "Annabeth and I have been super busy with that... that thing, right?" he asked, shooting a wink at Annabeth.

"That's right!" Annabeth agreed. "Leo and I have been swamped with... things."

"But you should go, Frank!" Leo said. "It would be a great opportunity to try something new."

"But I wouldn't want to leave you guys alone with that... thing," Frank said.

Annabeth dismissed his comment. "Don't worry, big guy. Leo and I are all over it."

Hazel cleared her throat. "I'll uh, text you then about that. Would you guys be interested in vehicles with three front seats? We have a couple of vans like that, and there's a GMC truck you might like too."

"Three seats in the front seems excessive," Leo said.

"Would you rather have three seats in the back?" Hazel asked. "I'm sure we can find just the right thing to accommodate your needs."

"I'm not so sure it's the number of seats that matters," Frank said. "I mostly just drive myself to and from work. Leo and Annabeth are kind of the extent of my passengers."

"But we don't have to be!" Leo said helpfully.

Hazel unlocked a truck and opened the door. "So this used GMC truck is a model from 2003, but it's barely been used. It has a CD player and a cassette player, but no Bluetooth. The bed of the truck is small but perfect for snuggling up at the drive-in."

Leo elbowed Frank, whose cheeks turned red at the idea of snuggling.

Hazel continued to explain the different features of the pickup truck, and Annabeth began to regret this plan. Of course, pretending to buy a car would involve listening to someone brag about a mediocre GMC. There were no hard feelings against Hazel; it was her job to brag about a mediocre GMC.

But damn, the things Annabeth would like to do to that truck...

"Do you guys want to sit in the truck?" Hazel asked. Her tone was more genuine than any car salesperson Annabeth had ever encountered. It was like if they didn't get in the truck and at least pretend they were thinking about buying it, she'd be devastated.

Annabeth needed to say no. If Hazel's hopes grew any higher than they were, the disappointment she'd feel when Frank did not buy a car would be even worse.

"Oh, that's-"

"We'd love to!" Frank said. "Come on, everyone!" He grabbed Leo by the waist and hoisted him into the driver's seat. Then, Frank climbed into the middle seat and offered his hand to help Annabeth into the other passenger seat.

"Do you like it?" Hazel asked. "I like how squishy the seats are!"

"I bet they're a pain in the ass to clean," Annabeth muttered.

Leo rolled down the window and passed his phone to Hazel. "Will you take our picture?"

Hazel aimed the camera at them and counted down from three. Frank threw an arm around Annabeth; she gagged on the stench of his nervous sweat, which she was sure looked lovely in the photo that Leo would no doubt print and hang up somewhere in the garage.

"Here you go!" Hazel giggled and passed the phone back.

Annabeth climbed out of the car; it was time to wrap this up. There was only so much she could do to help Frank before their lunch break was up.

"Well," she said. "Thanks so much for helping us out today, but-"

"I love it!" Frank said. "We'll take it!"

Leo gasped and looked at Annabeth. They shared the same look of fear. What did Frank think he was doing?

"I left my wallet in your car, Annabeth," Frank said. "Could I have the key, please?"

She reluctantly gave the key to Frank, and when he was out of earshot, she spoke to Hazel. "You and Frank really have a lot in common," she said.

Leo nodded his head so fast that Annabeth thought it was going to fall off. "That's right!" he said. "You guys should go catch a movie or something. I think they're showing The Goonies at the drive-in this weekend."

"You think I should go see The Goonies with Frank?" Hazel asked.

Annabeth nodded. "For sure! Unless you don't like that sort of movie. Aren't they showing Titanic next weekend, Leo?"

"I think so! That's super romantic, and the theater is BYOB, so you could drink while Frank serenades you with the sweet sounds of Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On.' He's a fantastic designated driver!"

"And you guys would be okay with that?" Hazel asked.

They nodded in unison.

"Please," Annabeth said, "show our Frank a good time."

Hazel raised an eyebrow as if considering it and said, "Sorry, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with this situation." She waved her arms between Leo and Annabeth as if that cleared anything up.

"Huh?" Leo asked. "We just want him to be happy, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that," Hazel said. "Well, no, I don't get that... But I respect it! That's great that you guys have that much trust in your relationship, but I'm not really looking for this kind of thing."

Annabeth choked on some saliva. "I'm sorry... What do you think this is?"

"Well, you know..."

"No," Annabeth said. "I need you to say it out loud. What do you think is going on here?"

"Oh my gods!" Leo shouted. "Ew! Ew, ew, ew!"

"I take it that you're not a throuple?" Hazel asked.

It sounded even worse out loud. The idea of Annabeth, a bisexual mechanic who has recently been showing a strong preference for women, Leo, an aroace man with a tendency to flirt, and Frank, their token straight guy, in a relationship together? The three of them, in an open, polyamorous relationship?

"No, we're not," Annabeth said.

"We're his wingmen," Leo clarified. "Wing-people?"

"I'm so sorry for assuming," Hazel said. "Actually, it was Lavinia who assumed, but I still went along with it."

"It's fine," Annabeth said quickly. "But uh... Let's not tell Frank about that."

"Oh, gods, he would be scandalized!" Leo laughed. "Frank's a one-woman kind of guy. He wants to go to the drive-in movie theater and buy overpriced snacks that he'll carry for you just to be a gentleman, but then drop those snacks on the floor and... And then, he won't kiss you until the couple in the movie does."

"He sounds like a sweet guy," Hazel said. "He never talks to me when we volunteer at the soup kitchen together. I think he's embarrassed because he burnt his tongue on my soup and spit it out on my shoes."

"That's... embarrassing," Annabeth said. She wasn't one to believe in soulmates, but these two were made for each other.

Hazel nodded in agreement. "I would love to get to know him better, though."

"Cool," said Leo. "So we've concluded that he'll never make the first move, so we need you to ask him out."

"Me?"

Annabeth nodded. "Come on, Leo."

"Hey," Hazel said. "One more thing?"

Leo and Annabeth turned around to listen.

"Don't be saying gods plural if you don't want people to know you're coming from Olympus Auto."

"Shit," Leo swore.

"I won't tell!" she said.

Annabeth smacked Leo over the back of the head on their way back to the car. "Dumbass."

"Hey!" He opened the passenger side door and climbed into the backseat of the Mini Cooper.

Frank mouthed a quick I'm sorry to Annabeth before jogging back to Hazel, wallet in hand.

"I hope he doesn't buy that truck," Leo said. "It's such a piece of work."

"I know, right?" Annabeth agreed. "Those seats were tacky as fuck." She reached for the air conditioning knob, cranking it on high for a few minutes while Frank secured his date.

"Do you think we messed things up too bad?" Leo asked. "I'm not exactly the best at reading people."

"Well, based on the fact that none of us realized Hazel thought we were a throuple, I can't say I'm the best at reading people either," she said, leaning back in her seat.

Leo shuffled around in the back; Annabeth heard his plastic water bottle crinkle as he drained it.

Out the window, Annabeth watched Frank tuck his wallet away in his back pocket. He extended his hand, and Annabeth groaned internally at the business-like gesture. Frank Zhang quite literally just spent thousands of dollars on a date, where he'll no doubt spend more money on overpriced popcorn and candy for this girl.

"Look!" Leo said.

Instead of accepting the handshake, Hazel wrapped her arms around Frank's shoulders and pulled him in for a hug.

"We did it," said Annabeth. "We got Frank a date with his crush."

Leo didn't say anything for a minute.

Then, he reached over the front seat, close enough to Annabeth that she could feel his hot breath on her cheek.

"Now," he said, a devilish grin creeping its way through his face. "How about Piper? We could stop by the grocery store on the way back, and you could bring her some flowers. Or! Oh! That cookie place opened up down the street. You could buy her cookies! Or maybe-"

"Dream on, Leo," Annabeth said, starting the engine.  

Chapter Text

"Okay, everyone!" Percy said, standing at the front of the lobby with his clipboard. "We've got a crazy day today, so it's all hands on deck. If everyone pays attention to their assignments and follows the itinerary Drew and I came up with exactly, we should be fine."

And by this, Annabeth thought, it was clear that things would not be fine, and that this day would not run smoothly. Most people who worked at Olympus Auto had ADHD or some other form of neurodivergence. There was no way Annabeth would be able to keep track of time like a neurotypical person, and honestly? She'd seen the itinerary already, and there were some assignments she might be assigned where she was just going to... not.

"First," Percy continued, "thank you all for coming in early. I know this is kind of weird, but I think it'll be worth it. The Girl Scouts are paying us rather handsomely to let them use our lot for their carwash fundraiser today, and I'll be sure you guys are all compensated for your time."

But not with overtime, Annabeth added mentally. Never with overtime.

"Drew?" Percy asked.

Drew reached into a box below and began to pass our bright pink t-shirts with the Olympus pegasus logo on the front.

"Sweet!" Leo pulled off his shirt and replaced it with the new one. The back read OLYMPUS AUTO LOVES GIRLS!

Annabeth snorted. "Nice." She took a shirt from Drew.

"I designed them myself," she bragged.

"Put these on when you get a chance," Percy said. "That way, the Girl Scouts will be able to tell which people work here and can help them if they can't find the bathroom or something. Now, the Girl Scouts will start showing up in about an hour, but you know how people like to show up to things early. Drew will entertain the early birds with donuts and chocolate milk while we wait for the troop leaders. Piper, you're on decorations. The Girl Scouts are covering everything outside, but they gave us a few posters they'd like hung up in a few key places."

"On it," she said, picking up a stack of posters.

"Will and Nico, you guys are going to do your regular jobs in the morning. Nico, you'll be receiving a rotation of Girl Scouts throughout the day who'll sit behind the desk with you and collect payment from their customers."

"Fan-fucking-tastic," he muttered.

Percy sighed. "Let's keep the swearing to a minimum today. That goes for everyone." He makes a point to throw threatening glances at Drew, Annabeth, and Nico.

"Frank and Leo, I need you guys to clear the cars out of the B side of the lot so there's space for the carwash."

Leo grabbed the bucket of miscellaneous lost keys the mechanics were trying to not tell Percy about and saluted.

"What was that?" Percy asked Annabeth.

She shrugged in a way that hopefully said, Boys will be boys.

"I'm going to stand out front and direct traffic," Percy declared. "Any questions?"

"Uh, yeah," Annabeth said. "What about me?"

His eyes widened. There was no way he had forgotten about Annabeth.

"I have a super important job for you," he said.

He totally forgot about Annabeth.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"You can... You can..." he trailed off.

"You can help me, Chase!" a new voice said. Piper! Oh, god, Piper. Maybe it would have been better if Annabeth hadn't spoken up at all. She couldn't be around Piper for a minute without making a fool of herself.

"Perfect!" Percy said. "Keep checking the itinerary for changes. I'll text GroupMe if I need anything. Remember, if a Girl Scout asks you for anything, drop whatever you're doing and help her."

Piper gripped the posters to her chest and asked, "Hey, can you grab the stepstool from the garage? It'll be so much easier to hang these up with a little extra height."

"Yeah," Annabeth asked. "I'll meet you back out here." She pivoted and rushed back toward the garage. There had to be time for a quick pitstop before she started hanging posters, right? She hadn't bothered with lipgloss this morning; she rarely ever wore it to work because she hated how her hair stuck to her lips, but she wanted it now, just in case.

And her hair... yikes. The braided pigtails are cute and practical for working in the garage, but not for poster-hanging with one's dreamgirl. Maybe she should ask Drew for some foundation to hide the red that was already on her face. No, that wouldn't be practical; she and Drew had completely different skin tones.

"I'm so sorry!" Annabeth said. She could have sworn that Will Solace came out of nowhere.

"I know what you're doing," he said.

"You... what?"

He crossed his arms and pursed his lips. His salty demeanor was a stark contrast to the sweet chocolate chip cookies on his tie. "Pretending not to have an assignment so you can hang posters with Piper? Don't think I don't know what you're up to."

"Up to? Why would I be up to anything?" Annabeth asked, hoping that playing dumb would work. Besides, it wasn't like she'd asked to hang posters with Piper.

Will rolled his eyes. "Your crush on Piper is so obvious. Like, I don't know much about you, but I know you are so into her. You were practically undressing her with your eyes when she bent over to pick up the posters."

There were about a million defensive things Annabeth could have said to save her own face, but she'd always been better at witty attacks. "So you admit you were looking at her ass?"

"No! I wasn't... This isn't about me!" Will yelled, frazzled by Annabeth's accusation.

"Look, buddy, I don't know much about you either, but I can see the way you look at her. If you're so threatened by me, then why haven't you asked her out yet?" Annabeth asked.

He didn't answer.

"Exactly," she said.

"So she's fair game," Will admitted.

"Yup."

Will extended his hand. "I'm nothing if not a good sport."

"Best of luck to you, Solace," Annabeth said, accepting his handshake.

"And to you as well, Chase."

With that, Will Solace walked back to the lobby to help Piper pick up a poster she dropped in a typical meet-cute fashion. Annabeth shouldn't have felt as jealous as she did; they had agreed that Piper was fair game for either of them. Will was just playing his cards.

And so would Annabeth.

***

One of the upsides to wearing French braids was that they gave Annabeth's hair this really nice extra volume when she took them out. Usually, she used it to her advantage on first dates that would never progress or family dinners where she wanted to passive-aggressively remind her father that she took after her mother more than him.

Today, she was going to use that volume for the extra confidence she needed to impress Piper McLean. She'd changed into her new pink Olympus Auto shirt and had accidentally left one side of her overalls unbuttoned on purpose.

She pursed her lips to spread the lip gloss she found underneath the passenger seat of her car. This bright red was not her color. This might have been her ex-girlfriend's color.

She picked up the step stool with one hand and made her way back into the lobby.

"Chase! You're back!" Piper shrieked. "Can you put the stepstool over here? I already got a poster on the reception desk, but I thought it might be helpful to put one over here."

Annabeth set the stool by the doorway, and Piper passed her all but one of the carwash posters.

She stood up on the stool, and Annabeth watched her calves flex as she strained herself to reach a little higher.

If Annabeth wanted to, she could see right up Piper's dress. She didn't want to. She really did not want to do that. Still, that hoggish voice in her head begged the question, what kind of underwear did Piper wear?

These were not thoughts a woman should be having about her coworker.

"What do you think?" Piper asked.

"I, uh-"

"It's crooked, isn't it?"

Annabeth looked up at the poster. "Maybe a little bit, but I doubt that matters."

"It most certainly does matter! Don't you know what it means to be a Girl Scout?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "No, I don't. I didn't have a mom to take me to the meetings."

Piper's jaw dropped. "Oh my gods, that was so insensitive of me."

"No!" Annabeth shouted. "I mean, I'm sorry. That was kind of uncalled for." She had no idea why she just trauma-dumped on Piper like that.

"You can tell me anything!" she chirped before climbing back on the ladder.

The truth was no. Annabeth could not just tell Piper anything. It was not cool of her to dump her family trauma on someone she didn't know too well. That couldn't happen again. Piper was probably incredibly weirded out by that. Will Solace probably didn't have any family trauma. He probably had a mother who loved him, a dad who taught him how to play catch, and maybe some little siblings who didn't tell all his friends he kept a picture of Britney Spears in his closet.

"Just a little more..." Piper muttered. It was cute how her tongue slid across her lips when she concentrated, but Annabeth sort of wished it were her tongue sliding across Piper's lips.

"Woah!"

It was just a reflex; there was no ulterior motive behind it. When someone falls off a stepstool, you break their fall.

So that was how Annabeth found herself lying on her back, practically nose-to-nose with Piper.

She giggled. "You saved me, Chase."

"Oh, it was nothing," she muttered. Piper's breath smelled like flowers. How was that even possible? It had to be her perfume, maybe.

Annabeth was suddenly quite conscious of herself. She probably smelled like oil and gasoline from the garage, and there was no way it wasn't obvious she was wearing extra makeup just for the occasion.

Just to make things worse for Annabeth, Piper tapped her nose with her index finger and then pushed herself onto her knees, adjusting her dress so it was no longer riding up on her. She extended her hand, and Annabeth took the help.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked when the two of them had gotten to their feet.

"Just fine, thanks to you," Piper said, brushing dust off her pants.

A voice clears his throat. "Excuse me, Piper, I couldn't help but notice you and Annabeth struggling over here. Why don't I reach the poster for y'all?"

Piper took a step back and said, "That's so sweet of you! Yeah, if you could just reach this one, that would be awesome."

"Anytime!" Will said. He climbed onto the stepladder. Annabeth noticed the way he stuck his butt out right in Piper's line of sight.

At least Annabeth didn't have to bounce quarters off her ass to exchange air with her.

"Thanks, Will!" Piper said when he got down. "Do you think maybe you and Chase could keep hanging up posters while I print some more? I know Percy told me not to go overboard since the Girl Scouts are bringing decorations but... Well, I'm going overboard."

Annabeth and Will enthusiastically agreed to this as if spending time alone together wasn't the last thing they wanted to do, and Piper skipped off to Percy's office to hijack his printer. At least Annabeth's crush wasn't going to get her in trouble for using Percy's color ink.

"So," said Will. "Shall we?"

She scowled. Of course, Will Solace had to show up and ruin everything. She was so close, literally and figuratively. Close proximity was always something that gave Annabeth the read she needed on a person, and she was definitely getting good signs from the position she and Piper were in just a few minutes ago. Inhaling Piper's hot flower-scented breath could have been the push she needed to ask her out, and Will blew it.

So she told him. "Thanks for ruining everything."

"Oh, honey," Will said. "You were doing a perfectly good job of ruining things for yourself."

She gaped. She was not! A few more seconds alone, and she would have asked Piper if she wanted to grab coffee or go to lunch! Maybe a few more minutes and Annabeth would have come up with a date that would have made her look cooler and more creative than she was, like roller skating or something. Shoot! Roller skating was an awesome idea. She could have broken Piper's fall with her body about a dozen more times.

"You're shameless," Annabeth said. "Aren't you supposed to be selling cars?"

"Oh, look around; there's no one here!" he stammered, taking the stack of posters from Annabeth. "Let's just get this over with." Were the little cookies on his tie wearing tiny little ties?

"Oh, hey, guys!" Percy said. He gave a weak attempt at a wave; his hands were full of Girl Scout cookies.

"Percy," Will asked. "Your momma makes the best cookies on the planet. What are you doing with all those Thin Mints?"

"Not just Thin Mints!" he said. "I've got Samoas too!"

Annabeth put aside the embarrassment she felt for agreeing with Will long enough to say, "Percy, those cookies are seven dollars a box. You know what else are seven dollars a box? Cigarettes."

"Are you trying to equate his cookie problem to a smoking addiction?" Piper asked, coming out of the office with another stack of fresh posters. "Because if so, I am totally here for it."

Seeing that all the votes in the room were against his destructive decision, Percy mumbled something like, "I think Drew is cussing out children," and then retreated to the bathroom.

Clearly, Percy did not intend to confront Drew about her actions because she entered the lobby not from the men's restroom but from the parking lot Frank and Leo had just cleared.

Way to avoid your problems, boss, Annabeth thought to herself.

Drew ushered some of the Girl Scouts behind the reception desk, where Nico gave them one of his oh-so-warm welcomes.

By that, Annabeth meant he pushed the bowl of mints across the counter so the kids could go at the candies.

"Phase two of the itinerary starts now!" Drew practically sang. "Due to some unforeseen circumstances, Leo is going to fix the air conditioning in the garage, and Frank will take over his job of tying off the balloons."

As if on cue, a bundle of blue and purple balloons floated past the window behind Drew and up into the air.

Annabeth chose not to say anything as Frank hurried—and failed—to catch them.

She watched as the balloons turned into tiny dots in the sky.

"Annabeth, hon?" Drew said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Can you do that?"

"Uh, do what?"

Will snickered. Where was he going with Piper?

Annabeth forgot to take her Adderall, and her chances with Piper were shrinking because of it.

Drew rambled on about assignments as if Annabeth's ego wasn't dripping onto the floor. "So Percy needs you to kind of hover outside near the Girl Scouts and be our token woman in STEM."

Annabeth did not want to be a token woman in STEM. She didn't want to be a token anything. She wanted to try out a new AC unit in that goddamned minivan, do a new paint job on a RAM, and then find herself in a bubble bath, either basking in her failed attempt to get a date or... not that, exactly. Either way, she would have liked to end her day with a bubble bath and some Grateful Dead.

"Why?" she asked Drew.

She shrugged. "Because it's inspiring or something?"

"But I didn't even go to college," Annabeth said. "I just went to trade school. That's probably not a good influence."

"Look, I personally hate children, and I hate how this t-shirt somehow looks better on you than me," Drew said. "I didn't make the itinerary, so if you have a problem, you'll have to take it up with the boss."

"Mr. D?"

Drew raised an eyebrow. "When has that lazy slob ever done an ounce of work? I mean Percy."

Annabeth sighed. "Alright, thank you for the info."

"Anytime, bitch!" She blew a kiss.

Here's the thing: Drew Tanaka was so mean. She was mean like a bully in an eighties movie, complete with colored eyeshadow and power poses.

She was like that with everyone, though, so Annabeth didn't mind. She quickly learned that bitch was a word of endearment in Drew's world. Empowerment, even, as long as you didn't outwardly display more power than her.

Out the window, Annabeth could see that the Girl Scouts were still in some kind of team huddle with some fat middle-aged mom whom she could only assume was a troop leader. There seemed to be no need for a woman in STEM out there, so Annabeth spun around and darted toward Percy's office to lodge her complaint.

"Woah!" a soft voice said. Frank gripped Annabeth's arms in his strong hands to steady her. Wow, his hands easily wrapped around her biceps, a reminder that she was way overdue on renewing her gym membership.

"Sorry, Frank," she muttered.

"All good." He kept walking toward the garage. "Are you coming? It's your turn with the minivan."

Shame. That was the feeling she felt when her cheeks heated up, and she couldn't make eye contact. "I... I'm not supposed to."

"Oh," he said. "Well, have fun with the carwash."

She would not have fun with the carwash, she thought as she opened Percy's office door without knocking.

And good god, she should have knocked.

Crumbs were strewn about the desk and the carpet. Cookie sleeves and boxes spilled out of the tiny wastebasket in shredded bits.

Hunched over the desk with assorted cookie crumbs all over his chin was Percy Jackson.

"Yes?" he asked with his mouth full of Trefoil cookies.

"Is this a bad time?"

"No. Yes. Sorry." He started to wipe at the crumbs on his lap but then paused to stare at a chocolate stain his hands left on his khaki pants.

"I was just wondering if maybe I could go to the garage and do work with Leo and Frank?" Annabeth asked. "Or, maybe, I could take over for Will and help Piper with the rest of the decorations?"

He took a sip from his Yeti water bottle. "Sorry, Annabeth, but you're really the only person for the job. You're inspiring, and that's what I need to sell for Olympus right now. You check off like two different diversity quotas."

"So choose someone who can check off more," she said. "Percy, I'm not an inspiring person. I went to trade school because I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia until junior year of high school."

"And you're a woman in STEM and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community."

"I'm surprised you memorized all those letters," Annabeth quipped. "Wait a second."

He stood up and ushered her to the door. "So get back out there and show those young girls what it means to-"

"Who told you I was bi?"

Percy stopped in his tracks, frozen like he just made eye contact with Medusa. "I..."

"Go on," Annabeth said. "I like to know who's outing me."

"I am so sorry," he said. "Drew told me when we were in the Chic-fil-A line the other week; she said she stalked your social media, but I swear, I would never. I haven't even looked you up on Instagram."

"Well, that's reassuring." She turned to leave. If she left right then, maybe she could pretend this wasn't happening.

"I'm an ally!" Percy shouted after her.

It took everything in her to resist the urge to throw up her middle finger. That wouldn't be an appropriate thing to do at work. Neither was discussing someone's sexuality, however.  

Chapter Text

"Oh, Annabeth! There you are, hon!" Drew shouted. "Look, kids, we have a girl working here as a mechanic."

"Gender norms are societal boxes created by the patriarchy," Annabeth deadpanned.

"Hell yeah, they are!" Drew said. Then, her face turned red, and she corrected herself. "I mean heck. Heck yeah."

The little girls at her feet looked up at Annabeth expectantly. Surely they weren't expecting some grand speech from her of all people.

Drew waved her hand in a way that told Annabeth yes, they were looking for some words of wisdom.

They looked up at her with their beady little eyes. Some of them had sashes covered in patches, and others had vests with petalled flowers ironed onto them. A little girl with thick glasses and beaded braids held a notebook and a Sharpie. Whatever Annabeth said had to be good because she was going to write it down.

Annabeth sighed. She'd never been one for public speaking—at least not on the fly like this. She ran through her memory for something that could be of some use to these little kids. They wouldn't actually want to hear something about her mechanic experience. That's too messy, and they wouldn't understand her knowledge. She supposed she could have taught them how to check the oil in a car; every woman should know how to do that, but that's not what she said.

She said the first thing that came to mind, which somehow, was worse than Drew accidentally swearing in front of a bunch of Girl Scouts and even worse than Percy's cookie addiction.

"If you're making your Barbie dolls kiss each other, it likely isn't because you don't have a Ken. You're probably gay."

Drew facepalmed.

Annabeth had never heard Nico laugh a true, genuine laugh until that day, so she certainly achieved something in that department.

Will Solace covered the smallest girl's ears. "You can't say shit like that! I mean, crap like that. Poop?"

Piper didn't say anything. She just stared, which was probably worse than if she'd gotten mad.

"Gods-fucking-dammit, 'Beth," Drew said, not taking her head out of her hands.

It was at this moment that Annabeth found it most appropriate to bail.

She pivoted and walked back to the garage fast enough to break a sweat. She pushed open the door and ignored Frank and Leo's greetings as she climbed into the backseat of the minivan and curled up into the fetal position. Damn, she had forgotten to pack Tylenol for her period cramps. That's two ever-important pills she hadn't taken today.

The faint sound of Aerosmith grew louder as Leo turned up the volume on his cassette player.

This was what Annabeth's life had come to. Years of watching her dad fix that old airplane in the garage, watching videos on YouTube, and enrolling in shop classes in middle school just to get noticed. Years of trade school and two near-sexual harassment cases just to receive validation from her work.

And this is where it got her: face down in the back seat of a minivan, in the fetal position, crying to "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith while Will stole Piper away from her.

That, and she'd successfully pissed off an entire Girl Scout troop, so they would probably never come back to Olympus for their annual carwash fundraiser, and Percy would never make any more money for the company from their business.

She needed a sleeve of Thin Mints and an episode of WrestleMania, but Percy was eating all the cookies, and the new season wasn't airing until the spring.

There was a tap on the window, one that she wanted to ignore, but she was technically on the clock, getting paid real adult money to be sad. Frank and Leo would have every right to be mad at her.

She rolled down the window, which, in this van, was no easy feat.

When she'd finally finished turning the crank, Frank folded his arms and leaned into the van. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, trying not to let her voice crack.

"You're crying."

"Allergies?"

He raised an eyebrow, and she couldn't bear to meet his dark coffee-colored eyes, so she focused on the fish tattoo decorating his forearm.

"You were just bragging to Leo about how you're tougher than him because you don't get allergies," he said.

She grunted in reply.

"If something's bothering you, I'm always here to talk. Or not talk. Or distract you. Do you want to see the card trick Leo's been working on?"

Yes, Annabeth did want to see Leo's attempt at close-up magic, but she couldn't. She didn't want anyone else to see what an ugly crier she was.

She climbed into the front seat of the minivan and opened the door, holding out her arms.

Luckily, she didn't have to ask Frank for what she needed; he already knew. He somehow always knew what she needed.

She cried into the soft cotton of his neon pink OLYMPUS AUTO LOVES GIRLS! t-shirt. Without a doubt, she was staining the fabric with her makeup, but she couldn't find it in her to care.

Their moment was interrupted by a cool breeze.

"Oh, yeah, baby!" Leo shouted. "We have air! I repeat: we have air!"

"Thank goodness," Frank said, loosening his grip on Annabeth. "It was getting hot in here. You're lucky you got to work on the fundraiser, Annabeth. We lost air conditioning and had to work in this heatwave."

"It was hell," Leo said.

"No, it wasn't," said Annabeth. "Hell is embarrassing yourself in front of an entire group of Girl Scouts plus your coworkers after finding out that one of them outed you to your boss."

The guys speak at the same time.

"Who outed you?"

"What did you do?"

And everything came spilling out. She told her friends about her conversation with Percy, about Will and Piper, and her mistake in front of the Girl Scouts and some of their parents.

Frank put one of his comforting Wreck-It Ralph-sized hands on her shoulder. "What can Leo and I do for you right now?"

Her body said hungry, but her brain said FIX IT! FIX IT NOW!

"You guys are fine," she said. "There are some people I should probably talk to, though."

"I have a few choice words for Drew," Frank muttered.

Leo smirked. Annabeth didn't like it when he did that; it always led to a good idea that would eventually turn into a terrible idea.

"How do you feel about water balloons?" he asked.

Wherever he was going with that question, the plan was sure to be chaotic. A little bit of chaos never really hurt anyone, did it?

When she'd thought the possibilities through, Annabeth found herself wearing the same smile as Leo.

***

Annabeth wished she'd let Leo film the encounter because the looks on the others' faces when they realized what was about to happen were hysterical. She probably would have made it the background on her computer and kept it that way for several months until the next time she got a stupid picture of her coworkers.

"Alright, little ladies!" Leo said to the Girl Scouts. "It's you and us against... everyone else! That sound fair?"

The girls cheered and shed their sashes when Frank set down the tub full of assorted water balloons. He stepped away before the crowd of preteens could smother him. They cheered and screamed even though none of them had been hit with a water balloon yet.

Annabeth made the mistake of making eye contact with Percy. He winced and backed away with his arms full of even more Girl Scout cookies. Someone needed to address his cookie problem.

The crowd dispersed. Squeals and water balloons filled the air.

Drew shrieked as one collided with her perfect makeup, leaving purple rubber balloon bits in her hair.

Nico ducked for cover underneath a Chevy. "Gremlins! All of you!"

Annabeth reached into the bucket and grabbed one of the last balloons. Percy wasn't going to get out of this one.

"Hell yeah!" Leo shouted when his balloon splashed against the front of Will's pants.

Frank gave him a high-five for his excellent aim.

Percy was running, dammit! He was on the move!

Annabeth chased him across the parking lot; he looked ridiculous running in his neon t-shirt and khaki pants.

Finally, she had him cornered between a Honda SUV and another Honda SUV of the same make and model, except red.

"Annabeth, we can talk about this!" he said.

She wound her arm back and then released.

Everything happened in slow motion; the little orange balloon contorted and warped in midair, as water balloons do.

Percy held his hands out to protect his face—fair. Annabeth wouldn't have wanted him getting latex balloon bits in his eyes. That would have probably hurt.

The balloon reached the end of its arch, and Percy braced for impact.

And then he caught the fucking balloon.

For a minute, he and Annabeth just stood there, looks of equal surprise painting their faces. After all, it was pretty impressive for a guy to just catch a water balloon like that. She'd grant him that.

Then, he smirked, and their unspoken truce ended.

"No," Annabeth said, barely above a whisper. She knew what would happen next.

She turned around and ran like her life depended on it because her dignity certainly did.

"Leo!" she shouted.

"I gotcha!" he responded. "Ladies! You can't let that guy go after a woman in STEM!"

The Girl Scouts turned toward Percy, balloons in hand.

Percy let the balloon fly.

Annabeth felt the rubber hit her back just before the water splashed everywhere.

She would never admit it, but it did feel kind of nice in the heat wave.

"Charge!" one of the girls shouted.

"Wait!" said Percy. "I bought your cookies!"

"Not the Tagalongs," Piper said, munching a cookie. "I bought those."

But her words were only heard by Annabeth as the Girl Scouts began to pelt Percy with the remaining water balloons, which was a lot more than she thought they had left. Those Girl Scouts were hogging all the balloons this whole time! What happened to their motto? Faith, trust, and... No, that's not it...

"Okay!" Percy shouted. "Fine! You guys win! I give!"

The children giggle and pass around high-fives. Not that she was bragging or anything, but Annabeth did get a high-five. It was sticky, but it was a high-five that she earned because some kid out there thought she was cool, and probably agreed that making the two girl Barbies kiss in the Dreamhouse elevator was fine and normal and not deserving of therapy.

Percy wrung out his t-shirt and then addressed the group. "So I'm going to go dry off in my office and then order us all some pizza for lunch! Great idea to cool off, mechanics."

Leo pumped his fist at that victory.

Annabeth grabbed him by the collar, and Frank followed them back toward the garage while the parents voiced their concerns for their lactose-intolerant and gluten-free daughters who aren't allowed to have fun.

"Hey, Annabeth!" Will said. On one hand, he didn't look like he had peed himself anymore, except on the other hand, he was completely soaked head-to-toe.

She dumped Leo off on Frank and said, "Hey, Will."

"I... I wanted to apologize for earlier. I sort of have shitty judgment when I like someone."

"Well, me too, if I'm being honest," Annabeth said. "My hair is certainly not thanking me for it." She tried to smooth out her unruly curls.

"I didn't mean to drive a wedge between us. Hell, I don't even know you that well," Will said, "but I'd like to. That is if you can forgive me."

"Sure," Annabeth said. "Maybe sometime when we're dry."

Will smiled his signature movie star smile. "For what it's worth, I think you should go for it with Piper. I uh... Well, she doesn't seem to see me that way."

"I'm sorry," Annabeth said.

He shrugged. "It happens. She was super nice about it too."

"Actually?"

"I have never felt so good about being rejected," he said with a chuckle. "Besides, I think there's someone else I could be into."

Annabeth wasn't exactly sure that I'm happy for you would be the correct response, so she just smiled at him and-

"Percy wanted to see you," Will said. "I wouldn't be too worried about it, though. I think I caught him eating Girl Scout cookies in one of the bathroom stalls."

"Well, shit."

Will faked offense. "C'mon, don't swear in front of the Scouts."

***

Annabeth knocked on the door to Percy's office. It should have been Mr. D's office, but she heard he was on vacation in Costa Rica this week. Annabeth was all for using paid time off, but this was getting ridiculous. She'd met the guy once when she interviewed for the job, and now she was beginning to forget what he looked like.

She let herself in the office and said, "Percy? Will said you wanted to see me?"

"Annabeth," he groaned. "I just ate an entire sleeve of Thin Mints, and let me say, I'm not feeling very thin."

She couldn't help it; she laughed. "You cannot possibly still be eating that crap."

"I can't help it," he said. "My mom is away this week for a conference about her book deal. My supplier is gone!"

"Okay, so maybe let's take this week as a cookie detox and give the rest of them to someone who needs sweets right now as compensation for something stupid you might have done."

Percy handed over the box of Trefoils.

"That's what I'm talking about."

"I am sorry about everything that happened," he said. "For some reason, I thought you might like to talk to the girls. You seem so passionate and... I should have asked you first."

"Yeah, well, I told the girls they're gay if they make their Barbies kiss each other, so..."

"You said what?"

Shoot. He didn't know about that. "Nothing."

He rolled his eyes and reached for a cookie but then retracted his hand. "I can talk to Drew if you want."

"Nah," she said. "I'm pretty sure everyone figured it out anyway. Plus, I... I trust you guys. You're assholes, but you're not mean assholes."

"I deserve that."

Annabeth smirked. "See you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow," he said. "I'll clean up the balloon bits."

Chapter Text

It was a Tuesday when Annabeth realized one did not, in fact, require a driver's license to sell cars at a used car lot. At least you didn't need a driver's license to sell used cars at Olympus Auto.

Annabeth was finally falling into step at Olympus Auto. She woke up at seven in the morning, braided her hair while it was still wet from her shower, took the freeway to work, and then entered through the garage where customers couldn't see her.

Leo usually beat her to work, so she'd have to yell over his dad-rock to greet him. If he wasn't too busy, he'd tell her about a television show he started watching or, on Wednesdays, about whatever comedian he saw at the comedy club the night before.

They'd get to work, Annabeth sorting the keys they'd collected throughout the week and Leo mopping miscellaneous fluids off the ground. Neither of them would dare touch the minivan with the broken air conditioning unit; that was Frank's job on Tuesdays.

Of course, they didn't quite fall into their routine until Leo slipped on a puddle of who-knows-what. That was probably a fire hazard, so Leo got out a mop while Annabeth played a game of match-the-key-with-the-car-before-the-owner-gets-back.

"Doing alright?" Leo asked.

"I've got the Fords sorted out, so I'm going to start there," she said, climbing into an F-150. She tried three keys before she got the one that worked. "Hell yeah." The truck lit up and oldies music started playing from the stereo.

Annabeth rolled the window down and hollered out to Leo. "This one's done?"

"Yeah!"

It was a nice truck. "What the hell was even wrong with this?"

Leo shouted, "I had to replace the brakes!" He walked over to the desk and pulled out a manilla envelope. Once he retrieved the papers he was looking for, he set them on top of the desk. "You wanna get that out of here?"

"It's taking up a shit-ton of space, so yeah!" she quipped back.

Leo pushed the button to open the garage door and gave Annabeth a false salute.

She wasn't a monster, so she saluted back and put the truck in reverse, ready to make... Oh, god, the F-150 was massive compared to everything else in this garage. Forget about three-point turns. She would probably be making a thirty-three-point turn.

She rested her arm against the back of the passenger seat as she turned the truck around so it was facing forward. Perfect timing; the garage door just opened wide enough for the truck to fit through.

She cranked up the music on the oldies station, taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy paid Sirius XM radio, and whistled along as she pulled out into the outdoor lot.

Just for fun, Annabeth put the truck back into reverse and backed it into the parking spot. It allowed her to show off her driving and practice this talent of hers in such a massive vehicle. Plus, it would be easier for the truck's owner to get it out of Olympus Auto when they came to pick it up later.

By the time she cut the engine, a small crowd had gathered outside. Piper, Will, Drew, and Nico were gawking at the truck, and for a second, she was scared that it had an offensive bumper sticker or something.

"What's going on?" she asked as she stepped out of the truck and slammed the door shut.

"Annabeth," Will said. "How are your parallel parking skills?"

Sometimes Annabeth would parallel park just to show off to dates, but she wasn't about to admit that without some more context. "Fine."

"Sounds better than mine," said Drew. "I try to avoid parallel parking at all costs."

Annabeth can't take this awkwardness. She'd never been one for small talk, but she was starting to feel like there was a reason the salespeople were talking to her about this. "Seriously, guys, what's up?"

Nico stuck his hands in his pocket. "So you know how all those big-name dealerships like Jupiter are delivering cars now?"

"I guess so?" Yes, Annabeth knew that was a thing, but she didn't think enough people took advantage of that for Olympus Automotive to even consider implementing that.

Nico continued. "So Percy wants to do that here for an extra fee, but we can't afford to hire more people so now it's sales' problem."

"You mean that's not my problem?" Annabeth asked.

Will fired finger guns. "Nope! But it could be!"

She winced. "Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that one." She twirled the keys on her finger and headed back toward the garage. Five more cars were getting picked up today: three of them that had passed state inspection and one that Frank had replaced the muffler in. The fifth one didn't pass the state inspection, but apparently, they were allowed to send the car home with its owner. Annabeth strongly disagreed with the owner driving the car back to San Francisco; it creaked every time Annabeth rounded a corner in it. She feared for her life on that test drive.

"Whose F-150 was that?" Annabeth asked Leo when she reentered the garage.

Leo tapped his chin and went through the paperwork again. "Aha! Brunner! Gimme those keys!"

She tossed the keys to her coworker and picked up another set with the Mercedes logo on them and a Pop figure keychain of Batman. "Cute," she noted.

"That goes with that one," Leo said, pointing to an R-Class Mercedes.

"Gods, that thing is ugly. I mean, white? Really?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Just get it out of my sight."

"Hey, Frank. How are you doing?" Frank quipped softly from behind a toolbox.

"When did you get here?" Annabeth asked.

"It doesn't matter," he said.

"Yes, it does," said Leo.

Annabeth nodded in agreement.

"Hey, wait!"

The three mechanics turned around to find Piper slipping under the garage door before it closed completely, which was certainly not an easy feat in those heels she was wearing.

Piper raised her eyebrow at the Mercedes Annabeth was supposed to drive onto the lot. "Gods, I thought those cars were supposed to be bougie."

"Apparently not," said Leo. "What can we do ya for? You want some of Frank's lunch?"

"No!" Frank protested. "You can pry my peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich out of my cold dead hands!"

Leo shrugged it off. "You could have Annabeth's lunch. Or better yet, I'll have Annabeth's lunch and you two can just go get lunch together."

Annabeth wanted to facepalm so badly right then. Way to be subtle, Leo.

"Uh, I already ate lunch, thanks," Piper said, "but there is something I could use some help with."

Annabeth felt her cheeks heat up and silently thanked her past self for spending some time sunbathing because her tan probably hid that better than her pasty self did last week. And by 'sunbathing,' she meant accidentally falling asleep on the roof of her apartment while her chicken cutlets were charred to a crisp on the grill.

Her stomach then decided that this moment was an appropriate time to demonstrate its floor gymnastics routine, and she suddenly was very self-conscious of the loose hair falling out of her braids.

She hated that Piper had the power to turn her into this flushed, stammering mess of a person.

Annabeth had plenty of things on her plate for this particular Tuesday; she had a few more cars to pull outside, and then she and Leo were going to see how many times they could get Percy to yawn just by faking yawns in his general direction. So yeah. It was going to be a busy day in the office.

But of course, because Piper had the charmspeak of a dirty lawyer, Annabeth entertained her request. "Yeah, Pipes, what's up?"

"This is super embarrassing, so what I'm about to say needs to stay in this garage."

At that, Leo and Frank gave Piper their full attention. Annabeth couldn't say she wasn't hungry for some work gossip too, though.

"Sure, Piper," Annabeth said. "You can trust us. We're cool."

Leo gave a thumbs-up to prove that point.

She sighed and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her blazer pocket.

Annabeth squinted to read the font; dyslexia was ruining her crush's dramatic reveal.

It was a driver's permit. Piper wasn't a licensed driver.

"Oh," Frank said. "You know, there's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people are choosing not to get their licenses. It's better for the environment, and gas prices are just astronomical-"

"How do you get to work?" asked Leo.

Piper looked at her shoes. "I take the bus. Can you guys keep my secret?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, of course."

But of course, there was more to this.

"Cool, so uh, about that favor..."

"Yeah, anything!" Annabeth said, accidentally committing herself to whatever it was Piper needed.

"So with this new delivery thing we're doing, I have to drive cars to people's houses," she explained, "but I'm not legally allowed to drive without a licensed adult over twenty-one in the passenger seat."

Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth watched Frank put his finger on his nose.

She needed to back out now. Even after all these years, she still got flashbacks from teaching her little brother Bobby how to drive. He pummelled a stop sign head-on with the family car. Guess who got in trouble for that mishap?

Piper continued. "I sold a car, and the buyer wants it delivered. Can someone please ride along with me? I promise I'm a safe driver."

If Piper felt the need to declare that she was a safe driver, that was a blaring red flag. Unfortunately, Annabeth was colorblind when it came to Piper.

Leo answered for her. "Annabeth would love to go! I'll send you a playlist I've been working on!"

"Yeah!" Frank agreed. "And you can even have my peanut butter fluff sandwich!"

Piper turned to Annabeth. "It's only if you want to; I know it's kind of a big ask. I'd be happy to buy you lunch though."

"Oh, my gods!" Frank said. "Annabeth loves lunch too! You, ladies, have so much in common!"

"Gods, just make out already!" Leo said.

Annabeth glared at her coworker.

"I mean, I'll send you that playlist. Yeah."

Piper, fortunately, ignored that comment. "Can I meet you in the lobby in like, ten minutes? I have some more paperwork to do before we can leave. Gods, I don't think I would have taken this job if I knew how much paperwork would be involved!"

Annabeth and the others laughed along, perhaps for longer than what was necessary.

"Well, thanks so much in advance for helping me out," Piper said. She winked at Annabeth.

"I, uh... I'm gonna go... fix. Something," she stammered.

"Atta girl!" said Piper, giving Annabeth a playful spank. She shot finger guns on her way out of the garage.

Annabeth let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. That... could have been embarrassing.

Leo chuckled. "Damn."

Frank nodded in agreement, his face probably rivaling the redness of Annabeth's.

Then, she gave those boys one of her death glares. "You guys!"

"What?" Leo asked. "We just played wingmen! You're welcome!"

"That wasn't very subtle!" Annabeth said. "Now she's going to know for sure that-"

"Sorry," Frank said, "but I thought that was the point?"

"No!" Annabeth said. "I mean, yes, kind of. I just want to be low-key about it. I don't want to make a complete ass of myself if she doesn't see me that way."

Leo pursed his lips. "This calls for an extra special playlist." He tapped away on his phone until Annabeth felt her phone buzz with a text.

He stopped her from checking it. "Save it for the ride over."

Frank chimed in, helpful as ever. "Do you know that you can turn a condom into a dental dam? I bet someone around here has one you can take with you."

"Don't be doing anything too freaky in those backseats, though!" said Leo.

Annabeth held her hands in a time-out T. "Woah, too far. We're just driving the car to someone's house, and then picking up lunch. The craziest part of the trip will probably be Piper running a few red lights. Nothing crazy. No backseat sex."

"So backseat sex did cross your mind?" Leo said, wiggling his eyebrows.

As a mechanic, it was Annabeth's duty to be well-versed in cars and the things you can and cannot do in them. Backseat sex was always something that crossed her mind when she got in the driver's seat of a new vehicle.

"No, it did not," she lied. "On a totally unrelated note, does anybody know the model of this car?"

Leo and Frank ignore that question, instead opting to plan out Annabeth's entire Not-Date with her Not-Girlfriend. Their words. Not hers.

"Do that thing where you unbutton one side of your overalls," Leo said.

Annabeth humored him, letting the fallen strap expose the black t-shirt she wore underneath.

She checked her nails; they were nice and short the way she liked. At least, they were on the fingers that counted.

"Okay," she said after taking her hair out of its braids. "I'm going to get ready to go."

"Do you have money?" Frank asked. "You should offer to pay for lunch."
Leo asked, "Did you put on that extra layer of lipgloss? Piper had better be wearing it too when you get back!" He winked. For a guy who identified as both aromantic and asexual, he sure did make a lot of sexual innuendos.

"I'm leaving now," Annabeth declared before slipping the lip gloss into her pocket.

"Go get 'em, tiger!" said Frank.

"I'd give you one of those 'atta girl' spanks too if it wasn't weird!" Leo said.

"Noted," Annabeth said. She climbed the short staircase and opened the door to the main lobby just in time to catch Percy coming out of the men's restroom with his fly undone.

"Hey!" he said. "Can I help you with something?"

"Uh, no thanks," she said. "I'm helping Piper out with a delivery."

He shrugged. "Alright." For an assistant manager, Percy was surprisingly uninterested in how employees chose to spend their work hours.

Piper looked up from her conversation with Nico and waved to Annabeth. "Over here! Are you ready to go?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, what lot is the car in?"

She groaned. "The far one! Can you believe it?"

She could believe it.  

Chapter Text

Piper opened the passenger door for Annabeth like a perfect gentlewoman. She was hoping she'd get to go at least a few minutes before turning into Bob the tomato, but maybe that was an unrealistic hope to have.

"Thanks," she stammered, climbing into the Jeep Wrangler.

"I wanted to go topless, but Percy told me that wasn't ideal for transportation," Piper explained.

"I... What?" Annabeth asked.

"It's a Wrangler," she said. "You can take the canvas and the doors off and drive around topless."

She sighed. And she was supposed to be responsible for kind of teaching someone how to drive today. How was she supposed to do what when said person kept saying things that made Annabeth's mind wander?

Annabeth examined the interior of the Jeep. It didn't exactly require much work when it was brought in a couple of weeks ago, so this was her first time sitting in the car.

The backseats were buckets. If anyone was having sex in this car, it wouldn't make a difference where they sat as long as they weren't in the driver's seat. Annabeth learned the hard way that putting one's ass against the horn of a car was a sure way to ruin any mood.

Piper hung one of the complimentary lotus-shaped air fresheners that Olympus gave out onto the rear-view mirror and showed Annabeth a thumbs-up. "I love it when you guys park the cars backward like this; it's so much easier to pull out!"

"Oh, yeah, no problem." It would be braggy of Annabeth to admit that was her idea.

"Did Leo say something about a playlist?"

Annabeth pulled her phone out of her breast pocket and connected it to Bluetooth. She hit play on Leo's playlist, and the first song was "False God" by Taylor Swift. She wasn't much of a Swiftie, but the saxophone part was nice.

"Oh my gods, I love this song," Piper said as she shifted the Jeep into gear.

"Yeah, it's nice," Annabeth said. It would have been nicer if the GPS wasn't constantly interrupting to reroute, but beggars can't be choosers.

After another loop around the Olympus Auto parking lot, Annabeth had to speak up. "Piper, you have to get into the turning lane."

"Oh!"

The Jeep swerved sharply to the right, and Annabeth grabbed the door handle for support, silently thanking every deity she could think of that Percy didn't let Piper take the doors off.

Did Taylor Swift just say that the altar is her hips? This song was raunchier than Annabeth thought it would be. Leo wasn't much for listening to lyrics, though, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.

"Turn signal."

"Oops."

"Other turn signal."

Annabeth looked at Piper's hands on the wheel. She had both of them in the shape of an L.

"Jesus, Piper, do you not know your lefts and rights?"

"The L trick just helps me feel more confident."

"Shit, Pipes!"

"What?" she asked, turning sharply.

"That was a no-turn on red!"

She raised an eyebrow. "But I thought I could turn right on red?"

"Only some of the time," Annabeth explained. She no longer had to worry about the redness in her face, she thought, because she was likely very pale from this horrific experience.

She glanced at the GPS. Ten minutes. She could do ten minutes of this.

"I know heaven's a thing, I go there when I touch you, baby hell is when I fight with you..." Taylor Swift continued to sing as if they weren't almost just in a wreck. Oh, gods, if they'd died, this sex song by Taylor Swift would have been the last thing Annabeth heard. The medics would find her bloody corpse while Taylor Swift made religiously based innuendos.

But that was an invasive thought, and although Annabeth couldn't afford a therapist quite yet, she could imagine her hypothetical therapist might tell her that invasive thoughts are bad and she should try not to have those so much.

"Piper, there's a-"

The Jeep lurched upwards; if Annabeth were a little taller, she'd have probably hit her head against the ceiling.

"...pothole," she finished.

"Sorry! I never said it would be a pleasant drive!"

"You did say it would be safe," Annabeth said.

"Hey!" Piper objected. "I am totally safe! It's just a little-"

"Oh my god, watch the road!" Maybe she ate something bad for lunch, or maybe it had something to do with Piper's driving, but Annabeth had an inkling that she was going to die on this trip.

"Whoops!" Piper said cutely, the same way you might react to sitting on the remote and changing the channel, or some other non-life-threatening mishap. This was not a whoops moment. Annabeth needed to get out of the car before she spontaneously combusted.

Taylor Swift's sex anthem ended, and Annabeth felt relief at the thought of a different, less sexually charged song.

Needless to say, her ears almost gave out when she heard that goddamned saxophone intro again.

"That's weird," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's on some kind of loop." She skipped the song.

"False God" started to play again.

Piper looked at the screen for a second but quickly put her eyes back on the road when the Jeep hopped the curb and went half on the sidewalk.

Seeing that the music debacle was distracting Piper, Annabeth put her phone down and accepted her fate, doomed to listen to "False God" for the rest of her short and mediocre life.

The GPS barked an instruction at Piper, and she finally turned out of the main road and into a neighborhood. It was a nice neighborhood. If Piper did something stupid, they would be toast.

Taylor Swift's voice dampened as the GPS said, "Your destination is on your left."

"This one here," Annabeth said, noting the perfectly manicured lawns and Hobby Lobby decor in the front yard. "Piper, stop the car."

The Jeep made an awful screeching sound as Piper put it in park before coming to a complete stop. Annabeth's stomach responded with a backflip.

"Okay," Piper said. "I just have to drop off the keys and papers and I'll be back. We're taking their old car back to Olympus."

"We do pick up and delivery on trade-ins?" Annabeth asked.

"Uh-huh." Piper reached across the passenger seat—and across Annabeth's lap—to reach the vehicle's ownership papers, registration papers, receipts, and other important papers that'll probably just become crumpled up in the glove box.

Annabeth's breath didn't even hitch when Piper reached across her. Her face didn't turn red when Piper playfully unbuckled her seatbelt and flashed her a cheeky grin.

Could it have been possible that her bad driving turned Annabeth off? She pushed that thought aside; Piper had been her crush since the beginning of last month. She wanted Piper to unbuckle her seatbelt for her. She wanted this.

"Cool, cool," Piper said, shooting finger guns. "Wait right here."

"Should I get out of the car?" Annabeth asked without even stuttering.

Piper pursed her lips. "Yeah, probably."

Annabeth got out of the Jeep and waited in the grass while Piper knocked on the door. A woman with a baby on her hip answered the door. Annabeth couldn't hear what they were saying over the sound of a leaf blower next door, but she was sure the conversation was nothing worth eavesdropping on.

The grass beneath her sneakers was thick and had cross-hatch lines that told her someone professional mowed it. No tree roots upturned the sidewalk or cracked the concrete. Some children's toys were scattered across the lawn.

It reminded Annabeth of her dad and stepmom's house. The aesthetics of the property compensated for the dysfunctional family living inside.

Piper stepped off the porch with the woman in tow. She set the toddler down so that she could properly inspect the Jeep, and the little kid with stains all over his dinosaur t-shirt and no shoes ran right up to Annabeth.

"Hey, there, kiddo," she said, hoping that it wasn't obvious how terrible she was with children.

"This is my associate, Annabeth Chase," Piper said to the woman.

She smiled. "It seems like Chuck's taken a liking to you. He usually doesn't get along with others well."

"Oh," Annabeth said.

Piper smoothed her blazer and addressed the woman. "So you have all the paperwork you need; most of that can just stay in the glove compartment. I also printed up an instruction manual for taking the top and the doors off, but it might be easier to watch a YouTube video."

The woman handed Piper the keys to her old vehicle and after double-checking that there were no personal items in the vehicle, Annabeth was in another passenger seat, gripping the handle on the ceiling for dear life while Piper attempted to back out of the driveway.

"Why don't you put on Leo's playlist?" Piper asked.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure there's only one song on there."

"So? It's a good song," she said, smirking.

She didn't want any more distractions while in the hands of the world's worst driver, but she also didn't want any confrontation, so she pushed play again.

"We were crazy to think..."

CRASH!
Annabeth wasn't dead. She wasn't dead. Piper managed to both wreck the car and not kill Annabeth.

"What was that?" Piper asked, still not hitting the break.

Yep. Bad drivers were not Annabeth's type. "Fuck, Piper, stop the car!"

Piper stopped the car. "I'm sorry. Shit, I'm so sorry."

Annabeth opened the door and looked around the back, where a mailbox lay in pieces on the ground. She groaned. This was not happening.

She opened the driver's side door and said, "Get out."

"Chase, I-"

"Get out of the car."

Piper's cheeks turned red as she climbed out of the car. Annabeth got in the driver's seat and maneuvered the car so that it was at least parked alongside the street.

She cut the engine and got out of the car before addressing her... what was it that Piper said earlier? Her associate.

"Go knock on the door. I'm calling Percy."

"Chase, I am so so sorry-"

She scoffed and fought the hysterical laughter that crept its way up her throat. "Well, shit, I hope you are! Olympus doesn't technically own this car yet, and we just hit this person's mailbox, which means both homeowners, us, Percy, and Mr. D need to get involved."

"I'm..."

"Yeah." She shut off Taylor Swift and called Percy.

***

Percy pulled up a few minutes later in a blue Toyota Prius, which Annabeth recognized as his personal vehicle due to the aquatic-themed stickers. This was eerily similar to that time in high school when she orchestrated a senior prank and got sent to the office to wait for her father to pick her up.

The Slip-n-Slide outside the school library was worth it though.

"Thanks for coming to get us," Annabeth said.

"What happened?" he asked through an exasperated sigh. Getting yelled at by two different people about hiring salespeople who can't drive probably had that effect on a person.

Before Annabeth could decide just how much she wanted to throw Piper under the bus, Piper spoke up. "It was my fault, Percy. I only have my driver's permit and I'm not that great yet. I should have let her drive."

He sighed. "Go wait in the car." Wow, this was just like the great Slip-n-Slide incident.

"I can drive that one back to Olympus and figure something out for... that," Annabeth said, gesturing to the smashed-in trunk. That mailbox fought back.

"No," Percy said. "I'm calling a tow truck to bring it in."

"But-"

"I don't want you driving that; it's unsafe."

She decided not to share the details about how she had to drive her stepmother's dented car for months after Bobby mauled the stop sign with it.

"Fine," she said. An argument would only result in a deeper grave.

At least Piper was kind enough to save the shotgun seat for Annabeth.

"Where's Percy?" she asked when Annabeth closed the door.

"Waiting for the tow truck."

There was a moment of silence—a pregnant pause if you will.

"I'm sorry," Piper said. "I fucked up back there. I shouldn't have even asked you to come today. I thought... I thought that if we spent some time alone together, then maybe we could get to know each other. You're super cool, and a really good driver. All I've been trying to do is get to know you, but I feel like you don't want to talk to me."

"Don't say that," said Annabeth, a little too enthusiastically. "I like talking to you, Piper. You're super cool, and..." And what? Aesthetically pleasing? A bad driver?

She slumped in her seat. "I'm sorry for going apeshit on you back there. That wasn't fair. You deserve a driving teacher who can actually teach you how to drive."

"I still think you're an awesome driver," Piper said. "I bet you can even parallel park."

"I can parallel park," Annabeth confirmed.

She gave a snorty laugh in reply. "So uh, did you want to grab dinner tonight?"

"What happened to lunch?" asked Annabeth.

"Well, uh, if we do lunch, then Percy would be there too." Piper flushed in the rearview mirror.

"Is that a problem?"

She looked at her lap and then made eye contact with Annabeth in the mirror. "I was sort of hoping it could just be the two of us."

This was it. This was the moment Annabeth had been waiting for. The theoretical lunch was the victory she'd been hoping for—a small, casual stride—but dinner exceeded all her expectations. Dinner was formal. She'd have to pick out something nice to wear for dinner and look up the restaurant's menu and how to pronounce each item ahead of time so she wouldn't make a complete ass of herself. Their bellies would be too full at the end of the date to even consider the idea of sex, which meant Piper was serious.

Piper McLean, the Aphrodite of Olympus Automotive, was seriously interested in getting to know Annabeth Chase on a romantic level.

She should have been giddy. Her face should have been fire engine red. She should have been committing herself to perhaps dinner and a movie and then she should have been texting Leo and Frank.

But she wasn't.

"You know, Piper, I like hanging out with you," she started. "You're super fun and super hot—don't get me wrong—but I don't exactly... see you like that?" It came out more like a question than the gentle letdown she'd been going for.

"Oh," Piper said. "I'm sorry, I thought that-"

"Yeah," Annabeth interrupted, not wanting to hear what Piper had to say out loud. "I did, for a little while, but I've sort of just come to realize that maybe we're better off as friends. I hope that's okay because I do like you."

"That's fine," she said. "Wow. Hang on. Damn. I don't usually get rejected." She ran her hand through her hair.

Annabeth searched her face for some kind of emotion—anything, really.

"Sorry," Piper said. "I just... Wow. You've humbled me, Chase, and in the nicest way possible."

"Are we good?" Annabeth blurted.

"My ego is wounded, but I don't think I could hold a grudge against someone for not liking me back, especially not you, Chase."

Annabeth smiled. She would remain single another day, but she discovered something about herself.

She can't date a bad driver.

The driver's side door opened, and Percy completely ruined the moment with his grouchy demeanor. "Okay, so the tow truck is going to take the car back to Olympus for us, and we're going to get lunch because I'm hangry, and I'm going to choose where we're going."

He locked eyes with Annabeth and then looked at Piper, who was now sporting the sheepish grin of someone who'd been rejected after totaling a mailbox. "What? What did I miss?"

"Nothing," said Piper. "Nothing at all. I can pay for lunch since I certainly owe you one."

"In that case, we're getting a family bundle from Panda Express."

Annabeth's stomach rumbled in reply. She'd been craving some orange chicken.

With that, Percy put his Prius in drive. Piper looked out the window with glassy eyes, and Annabeth wondered just how she was going to relay the day's events to Frank and Leo, and how she was going to make up for the fact that she got Panda Express and they didn't.

"Do you mind if I play some music?" he asked. "I'm claiming AUX because you two wrecked a mailbox."

The girls agreed that yes, it was okay if Percy played some music, so he put on a playlist of his, and a familiar saxophone intro filled the Prius.

"We were crazy to think..."

Chapter Text

"I'm gonna say it," Leo said, abruptly turning down "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.

Frank threw down the wrench he was working with. "No! Absolutely not!"

"Someone has to say it."

"Say what?" Annabeth asked, not bothering to emerge from beneath the Buick Encore she was working on.

"That's none of our business," Frank said.

Annabeth didn't need to see Leo to know he was rolling his eyes. "You're just afraid of confrontation!"

"Am not!" he whined.

"No, Annabeth isn't afraid of confrontation. You are."

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I don't want to be a part of this."

"Too late," said Leo. "You became a part of this the day you picked a fight with Percy!"

Annabeth finally decided to roll the creeper out from under the Encore. "Sorry, what?"

Frank gulped. "Well, Leo and I couldn't help but notice that you and Percy don't get along all that well."

"Took the words right out of my mouth!" Leo said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "Really, Frank, I don't think there was a better way to put that."

Annabeth frowned from the ground. "We get along just fine, thanks."

Leo caught the creeper before she could disappear back underneath the car. "Uh, no. You guys bicker all the time, and it's annoying!"

"We do not!"

"Remember the cookie incident?" Frank asked.

"I was worried about him!" she protested. Percy was eating Girl Scout cookies, ultimately draining his wallet, his dignity, and his energy! She was just stepping in to help!

"Or the other week when he accidentally bought Frank a sub with cheese on it," Leo offered.

"Frank is lactose intolerant!" Annabeth said. "I didn't want to be on the wrong end of that disaster, and besides, Frank's been working here for over a year! Percy should know by now that cheese is a no-go for him."

Leo scoffed. "What about this morning when he asked you to hold a box of... What was it? Pop-Tarts?"

There was no point; Leo and Frank would never see past Percy's charms. Whatever. At least Annabeth had common sense.

She rolled beneath the car and went back to work. She sighed in relief when Leo turned the volume on the music back up. Finally, they would stop grilling her about this. She sort of wished that she'd taken Piper up on dinner just so she'd have something to talk about with the guys. It seemed like every chance they got, they brought up Percy fucking Jackson. He was her boss. They were supposed to complain about him because of that very fact, so Leo and Frank had no right to urge her to do otherwise.

Footsteps and the slamming of a door indicated that Leo was taking his turn to work on the air conditioning in the minivan.

Annabeth grunted. She should have let it go, but she could never not have the last word in an argument. "And for the record," she said, not bothering to see if she had the guys' attention. "Percy is a misogynist and an asshole. I don't get why you guys like him so much. I mean-"

"Annabeth," Frank said.

"No, Frank! I'm tired of giving him the benefit of the doubt! Like, we all have daddy issues, but you don't see me acting all arrogant because of it!"

Leo's work boots appeared in her line of sight. "Annabeth..."

"You guys should know better than anyone! Like, we all have problems, and we're still nice people!"

Leo snatched the creeper with his foot and yanked her out from under the car. Before she could gather her bearings and yell at her coworker, she noticed the person standing in the doorway to be none other than Percy Jackson.

"Hey," he said. "I was, uh, just coming by to let you guys know that I'm putting together a little Halloween party lunch kind of thing at the end of the month. If you guys want to wear costumes to work, that's cool."

Was it too much to hope that he hadn't heard that?

Frank scratched the back of his neck and said, "That sounds like fun! We'll be there!"

"Cool," Percy said. "If you guys want to sign up to bring something, I'll leave the list with Nico."

"You can always count on me to bring plates and napkins," said Leo. "Who knows? Maybe I'll get the novelty Halloween ones if I'm feeling feisty."

"Put me down for a few bags of chips," Frank said. "Trader Joe's is running a sale this week."

Percy nodded. "Put it on the list, okay?"

"But why would we put it on the list if you're right here with it?" Leo said.

"Because... Because..."

"Annabeth, is there anything you want to bring?" Frank asked. "Because we'll definitely be there. You told me yourself that you were hoping we'd have a work party."

No, Annabeth did not tell Frank that. This was just his and Leo's weak attempt to smooth things over, and it wasn't working. Percy wouldn't even make eye contact with her.

She sighed. She'd have to mourn her lost date with bottom-shelf wine later.

Well... her Moscato would probably fit in her water bottle, so she could, at the very least, get wine drunk at the company party. It would be easier than playing whatever tacky game Will was bound to come up with.

"Put me down for forks," she said.

"Forks?" Leo asked.

"We're getting pizza," Percy said.

"Seriously?" Annabeth asked, springing to her feet. "We've been over this. Frank is lactose-intolerant."

"Oh, it's really fine..." Frank said, trailing off.

Percy crossed his arms over the clipboard with the sign-up sheet. "We get pizza every year. It's cheaper, and there'll be plenty of other stuff for Frank to eat. Right, man?"

"Uh, yeah, I can just eat the chips, and Piper usually brings a vegetable tray since she's vegetarian," he mumbles.

"No!" said Annabeth. "You're always saying that Olympus is a family, and since Frank is a part of this family, it's your job to look out for him. Don't you want something you can eat, Frank?"

"It would be nice to not have to pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich..." he said, clearly seeing the appeal of Annabeth's argument.

"Exactly," she said.

Percy knit his eyebrows. "But I already called the pizza place and put in the order, and I don't think Mr. D gave us enough money for special orders or anything."

"Good god, are you even getting veggies?" Annabeth asked. "I mean, you can't just stick Piper with cheese; that's shitty."

"Do you want to get the pizzas?" he asked, finally losing patience with her.

"You know what? Yeah!" she shouted. "Put me down for pizza! I'll even make it myself!"

"Fine!" He made a show of crossing something off his list.

"Fine!"

Annabeth sat back down on the creeper and Percy left the garage. The door slammed behind him.

"Hey, Annabeth," Leo said. "I have a question for you."

"What it is, Leo?"

"Can you cook?"

She groaned.

"I'll take that as a no."

Frank chimed in as if there was zero tension in the garage. "You know, Trader Joe's has this really good pizza crust. I bet if you get a ton of that, and some sauce, and some toppings-"

"Thanks, Frank," Annabeth said, hugging her knees to her chest.

Leo turned the music back down and sat on the ground next to Annabeth. "Is there something more to this that I'm missing?"

"I just hate him so much," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Leo rolled his eyes. "I'll take that as a you're not ready to talk about it."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," she said.

Frank tossed a key in the designated miscellaneous key bucket. "I'm gonna rock and roll. See you guys tomorrow?"

"Bright and early," said Leo.

"Unfortunately," Annabeth said. "You wanna walk out together?"

Frank froze. "Oh, no, that's okay. I have to talk to Nico before I go."

"Didn't you already sign up for chips?"

"Yeah... Yeah!" he stammered, "but I never told him what kind I was bringing. I need to make sure everyone knows I'm getting Trader Joe's snacks. That way, someone else can sign up to bring Doritos if they want them."

Annabeth cocked an eyebrow. In what world did not even ten people need that many snacks?

"Well!" he said, putting his water bottle in his backpack. "I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

He left the garage and walked toward the lobby.

"What was that all about?" Annabeth asked.

Leo waved her off. "Don't even worry about it."

"Do you need help-"

"Nope!"

"...locking up?"

***

Other than a brief attempt to get with one of her coworkers, some nasty words targeted at her boss, and saying mildly inappropriate things in front of Girl Scouts, Annabeth took professional work behavior seriously.

One more exception to the rule was her mistake of drinking her bottom-shelf Moscato last night. She couldn't help herself. It was pink. The Moscato was pink! Besides, she had figured between pro-wrestling reruns, she could get another bottle at Dollar General for the low, low price of three and a half dollars.

That reassurance didn't do a thing to dampen the hangover she had the following morning, however.

"Good morning, Annabeth!" Frank said.

She grunted. "Can you not shout, please?"

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Depends. Do you have a Tylenol?"

Frank searched through his backpack, discarding an extra pair of socks and a package of Smarties onto the countertop next to him. "I've got Advil!"

"Good enough." She held out her hand and Frank shook a few of the pills into her waiting palm.

"I hope you feel better," he said.

She immediately regretted nodding to him, as it sent her brain ricocheting throughout her skull. "I'll be right back." She pushed the door open and stumbled off to the bathroom. Maybe she'd have a good scream if nobody else was in there.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" she croaked.

Percy turned off the faucet and reached for the roll of paper towels. "I'm washing my hands." His eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm..." Shit, she thought as she spotted the urinal in the corner. Shit, shit, shit.

She spun around so fast, that she banged her head against the door on her way out and then bumped into Will Solace and his stupid Spookly the Square Pumpkin tie, her pills from Frank scattering on the floor, never to be seen again. Not that she'd want to see them again; no way was she going to put floor Advil in her mouth.

"Dammit, Will," she barked at the poor guy, who probably just needed to take a long piss after drinking one of those big Starbucks drinks he'd become accustomed to having every Wednesday morning.

"Annabeth?" he asked, apparently willing to put off his piss for something as trivial as this. "Is there a reason why you're in the men's restroom?"

"I'm having a day, Will," she said, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

He bent to the ground and gathered one of the pills. "Did you need this?"

"I'm not about to take Advil that was on the floor," she snapped.

Will looked at her—really looked at her—with his bright blue eyes. She was a bug under a microscope. He saw right through her cranky facade.

"Can I get you a glass of water?" he asked, putting a soft hand on her shoulder. "I think Nico has some painkillers behind his desk."

Tail tucked between her legs, she let Will guide her out into the lobby. She still sort of needed to pee, but that wasn't about to happen.

The harsh lighting of the lobby caused her eyes to squint and her head to throb. "Everything hurts," she grumbled.

"Yeah, I figured," Will said, stopping in front of Nico's desk. He pressed two little pills into her palm. "There. I was a medic at a summer camp for a long time, and let me tell you, ibuprofen works way better than Advil."

"Thanks," she said weakly, not even processing what he just said. She just chugged the water bottle next to her and swallowed the pills.

"A little better?" Will asked.

She shrugged.

"Should you go home?" Nico asked.

She shook her head and immediately regretted that action. "I'm fine," she said. "I just... had too much to drink last night, and I sort of have to-"

"Cool," said Will. "I've actually got something I need help with. Well, I could use the company more than anything. You up for a little side quest?"

"Hell no." Will liked to use the phrase "side quest" to describe a task that, although not necessarily unfun, was well out of his job description and completely inconvenient. The last time Will dragged someone along on a side quest, Frank ended up waist-deep in a dumpster looking for can tabs.

"Why not?" Will pouted.

"Because side quests are never as fun as you make them out to be," Annabeth said, "and I have a job to do. I'm a mechanic. Remember?"

He raked a hand through his curly hair. "Relax. It's an easy side quest. Some bird had massive diarrhea all over one of the cars I'm trying to sell, so I've gotta run it through the carwash. I just need you to ride along, maybe DJ a little... You in?"

That... actually didn't sound so bad. "What's the catch?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No catch. Right, Drew?"

Without looking up from her fashion magazine, Drew said, "No catch, hon."

Annabeth considered this offer for a minute. There was always a catch, whether Will realized it or not. Then again, the worst thing that could happen sitting in a car with Will was that he'd stop for bad snacks or blast music from old Barbie movies. That wouldn't be so bad. Annabeth could tolerate that.

"Alright," she agreed. "Let me get my things."

She trudged back into the garage where Frank and Leo were waiting expectantly.

"You good?" Frank asked.

Why did people keep asking her that? It was a hangover, for Christ's sake!

"I'm going on an errand with Will."

Leo raised an eyebrow and lowered his fixin' tunes. "You're going with Will?"

"Yeah, why?"

He pressed his lips together. "No reason. You should go."

"I am."

Frank picked Annabeth's backpack up off the countertop and tightened the lid on her water bottle. "Have a good trip! Did you bring a phone charger? Or like, a portable one?"

"I never really need to charge my phone at work," she admitted.

He bit his lip the way one might hold back a smile.

Something was up, but Annabeth couldn't find it in herself to care.

She shrugged her backpack over one shoulder and held her water bottle by the handle. "Thanks, Frank."

"You'd better head out," he said, almost robotically.

Annabeth looked at Leo. Surely he would have noticed Frank's odd behavior.

Her short coworker simply shrugged and turned his music back on, blasting Joan Jett and the Blackhearts loud enough to send Annabeth's hangover spiraling. She rubbed her temples.

That must have been her cue to get the hell out of there, she figured, so she retreated to the lobby, where Will and Nico seemed to be expecting her.

"Ready to go," Annabeth declared.

"Awesome." Will beckoned for her to follow him and then said goodbye to Nico, who only offered a grunt in reply. That Nico di Angelo sure was no typical receptionist.

They stepped onto the lot, and Will led Annabeth near some of the more bougie-looking cars, which were typically more expensive. That explained why Will needed to run through the carwash today; the clientele that would be shopping for such vehicles probably would lose interest if they weren't spotless.

"Ta-da!" Will cheered.

Annabeth almost didn't recognize the 2016 Volvo Premier beneath all the pollen and bird shit. She gaped, very sure that this car was supposed to be white. At least, it was white when she changed the oil.

When Will made no effort to climb into the driver's seat, Annabeth asked, "Do you want me to drive?"

"Huh? Oh! No, that's fine," he said. "There's just been a change of plans."

"A change of... Will, what are you talking about?" she asked.

"Just get in the car; it's fine."

Annabeth reached for the handle and opened the door.

Before noticing the astronomical number of miles on that Volvo, before noticing the disgusting tan interior, and before noticing the weird fingerprints on the sunroof, she noticed Percy Jackson in the driver's seat.  

Chapter Text

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked, exasperated with her boss's entire existence. She climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door. "Get out!"

"No can do," Percy said. "I'm going on a side quest with Will. What are you doing here? Because unless you need to tell me this car will explode when I put the key in the ignition, I'm going to have to ask you to go."

She waved her hands in front of her. "Uh, no. I'm going on a side quest with Will. He told me he needed someone to ride along."

"He told me he needed someone to drive."

With that, the back door opened, and there was a crinkling sound as Will opened a bag of Cheetos and cracked open a can of Ginger Ale. "This is going to be so much fun!" he said. "All three of us, hanging out on the road together... Plus, I figured out how to pair with the Bluetooth!"

A tacky jazz song started to play. Annabeth didn't know the band, but it sounded like the exact kind of thing someone like Will Solace would listen to. She hated every moment of this. She needed out.

She wiggled the door handle, only to find it wouldn't open. "You turned the child lock on?"

"Yep!" Will said with his mouth full of Cheetos.

"Dammit, Will!"

"What?" he asked innocently.

"If Annabeth doesn't want to be here, she doesn't have to be," Percy said. "Three's a crowd."

"Look," said Will. "You guys are always fighting. We just thought that maybe you could use a little time to get to know each other. That's all. I'll be the mediator because I've been told I'm excellent at that."

"Who told you that lie?" Annabeth scoffed.

"We?" Percy asked.

"Yeah!" Will said, completely misinterpreting Percy's question. "Piper, and Drew, and Frank, and Leo!"

"That's the entire office," Percy said, losing all the humor in his voice. He was starting to sound a bit like Annabeth. She'd take his support if it meant there were two people against Will.

"Nuh-uh!" said Will. "Nico explicitly told me that he wanted no part of this."

Annabeth said, "I'm starting to like that guy," and then rolled down the window.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked.

"Getting out of here," she said with her torso halfway out of the car.

Will cried, "Annabeth, please!"

She was sort of stuck, anyway, and there was no way she'd escape without leaving behind her backpack and water.

She slumped into the car seat and crossed her arms. "Fine, but I'm going to be a dick about it."

Percy turned on the engine and said, "Buckle your seatbelts, kids." He was obviously trying to maintain his humor, but the line came out more sarcastic and mean than anything.

But Annabeth wasn't that much of a bitch, so she buckled her seatbelt.

Percy put the car into reverse and pulled out. Annabeth imagined that the both of them were expecting a painfully awkward ride that would happen in silence. Maybe there would be some small talk from Will. He'd ask them about their days, or maybe their favorite pizza toppings if he was feeling controversial. Annabeth would be able to look out the window and count blue cars.

One.

Two.

So this was the catch, she thought when the count was up to six. She would get paid to sit through a carwash, but she would have to do so with Percy a foot away from her. It wouldn't even be a whole foot if she weren't straining towards the window.

Seven.

"So," Will said, because, of course, he can never let two people who sort of hate each other brood in peace. "Do you guys know that carpool karaoke bit that James Corden does?"

"No," Annabeth and Percy said in unison, both anticipating Will's train of thought.

He perked up in the backseat. Why was he sitting on the middle hump? He wiped his Cheeto dust on his pants and the stereo dinged when he paired his phone to the Bluetooth.

Annabeth groaned internally as the intro to "Kiss From A Rose" started playing. Firstly, she was not the kind of person who would ever, in a million years, be caught dead singing karaoke. Secondly, this song? If someone were to, theoretically, hold Annabeth over the side of a building and threaten to drop her into the busy road all Batman-style unless she sang karaoke, it wouldn't be to this song. She'd probably sing like, "Tequila" or something less embarrassing.

When neither Annabeth nor Percy jumped at the chance to sing over the instrumental track, Will took over.

"Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey..." he sang, his voice wavering ever so slightly.

Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth caught Percy smirking. Maybe.

"What?" Will asked. "You don't know this one? Hmm..."

"How much further are we from this carwash?" Percy asked. "Why can't we go to the one we usually use?"

"Because this one is cheaper and better. Now, what songs do you like?"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I usually take us to a fundraiser run by the Colleges Against Cancer clubs, but sure, let's give our money to the Mafia."

Annabeth had to bite her lip to keep from asking Percy for clarification on that theory. Instead, she said, "Can you not hit the brakes so hard like that? You'll wear them out faster that way."

Percy didn't reply. He just slammed on the brakes at the next stop light. If he was trying to get a reaction out of her, it was working.

"Seriously? I worked hard on those," she snapped.

"Oh! How about this one?"

The instrumental to "Hey Ya" by Outkast, another classic karaoke song, played over the stereo. Annabeth has been known to shake it like a Polaroid picture, but Will didn't need to know that. There's no way he could have known.

Screech!

"Seriously, Percy, what kind of a dumbass taught you how to drive?"

"My mom."

Shoot. Annabeth was sure that Percy's mother was a very nice lady. "Clearly, you didn't pay any attention to her. I sincerely doubt she'd be okay with you completely fucking up her brakes like this."

Percy snorted.

"What?" Annabeth snapped.

"Well," he said. "It's just... You could have insulted my mom, and that actually would have gotten to me, but you didn't. You don't hate me as much as you let on."

"It's not my fault your mom makes good cookies."

How awful would it be if...

No, Annabeth couldn't think things like that.

"So," said Will. "Is anyone doing anything this weekend?"

That was the perfect opening, so Annabeth said what she needed to say to maintain her status as Percy's nemesis.

"Percy's mom."

Percy braked and slapped the steering wheel. "Go fuck yourself, Chase."

She smirked because there was no better feeling than getting under his skin. "Well, actually, I'm gonna fuck your mom." She licked her lips for show.

Will gasped and tried to fake a quick recovery. "I'm going to the Laufey concert with some of my friends from high school."

"That's nice," said Annabeth.

"Take it back," Percy said. "Take it back right now."

She scoffed. "You're such a man-child."

"Well, you're a bitch!"

"You're a Momma's boy!"

"You're gay!"

"Yes, I am!"

"You're impossible!"

"You're insufferable!"

"You're-"

"Hey!" Will shouted. "Percy, you missed the turn!"

Percy huffed. "It's her fault."

"Is not!"

"Will you two quit arguing like a bunch of children? I set this up so you would spend some time together and get to know each other!" he cried. "You'd see you have a lot in common if only you'd take the time to talk!"

Percy slowed down as he turned the car into the car wash. "Sorry for shouting, Will."

"Me too," Annabeth said, "but if you think I have anything in common with him, you're dead wrong."

"Yep," Percy agreed, "but without the death threat." He leaned out the window and put a twenty-dollar bill into the machine.

"It was not a death threat," she said.

He pursed his lips. "It was a little bit implied."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

The barrier lifted, and Percy closed the window and stepped on the gas lightly.

"Will," Annabeth said, "did you, at any moment during this drive, feel like I had a genuine intent to kill you?"

No answer.

"Will?" Annabeth asked, peering into the backseat.

The backseat was empty, save for Will's empty Cheeto bag and some orange dust they would have to clean out.

"Percy."

"What is it?" he barked.

"Would you want to know if Will completely bailed on us and was rolling around in the bushes trying to look like James Bond, but really looking like Paul Blart?"

Percy leaned forward and looked into the bushes. "Oh my gods, he does look like Paul Blart. He just needs a Segway."

"He's going to get dirt on his novelty tie."

Percy hit the brake and waited for the workers to hose down the car as if Will's ditching them in the middle of nowhere was completely normal. Seriously, they were in the middle of nowhere. Annabeth switched from counting blue cars to counting brown cows about halfway through.

"I can't believe Will," she said.

"I can," said Percy. "He's a huge romance novel junkie. I heard him telling Piper that forced proximity is his favorite trope." Color rose to his cheeks. "I mean, not that... Well, you know..."

"Sure, because the idea of anyone wanting to set me up is totally psycho," Annabeth snapped.

He rolled his eyes while the workers hosed down the car. "You know what I mean."

The carwash worker in blue curled his fingers in a come hither motion, urging Percy to inch the Volvo further.

"He's telling you to pull the car up," Annabeth said.

"I'm already so close to the one in front of us."

"I'm pretty sure the dude who works here will tell you if you're about to cause a wreck."

He huffed and let off the brakes. The worker held out the palm of his hand and Percy stopped the car without bumping into the one in front of him.

"See?" Annabeth gloated. "Have a little faith."

"Says the person who just threatened to have sex with my mom," Percy said.

There was no denying that she made that threat.

He put the car in neutral and let off the break as the track took them into the carwash.

It didn't take the car long to adjust to the dim lighting; the night lights turned on automatically, casting a soft glow over top of Percy's sharp jawline.

"How about some music?" he asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "As long as it isn't that mom music you're always-"

Her threat wasn't worth finishing. Jimmy Buffett was already serenading them with promises of tropical conditions and strong fruity drinks.

"Seriously?" she demanded. "What the hell even is this song?"

"'Margaritaville' is such a basic song," Percy explained. "I'm not basic. I'm a Parrothead."

"I don't even want to know what that means," Annabeth grumbled.

The car started to move again. They could no longer see the truck in front of them as the windshield was doused in foamy soap.

Percy hummed along to some song called "Havana Daydreamin'" while Annabeth picked at the nail on her index finger, which she'd shamefully allowed to grow longer than it had been in a long time. Damn, it sucked being single for this long. She needed to get back out there, and soon.

They shook back and forth as the Volvo teetered along the automated track, barely able to see the scrubbing machines in front of them.

Percy jumped when heavy brushes slapped against the windows like mops on the floor.

"Not used to the car wash?" Annabeth asked.

"I usually wash my car myself," he admitted.

She rolled her eyes. "I won't believe that for a second."

He scoffed. "Of course."

Annabeth couldn't help but notice that Jimmy Buffett was no longer singing about coconuts and tiki bars.

"I think your playlist ended," she said.

"No way," he said, picking up his phone. "Shit."

Annabeth faked disappointment. "Oh no, we can't listen to Jimmy Buffett in October anymore!"

"I'll have you know that Jimmy Buffett is suitable music for all times of the year."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow because no.

"I mean it," Percy said. "I happen to like his Christmas albums."

"Christmas albums? Plural?"

Instead of answering, he read something on his phone and frowned. "No signal."

Thankful for the opportunity to DJ, Annabeth whipped out her own cell phone, only to find a message from Spotify saying that because she didn't pay for a premium subscription, she wouldn't be able to stream music offline. How shitty!

"Radio it is then," she said, pushing a knob on the car's console.

She tapped her fingers on the windowsill to the tune of the Metallica song playing. Metallica had been her favorite band since she was old enough to pick out her own music. In a way, it was a rebellion against her stepmother's Colbie Caillat and Lady Antebellum music. Ever since she could remember, she constantly sought small, practically unnoticeable ways to rebel against her dad and stepmother. It would be irrational of them to yell at her for listening to Metallica, and it would be downright wrong if they'd gone through with their threats to lock her out of the garage.

"You like this stuff?" Percy asked.

Annabeth didn't just like Metallica. She loved them. She spent a week's worth of pay from her cashier job at AutoZone on a ticket to see them in concert and even did her makeup for the occasion. It's probably her proudest Instagram post.

"Yeah," she said, unable to come up with a sarcastic response.

The car came to a stop and more scrub brushes twirled around them like tornadoes, except they were green, so it looked like someone tried to make spinning tops out of Christmas trees.

"Why are we stopping?" Percy asked. "Does this usually happen?"

"Maybe the car in front of us is just taking forever to leave," Annabeth said. "Like, they have to wait for a chance to get out into the intersection." She opened the glove box and sifted around for something interesting. Anything would do.

"Annabeth," Percy said. He sat high in his seat, arching his chin in a vain attempt to see in front of them.

"Yeah?"

"There's no car in front of us."

She'd have to trust him on that one because although she wasn't that much shorter than him, she couldn't get her seat any higher than where it was.

That's shady, right? Annabeth hadn't been to a car wash in forever; she preferred to wash her Mini Cooper herself while blasting Metallica in her shared driveway. If she timed it right, the old lady who lived next door would pay her way too much to spray down her barely-driven car as well.

"Annabeth?"

Shit. She wasn't paying attention. Curse her and her ADHD tangents.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was just asking if this is normal," Percy said. "Like, do the machines break down a lot? And if it's broken, how long are we stuck in here for? I promised Mr. D I would call him to discuss some financial options."

Annabeth shrugged. "Take your call here. It's not like we'd talk to each other anyway."

"Yeah, but I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

"We crossed the threshold of uncomfortable a while ago."

Percy sighed and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel.

The Metallica song ended and the radio cut to commercials, so Percy changed the station. At least they agreed about not listening to commercials.

"This okay?" he asked, landing on a Van Morrison song.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "You a Van Morrison fan?"

"Huh?"

"This song," she said. "It's by Van Morrison."

"Oh," Percy said, scratching the back of his neck. "This song just comes on a lot when I finish my Jimmy Buffett playlists. 'Brown Eyed Girl,' right?"

"Duh." It's only one of the greatest songs of all time. Annabeth, embarrassingly enough, used to sing it to one of her ex-girlfriends.

Shit, the memory of having someone's head in her lap, combing through her soft hair, and whispering sweet nothings over a football game... Ouch.

"I like it though," Percy said.

Batteries! Annabeth needs batteries. She opens the glove box back up and sifts through for something to write with.

"Cars should come with car napkins," she said.

Percy choked on some saliva. "Oh, my gods. You're right! Write that down!"

"On what? We don't have car napkins!" she shrieked.

"We could go get takeout after this," he suggested.

"We can't eat food in the car, dipshit."

"Oh."

A moment passed. One of their stomachs decided that then was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate a whale's mating call. The air conditioning slowed. Van Morrison ended and the familiar piano tune of "Bennie And The Jets" started to play. Annabeth added coconut oil and Reese's Puffs to her mental grocery list.

"We're trapped in here, aren't we?" Percy asked.

Annabeth nodded. They were completely screwed. "Just stay calm. Someone will come and find us soon. I'll try to text Will." No way was her text going to be sent, but Percy didn't need to know that. He needed reassurance.

They stayed silent for a while longer, and Annabeth hated that it wasn't as uncomfortable as it should have been.

"Bennie And The Jets" ended and a Def Leppard song began. It sounded like it belonged on Leo's mixtape. For all Annabeth knew, it was on there. She and Frank had never heard the end, and sometimes she even doubted that Leo had.

Percy reached into the backseat and retrieved some of Will's food, silently offering it to Annabeth.

She took a handful of Cheetos and gave him a tight-lipped smile instead of verbally thanking him.

Then, her conscience started to nag her, and not just because she was eating in the car.

"I'm sorry I threatened to fuck your mom," she said, hoping he didn't notice the color creeping the whole way down her neck.

He shrugged. "I know you didn't mean it."

"Yeah, but you're kind of a momma's boy," she said.

"It's just how I was raised."

"You're lucky to have a mom."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Oh, she's alive. She just saw me all slimy in the hospital and peaced out. Barely even let the doctors stitch her vagina back together, according to my dad."

"Can you please not say that?"

"What? Vagina? I'm the one trying to offer you an olive branch, and you're really doing your best to throw it into a fireplace," she said.

"Okay, fine," he said, throwing his arms up in surrender. "I appreciate it. Sorry, I just don't always do well when people I thought didn't like me start unpacking their childhood trauma."

"And I don't always do well when I'm stuck in a small space with someone I thought didn't like me."

"Cool," said Percy. "So are we good?"

Annabeth thought about that. Were they ever really bad, or were they just two people who got off on the wrong foot? It's funny. Had Percy not made a misogynistic assumption about Annabeth a few months ago, he might have been her work crush and not Piper. Although, now that the Piper ship had officially sailed, Annabeth was in the market for a new crush...

A new crush who should not be a coworker! Annabeth learned her lesson on that front.

So yeah. She and Percy were good. They weren't about to be each other's wingmen, but they were amicable.

"No, we're not good," Annabeth said. "We're trapped in a car wash."

"This might be my ADHD spiraling," Percy said, "but... No, it's definitely my ADHD spiraling."

"Too bad," Annabeth said. "My ADHD wants to hear about it."

He asked, "What if Will purposely got the workers to shut down the car wash so that we'd be forced to spend time together?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Will knew that she had a crush on Piper. He even accepted that she was more likely than him to get with her, and he didn't even know about how she turned Piper down the other week, so why would he try to trap her alone with Percy?

"I know what you're thinking," he said.

"Right?" Annabeth said. "Why would he try to set us up?"

Percy's eyes widened, and she realized that this may not have been what he was thinking about. "Uh... No, I meant that it's ridiculous I would even come up with something like that."

"That's not ridiculous!" Annabeth said. "With the way he rolled out of the car earlier? I'd be surprised if it wasn't on purpose."

"Guess we'll never know."

She raised an eyebrow. "You must not know your employee, because Will would take any chance he'd get to brag about this plan and how he got us to stop fighting."

Percy clicked his tongue as if to concede to her point. Of course, he was. She was right.

She traced her finger around the newly cleaned cupholder. "About the other thing, though..."

"Don't worry," he said through a nervous chuckle. "They wouldn't try to set us up."

"How do you know that?"

"I just know."

Something squeaked and popped, and Annabeth desperately hoped it wasn't the car. She'd see to it that Will was properly murdered if it was the car.

Then, the track started moving again. Annabeth felt relief that Percy didn't put the car into park earlier, and the stereo's Bluetooth tried to pair with Percy's phone. It was like nothing had happened.

More brushes and water cleared the Volvo of soap and bird poop. By the time they got to the dryers, Annabeth spotted Will standing in the bushes, a sheepish grin on his face. He held his blazer draped over his arm and sweat seeped through the armpits of his shirt. Some of the orange pumpkins on his tie were now sporting grass stains.

"We're not going to mention anything that happened back there, right?" Annabeth asked.

"Absolutely not," Percy said. "What happens in the car wash stays in the car wash."

"Thank god," she said. "Now step on it."

"I have to pick Will up."

"Percy..." she whined.

"It's the right thing to do."

"Can we at least pretend to ditch him? Like, we'll drive around the block and then come get him."

"Okay."

Chapter Text

"That's it," Annabeth muttered to Frank. "I'm calling it. There is no such thing as a normal day working here. When I asked what a day in the life looks like during my interview with Mr. D, he fuckin' lied."

"Uh, duh," Leo said. "Mr. D is a fucking liar."

Frank wrung his hands and said, "I prefer to think of a day in the life at Olympus as things like... this..." He trailed off, waving at the scene in front of them.

Percy Jackson, assistant manager of Olympus Auto, was frantically digging through every drawer, cabinet, nook, and cranny in existence, looking for crayons. Or colored pencils. Or markers, but preferably not the Sharpie Drew was using to tie up her hair because Sharpie bleeds through paper, and it gets all over hands, and-

"Where is it?" Percy demanded. "C'mon, I know you guys had a package of fun highlighters in here!"

Leo held out his empty hands. "Sorry, boss man, but they were all yellow. We don't have the luxury of good colors."

"I happen to like yellow," Frank said softly. Then, he turned to Percy. "I have a blue pen."

"We all have blue pens, Frank," Annabeth said, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. Percy would never buy a different color, which was probably why he was now in desperate need of more colors.

Percy groaned. "Seriously, guys? I'm kind of in a pinch here."

Maybe if Annabeth's boss had paid attention to the color-coded schedule Nico sent out on Google, he would have been able to plan his day around his little sister's visit home for Thanksgiving break. Because he couldn't be bothered, he was now scouring the entire property for something she could color with.

"Have you guys ever met Percy's sister?" Annabeth whispered to Frank and Leo. Sure, it was sweet that he was going out of his way to prepare some things for his younger sister to do, but this was excessive. Annabeth couldn't say she was exactly sibling of the year material, but she always thought visits like this were supposed to be fun.

"Yeah," said Frank. "Sometimes, when she's home for breaks and her parents can't get a sitter, they leave her here with Percy, which means that Will tries to keep her busy while Leo and I assess the damage."

It felt weird to have this conversation while Percy was right there, but he wasn't paying attention. He was too busy adding to his collection of miscellaneous writing utensils.

"I take it she's kind of high maintenance?" Annabeth asked.

Leo scoffed. "If you ask me, Percy does it to himself by worrying all the time. Estelle's not a baby anymore; she's... Gods, Frank, you think she's like twelve now?"

"Something like it," Frank agreed.

"She's a good kid," Leo continued. "She's just... so much younger than Percy, and he's such a committed older brother, that she's sort of got only child syndrome."

"It doesn't help that she goes to a fancy boarding school back in New York," Frank added. "When she's home, she's really spoiled."

"But Percy's more the problem. She's not that bad," Leo said. "She's not rich, at least."

Frank nodded in agreement. "At least there's that."

Annabeth lowered her voice more if that was even possible. "So on a scale of one to ten, how much is today going to suck?"

Leo pursed his lips, but he never got the chance to answer Annabeth's question because of Percy's what-should-have-been-a-side-quest.

"Aha!" he shouted. "I knew you guys were holding out on me!" He held up a red bingo dauber like some kind of trophy.

"Why do we have that?" Annabeth asked.

Leo seemed offended at the very implication that the mechanics don't need a bingo dauber. "Just in case."

Percy turned to the mechanics and said, "We're getting Chipotle catered for lunch. My mom says that Estelle is really into that right now."

Leo groans. "For real? A chain Mexican restaurant? We could at least get food from somewhere authentic like Papi's!"

"I'm not qualified to weigh in on what constitutes good Mexican food, but even I know that Papi's is the shit," Annabeth said.

Percy snapped his fingers. "And that reminds me: please try to keep the swearing to a minimum today. My mom is already kind of pissed that Estelle's started saying crap. I mean, she's mad."

"Gods forbid anyone says crap," Leo said.

Percy shot him a nasty glare and then went back to turning the office supply drawer upside down. Annabeth couldn't speak for Frank and Leo, but she sure as hell wasn't about to clean that up.

The side door to the garage opened and Will's blonde curls appeared in the space, half in, and half out. "Percy, she's here; your stepdad wants to see you."

Percy jumped to his feet and pocketed the office supplies he had stolen from the garage. "Coming!" He turned to Leo, Frank, and Annabeth. "C'mon, I want you guys to meet Estelle."

They obliged, trailing a few paces behind him.

"Don't you guys already know her?" Annabeth asked.

Frank nodded. "Yeah, but we have to go introduce ourselves every time. I can't blame her for not remembering us, but you know..."

Everyone was gathered in the lobby to greet Percy's sister, which once again begged the question: did anyone at Olympus Auto do any actual work? What was Annabeth's productivity compared to everyone else's? Who the hell ran Olympus Auto when the entire staff was doing shit like this?

Leo and Frank's guess was right; the girl stealing candy from Nico's dish seemed about twelve years old. She had dark hair like Percy's, but she didn't have his mesmerizing green eyes. She was the spitting image of the man standing next to her, who Annabeth assumed to be Percy's stepdad, Paul... Paul Blowfish?

"Stella!" Percy shouted, bending down for a hug.

As any typical preteen would, she shrugged off the hug and turned to Paul. "I do not need babysitting, Dad."

"It'll be a great opportunity for you and your brother to spend some time together," Paul said, sounding very much like Percy. "When's the last time you saw him?"

"We're going to have so much fun!" Percy said. "I got a coloring book, and we're ordering Chipotle for lunch!"

Piper's jaw dropped. "You didn't tell me we were getting Chipotle!"

Nico shuffled behind the reception desk. "Uh, I don't think we have a coloring book back here."

"We should have two," Percy said. "There's a princess one and a Batman one."

"Oh my god, Percy," Estelle said. "I am way too old for princesses."

"But not Batman!"

Color rapidly rose to Nico's face as Percy sifted through the drawers.

Will cleared his throat. "I think I have a deck of cards in my car."

Percy wasn't ready to give up on the coloring book. If you asked Annabeth, Estelle was too old to find entertainment in coloring books but not old enough for the nostalgia that comes with coloring in some line art of Batman and Robin.

"Aha!" Percy said for the second time that day. He was going to need to stop saying that before he got on Annabeth's nerves.

He held a coloring book up in the air. "You may be too old for princesses, but I've got this Batman coloring book!"

"Okay, first off," Estelle said, "That's a Justice League coloring book. Also, I am not coloring. Don't you have any games on your phone?"

Annabeth did not want to be watching this family squabble, and judging by the way her friends were shuffling awkwardly, neither did Frank and Leo.

Evidently, Percy's stepdad Paul wasn't into watching this either. He said a quick goodbye to Estelle and thanked Percy for watching her before bolting out of the lobby and onto the lot.

Completely ignoring his stepfather, Percy flipped through the pages of the coloring book as if that would entice Estelle. "Look, there's Batman and the Joker, and this one has the Flash on it, and... Alright, who drew a monocle on Wonder Woman?"

Nico snickered. "Sorry. Sorry."

"Nico!" Percy scolded. "Did you color every page in this book?"

"No!" he said. "Will colored some too!"

Yep. Annabeth needed to get back to work.

"Well, what about the princess one?"

"It's okay, Percy. I really don't want to color," Estelle tried to interject.

"Nico!" Percy shouted as he sifted through the Disney princess coloring book. "Why are some of these torn out?"

"Because Piper said she wanted to hang my Megara art in her bedroom."

"Nuh-uh!" Piper shouted. "Do not drag me into this!"

Estelle simply rolled her eyes and reached into Nico's candy dish, sifting through the Jolly Ranchers until she found all the blue ones. She unwrapped one of the candies and popped it in her mouth. How many had she eaten already? Her lips were beginning to turn blue.

"What is she supposed to do now?" Percy asked although it seemed pointed more at himself. He dug through the drawers once more. Poor Nico flinched every time one of the carefully organized files hit the floor.

Percy slammed a drawer hard enough to send Nico's man-purse tumbling to the floor, and out came... toys?

"Perfect," Percy said, picking up the tiny figurine.

Nico snatched it out of his hands and said, "No."

"Cough 'em up, Nico; we'll give them back."

"Are those MythoMagic figurines?" Frank asked.

"No. Yes. Maybe," Nico said.

"Cool, so it's fine if Estelle plays with them?" Percy asked, retrieving two more figurines from Nico's bag.

Annabeth was more of a Pokémon kid, but she stopped collecting those cards by the time she was in middle school. Also, there was that incident where her baby brothers took her rare Charizard card while she was at summer camp, but that's beside the point. Annabeth was an adult who no longer played with Pokémon cards.

Then again, the Pokémon Go craze had quite a grip on her.

"You cannot play with these!" Nico explained. "They are rare collectibles!"

"Please, Nico!" Percy begged. His position had him conveniently on his knees—the perfect position for begging.

"Percy, I do not want to play with your friend's stupid toys," Estelle said. "Where's the bathroom?"

Leo pointed to the back of the room. "Right over there, little mamacita!"

"Thanks," she said.

Annabeth couldn't take it anymore. When Estelle disappeared into the bathroom, she said, "Percy, your sister is too old for that kid stuff."

"She had fun coloring in the summer," he said.

"I hate to agree with Annabeth," Drew said, "but she's right. Your sister is in middle school now. Middle school changes people."

"No, it doesn't," Percy said dismissively. "It didn't change me."

"It's different for girls," Drew said. "She's either reading smutty fanfiction or making TikToks in the bathroom. No in-between."

"Middle schoolers don't do that stuff," Percy said.

"Yeah, they do," said Drew. "I used to skip English class so I could make Musical.ly videos in the bathroom, and I bet Annabeth used to skip gym class to read smutty fanfiction in the bathroom."

"No, she didn't," said Percy.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I was pretty into the Arrowverse fandom."

"Arrowverse?" Piper asked. "C'mon, you could've read like, Batfam fanfiction or something. Maybe those Avengers ones where everyone had their own floor in the tower."

"I read that too." Annabeth didn't need to tell them she used to read those character/reader pairings. Nobody was going to find out about that if she could help it.

"Hey," Leo said. "Crazy idea... Nobody has to indulge me, but... Now just hear me out-"

"Everyone's listening, Leo," Frank said softly.

"Huh," he said. "That doesn't usually happen. What if Estelle hung out with us in the garage? There's not much going on, but we do have superior tunes."

Annabeth fought to keep from groaning at the very thought of listening to more Aerosmith and Journey music.

Instead, she found herself saying, "Yeah, maybe we could like, teach her how to check the oil in a car. She'll need that soon enough."

"You would do that?" Percy asked. "You guys are the best!"

"Of course!" Frank said. "I love kids!"

When Estelle came out of the bathroom, Drew looked at Percy with raised eyebrows.

"She doesn't even have a phone yet!" Percy said.

"Uh-huh," Drew said. "Come on, Piper. Let's go... anywhere else."

"Coffee run?"

Drew nodded. "Hold down the fort, Will."

"Hey!" Will said. "There's a page in here that hasn't been colored yet!"

"Yeah, because nobody wants to color the Black Canary, Will. Nobody even knows who she is besides me, and probably Annabeth," said Nico.

Annabeth shrugged. She'd been known to read some Black Canary fanfiction in her day. If she could find her old fanfiction.net account, she'd probably uncover some Black Canary/Huntress fanfiction that she wrote before she knew proper dialogue rules.

"Come on, Estelle!" Leo said, taking his energy from zero to a hundred. "I'm Leo. We're going to the garage!"

She looked at Percy with wide eyes.

Percy shrugged. "The mechanics offered to teach you a few things about cars."

Annabeth nodded, even though she was already beginning to regret agreeing to this offer. How was she supposed to get any work done if she was entertaining Estelle? She didn't even know Estelle! She could be a demon child for all Annabeth knew!

Frank liked kids, and Leo made the offer in the first place. They would have to carry.

"If it sucks, I'm not giving you any of Mom's cookies."

Leo gasped. "You have Sally's cookies and didn't tell anyone?"

"Well, you can have some," she said, color rising to her cheeks.

"Can I have some?" Frank asked, only to be ignored altogether.

Annabeth looked behind her before retreating into the garage. Perhaps Percy would see the fear in her eyes and change his mind. Maybe he could play Netflix for Estelle on the computer in his office.

Instead of rescuing her, he gave Annabeth a cheesy grin and a double thumbs-up.  

Chapter Text

The garage was no place for a twelve-year-old, Annabeth realized as Leo and Frank frantically tried to find someplace for Estelle to put herself.

Leo started by saying, "Mi casa, su casa! Sit wherever you want!"

But there was no safe place for Estelle to put herself. The stool by the workbench was dirty, and Estelle was wearing a white skirt. Every other ledge was unsteady, and Annabeth was ninety percent sure Estelle didn't sign any kind of waiver. Personally, Annabeth wasn't against sitting in the bed of a pickup truck or atop the stretcher, but she was also an employee. She wasn't a liability.

Making her sit on the floor would be kind of demeaning, huh?

Frank seemed to be having the same train of thought as Annabeth, because before she could volunteer herself, he said, "Let me grab you a better chair from the lobby."

Dammit, Frank, Annabeth thought internally. That was supposed to be her escape from this awkward situation!

"Do you like music?" Leo asked as if she might say no.

Estelle froze with her hands still in the pockets of her skirt. It was at this point that Annabeth realized two vital things.

Estelle's skirt had pockets large enough to comfortably fit her hands. Maybe Annabeth wouldn't have been so against skirts as a kid if she'd had skirts with pockets.

And perhaps more importantly, Estelle had just been given the most important test she might ever face. As a middle schooler, one's choice of music could determine their friends, and more importantly, their place on the social ladder. To her, there was probably a right answer to this question.

Annabeth thought back to when she was in middle school. Her answer to this question changed daily, but there were a couple of artists you could never admit to listening to. You couldn't tell people you listened to My Chemical Romance or else you would be declared emo and eat your lunch in a bathroom stall. You couldn't confess to enjoying Taylor Swift's 1989 album or else you were too basic and had to eat your lunch in a bathroom stall, but your favorite artist couldn't be too underground, or else you were a complete weirdo, and then you'd have to eat your lunch in a bathroom stall.

Correct answers included Lana Del Rey, and sometimes Arctic Monkeys or Waterparks, but mostly Lana Del Rey.

Estelle said, "Phoebe Bridgers probably."

Regardless of whether or not that answer was true, Estelle Blofis was probably cool.

Leo blinked a few times and then picked up a cassette tape. It was the only cassette tape he ever played, the one with classic rock hits. Certainly, the final track wouldn't be a Phoebe Bridgers song.

Annabeth scolded herself for even wondering such a thing. Of course, the final track wouldn't be by Phoebe Bridgers. She'd never learn what the final track was.

Without a word, Leo put his mixtape in the player, and the first track, "Back In Black" by AC/DC began to play.

Estelle giggled at his air guitar.

"Sorry about Leo's..." Annabeth stopped herself from swearing. Percy wouldn't appreciate Estelle learning some new words from her. "Sorry about Leo's crappy dance moves."

"It's okay," she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I think he's a great dancer."

Just to be a dick, Leo did the stanky leg.

"You do not have to put up with him," Frank said. "Do you want a freezy pop? I keep some in the mini-fridge."

Annabeth and Leo objected at the same time.

"You have what?" Leo asked.

"We have a minifridge?" Annabeth asked. "I have been eating warm lunch meat for months!"

"Technically," Frank said, "I keep them in the mini-freezer." He opened the door and retrieved some of the popsicles. "I've got grape, orange, blue raspberry, whatever this white one is supposed to be..."

"I'll have blue; thanks, Frank," Estelle said.

"Got a red one?" Leo asked.

Frank separated the plastic packaging and handed a red freezy pop to Leo.

"Actually," Estelle said, "I'll have the red one too."

Fuck.

Annabeth tested the waters, and she hated what that required. "I guess I'll go with red too. Leo has awesome taste," she said, hoping her chipperness wasn't perceived by Frank and Leo. How embarrassing!

"All out," Frank said. "Blue okay?"

"Guess it's just me and Leo with red," Estelle said, beaming at Annabeth's annoying flirtatious coworker who happened to identify as aromantic and asexual.

Annabeth ripped the plastic off her freezy pop using her teeth and spat it into the trash. "Are you liking middle school so far?" she asked Estelle. Please, she internally willed, let this be some god-awful mistake.

"It's okay," Estelle said. "It's just so far away."

"Yeah, I bet it's tough being away from home for so long," Frank said. "I went to boarding school too, and I missed my grandmother like crazy. I used up all of my birthday money sending her letters even though I would tell her all the same stuff on our weekly phone calls."

Yes! Frank saved the day again with his sweet demeanor. Estelle was distracted by the conversation, and Leo turned his attention to some wires on the counter. He told Annabeth last week that he was going to try to fashion an air conditioning unit from scratch for the notorious minivan. That's probably what that was.

"Where did you go to school, Leo?" Estelle asked.

Fuck.

"Here and there," he answered, completely uninterested in the conversation. He grunted and shook out his hand after being mildly electrocuted. It was fine. Leo was fine. Frank was fine. Estelle was fine. Annabeth was fine.

Fuck it. Annabeth was not fine. She didn't want to steer the conversation, but what else was she supposed to do? Percy would kill someone if he found out his sister was crushing on Leo. Kill who? Annabeth didn't know, but someone was going to die.

"So did you make a lot of friends?" Annabeth asked.

Estelle nodded. "Sure. There are some girls in my classes who are nice. We study together, mostly. I also tried out for the swim team, but I won't find out about that until winter break."

Annabeth faked interest. "Oh, I bet there's a lot of nice people on the swim team, and I mean, boys who swim are totally hunky." She cringed more at her use of the word hunky than at the amount of heteronormativity packed into that.

Estelle crinkled her nose. "The boys in my class are just so immature."

Fuck.

This was bad. This was so bad.

It's not that Annabeth didn't trust Leo not to be a shitty person. Leo was an awesome person, and aroace, so not at all a threat. It's other guys that Annabeth didn't trust.

She didn't know what else she could do, and Frank was beginning to catch on to the awkwardness. He was doing that thing with his eyebrows. His skeptical face could have easily been confused with a constipated face.

"What?" she hissed, nodding toward Estelle, who was currently making googly eyes at Leo. Perhaps what's more messed up than being a twelve-year-old crushing on an aroace twenty-something-year-old man was crushing on—gag—Leo Valdez.

Seriously, what did she see in him?

"Hey, Estelle," Annabeth said. "C'mere. Percy wanted me to teach you how to check the oil in a car." She headed over to an unsuspecting Infiniti sedan and wiped her sweaty hands against her denim overalls.

Estelle beamed at Leo. "Can you show me how?"

Leo lifted his goggles onto his forehead, the band snapping in a way that was probably painful. Red circles set around his eyes where the goggles were tied snugly. "Sorry, what was that?"

The universe then proved to Annabeth that things could get worse. The side door to the garage swung open and Percy poked his head in. "Hey, I've got a call with a client in a few, can you go pick up the Chipotle?"

"All of us?" Frank asked.

Yikes. Frank and Leo in a car were bad enough. Annabeth did not want to drive to Chipotle with Estelle shittily flirting with Leo in the rearview mirror.

Percy chuckles. "Nah, you and Leo can run and grab it. Annabeth can stay with Estelle here, right?"

She wanted to say, HELL NO! but Percy did that thing where he widens his eyes and juts out his lip just so. It made him look like a baby seal or something.

"Yep," Annabeth said. "We're going to learn about cars and stuff."

"Stuff?" he asked. The pout was a strange contrast to his protective big brother voice.

She choked back her witty reply and said, "Oil. Things that girls get overcharged for by mechanics."

Percy raised a fist in solidarity. "Girl power!"

Annabeth sighed. Estelle had the same look of disdain painted on her face.

"Can I buy one of those Mexican sodas with the company card?" Leo asked.

"It's paid for already," Percy said.

Estelle crossed her arms and shot Percy's sad seal face right back at him. "I want to go pick up the food too."

Percy swung a shark keychain around his finger. "Sorry, Stella, but Mom would kill me if I let you get in a car with Leo behind the wheel. Besides, Annabeth's cool. Hang out with her." He held the door open for Leo and Frank to follow, and just like that, Annabeth was alone in the garage with a middle schooler.

She's never babysat before. Was that what this was? Babysitting? Did twelve-year-olds need babysitters? Annabeth supposed that maybe Estelle was too old for a babysitter, but too young to be the babysitter.

"Sorry about my brother," Estelle muttered. "He's the worst sometimes."

You can say that again, Annabeth thought. "He's not... all that bad," she said instead.

"Uh-huh."

"He bought us Chipotle."

"Sure."

"And he's letting you hang out here today," Annabeth added.

Estelle raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm having so much fun here in a garage with a bunch of adults. It's almost as good as the coloring books he had for me last time I came over."

"Point taken," she said. Wow, Annabeth had never been on the receiving end of Percy's sass before. Now she knew what that was like, and she could say with confidence that she liked being a witness to it more than this. "Do you want to do an oil change or is there something else you want to do?"

The redness in Estelle's face that Annabeth thought was makeup deepened. "Do you know if Leo's single?"

"Ha!" Annabeth couldn't help her laugh. "Yes, he's very single. Don't go for that, Estelle. I promise it's not worth it."

"But he's so cute! You have to admit that, right?"

Leo? Whose face and clothes were constantly covered in grease and food? Who wore goggles so ironically that suddenly they became unironic? Whose behavior towards women would be considered incredibly problematic if he weren't aroace? And on that note, the guy who was literally aroace?

Not a chance.

"No," said Annabeth. "He's really not."

"Not your type, you mean," Estelle argued. "He's so funny, and his suspenders are so hot!"

The secondhand embarrassment had long settled in, and Annabeth was beyond entertaining this. "He's scrawny. He needs the suspenders or else his pants will fall down, and trust me, you do not want to see Leo's scrawny ass."

"I bet it's cute!"

"Uh, no."

She shrugged. "Agree to disagree."

"Definitely not doing that," Annabeth said. Was she like this as a kid?

"Can you help me?" Estelle asked. "I mean, you're old."

"Gee, thanks." She returned to the sedan, propping up the hood and securing it. The car was from 2014 but was in relatively good shape. Its deep red coat sort of reminded Annabeth of a car from her childhood—a car that definitely should not have been in her childhood.

"Like, you know," Estelle rambled on. "Teach me how to flirt. I don't think laughing at all his jokes is cutting it. Should I try to make jokes?"

Annabeth couldn't exactly explain the concepts of aromanticism and asexuality to her boss's twelve-year-old sister; she didn't know what kind of household she lived in.

But she couldn't dump her childhood trauma on her either.

"Can I be completely honest with you?" Annabeth asked.

She nodded.

"Forget about Leo. Pick someone your age. Relationships work better if you're in the same stage of life, you know?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

That one threw Annabeth off more than it should have. "No," she said flatly. She didn't have a girlfriend either, but her sexuality wasn't the point of discussion here.

"So you wouldn't know," Estelle said.

"Just because I'm single doesn't mean I can't get a date," she said.

"So why haven't you?"

Yikes. If there was one thing Annabeth hated about middle schoolers, it was how they could always find your deepest insecurity, and then find the audacity to make fun of you for it.

She glanced down at her nails, which she still hadn't gotten around to cutting. It's not like she had any reason to, anyway. "Because..." Annabeth started, "Because I'm working on myself. I just started this job and-"

"I smell bullshit."

"Percy said you're not allowed to swear," Annabeth said.

Estelle scoffed. "Yeah, that would be something he'd say."

"Look, I'm not trying to say that you can't have a crush, but you can't crush on Leo. He's not available."

"But you said he was single!" Estelle objected.

Annabeth groaned. "Just because someone's single doesn't mean they're available. Plus, Leo is way too old for you. It's not appropriate. If you keep crushing on older people, you're going to get hurt."

Instead of getting the point of the conversation, Estelle threw out her freezy pop wrapper and turned toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Annabeth asked.

"To get advice from the gay receptionist!" she shouted back.

"He'll say the same thing!"

Nico had better say the same thing if he knew what was good for him.  

Chapter Text

Not even an hour later, Annabeth found herself seated across from Estelle and Leo in the break room, eating chicken and rice out of a burrito bowl when really, she was in the mood for ground beef. Frank had spilled some sour cream in his lunch, and Annabeth offered to eat it for him. She needed to stop being so nice to people; it was starting to screw her over, one Tex-Mex meal at a time.

"And then," Leo said, "I told the guy we didn't order carnitas, and he said it back to me like—how'd he say it, Frank? Oh, yeah. Car-nih-tahs!" He chuckled at his joke and earned a couple of laughs from the others, including Estelle.

Between gushing over Leo and aiming icy stares at Annabeth, Estelle was perfectly entertained. Percy had followed through on his promise, albeit not in the way he thought he would, and he didn't even know that this was going on.

Everyone swapped stories, business as usual, and Annabeth tried to listen to Will's story about being on tour with his mom, who was apparently a country artist. She really tried.

But what was happening across from her wasn't cool. It wasn't fair to Leo, and it would probably have lifelong psychological effects on Estelle if she didn't learn that crushing on older guys was not a good thing to do.

Leo scooched his chair further from Estelle after she "accidentally" brushed her foot against his under the table. Again.

Drew hijacked the story and started talking about a band she almost thought about starting in college before she dropped out. Why did Drew drop out of college? Nobody knew, and everybody knew better than to ask.

"So," Will said, "do you like boarding school, Estelle? I've always wondered if it's like it is in the Harry Potter movies."

"Don't you mean the Harry Potter books?" Frank asked.

"I'm dyslexic, Frank," Will said through a forced smile.

Estelle swallowed a bite of black beans and said, "It's not really like in Harry Potter. Nobody gets into trouble and the food kind of sucks."

"I bet the people are nice," Will said.

"Everyone's just so immature," she said wistfully.

"They're just kids," Percy said. "Everyone grows up."

"Everyone except Leo!" Drew joked.

When Leo looked up to find the source of his name, he had toothpicks tucked under his top lip. "Owr! Owr!" he shouted, clapping his hands like a walrus.

Drew rolled her eyes. "My point is proven." Then, her eyes narrowed. "Estelle, hon, don't encourage him."

Annabeth said, "It's a stupid crush; don't pay it any attention."

And then things went haywire.

Drew gagged, and Annabeth wasn't sure whether or not it was fake.

Piper tried to hold back a laugh, but couldn't stifle a snort.

"Annabeth!" Estelle shrieked.

Honestly, Annabeth didn't even realize she said that out loud until Estelle got up from the table and ran off to who knows where.

It was a crush! Who even cared?

Leo knit his eyebrows. "You're saying she had a crush on me this whole time?"

Percy couldn't fire her over this, could he? "Uh, yeah..." Annabeth trailed off.

"Does she know that..."

She shook her head. "How exactly do you explain the concept of asexuality to a hormonal twelve-year-old who probably only thinks about the porn magazine she accidentally found in her dad's study?"

Will cleared his throat. "That was a very specific thing to say, Annabeth."

"I can talk to her," Drew said. "Maybe she just needs a woman's touch." She looked at Annabeth and winced. "Er, you know what I mean."

She rolled her eyes.

"She's my sister," Percy said. "I'll go find her. Nico, can you hold the fort down if I take her to Dave & Buster's or something?"

"Why me?" Nico protested. "What if I want to take your sister to Dave & Buster's?"

"Uh, no," Percy said. He pushed his chair in and hung his blazer over his arm.

Will looked at Annabeth and raised an eyebrow. It seemed like he was trying to have some kind of silent conversation with her, especially by the way he moved his lips around, but she couldn't read his lips.

The guilt was starting to get to her, so she stood and said, "No, Percy, this was my mistake. I'll go fix it."

Will nodded approvingly.

Leo also stood up.

"Yes, Leo?" Percy asked.

"As the crush-ee-"

"That's not a word," Nico muttered. "You can just say that you're the crush."

"As the crush-ee," Leo started again, except louder, "it's my duty to get involved. You know, let the kid down gently. It wouldn't be the first time a lady's been enchanted by my charms."

"Fine, you can come," Annabeth said.

Percy waved his arms around. "I never said either of you could come."

"Sit down, Perce!" Leo shouted. "We've got this handled."

***

Annabeth and Leo did not, in fact, have this handled.

"Leave me alone," Estelle blubbered from inside the sedan she'd locked herself in. It was the same red Infiniti that Annabeth was working on this morning. She was supposed to be finished changing the oil by now. Then again, she supposed she was still on the clock, and technically getting paid to lure Estelle out of a locked car, so there was that at least.

"Love how she cracked the window open for air," Leo quipped. "Nice touch."

Annabeth elbowed him in the gut. "Can you not be so... so... condescending?"

"Yeah, okay. What should I do?"

"I've got this," Annabeth said. "Estelle?"

"Go away!"

"Yeah, uh, no can do," she said. "Leo brought donuts. You like donuts, right?"

"No!"

That was probably a smart response. They were the Munchkins that Nico brought in to share with everyone the other morning. At this time of the day, they were probably stale.

"Look, Estelle, I'm sorry I embarrassed you," Annabeth said, "but you need to get a grip. Leo isn't interested in you like that. He can't be interested in you like that. It's inappropriate."

"But I love him!"

"No, you don't! It's infatuation, and it's... it's really bad," she said. "You have to trust me." She looked through the window. Estelle had her knees pulled into her chest, and her face was obscured by her skirt.

Annabeth continued. "I'm serious. Leo's a good guy, but other guys aren't as good as him, and you could get hurt."

God knows she did.

It was silent for a minute, and Annabeth thought she'd won.

"Maybe we should just let her cry it out," Leo said. "That always helped me as a kid."

Annabeth looked at her coworker. "I'd love to do that, but she locked the keys in the car, and I'm supposed to have this finished like, by noon."

"But that was an hour ago."

"Exactly."

Leo sighed and leaned in close to the window. "Hey, Estelle? It's Leo. I..." He looked at Annabeth. "I'm not very good with feelings."

"Kind of desperate here," she admitted.

"So uh, I'm flattered that you like me," he said. "Even guys like me need some validation sometimes, but uh... So here's the thing. Annabeth's right. I'm too old for you, and... I can't return your feelings. I can't return anyone's feelings. You know how you see Taylor Lautner or Zac Efron and think, Now that's a hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin'-love?"

"Who's Taylor Lautner?" Estelle croaked.

Leo said, "Someone hot... I think. I'm aroace. It means I don't feel sexual or romantic attraction. I've never felt romantically connected with another person, and I've never wanted to kiss anyone."

The speech sounded rehearsed, and Annabeth wondered how often Leo had to deliver it. His sexuality isn't like Annabeth's. Aromantic and asexual people weren't represented in the media the way that gay and bisexual people were. Annabeth could point out a lot that was wrong with bisexual representation, but at least it was there. A lot of people didn't even know that Leo's sexuality existed. A lot of people didn't think it was real.

"I'm sorry, Leo," Estelle sniffled at last.

"It's okay. Really, I'm flattered," he said. "It's not every day someone thinks I'm hot."

She giggled, and Annabeth felt like everything was going to be okay. Sure, she'd probably avoid Estelle like the plague for the rest of the day, and she'd never get to finish her Chipotle bowl, but that was fine. She had oil to change.

"Do you think you could come out of the car now?" Leo asked. "I think I heard Percy say something about us all going to Dave & Buster's."

The door opened and Estelle jumped out. "Let me just go to the bathroom!"

She ran off faster than Leo and Annabeth could follow, but something told her there was no need to go after the kid.

"So this was personal for you," Leo said, matter-of-factly.

Annabeth thought back to her childhood, to a tutor who took advantage of a vulnerable situation. "I guess so. Yeah."

"If you ever need anything..."

"I'm going to hug you now," she said.

"I'm not a good hugger."

"Neither am I. Let's just get this over with."

Like their joints needed oiled, Annabeth and Leo held their arms out and stepped into each others' embrace. Leo smelled like gasoline and other chemicals that probably shouldn't have made contact with his bare skin. The smell of Chipotle on his breath wasn't awful though.

"I'm going to let go now," he said. "Good hug. Good friends. Good eye."

Annabeth wiped the tear trying to escape from her eye. "Thank you, Leo."

"I don't know if anyone's ever told you this or not, but it's not your fault," he said. "Whoever hurt you... they should have known better."

"Okay, now, I need you to go away so you don't see me cry," said Annabeth.

Leo threw his palms up in defense. "Okay! I can give you alone time! Bye!"

"Bye, Leo," she said.

She heard the door shut and then opened the hood of the car. It wasn't the exact same car that her tutor owned. She wasn't stupid, but it looked a lot like it. Through the windshield, she could still see him buckling her seatbelt even though she was sixteen years old. Every time she mounted the highway, she could hear his voice coaxing her through it. Easy, Annie. Signal... now. Aim high. Look ahead.

She hated not being able to escape it.

"Shit!"

She just punched Percy in the face. "Oh my god, I am so sorry, Percy."

"Fine! It's fine," he said, clutching his cheek. "I shouldn't have crept up on you like that."

"I need to work on my fight or flight response," she said, trying to disguise her tears with laughter. Punching a guy in the face was certainly better than freezing. That was for sure.

Percy cocked an eyebrow. "Are you crying?"

"So are you," she said.

"Yeah, but I just got punched in the face, and I know you don't like me enough to feel bad for me."

That was a fair point. "I'm good. Rough day."

"You're sure that's all?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Nothing that a trip to Dave & Buster's won't fix."

Percy chuckled. "Okay, but Estelle is going to steal your tickets."

Annabeth faked offense. "I'll get over it, somehow."

"Meet you in the lobby?"

"Yeah," she said. "Just gimme a minute."

Percy left, and then it was just her again, alone with her ghosts.

She pursed her lips and stared into the engine of the red sedan.

She shut the hood. Frank or Leo could do the oil change.

A car was just a car.  

Chapter Text

Things were not good.

Sure, things were never exactly fantastic at Olympus Auto. Annabeth's coworkers' personal drama was constantly becoming her problem as well, and based on the number of fundraisers she'd witnessed on the lot—relevant or not—she suspected that Percy and Mr. D might have been dealing with some financial problems.

She was worried about how guilty she felt; she shouldn't have had this kind of an emotional connection with her place of work. She was supposed to loathe her coworkers. She wasn't supposed to eat her boss's mom's cookies or babysit his sister—on the clock. Although she appreciated the opportunity to goof off at work, that wasn't what she was supposed to be doing. She went to trade school for what? To listen to Leo's mixtape?

But she liked Leo's mixtape and the people she worked with. She wanted so badly to see them all happy and successful, which was why, she supposed, she rode along with Piper on that delivery and caved into Will's various "side quests."

Annabeth didn't realize how desperate she was for something to reignite her ambitions—which go beyond Olympus Auto—until that figurative spark turned into a raging wildfire. In fact, she forgot about her master plan to become one of those surgeons who couldn't get a job because they were too skilled at heart surgery and thus too expensive to hire... except as whatever the mechanic equivalent of that was.

Fortunately, Olympus Auto never failed to disappoint when Annabeth was feeling her best. It was a relatively good day. She'd gotten some work done. Piper bought everyone coffee. Leo's mixtape had played long enough for him to have to flip the cassette over. Annabeth went to the bathroom this morning and didn't need to touch up the foundation covering the massive zit on her forehead. Percy bought Dunkin' Donuts for the commercial viewing today.

And by that, she was referring to the new Olympus Auto television commercial. Percy insisted that it was time to switch to visual media since most people listen to Bluetooth instead of the radio in their cars now. He also promised that it wouldn't be half as cringe-worthy as the radio ads Mr. D used to voice before his extended vacation began back in... Oh, god, that had to have been before Annabeth was hired.

Besides, per her request, Annabeth hadn't been forced to sit in front of a camera and crack any puns about used cars and sales, so all signs pointed to her not being in the commercial. Maybe Percy cared about her more than he let on.

Or not, Annabeth realized from the back of the breakroom during the first airing of the commercial on the local news.

"Annabeth," Piper whispered. "You just dropped the coffee I bought you inside Drew's purse."

"We have bigger problems than Drew's purse," she said.

"But I think her phone is smoking-"
"Not now, Piper," Annabeth said.

Leo turned around in his seat. "Wow, is that Annabeth Chase in the commercial?" he quipped. "Looks just like you!" He laughed so hard that some of his popcorn fell into Drew's purse, which was sure to be a lovely combination with Annabeth's long-forgotten coffee.

But she digressed. The problem at hand was much larger than Drew's purse and its contents.

The commercial consisted of a shot in the garage with three mechanics working: Leo, Frank, and Drew in a blonde wig.

"I swear, I had nothing to do with this," said Will, the commercial's self-proclaimed creative director, "but on the bright side, you're not in the commercial."

"Yeah, but I can't have people thinking I don't work here." What would happen when she applied somewhere new? She'd never be able to move on to bigger and better things if her potential employers thought she lied on her applications!

Frank cleared his throat. "I think that's what Drew in the wig was for."

"Yeah, but that's not Annabeth's ass," Piper said.

"Excuse me?" asked Annabeth.

"Well, babe, I mean this in the most platonic way possible, but you have a fantastic ass, and... that wasn't it," she said.

The situation was so bad that Annabeth couldn't even bask in a compliment from a pretty girl. "Frank, Leo!" she hissed. "You guys just went along with this?"

Frank shrugged. "Percy said you didn't want to be in the commercial, and that you'd probably be okay with Drew playing your part."

"It's not either of you guys' fault," Annabeth mumbled, even though she was probably going to take it out on her friends anyway. Oh well. She'd bring them some apology lunch tomorrow, or sneak vodka into her water bottle like a tasteless high schooler.

"Do you want me to stick Drew on him?" Piper asked.

"Nah," Annabeth said. "She was in on it too. Besides, I did tell him I didn't want to be in it. I'm not exactly photogenic..."

Piper waved her off. "Don't be silly! You're so pretty!"

"Yeah, Nico! A lot of people would kill for your complexion!" Drew said, slurping the last of the whipped cream from her frappuccino.

Frank raised his eyebrows. "We're not talking about Nico. Annabeth doesn't think she's pretty."

Annabeth wasn't exactly sure how her simply stating that she was not photogenic evolved into her complaining about her appearance.

"Oh," Drew said. "Well, you have a very unique style, hon."

"Gee, thanks," Annabeth said.

"Have you thought about wearing your hair some other way?" she asked.

Will coughed. "Okay, enough of that. Nico and I are going to go back to work."

"Ciao," Nico said before following Will. That must be easy for him to do; he wasn't humiliated via commercial just a few minutes ago.

Oh, god, that was public television. Annabeth's dad could have seen that. Hell, any of her exes could have too!

"Uh-huh," said Leo. "I'm sure that's exactly what's going on between those two. Work."

Was there a betting pool as to when Will and Nico were going to get together? Yes. Did Annabeth boldly bet that they already were dating? Yes again. Was the concept of betting about one's coworkers' relationship status NSFW? Probably, but Annabeth had established long ago that SFW and NSFW meant completely different things at Olympus Auto than they might at a place like its rival, Jupiter Auto Trader.

"C'mon," Annabeth said, getting up and putting her chair back against the wall where it belonged. "Let's just go back to work."

Frank scratched the back of his neck. "Don't you want to talk to Percy about the commercial?"

"Not really," she said. Whether or not this day included a lousy depiction of her in a commercial, Annabeth was going to end it by throwing her bra over the lampshade and drinking a glass of wine from the Dollar General down the street while watching that Canadian classic car restoration limited series on Netflix. Ah, dinner and a show.

"It's not... it's not that bad," Frank said, breaking a silent walk back to the garage.

"It's bad, Frank," Annabeth said.

"But not bad enough to talk to Percy about," said Leo.

"Okay, ouch," she said, plucking her wrench from Leo's toolbelt.

Leo sighed and retrieved his wrench from beneath the worktable. "Fine, but don't be an asshole all day over it if you aren't going to do anything."

So that was that on the whole commercial situation. Annabeth would never admit it out loud, but Leo had a point. She needed to let it go. Maybe later she would make a joke about it that would leave Percy feeling incredibly guilty. Everyone knew that Percy overcame his guilt by buying food for people, so Annabeth would score a free lunch out of it and everything would be okay.

Leo pulled a mask over his face and said in a muffled voice, "I'm going to go finish this paint job."

"Are you sure you don't want Annabeth to do it?" Frank asked. "She's pretty good at painting."

"Thanks, Frank," she said.

"I appreciate the offer, but I've got this," Leo said.

"But Leo-" Frank started.

Leo cut him off. "Nope. I said I can do it." He stomped off to get the rest of his supplies.

Frank sighed. "I was going to say that the dude who brought that car in is a total nutjob perfectionist and will freak if it isn't exactly the way he wants it."

"I bet Leo will do fine," Annabeth said.

"He's over six feet tall and has muscles bigger than my head."

"Shit." If this guy had muscles bigger than Frank's head, that meant they had to be at least twice as big as Leo's head.

"Should I go after him?" Annabeth asked.

"He won't let you," Frank said. "Besides, I could use your help over here." He gestured to a white Kia Soul.

"Okay first off: who in their right mind drives a Kia Soul, and second: what the hell is so wrong with it that you need my help?" Annabeth asked.

Frank propped open the hood and inspected the engine. "I think there's something wrong with the suspension, but I can't find it."

Annabeth put a glove over her hand and reached into the engine, only to be blocked by... something. "Do you feel this?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "I think it needs to be cleaned out."

"No shit." She tugged on the foreign object. It was warm. "Did you just have the engine on?" The engine itself was cold, however.

"No, I didn't."

"Then what the hell is warm in here?"

"MEW!"

Annabeth turned to Frank slowly. His jaw dropped and he blinked slowly in disbelief.

"That didn't just happen," he said. "I'm hearing things. The car is simply purring like a kitten."

"Frank, we have to get it out," Annabeth said.

He raked his hands through his short hair. "I don't think I can handle it. My emotions."

"Fine then!" Annabeth snapped. She shed her glove and reached back into the engine. She couldn't see without a flashlight, but she could feel soft yet matted fur against her palm, and... Oh, god, it was purring.

"Be gentle!" Frank warned.

With one strong yank, Annabeth pulled a fucking kitten out of a Kia Soul like a magician doing a magic trick.

"What. The. Fuck," she said.

"MEW!" the kitten screamed from the confines of Annabeth's hands.

Frank squealed. "It's so cute!"

Normally, Annabeth would be all over this because she was quite the animal lover, but she was currently in a state of shock. How the hell did a cat get in a Kia Soul? That was almost as weird as driving a Kia Soul!

The gray tabby cat stared at Annabeth with massive bright blue eyes. "Frank," she said. "It's looking straight into my soul."

"Your Kia Soul?" he quipped, taking the cat and cradling it in his arms. "Do you think there's a mother near?"

"Do I—No! No, I don't, Frank!" Annabeth said. "We need to contact the car's owners; they might be looking for this cat."

"What about that cat?" he asked, gesturing back toward the car.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I hear purring, but it's not this guy."

She groaned and reached back into the engine, surely coating herself in grease, which she supposed wasn't quite as bad as being a cat ingesting that gunk.

When she felt fur again, she couldn't help but laugh. "Frank, what the actual fuck are we doing?"

"Saving lives, Annabeth! It's no joke!" he cried.

She wrapped her hand around the kitten and tugged, earning a nice scratch on the wrist as a reward for her selflessness.

This kitten was orange and already showing signs of a potbelly. She laughed. "What are the odds that these people lost both of their cats in the engine?"

"Not good," he said. "Gimme."

Annabeth handed over the cat and laughed at how small the two kittens looked in Frank's bulky tattooed arms. "You have to let me take a picture of that for your girlfriend." She pulled her phone out of her overalls' breast pocket and opened the camera.

"Wait!" Frank said.

Annabeth's eyes narrowed. "I swear, if you're going to tell me there's another fucking cat, I'm going to lose it."

"Fine then," he said. "I won't tell you that. Hold these." He thrust the cats into Annabeth's chest. What a horrible day to wear black!

Frank reached deep into the engine and retrieved one more tiny kitten. Its nose was covered in soot. Annabeth was pretty sure it was also a grey tabby, but it was hard to tell with all the grime covering the poor thing.

"Please tell me that's the end of it," she said.

Frank shone his flashlight into the engine. "Got it. That's it. Let's bathe some kittens."

"What?" Annabeth asked.

He shrugged. "There's Dawn dish soap in the breakroom. If it's good enough for the penguins, it's good enough for them... I think."

She looked at the Kia and then at the small litter of kittens in Frank's arms.

"Okay," she said, "but we can't tell anyone about this." She emptied a shoebox of various knuts and volts and then put a rag in the bottom. That would have to be good enough.

Frank caught on and placed the two kittens he was holding into the box. "There, there," he said. "Everyone, be quiet or our boss will be so mad." He patted the orange kitten on the head and then picked up the box.

Annabeth threw a sheet overtop and then glanced outside. "Coast is clear," she declared.

"Awesome," Frank said.

Together, the two coworkers snuck out of the garage and over to the gender-neutral bathroom, except they weren't allowed to call it that. It was called a family restroom because of the unused Koala Care changing table, which begs the question, when has anyone ever brought a child in diapers with them to buy a car?

Annabeth locked the door behind her and Frank as the faucet began to run.

"Eww!" the kittens mewled in harmony.

"It's okay, guys," Frank said, wetting a brown paper towel and dabbing the orange tabby's head. It sneezed in reply. "Hold the others so I can clean this one better."

Annabeth took the box and stared at the two remaining kittens. No, she needed to stop. She could never handle cute things with big eyes staring at her.

One of the grey tabbies stretched its arms and... Oh, its toe beans were covered in soot.

The other one yawned only to be interrupted by a sneeze that hit it at the same time.

Too. Much. Cuteness.

"Frank," Annabeth said. "I need you to promise not to let me take one of these cats home with me."

"What about two?" he said with a smirk.

"No. Zero kittens can come home with me."

He toweled off the orange tabby's tummy and replaced it with a grey one. "Why not? I think they like you."

"Shh!" she hissed. "That is the exact kind of thing you can't say!"

Frank held the kitten close to his face. "Not even this one? She's so cute. She's like, Annabeth, take me home and wuv me fowevah!"

"Please stop, or I actually will," she said.

"Is that such a bad thing?"

"My landlord doesn't allow pets. Well, he does, but I can't afford the monthly insurance fee plus all of your given pet expenses."

"Oh." Frank's smile wavered.

Shoot. "But you should adopt one!" Annabeth said. "I bet your girlfriend would move in with you if you had a kitten!"
Color rose to his cheeks and he looked down at the kitten. "You don't think it's too soon for that?"

"Nah," said Annabeth. "I wouldn't trust me though. You know how us sapphics are."

"I bet the two of us could afford to adopt," he rationalized, "and I have been wanting to ask her about moving in together. I mean, Hazel is a little old-fashioned, but something about this relationship just feels right, you know?"

Annabeth nodded even though she did not know. Sure, she'd dated people, and even gotten to the moving-in stage with a few exes, even though she'd never actually gotten past packing her things and going on a romantic Ikea date.

It was easier to abandon the plan before her partner got the chance to abandon her.

And also, it would be wrong to drag a kitten into the picture. Annabeth could barely take care of herself sometimes.

Frank dried off the last kitten and placed it in the box next to the others. He frowned. "Where should we keep these?"

"Uh, the garage?" Annabeth suggested. "Percy won't find them there. He doesn't come in unless he needs something, and even then, he doesn't look around."

"No way," he said. "It's too dangerous. Let's put them behind Nico's desk."

"Really? Where people just walk by and steal candy? I'm sure nothing would go wrong there," Annabeth said. Sure, Nico has a secret soft spot for animals, but they couldn't hide the kittens in plain sight.

Or could they?

Frank threw a towel back overtop the box and picked it up. "Coast clear?"

Annabeth smiled. "I'll check."

***

Nico took the kittens with no problem. Suspiciously, he had no questions. He snatched the box, peeked beneath the rag covering the top, and then put the kittens out of sight.

"So just let us know if something seems off," Frank said. "We'll come and check on them a few times and then I can figure out something to do with them at the end of the day. What time do you get off?"

"Five," Nico sighed. "Nine to five. Every damn day of my life. That Mr. D guy needs to hire another receptionist so I can have a day to myself every once in a while."

"What does Mr. D need to do?"

Shit. Percy.

Nico scrambled to cover the box as the assistant manager's footsteps grew louder, and just in time too. Percy jogged the rest of the way and stopped in front of the desk.

He rested his arms on the smooth surface and repeated himself. "What does Mr. D need to do?"

"Don't worry about it," Nico said, waving him off. "Just complaining."

"Come on, man, I'm sure we can make it better," Percy insisted before stealing a mint from Nico's candy dish.

Nico glanced at Frank and Annabeth. "No, I'm really fine. Just go back to your office. You have a call scheduled with Mr. D soon."

"Yeah, and I'll tell him about your complaint on the call."

"You should be getting on that call soon, though," Nico pushed.

Percy chuckled. "I feel like you want me to leave! My call isn't for another twenty minutes!"

"Don't you have to go stare at the screen and mentally prepare yourself to talk to another human being?" Annabeth said, moving to the side so Percy could run back to the office.

"Nah, I usually just listen to his vacation stories," Percy said.

"Mew!"

"What was that?" Percy asked.

Nico jumped in with the worst possible lie Annabeth had ever heard in her life. "Bless you, Frank."

Frank raised an eyebrow.

"Oh! Yes!" Annabeth said, committing to Nico's shitty lie. "We cleaned out a box in the garage and the dust is irritating Frank's allergies." That wasn't a total lie. They did clear out a box to store the kittens in.

"Oh, yeah, totally," Frank said as if reading from a script. "Ah... mew!"

"Bless you again!" Annabeth said.

"Huh," Percy said. "I don't think I realized your sneezes were so... feminine?"

Frank crossed his arms. "Well, they are, so... yeah!"

The pitter-patter of Leo's workboots interrupted the conversation, so yay, Annabeth thought. Saved by Leo.

"You guys!" he shouted, panicked. Sweat drenched his hair, and his worn boots were coated in pink paint.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded.

"Well, I was painting the car and-" He stopped himself when his eyes caught Percy's. "I mean, everything's good. I just need Frank to help me reach something."

Frank groaned. "There is literally a step ladder back there."

"Not the same!" Leo said, running off.

Percy shrugged and then turned to Annabeth. "Hey, are you alright? Someone said you were upset about the commercial, and I-"

"All good!" she chirped. She did not want to talk about this. It would be like reliving the moment all over again. Annabeth looked at Percy and then at Nico. "I better go see what's up with Frank and Leo."

It was certainly too much to hope that Leo actually needed help reaching something, so Annabeth quickly followed after her coworkers, hoping that Leo hadn't fucked up too badly, and choosing to trust Nico di Angelo to keep three loud kittens a secret.  

Chapter Text

If the shitty commercial and the Kia Kittens weren't bad enough, the pink Trans Am just about did it for Annabeth. If she weren't literally at work, she'd probably be reviving her LinkedIn account.

Also, Nico didn't ask any questions when Frank handed him a box of kittens, and for some reason, Annabeth was stuck on that.

Anyway, the bigger issue at hand was that with perfect technique, Leo painted a Trans Am pink.

"You guys are ignoring how awesome it looks, though!" Leo said, gesturing to the monstrosity in front of him.

"Leo," Frank said, "you are ignoring the fact that this car belongs to the biggest douche ever!"

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I hate to break this up, but who exactly does this car belong to?"

"We don't even know," Frank said. "He just handed us a wad of cash and said not to mess it up."

"It was supposed to be red," Leo added, "but he did say it was for his—and I quote—lady friend."

"So the odds of someone getting punched are?" Annabeth prompted.

Leo wrung his hands. "Pretty high, I would guess."

Frank and Leo wouldn't stand a chance against this guy. "Okay," said Annabeth, "what time is this guy getting here?"

"We have two hours," said Leo.

That's not enough time.

"And there's no way he'll be understanding if we tell him it'll be done tomorrow?"

Leo shook his head.

"Get sanding," said Annabeth. "I'll try to figure out what went wrong with your color." Because there's no way Leo would have picked pink paint on purpose, right?

"Got it," Leo said.

"Frank," Annabeth said, "we have to keep Percy out of this garage and away from the kittens."

"I'm sorry. Kittens?" Leo asked.

"I'll let you pet one if you can fix this," Frank said. He slammed the door shut behind him.

Leo opened a cabinet. "Here's the paint I used. It was red before it dried, so I don't understand what exactly happened..."

"How many layers did you do?"

"A few."

"Clearly it wasn't enough," Annabeth said. "Sand the lacquer off as best as you can and we'll throw a couple more layers on."

"What if that doesn't work?" Leo asked.

"We'll all die, probably."

Without another word, Leo got to sanding.

"Speed is of the essence," Annabeth said, joining him. Speed was going to be an issue, especially when it could take up to two hours to sand a single panel. When Leo finished the one he was on, Annabeth would go behind him with the paint. That seemed like an efficient way to do it.

Leo jumped at the sound of knocking on the door.

Frank wouldn't knock. It must have been Percy.

"Do we have a sheet somewhere?" Leo asked.

"We can't afford to stop," Annabeth said. "We're busy!" she called.

"It's okay!" Percy's muffled voice called. "I just wanted to check in!"

"You can't come in!" Leo said.

"Why not?"

"We're... naked?" he said.

Annabeth smacked him on the bicep because there were a lot of things that could imply.

"Leo got paint on himself," Annabeth called. "He's changing."

"Oh, well, I'll just come back later!"

"Or never," Leo muttered. "That was a close one."

"Too close," said Annabeth. "Let's leave the excuses to me, okay?"

"Agreed."

The two sanded to the tunes on Leo's mixtape, and Annabeth wondered for a moment if she might get to hear the final track. It wasn't every day they worked hard enough for her to get to hear "Carry on Wayward Son."

Leo started to sing along with the guitar solo

"No," said Annabeth. "Less singing. More sanding."

Just when she got into a rhythm, the sweet sound of Kansas was interrupted by Leo's text tone. "It's Frank," he said. "Something about needing to feed the kittens. Can you distract Percy?"

It was better than faking nudity, Annabeth supposed.

"Okay," she relented, "but keep going. We're not going to be able to finish this in time if it's just you working on it from here on out." She straightened her overalls and climbed the short staircase.

"Word of advice," Leo called after her. "Ask Percy about his family. That'll keep him busy."

"Alright," she said before taking off.

She found Nico hunched over in his desk chair, one hand beneath the towel covering the box of kittens. "Caro," he said softly in Italian. Annabeth had never heard him speak like that before, not even to small children.

"Nico?" she asked. "You good?"

"Bah!" he shouted in surprise. "Fine. Just checking on Small Bob. He keeps crying."

"Small Bob?"

He nodded. "I named them. The grey male is Small Bob, the orange male is Cocoa Puff, and the grey female is Bianca."

Those names didn't even match, but who was Annabeth to judge? If she were in a good place to become attached to a kitten, she might have named them herself.

"Very cute," she said. "Look, there's been another... minor setback. Can you keep Percy out of the garage?" If she could stick Nico on Percy, then she wouldn't have to talk to him, and she'd be able to help Leo out with the paint job. Less people would get hurt that way, and Annabeth was all about minimizing injury risk at work.

He pulled his hands out of the box, revealing a small cat scratch on his wrist. "Look, I would, but I don't think I can discreetly care for the babies while distracting Percy."

Shoot, Annabeth probably should have thought that through. She'd just have to distract Percy until Frank got back.

The automatic doors opened, and Percy came into the lobby. He held his iPhone to his ear and spoke hurriedly in Spanish. Annabeth kind of hated how much hotter his voice was in another language. He hung up and then looked at her and Nico.

"Hey, did you need something, Annabeth?" Percy asked. "If you're looking for Frank, he went out on an errand. I offered to go with him, but he downright refused."

"Some people like to have alone time, you know," Nico said.

Annabeth cleared her throat, hoping to relieve some of the awkwardness. "So uh, was that your mom, Percy?"

He beamed. "Yeah! She's hosting her book club meeting this month, and she likes to call me while she cooks, so I've been hearing a lot from her lately."

"That's awesome," Annabeth said. "She sounds like a nice lady."

"Yeah," Percy said. "You've had her cookies, but wait until you try one of her tamales!"

"Yo," Piper said from afar. "Did someone say tamales? 'Cause Percy's mom makes the best!"

"Annabeth's never had 'em!" Percy said.

"Damn," said Piper. "You'll never want any other tamales again after you've had Percy's mom's."

"I... I've never actually had a tamale before," Annabeth admitted.

Percy gasped. "Actually?"

Oh yeah. Distracting Percy would be a piece of cake.

"Actually," she said. "What... what exactly goes into a tamale?"

And that's how Annabeth got Percy talking a mile a minute about his mom's cooking. Her heart did a little backflip every time he rolled an r, but she chalked that down to her hunger. Yes, it was her stomach reacting to all this talk of food.

"And that's the gist, but my mom has a couple of secret ingredients she likes to add in, and I'm not just talking about love, although there's plenty of that in all of her famous dishes!" he said.

"You're so lucky, Percy," she said. She meant it. Most nights when she was a kid, her stepmother Helen would leave a note on the fridge telling Annabeth to put a frozen pizza in the oven for her and her twin half-brothers, or if they were lucky, they'd be allowed to order takeout. Bobby and Matthew were so picky, though, that usually, the takeout was pizza delivery.

"I am, aren't I? Well, I won't keep you much longer; let me walk you back to the garage," he said, turning in the direction of Annabeth and Leo's absolute disaster zone.

"Oh, that's okay!" she said quickly. "Uh, all this talk of food has me hungry; I think I'm going to go to the breakroom and poach some leftovers from this morning."

"No way!" he said. "My mom let me take the leftover carnitas from Sunday dinner. You're having some!"

She wanted to refuse and sneak off to the garage to help Leo; that was the smart and responsible thing to do, but she'd be stupid to skip out on Percy's mom's carnitas.

"Lead the way," she said, following him into his office.

Percy frantically hung up a coat that was lying on a spare seat and gestured for Annabeth to sit.

"You don't have to feed me your lunch," she said half-assedly.

He chuckled. "You'll be doing me a favor. My mom's love language is feeding people. I swear, she gets offended if I don't take seconds. And besides, with Estelle back at school, there's plenty to go around!"

He took a glass Tupperware container out of Mr. D's miniature microwave and retrieved two forks. "I ran out of paper plates," he muttered. "I can eat off a paper towel or something-"

"No!" Annabeth said a little too enthusiastically. "We can just share the container."

He shrugged. "Alright, if that's okay with you."

"You're feeding me," Annabeth said. "You could mug me right now and I'd be okay with that."

He laughed again and handed Annabeth a fork. "After you."

She ate one of the pork pieces and, oh god, that was the single greatest thing she'd ever had in probably her entire life. "Is your mom looking for a professional taste tester?" she asked, not even caring that her mouth was still full.

Percy swallowed a bite and said, "I could try to score you an invite to Sunday dinner, but fair warning: she'll probably start planning our wedding."

Annabeth blushed at the mention of... that.

"I mean," Percy stammered, "not like that, of course. My mom... I love her, and I know she wants the best for me, but she's worried that I haven't dated in a while and she's constantly trying to set me up with her friends' kids. Just yesterday, she threatened to put me on a dating app!"

"Isn't that identity fraud?" Annabeth asked.

"That's exactly what I said! At the very least, it's catfishing." When he spoke, his arms were so animated that Annabeth feared he might fling the carnitas on his fork across the office. He sighed. "Dating is just so much harder as an adult. I mean, when I lived with my mom still, I didn't have to worry about cooking and cleaning and paying rent, so I had more time and energy to put into it, but now, with keeping my own place and doing both my job and Mr. D's..."

"I get it," Annabeth said. He just put into words what she'd been experiencing these past few months. "Dating is hard, and the talking stage is just exhausting." She put air quotes around 'talking.'

"Thank you!" he said. "In kindergarten, this girl who played soccer with me at recess told me that I was her boyfriend, and just like that, I had a girlfriend! Come to think of it, I don't think Maria and I officially broke up. I think I might be taken. Oh, my gods, everything makes sense now."

Annabeth laughed, something she had found increasingly easier since coming to work at Olympus Auto.

"Did you want any more?"

She shook her head and Percy put the lid back on the container.

Maybe if Annabeth pretended to be Percy's girlfriend, she could go over to his mom's house and get more of those delicious carnitas. It would be mutually beneficial. Percy's mom wouldn't be riding his ass about not dating, and Annabeth would have carnitas.

Woah, she thought. Since when did spending more time than she had to with Percy become appealing?

"I'd better go check on Leo," she said, pushing in her chair. "Tell your mom thanks for the food."

"I'll come with you," Percy said.

She jumped. "That's really okay."

"I'll have to insist," he said. "This guy only left the name 'Ares' with his car. No phone number or anything. I would call him a total weirdo, but he was enormous. Like, he could probably snap Leo in half like a toothpick."

"And you in half like a ruler," Annabeth added. "Frank said something about that, although I don't know why he'd leave out such a... creative nickname."

Percy closed the door behind them.

"I'm serious," Annabeth said. "We've got this under control."

"And I'm serious about not wanting Leo's head squashed like a grape," he said. "Please let me check on that car. I promise I'll bring you all the leftovers from Sunday dinner for the rest of the month."

She was about to point out that there were no Sundays left in the month, but something caught her eye over at the reception desk.

Frank and Nico were scolding each other in intense, hushed tones, although Annabeth couldn't make out what they were saying. Nico's nice work shirt was covered in orange fur, and Frank was massaging what could only be cat scratches on his hands and wrists. Something was all over the floor, something that looked suspiciously like-

"Is that dog food on the floor?" Percy asked.

Nico scoffed. "No!"

"Then... what is all over the floor?" he asked, crouching down to get a good look at it.

The smell of fish wafted into the air, and Annabeth added that to her list of pros. Yeah. If she took one of those kittens home, she'd have to endure that fish smell every time she fed her kitten, so it was a good thing that she wasn't.

"Okay, why is there animal food on the floor?" Percy asked. "Are we hosting a pet food drive I forgot about?" His words were calm but his eyes were full of panic.

When nobody answered, Percy spoke again. "Because if we are hosting a pet food drive, the organization never paid Mr. D for that."

Frank was the first one to break. "No, there's no food drive."

"Then what is it?"

Nico put the box of kittens on the ledge of the reception desk. "Don't ask me. I've just been taking care of these since Frank and Annabeth dumped them on my desk this morning."

"This morning?" Percy asked, throwing the sheet off the box. "Oh. My. Gods."

"What is it?" Piper yelled. What even was Piper doing? And how did she not know about the cats yet?

"Where did these come from?" Percy demanded.

"They're the Kia Kittens," Frank explained. "Annabeth and I rescued them from the engine of that Kia Soul. We were just holding them here until we could decide what to do with them."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Percy demanded. "Did you call the owners?"

Annabeth didn't have the heart to tell him that there were bigger problems that prevented them from doing that. "We were waiting for them to get the car, but if they don't, Nico seemed pretty attached."

She thought that was a good joke to play the situation off with, but then Nico said, "Yes. I would be willing to adopt Cocoa Puff, Bianca, and Small Bob."

Percy snorted. "You named them? Nico, you can't name them; that's how you get attached!"

"Your yelling is bothering Bianca," he said flatly.

"No," Percy said. "No taking the kittens home until you contact the owners of that Kia. I'm sure you have their information on file somewhere."

Nico groaned and started clacking away on his keyboard.

Percy pointed in the direction of the garage. "Let's go." The sternness in his voice told Annabeth he might not have been making a loose suggestion.

"Wait, Percy-"

"What's going on?" Frank whispered.

There simply weren't enough steps to explain to Frank that because she spent a little too long eating carnitas and relating to her boss, Annabeth hadn't been able to help Leo much with the hopefully-no-longer-pink Trans Am in the garage.

Percy knocked on the door. As he barged in, he called to Leo, "How's the Trans Am?"

Leo looked up from the half-sanded, mostly pink Trans Am. "It is what it is?" His response came out more like a question.

"It better not be. The owner is going to be here any minute. Everyone, get a mask on and start working." Percy trekked down the stairs and then turned to Annabeth. "Show me how to help."

"Your mask is upside-down," she said. After putting Percy, Frank, and Leo to work on sanding, Annabeth began to paint layers over the pink disaster in front of her. Hopefully, this Ares guy wouldn't notice that his prized Trans Am was about to be four coats of red paint plus two-ish coats of pink paint that wasn't supposed to be pink thicker.

Frank plugged in some fans to help the paint dry faster. At one point, Drew was holding a hairdryer up to the hood of the car. Percy hand-fed the rest of the carnitas to Leo at another point. The whole ordeal was a blur until Percy realized what time it was and so unhelpfully announced it to the group.

"He'll be here any minute," Percy said, green eyes widening. The car was far from dry.

"Remind me again why you can't just tell him to come back tomorrow?" asked Drew, who had been watching TikToks on her phone while aiming her hair dryer at the trunk.

The door burst open, revealing Nico, who was hand-feeding a kitten. "He's here."

"Distract him!" Percy yelled to Piper.

If anyone could keep a man away from his precious Trans Am without getting socked in the face, it was Piper, right? That's what Annabeth wanted to believe, so she did.

Percy looked at the rest of the group. "What are you guys waiting for? Get buffing!"

Annabeth started, "But-"

"It doesn't matter anymore! Help Drew dry this off so we can get it finished!"

Annabeth had never seen a group of people come together so quickly. Simultaneously, she hadn't felt that miserable in a long time.

***

Everything Annabeth had been told about this Ares guy was true. He had muscles about the size of Frank's head, all covered in rippling tattoos. His expression was obscured by his dark sunglasses, and he wore a sleeveless leather jacket, which Annabeth thought kind of defeated the purpose. She was so busy contemplating this, that she didn't even consider how he got here without his car.

"Where the hell is my baby?" he roared. Apparently, Piper's attempt to distract him hadn't worked.

Leo stepped forward, and Annabeth fought not to close her eyes. He was going to get punched, and Ares hadn't even seen the car yet.

Percy threw an arm over Leo, pushing him back into the group. "Sir, there's been a slight complication. The car is in good shape, so there's nothing to worry about, but my mechanics are going to need an extra day to ensure that we're giving you the best result possible."

A pregnant pause fell upon the group. Even the everyday car shoppers seemed to sense the somber mood that had fallen throughout the lobby.

"I want to see it," Ares said.

"Sir, I can assure you that everything is fine."

"It's pink," blurted Frank, the world's worst secret keeper. "We're so sorry. We'll fix it."

"You turned my love wagon into a Barbie Jeep?" he roared.

"Actually, I turned your love wagon into a Barbie Jeep," Leo said, stepping forward.

"I also turned your love wagon into a Barbie Jeep," Annabeth admitted.

"No," said Drew. "I turned your love wagon into a Barbie Jeep."

"No! I turned the love wagon into a Barbie Jeep," Nico said.

"Mew!" the grey kitten on his shoulder added.

Percy said, "I turned your love wagon into a Barbie Jeep."

Annabeth couldn't say the Spartacus moment was unappreciated, but what the hell? She and Leo were trying to take some responsibility, not create a cinematic moment.

"Huh," Ares said. "I still want my car fixed."

"Oh, we're on it. Like, right now," Percy said, dropping his assistant manager act.

"It better be done by tomorrow morning, or I'll rip you a new one." He turned around and the employees watched as his harsh boots stomped against the floor.

"Now what happens?" Frank asked.

Nico said, "Well, I guess these are my cats now."

"I'll stay after and finish the paint job," Leo said. "It's my fault anyway."

"Well, well, well," a new voice said.

Annabeth squinted to make out the scarecrow of a human being entering the lobby.

"I just saw a very angry customer leaving; don't worry though! I told him how to log onto Yelp so he can air all of his grievances," Octavian from Jupiter Auto Trader said.

"What do you want, Octavian?" asked Percy through gritted teeth.

Oh, Annabeth noticed. Percy was beyond professionalism when it came to this guy, it seemed.

"I just wanted to hand deliver this packet for you," he said. "It has all of the details of the sale, but I can't share those with you because you're not the owner."

Percy snatched the manilla envelope and said, "We're not selling."

"I'm thinking this would be a great place to test out our motorcycle dealings. Don't you?" he sneered.

"No," said Percy.

"Please," Octavian said. "Olympus Auto is down to its final days. Your employees are miserable, your customers are unhappy, and your commercial sucks!"

Maybe that was the spark Annabeth needed, the one that made everything click.

The commercial sucked; she wasn't even in it.

If she had the money to take care of it, Annabeth would be taking one of those kittens home just to help her cope with the stress of her job. The Jupiter Auto Trader mechanics probably didn't have to worry about things like that.

"I'll show you out," she found herself saying.

When the doors closed behind them, Octavian scoffed and asked, "What the hell is this all about? You looking to work at a real dealership?"

"Actually, yeah." Her voice didn't feel like her own, but it needed to be said.

"Huh," he said. "I really thought you were going to punch me there. Obviously, there's a ton of stuff we'd have to go through, and I'm assuming you're not qualified since you work here."

Octavian surprised Annabeth by giving her his phone. It was opened to an empty contact page. "Give me your number and your email address. I'd love to see the look on your sorry assistant manager's face when we take his most competent employee."

Annabeth Chase was about to move onto the corporate ladder; the only place to go from here was up.  

Chapter Text

Everything was under control, or at least, that's what Percy had been telling himself the whole ride to Olympus Auto. Last night, he'd assigned tasks to each employee that they would be expected to carry out during the day. They could even do it on the clock, as time allowed, so long as they got it done. He even bought all of the supplies. Frank and Annabeth would pick up the food, Leo and Piper were in charge of decorating, and Drew was going to make a couple of phone calls and tie all the loose ends that would make this day perfect.

As the guy set to take over as the mostly-owner of Olympus Auto after Mr. D retired, Percy was dead-set on making his very first big-deal employee party a success. It needed to be the sort of thing people could attend in their work clothes, but it also couldn't be lame. No, Will and Nico deserved better than some lame party with a game of DVD bingo and a dry-ass chocolate cake.

Sure there had already been a few minor setbacks. None of the employees—Percy included—had ever planned such a party before, or had even been up close and personal with anything similar. Nevertheless, this was going to be the most fun and most appropriate surprise office engagement party ever. Percy couldn't believe Will and Nico still had yet to announce their engagement! Had they even announced that they were dating? No office policy said they had to report their relationship since Olympus Automotive had no HR department, but still, Percy thought he would get to know.

The lobby doors opened automatically, thanks to a certain new receptionist. Was it bad that he was already going to miss Nico when he and Will inevitably went on some fabulous honeymoon?

Percy set a box of Munchkin donut holes on the reception desk and invited Nico to try some. "How are the kittens doing?" he asked.

Nico pretended to be annoyed but flashed his cellphone's lock screen. "Cocoa Puff is proving to be a naughty little thing; he likes to jump up on the table and eat my takeout. Bianca desperately wants to go outside, so I've been on Amazon looking for a harness that'll fit her, and Small Bob is doing very well. He's my baby." He laughed. "Shit, they're all my babies."

"That's so sweet," Percy said. "Let me know if you ever need a sitter!"

"You'll have to wait in line," said Nico. "Annabeth, Frank, and Drew already offered, but I can't see myself leaving the little guys alone for more than a work day."

"I'm so happy for you, man." And by that, Percy was referring to both the kittens and the engagement, but Nico didn't know that yet.

Ugh, he and Will were going to be such cute cat dads!

Percy knocked on the breakroom door and called out, "It's just me."

The door opened to reveal a sea of balloons covering the carpet.

"Leo, are you good?" he asked.

Leo pulled his head out from between his knees. "Yeah, just so... many... balloons..."

"Take it easy," Piper said, pushing Leo's head back where it was.

"Drew?" Percy asked.

She read from a notebook. "Okay, Will doesn't come in until noon today, which means we only have to keep Nico distracted this morning. Piper and Leo are obviously hard at work, and Frank is going to pick up the food as soon as Annabeth gets here."

"She's late again?" He tried to hide his concern. She hadn't shown up to work because she was sick earlier in the week, and yesterday, she was an hour late and blamed it on traffic, but she'd shown up in a killer outfit and had to change in the bathroom. He still wasn't sure what that was all about.

He'd made a couple of mistakes in his friendship with her, confusing her with the new receptionist being one of them, but he liked to think he had made some solid strides to patch things up between them. She seemed to enjoy his mom's carnitas the other day, and that time Will trapped them in a carwash wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

But for some reason, Annabeth had been more distant than usual lately.

"Percy," Drew said, "people show up to work late sometimes. Get over it, hon."

Piper looked up from rubbing circles on Leo's back long enough to say, "I think there was an accident on the highway; she's probably stuck in that traffic." She checked her phone and then turned to Leo. "DoorDash is here with the cake. Will you be okay if I go grab that?"

Leo nodded. "I can try to blow up some more balloons..."

"I think we have enough," Percy said, kicking an oblong-shaped balloon. The number of balloons on the floor was a fire hazard at this point.

Frank cracked open the door. "Hey, Annabeth's here. We're going to head out and pick up the subs."

"Awesome," said Percy. "Where is she?"

"Changing in the bathroom." Almost robotically, Frank turned around and rushed out.

"Subs?" Leo asked.

"I'm getting a tuna one and a tofu one so Piper has options," Percy said, reassuring his head mechanic that there would be food for the vegetarian among them. "For us meat eaters, I ordered a ham and an Italian."

"So you're saying we have to trust Frank and Annabeth to pick out a suitable fruit tray?" Drew asked.

"Well, yeah," he said. It's not that hard to pick out a fruit tray. "They're getting a vegetable tray too."

Drew facepalmed. "We're all going to get food poisoning."

"No, we're not," said Percy. "I don't think you can even get food poisoning from produce."

The door opened and shut. "We have a problem," Piper said.

"I said I got vegetarian subs," Percy said.

She cocked an eyebrow. "I mean, I'm flattered; thanks for thinking of me, Percy. The problem is actually this." She held up a brown box with a DoorDash sticker on it.

Piper set the cake box on the table and opened the lid so everyone could see.

"Congrats on your retirement?" Drew gasped. "What the hell kind of sick joke is that?"

Percy wanted to believe that Piper had, for some reason, spent money on a cake to prank the other party planners, but the look on her face said it all: this was no joke.

"The DoorDash driver must have taken the wrong cake," Piper said.

There were certainly some bright sides to this. "We ordered a half pan, and this is a full pan, so there's that."

"Ours was supposed to be half yellow and half chocolate, and this one is red velvet, according to this label," Piper added.

"Red velvet never hurt anybody," Percy said.

"Yeah, but what about the lettering?" Drew asked.

She had a point; even if the red velvet and the doubling of the cake were wins for the engagement party, the cake still implied that it was celebrating someone's retirement.

Piper frowned. "I'm no culinary genius, but we might be able to just... scrape it off?"

Percy snapped a finger gun. "Great idea. I'll call Annabeth and ask her and Frank to pick up a tube of frosting."

"What about the decorations?" Leo asked.

"Drew can-"

She interrupted, saying, "No, I can't help. I have to plan the party."

In the beginning, Percy sort of figured this party would be nothing more than standing around the break room eating cake and enjoying each others' company, but Drew had other ideas.

Those ideas involved ridiculing Percy for not knowing how to plan an engagement party, but he chose to ignore that detail.

Leo rolled his eyes and let go of the balloon he was blowing up. The pink rubber flew around the room, just barely missing the cake.

"C'mon, Drew," Percy said. "Help the guy out a little."

"Well," she said, checking her phone, "I have been on hold with this entertainer for a while..."

Leo perked up, his lightheadedness seemingly gone. "Cool. Cool, cool, cool. I have a wire in the garage we can use to make a balloon arch. It'll be a perfect backdrop for the photobooth!"

"But I didn't hire a photographer!" Drew called after him. She glared at Percy and then gathered a handful of multi-colored balloons.

"I'll be in my office if you need me," Percy said to Piper. He didn't necessarily need the privacy of his-slash-Mr. D's office to call Annabeth and Frank, but he also couldn't bear to watch Piper botch that cake.

He sat back in his-slash-Mr. D's wheely chair, and plugged his iPhone into his-slash-Mr. D's charger. Annabeth was such a control freak that she was probably driving, so he tapped on Frank's contact and called them.

The phone, now on speaker mode, played the dialing tone a few times until finally he was connected.

"Hello?" Frank asked. "Percy? Can you hear us?"

"Yeah!" he said. "I was just checking in, and-"

"Shit, turn that down!" a voice that was unmistakably Annabeth's said.

"Sorry!" said Frank. "We're trying out the phone in Annabeth's car; it's a little louder than we thought, huh?"

Annabeth snorted. "Isn't that the understatement of the century?"

"Is it better now?" Percy asked.

"What?"

"I said, 'Is it better now?'" He raised his voice.

"Huh, we had it too quiet," Frank said.

After another volume adjustment, Percy could finally say his piece. "Look, there's been a slight setback with the cake," he said. "Can you guys pick up a tube of frosting?"

Annabeth gasped. "Did your mom make the cake?"

"No," Percy admitted. Although he asked his mother to make the cake, she was busy finding a dogsitter for when she and his stepdad Paul went to pick up Estelle from school in a couple of weeks. "The DoorDash guy brought the wrong cake."

"Wait, you splurged on DoorDash for the cake, but Frank and I have to drive to the grocery store to pick up the subs?" Annabeth asked. "Not fair."

"You're on the clock and you have the company card," Percy reminded her. "So just get the frosting."

Someone sighed on the other line. "What color?" Frank asked.

"That's the spirit," said Percy. "I was thinking a blue, maybe, and you might want to get an extra can of white frosting in case Piper's decorating doesn't go as planned."

"We're going to hang up now, Percy," Annabeth said shortly.

That took him by surprise. "Is everything okay?"

Frank cleared his throat. "Yes! Everything is so okay! We're doing so great right now! Never better!"

The line went dead and Percy scowled to himself.

Frank Zhang was the worst liar he'd ever met.

***

Percy had never seen static electricity the way he saw it on Drew and Leo.

"I don't know how it happened!" Leo cried, raking his hands through his hair. "One minute, we were assembling the frame, and the next..."

"Stop fussing!" Drew barked. "We can't stop until every last balloon has a purpose!"

The balloon arch in the middle of the lobby looked nice considering every other balloon had either a long strand of black hair or a short curl stuck to it.

"Guys, the lobby?" Percy asked. "Where is Nico? He could come back any minute and see it."

"We told him that Tristan McLean was in the parking lot," Leo said.

"Is that the guy from the MythoMagic movie?"

Leo and Drew nodded in unison.

"Great," said Percy. "Get this thing into the garage while I wrangle our receptionist."

"Aww, I thought it was funny that he fell for it!" Drew said.

"Now, please." He turned on his heels and went to the break room to check on Piper. Surely, her hair had to be intact.

Piper's hair was relatively intact.

The cake, however, had seen better days.

"Oh! Percy!" Piper said. "You're here!"

He could see where she scraped the icing off the cake and smeared red retirement icing all over the place.

"I tried for a tye-dye look at first, but now it kind of looks like it got murdered. Anyway, do you happen to have more white icing?"

Percy couldn't look at this cake for much longer. "Just text Frank; he and Annabeth are at the grocery store."

"Yeah, but-"

He left the room, and if it were anybody else, he probably could have gotten them to call Annabeth and Frank that way, but because it was Piper and she hated talking to real people on the phone, he picked up his cell phone and called Frank anyway.

"Oh, hey, Percy! No need to check in on us. Everything is so good!"

Everything most definitely was not going okay if Frank was still using his secret-hiding voice, which was to say, it was painfully obvious that he was hiding something.

"Are you sure it's all good, man?" Percy prodded.

"Uh-huh!"

Percy sighed. Frank would be easier to break when they spoke face-to-face. Besides, it probably wasn't an important secret. He likely clogged the toilet or mistakenly ate someone else's leftovers.

"Can you and Annabeth pick up some extra cake stuff for Piper?" Percy asked. "She still needs the blue piping, but now she needs a couple of cans of white frosting, and honestly, it wouldn't hurt to grab some sprinkles or something while you're there."

"On it," said Frank. "Hey, random question! Theoretically, how would you feel if we bought Moscato with your company card?"

Percy didn't particularly care for Moscato—or any wine, for that matter—but he didn't see why Mr. D wouldn't approve of that purchase.

"Don't spend too much," he said at last.

"She's getting one from the bottom shelf," Frank said.

Annabeth? Annabeth Chase was asking to use the company card to buy wine? Yes, Percy knew she liked Moscato, but she seemed too prideful to ask for money for it.

"That's..." That's good? Is she okay? He didn't know what the appropriate response would be to that.

"So we're gonna go; bye!" The line went dead.

Frank was hiding something, Piper was butchering a cake, and Nico was lost somewhere in the parking lot looking for Tristan McLean.

Shoot, Percy needed to go wrangle the receptionist.

He ran out the door and looked around the parking lot, not caring that the weather had finally turned cold. "Nico? Nico!"

He felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped.

"Dammit, Nico!" Percy shouted.

"I don't think I've ever heard you swear before," he said. He put his hands in the pockets of his oversized aviator jacket. "Did you need something?"

Percy glanced inside. The half-finished balloon arch was gone, save for some plastic on the floor. "Yeah, uh, I need you to take a look at my computer. The uh... the thing isn't loading."

"What thing?" Nico asked.

"Oh, you know." Percy led him back inside.

Drew sat at the reception desk, speaking into the phone in a hushed tone. She covered the speaker and then asked, "What time does Will come in today?"

"Noon," Nico said, "but you know how he likes to be early."

"Thanks," she said. "Carry on." She went back to her phone conversation. "Yeah, so if you could get her here around like five-thirty... Yeah, I know, it's probably weird timing, but we close at five... Yes, it's an office party. Do you not do those?"

"Who is she talking to?" Nico asked.

Percy had no idea. "She was probably just helping out since you stepped outside."

"She pranked me."

Percy cleared his throat. "Yeah, now about that computer..." He turned on the old monitor and Nico sat down in his chair.

Nico said, "I feel like I shouldn't make any promises here. I was only a computer science major for a semester before I dropped out."

"That's fine!" Percy said, perhaps a little too quickly. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out!"

"What's wrong with it?"

Percy didn't think this plan through. "I'm not sure," he said.

Before the groom-to-be could reply, Percy shut the door behind him, and he may or may not have locked the door behind him. That last part was up for debate.

"Yes!" Drew chirped from behind the reception desk. "That is perfect! You'll love it here, hon! Everyone is so nice, and Will is such a sweetheart."

"Drew?" Percy asked. "What are you doing?"

She held up a finger. "Yes, likewise! I can't wait to meet you in person! See you at five-thirty!" She put the phone down and glared at Percy. "What is so important? I am trying to plan some entertainment for this party today!"

"Are you hiring someone?" Percy asked. "I thought we'd just play party games!"

"We can't get plastered at work," Drew said. "There's food, and we'll have Will and Nico open our present for them. Leo came in clutch with his ping-pong table, but there's not much to do beyond that, so I thought some entertainment would be nice."

Percy sighed. "That's fine, but how are we paying for this?"

"We have her for an hour," Drew explained. "I managed to finagle a cheaper rate, but we have to feed her. I figured that would be no problem."

That didn't sound so bad. "Alright," he conceded. "What does she do?" He couldn't see Nico enjoying a magician. The best-case scenario would be one of those people wearing a vest full of bugs and snakes. Percy couldn't say he'd mind seeing some bugs.

Drew sighed. "A winter engagement is so romantic," she said. "Did you get rid of Nico?"

"Nico may or may not be locked in my office."

"Shit, Percy, I didn't think you had it in you."

A hairy arm laced around Percy's shoulders. "Yeah, man! Groovy!"

He turned to address the new voice's owner: a short stocky man with an unkept beard and a fringe vest over a tye-dye t-shirt.

He cleared his throat. "Who are you?" And why are you touching me?

Frank rushed in to explain. "This is Don! He's the caterer."

"Yeah, man," said Don. "The caterer."

Percy didn't have time to question why the caterer smelled like BO and weed. If Frank and Annabeth were back, that meant the cake decorating supplies had arrived, and Percy was not going to let Piper ruin that cake any further. He shrugged off Don's embrace and started power-walking. This might be the most work Percy had ever done as assistant manager.

"Where are you going?" Frank asked.

"I'm not leaving Piper alone with that cake."

"Annabeth's with her."

Even worse. Percy threw open the door and-

"What the hell is this?"

The now blood-red cake stared up at him with about thirty tiny eyeballs.

"Do you like it?" Piper asked. "Annabeth found this spray-on frosting, so we just coated the whole cake in it."

"And look at these!" Annabeth said, holding up a package of candy eyeballs. "I thought Nico would find these hilarious!"

The cake is, for lack of better words, disturbing. Percy could honestly say he'd never seen anything like it. He tried not to despair. He was too late. There was no fixing this disaster of a cake. "Can you at least write 'congratulations' or something on it?"

Piper fisted the blue frosting and squeezed it onto the cake in shaky lettering.

"You spelled it wrong," Annabeth said. "It's missing a whole syllable."

"Maybe you shouldn't have trusted a dyslexic person to write the message," Piper said.

"We could have just as easily gotten the same effect with 'congrats,'" she pointed out. "You know what? Never mind. It's fine. I think the murder scene will distract from the spelling. I'm going to go do my job."

"Boo," Piper said. "So lame!"

"What's up with her?" Percy asked after Annabeth closed the door behind her.

Piper shrugged. "Just grouchy, I think."

That answer wouldn't have cut it for Percy on a regular day, but he didn't exactly have time to be concerned with everyone's feelings and Will and Nico's engagement party. He was seriously beginning to regret this party, and it hadn't even started. They should have just gotten a cake and a card or something. Yeah, he could have gotten them a gift card to some nice restaurant or Petco and everyone could have signed it.

The door opened, and Frank said, "Hey guys, how's it- Oh! That is... cake. Mmm." He turned around and left.  

Chapter Text

Percy couldn't count on one hand the things that didn't go according to plan during the planning process. The cake was messed up in more ways than one, Frank was still hiding something, Drew hired a secret entertainer, and at some point during the day, Leo inhaled helium and spoke in a chipmunk voice.

So Percy braced himself for an absolute catastrophe of a party.

Leo and Drew finished setting up the balloon arch in the middle of the lobby, and admittedly, it looked pretty cool.

Don the caterer and Annabeth set up a table with all of the snacks they bought, using the cake as the focal point of their display. Then, Annabeth rushed to the bathroom to take a phone call.

"Percy, do I have to clock out for this?" Piper asked.

If Olympus Auto was doing better financially, Percy might let her continue to cash in on the party setup. "Everyone, please clock out!" he shouted, ignoring the banging on his office door.

"Is Will almost finished with that client?" Drew asked. "The entertainer is going to be here soon and Nico is still in Percy's office, so..."

The automatic doors opened. "Well, hey everyone," Will said. "What's the occasion?"

"You can go let Nico out," Percy muttered to Drew.

Upon being let out of the office, Nico shouted, "I have to piss so bad!" and ran to the bathroom. So much for everyone hiding behind furniture and yelling "Surprise!"

"What is this?" Will asked, a smile on his face.

Percy wondered if Will had suspected the surprise; his black tie had tiny white hearts on it. It was perfect for the occasion.

Time for Percy to take some credit, finally. "Just a little something we put together to celebrate you and Nico, whenever he gets out of the bathroom."

"Aww," he said. "You trapped Nico in your office for me?"

Piper handed Will a piece of cake.

"Oh!" he said. "This looks... lovely."

"Thanks, I decorated it myself," she said.

He took a bite of the red velvet and flashed a thumbs-up.

"She's here!" Drew shouted, rushing to the automatic doors. "Hello! Hello, it's so nice to meet you, hon. Rachel, right?"

The redhead at the door beamed. "Yep, that's me! It's so nice to be here," she said.

Percy held out his hand for her to shake. "It's nice to meet... you..." He knew this woman from somewhere. She must have changed a lot since the last time he saw her; he just couldn't place it.

She squinted. "Percy Jackson?" she asked.

"That's me," he said.

"Oh my gosh, it is you!" she said. "You probably don't recognize me. Rachel Elizabeth Dare?"

Rachel Elizabeth Dare! Percy always thought it was kind of funny that her hair was bright red and her initials spelled RED. Of course, he didn't recognize her without the paint-stained clothes and sneakers with doodles on them.

Drew raised an eyebrow. "You guys know each other?"

Rachel laughed. "We went to middle school together, until Percy got kicked out for pushing that guy into the fountain."

"Hey, he was picking on that Tyson kid!"

"I didn't say you were wrong for it," she said with a smirk. "Anyway, this gig is just temporary. I'm saving up for art school."

Drew cleared her throat. "Well, seeing as you two know each other... Are you still comfortable with this, Rachel?"

"Oh, absolutely!" she said. "Who's the lucky guy?"

"Hey! Will!"

Will came over and greeted Rachel Elizabeth Dare with a smile. "Hi! Can I help you?"

Drew facepalmed. "We're closed, Will."

"Do you guys have a chair?" Rachel asked. "Or should I get one out of my car?"

"Is the desk chair okay?" Percy asked.

She pursed her lips. "Well, it can't have armrests..."

Can't have armrests? What was Rachel going to do, give Will a lap dance?

"Hey, Frank!" Percy shouted. "Can you please grab a chair from the break room?"

"On it!" he said.

Nico chose that moment to come out of the bathroom, shaking his hands dry. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Entertainment," Drew said. "Did you get some cake?"

He side-eyed the cake on the table. "Uh, no... I think I'll stick with the subs. Who is that homeless guy?"

"That's Don the caterer," Frank said, setting down a chair.

"Sit down, Will," Rachel shouted to the employees. "Hey, everyone! I usually introduce myself as Cecilia Sparkle, but Percy and I go way back; you guys can just call me Rachel. Thanks so much for inviting me to the party! Hit it!"

Drew pushed a button and Rihanna's "S & M" blasted through a speaker. She shed her coat, revealing the thigh-high stockings and lack of anything that could qualify as real clothes she was hiding beneath it.

Piper dropped her jaw, and Annabeth dropped her cake.

Leo popped a balloon.

Frank's face turned into a tomato.

Will gripped the bottom of the chair so hard his knuckles turned white.

Percy tried not to stare, but the way Rachel moved was kind of mesmerizing. He wasn't typically one for frilly lingerie, but the thin strip of pale skin exposed by her red garter belt was oddly fascinating.

If he'd known Will was getting a lap dance at the office party, Percy might have turned the lights down or snuck booze into his Yeti water bottle.

"Is there something going on I don't know about?" Will asked after the first chorus. He strained his neck to avoid making contact with Rachel's breasts.

Drew shook Don's arm off her neck and said, "We're celebrating your last few months of freedom, hon!"

"Congrats on the engagement, man!" Don slurred. Was he stoned? Probably.

"Can we take a time out?" Will whispered.

"Oh, sure!" Rachel backed off and folded her arms over her chest. "Are you alright? I think there's some water on the snack table, or I could get you a sub."

"No, no, I'm okay. Thank you though," Will said. "You are the nicest stripper I've ever met."

"Oh, thank you!" Rachel said.

"You're also the only stripper I've ever met."

Percy winced hearing the word aloud. There's nothing wrong with being a sex worker, but Percy wasn't exactly ready to hear the word 'stripper' out loud pertaining to his childhood friend.

"Seriously, what is this all about?" Will asked. "The only one giving me actual insight is this guy who smells like weed, and I'm not sure I trust him." He gestured to Don, who was staring at a moldy spot on the ceiling.

"Okay, first off, Don's the caterer, apparently," Percy said. "And second, we wanted to put this party together to congratulate you and Nico on your engagement."

The way that Will looked at Percy made him think that he and his coworkers interpreted a situation wrong.

"Engagement?" Nico asked. "Will and I have only been dating for a few months."

"Thanks for the party though," said Will. "I can uh, pay your stripper friend."

"Already taken care of," said Drew. "We have her for the hour."

"Wait, so you're not getting married?" Piper asked. "I ruined a cake for nothing?"

"Piper and I dug through the actual cake looking for her lost nose ring," Annabeth said.

Leo tossed his cake into the trash.

What was up with everyone and keeping secrets? When did they all stop trusting each other?

"Does anyone else have a secret to share?" Percy asked accusingly.

Leo raised his hand. "I ate Frank's leftovers."

Frank gasped.

Piper said, "I know about Annabeth and Will's competition to get with me."

"I play MythoMagic online when I'm supposed to be working," admitted Nico.

And then Frank said something that pretty much ruined the party.

"Annabeth got a job at Jupiter Auto Trader and she's leaving us."

"Frank!" Annabeth scolded. "I asked you not to tell anyone before I decided!"

He buried his face in his hands. "You know I can't keep a secret!"

She turned around and ran into the garage.

"Frank," Percy said, "is it true?"

Frank looked up and nodded. "My girlfriend mentioned something about it to me, so I asked Annabeth to be sure. I think it was an impulsive decision at first, but... Yeah. She applied there, and she got the job."

Wow. Okay. Percy wasn't expecting that. He felt like he'd just been punched in the gut. Annabeth seemed to like working at Olympus Auto. He thought she liked her coworkers. He thought she finally learned to like him.

Why would she leave? Why wouldn't she tell him if something was bothering her?

"Also," Frank said, "Don isn't a caterer. He's a hitchhiker that Annabeth and I picked up."

"No shit, Frank," said Nico.

Everything felt kind of cold. No, hot! How high was the heat? Leo knew that they couldn't afford to turn the thermostat higher than 68, but he insisted on turning it to 69 because he thought it was funny!

"Percy?" Piper asked. "Are you okay?"

"My head feels kind of funny," he admitted. "I have to talk to Annabeth."

"You can't change her mind," she said.

"I know," he lied. But maybe her mind isn't quite made up.

***

Annabeth was hunched over a workbench, playing with the wires to an air conditioning unit she and the other mechanics had been trying to replace for months now.

"Hey," Percy said. "I'm sorry for freaking out back there."

"You're not the one that freaked out."

She was technically right; Frank freaked out.

"Yeah, but I shouldn't have provoked him like that," he said. "Can we talk?"

"I don't regret applying there," she said.

Percy lied again. "I know. Just... why?"

"This was kind of always temporary," Annabeth said. "I want to work my way up. I want to... work someplace credible, no offense."

"None taken," Percy said. "So you're sure this is the only reason? Because if someone did something to upset you, or if there's a problem, you know I'm here to support you. I want this to be the kind of place you want to work at."

She sighed. "It was, for a while. You've all been kind and welcoming, but... Percy, Jupiter has things I can't get here. I might need the change. And I definitely need some time to decide."

He didn't believe that, but he didn't know why. All he knew was that Olympus Auto wasn't going to feel right without her.

"I think I'm going to go home now," she said. "Have a good night."

"You don't want to take some cake home?"

"I don't want to eat after Piper's nose ring."

He shrugged. "Understandable. You in tomorrow?"

"Yeah," she said, "but I'll be in later; I have to drop some documents off at Jupiter."

She hadn't made her decision and she was dropping documents off already? "Oh, sure," he said, trying to mask his disappointment.

He lingered for a minute, trying to figure out what his body was telling him to say. There was something there, but it just wouldn't come out!

"I'll uh, see you tomorrow then." That wasn't quite it, though, was it?

"See you." Her gray eyes were hard to read. It was like she was waiting for him to say more, but neither of them could find that missing piece.

He crept up the stairs and walked back into the lobby. Rachel, still in her fancy lingerie, spotted him from across the room and waved him over.

"Are you cold?" he asked her. "I have some extra clothes in my office. I mean, they're bright orange t-shirts, but it's something."

She swallowed her carrot stick and nodded. "I'd like that."

He led her into the office and opened a cabinet. "What size do you want?"

"Oh, I'm in a comfy t-shirt mood. Do you have extra large?"

He tossed the shirt to her and turned away while she put it on.

"It's really nice to see you again," Percy said. "Things have been weird at the office lately."

"Because of that girl that's quitting?" she asked. She quickly added, "Sorry, that was inappropriate."

Percy shrugged. "Nah, it's okay. I guess things have been kind of weird with Annabeth lately, but I figured she was just kind of grumpy. I don't know why anyone would want to leave. I mean, she'll be doing the same thing over there, except with people who don't care about each other. I just wish she hadn't kept this from me. I didn't think we kept secrets from each other."

"Huh," Rachel said. "Well, if you and I are going to reconnect, I have to tell you something."

"Oh?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I haven't exactly been honest with you either."

"That's okay. We barely know each other," he said.

Rachel laughed. "But I'd like to know you better. I think I needed to reconnect too." She reached for his hand. Her freckled skin was pale against his tan, but something about her soft embrace was comforting. "But seriously, Percy, I'm not saving up for art school. I like my job. I guess... the whole art school thing is what I tell people because stripping at office parties is so taboo."

"You mean, that's what Celeste says," he quipped, referencing her stripper persona.

"Yeah," she said. "Celeste is saving up for art school. Rachel likes dancing, especially today. Your coworkers are super nice, and you... Well, you grew up pretty handsome, I guess."

"Thanks," Percy said breathlessly. Maybe this was exactly what he needed. "I feel bad about feeding you that trash cake, though. Do you... would you maybe want to grab dessert?"

She smiled. "I know the best frozen yogurt place."

Frozen yogurt? In winter? So Rachel Elizabeth Dare hasn't changed that much after all.

"You're on," said Percy.  

Chapter Text

"But I still can't get past the fact that-"

"Not this again," Annabeth groaned, yanking the strands of unruly hair stuck in the zipper of dress number... ten? Twenty? She'd stopped counting.

Piper frowned. "I was right with you Drew, but really, it's time to let it go."

"I can't just let it go," Drew said, putting air quotes around her words. "Annabeth is a grown-ass woman and she doesn't own a decent dress."

Annabeth had already told Drew that it didn't make sense for her to buy dresses. She was a mechanic at a used car dealership. That didn't exactly scream 'class.' Besides, if she were going to dress up out of her own free will, she'd probably go for a pantsuit kind of thing.

But today's adventure was not of her free will, so Annabeth was reluctantly trying on dresses for Drew and Piper to gawk at.

"I still can't believe you have legs," Drew said. "I thought you were hiding, like, a nasty tattoo or a rash or something with the way you always wear those baggy overalls."

"I think you have nice legs," said Piper. It felt less like a compliment to Annabeth and more like a threat directed at Drew.

She didn't shave her legs that morning in the shower. Hell, it was winter. She wouldn't shave her legs again until either the weather broke seventy-five degrees, or she got a partner, but neither seemed to be happening anytime soon.

Thus, the dress.

"I don't mind this one," said Annabeth, which was the closest she had come all day to liking a dress.

Piper pursed her lips. "I mean, it's pretty, and you should get it..."

Drew groaned. "Fine! I'll be the mean one! That dress does not match the vibe of the event! This is not a funeral or a Metallica concert!"

Annabeth glanced at the black lacey number she'd tried on. Never in a million years would she be caught wearing a dress to a Metallica concert. She had so many other event-appropriate outfits.

Oh. That's what Drew was trying to say. The little black dress wasn't going to be appropriate for Mr. D's retirement party.

"This was nice of you guys," Annabeth started, "but I can just wear-"

"No," said Drew. "We are getting you something cute and versatile, hon."

Piper put a dress back on its hanger. "I think what Drew is trying to say is that you deserve something pretty."

"But not so pretty that I'm not the hottest one in the pictures."

Sometimes, Annabeth couldn't tell if Drew was joking or not.

Drew's arms were full of dresses she couldn't choose from, and Piper wasn't short of options herself.

Why couldn't Annabeth choose something that worked for her?

"Maybe I shouldn't go to Mr. D's retirement party," she wondered aloud. After all, it wasn't like she'd ever met the guy. Percy acted more as her boss than the real owner of Olympus Auto. Mr. D was just the person who signed her paycheck, and even so, his handwriting was too messy to make out anything beyond the first letter of his last name.

"Uh, of course you should go," Piper said. "The party is for staff, and you work at Olympus. It'll be a great time for us all to kick back and relax a little, especially if Mr. D shows up drunk."

"He usually does," Drew adds.

Piper glared at her.

"What?" she asked defensively. "Someone has to be the brutally honest friend. And speaking of brutal honesty..." She pointed a finger at Annabeth. "You need to stop being such a pick-me and put something hot on for this party tonight."

Annabeth put the dresses back on the rack and said, "I'm not trying to be dramatic; Lord knows I hate drama. I'm just being realistic. If everyone is trying to say goodbye to Mr. D, won't I just get in the way?"

"Don't say that!" said Piper. "You're as much a member of this family as everyone else."

Drew held a dress up to the mirror and grumbled in agreement. "If Percy can bring his stripper girlfriend, then you can come."

Annabeth choked on some saliva. "Girlfriend?" she practically shrieked.

"Well, if you want the gossip, no," Drew said. "She's technically not his girlfriend, but judging by how she's all over him..."

"I've sworn off dating gingers, but even I've gotta admit she's hot," said Piper.

"Well, I heard that Percy asked her to call it official, but she said she'd have to think about it, so who knows if she'll even show up tonight!" Drew said.

Piper raised an eyebrow. "How did you hear that?"

"I listened through his office door," Drew admitted.

It was too much information at once. Annabeth was busy contemplating whether or not she would accept the job offer she'd just received from Jupiter Auto Trader. She didn't have the time or wine budget to figure out why Percy dating a stripper bothered her, but she already had a feeling it had nothing to do with the woman's profession.

Jupiter seemed so simple, and so professional. Annabeth wasn't getting that from Olympus. She could fall into the monotony of a normal person's work routine at Jupiter. She could have an unattainable work crush that would remain unattainable, and maybe the other mechanics would let her choose the music now and then. They seemed like nice people the other day when she went in to pick up her paperwork.

"Really, hon?" Drew asked. "None of these?"

"Really, really," Annabeth said. "This isn't exactly my style." That was the understatement of the century.

"I'm sure we can find you something else," Piper said. "We could try Ross. I always get lucky there."

Drew made a face. "Ross? Their slogan is literally 'dress for less.'"

"It's okay, guys," Annabeth said. "I think I'll just Amazon something."

"Ooh, an original Bezos outfit," teased Piper, emphasizing the O. Leave it to her to pretend Amazon is some kind of bougie designer.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Okay, but if you're going to do that, let me at least send you some TikToks; there's way too many ways you could mess this up and we don't have time for you to send your outfit back if it doesn't fit. Also, you owe me a mall pretzel or something."

***

The interaction from the other day left Annabeth feeling alright, perhaps even like a winner, despite still having to make an appearance at a mostly stranger's retirement party. She got to wear the pantsuit she wanted, it had pockets, and she got to the party sign-up sheet fast enough to volunteer to bring plates and napkins. Thus, she wouldn't be made fun of for not baking a dessert from scratch like last time.

The only thing that wasn't fantastic was that it was cold enough for her to have to wear her heavy winter jacket over her killer outfit. Then again, if that was the worst she was dealing with, she could consider herself quite lucky.

That is until she got the phone call.

As of late, she'd been answering calls from unknown numbers because she never could tell when it would be someone from Jupiter Auto Trader's corporate HR office. Most of the time, it was spam calls asking her about her car's extended warranty, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Hello?" she said, answering the phone.

"Is this Annabell Face?" asked a gruff voice, unlike the HR people she'd been speaking to.

"No, this is Annabeth Chase."

"Whatever. You live by the Outback, right?"

"Who is this?" she asked.

The man on the line cleared his throat. "Oh, don't worry, just the man who's been signing your paycheck for the past few months."

Shit. Leave it to Annabeth to get all defensive on the phone with her boss. "I am so sorry, Mr. D," she said. "I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight; I was just about to head out."

"I'll drop my location."

"I'm sorry, I'm really not understanding you..." she trailed off.

"Look, Grace, I need a ride. Come and get me or you're fired."

Annabeth was too stunned to speak. She was planning on taking the job at Jupiter officially soon, but having that sort of thing on her record probably wouldn't fare well for her future.

"I should probably say that I'm kidding. Jackson says I need to lay off on the sarcasm."

She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Sorry, yes, I can pick you up."

"I'm going to sit inside the Outback while I wait for the tow truck. Maybe I'll order a Bloomin' Onion. Just come inside when you get here."

"Okay, then."

***

Mr. D, as promised, was eating a Bloomin' Onion in a booth close to the window. Annabeth supposed he probably asked for that spot so he could watch the tow truck pull in. She would do the same in his place.

"Hey," she said, not sure if she was supposed to sit down or not.

"Si'down, Face," Mr. D said with his mouth full.

So that answered that.

"Chase," she corrected. She sat down and looked out the window, where what she assumed was Mr. D's Mustang was parked in a ditch. She scanned the restaurant and took note of the way that a couple clearly on a bad first date had been sat next to a family with an iPad kid watching cartoons on full volume.

Basically, she looked everywhere except at Mr. D and his Bloomin' Onion. Eye contact wasn't a personal favorite of hers.

He pushed the plate across the table. "This is way too much for one person," he declared, even though something told Annabeth this was a man fully capable of eating an entire Bloomin' Onion by himself.

She took a piece just to be nice. "Thank you."

Because Mr. D's chewing was obnoxiously loud and she was tired of listening to the Dora the Explorer theme song, Annabeth ventured into the realm of conversation.

"What do you think happened to your car?"

"I went to business school, Annabell. I haven't got a fucking clue."

"Oh." She looked into her lap and then back up. "I could take a peek at it if you want."

He scoffed. "Of course, you're going to take a look at it. You think I want those clowns touching my car?"

Annabeth would have liked to come to those clowns' defense, but she also didn't want to risk her conversation with her boss going south.

"I should've gotten Jackson in there with you guys before I retired. Olympus needs an operator with a decent understanding of cars."

"I'm sure Leo and Frank can keep things going," she said.

"And you."

Shoot. "And... me."

"You're not thinking about leaving us already, are you?" Mr. D asked.

Already? As in, he was expecting her to leave?

Her surprise must have shown because Mr. D then said, "I get it. Olympus has been slowly going downhill ever since Jupiter opened up. I'm leaving Jackson with a crummy financial situation, but if it makes you feel any better, he's the one who'll be able to save Olympus."

"I..."

"Obviously, I wouldn't hate it if you stayed, but I'm not going to sway you either way," he said.

Annabeth chuckled. "Wow, you wouldn't hate it? I feel so special."

"That's how I talk. Get used to it... or not, I suppose, since we're both leaving." His face grew sad when he said that.

"How are you feeling about leaving?" Annabeth asked.

He sighed. "This is what I'm supposed to be looking forward to all my life, right? Well, retirement doesn't really feel that way now that it's looking at me. I've given this place the better part of my life. I've seen lots of employees—mechanics included—come and go over the years. I've had to let some of the nicest people go because they find better opportunities, or they retire themselves. There was this nice guy, Bob... They always say they'll keep in touch, but you know..."

"Oh," said Annabeth. "That must be weird."

"Weird doesn't even begin to describe it."

Was that what it would be like for Percy when she left? Would he miss her the way that Mr. D seemed to miss Bob? Annabeth didn't want to imagine Percy thirty or forty years from now sitting across a booth telling a sad story over a Bloomin' Onion about a what-might-have-been mechanic who left Olympus Auto near the beginning of his career.

Was that how Mr. D felt all the time?

"Of course, Jackson'll do a decent job keeping everyone happy. He's one of the more competent people I know. I suppose I brought him under my wing because I felt bad for him, but he turned out alright."

"I guess so," Annabeth said, just to be nice.

"He's a good guy," Mr. D said. "Probably the most caring person I've ever met. He takes a lot of pride in his work, but he doesn't let it consume him like I did. I guess that's one thing I regret. Jackson always seems to be calling his mom or sending those funny internet pictures to his sister-"

"You mean memes?"

"Whatever. And I never knew him to come in on a Sunday; that's when he had dinner with his mom. Does he still do that?"

"I think so." Honestly, Annabeth hadn't had a non-work-related conversation with Percy since Frank told everyone she was thinking about leaving.

"That's good," said Mr. D. "People like that only come around once a millennium."

Annabeth smiled. "He's... He's truly special."

Mr. D ate the last piece of Bloomin' Onion, and just as he licked his fingers, the tow truck pulled up outside the Outback Steakhouse.

"How about you take care of this and I'll meet the tow truck?" Mr. D asked although it didn't seem like a question.

"Sure." Annabeth held her hand out for some money to cover the Bloomin' Onion, except all she got was an awkward and sweaty high-five.  

Chapter Text

Annabeth felt significantly cooler arriving at the work party with her boss she'd never met until that day than she would have felt showing up alone and not knowing her boss at all.

That being said, Mr. D's car problems meant that he showed up late for his own party, which, despite Annabeth's reassurances, he was not okay with.

And despite the scene that Annabeth had been anticipating since she received the invitation to this retirement party, several people seemed happy to see her when she walked into the lobby.

"You made it!" Will shouted.

Piper let out a low whistle. "Remind me to never question your fashion decisions again!"

Heat rose to Annabeth's face. "You mean it?"

Mr. D cleared his throat.

"Oh!" Will shrieked. "I got you this, Mr. D! Congrats on your retirement!"

"You didn't have to get me anything, Bill." Mr. D took the envelope anyway and tore open the top. "Outback Steakhouse. My favorite." He pocketed the gift card and met Percy by the snack table.

It was kind of weird that Mr. D said it in such a way that implied he hated the Outback Steakhouse when he seemed to enjoy that Bloomin' Onion earlier.

"He said your name wrong just now," Annabeth said, "and he kept messing up my name when I went to pick him up. Is there a story there?"

"That's just what he does," said Piper.

"But he didn't mess up Percy's name."

Piper and Will looked at each other.

"Huh," said Piper.

Will shrugged. "Mr. D is just like that."

Drew approached their little group and passed a bubbly drink to Piper. She scanned Annabeth's outfit with the eyes of a hawk. "Not bad, hon," she said. "Could use like, a necklace or something."

"Thanks so much for that, Drew," Annabeth said. "Are Frank and Leo here yet?"

Nico's shoes squeaked against the ground as he ran up to Annabeth. He looked good in a suit jacket and black jeans. His hair was tied back in a half-ponytail, and his face was red. "You gotta get over here; Leo wants to modify the chocolate fountain and Frank can't get him to stop!"

"On it," said Annabeth. Leave it to Frank and Leo to turn a friendly function into a complete disaster. She said a silent goodbye to her outfit; there was simply no way she'd be going home that night not covered in chocolate.

"Annabeth!" Frank shouted. He wore an olive dress shirt, and his koi tattoo just barely peaked out of the fabric.

"What seems to be the problem here?" she asked.

"Frank won't let me trick out the chocolate fountain!" Leo complained.

"Yeah, and for very good reasons!" Annabeth hissed. "Do I have to remind you of the Croc shot incident?"

Leo hung his head. "No."

"So leave the chocolate fountain alone."

Frank mouthed, Thank you.

"Hey, Hannah-Louise or whatever the hell your name is!"

Annabeth whipped around to see Mr. D waving her over with his big Wreck-It Ralph hands. Next to him stood—gulp—Percy. Did Annabeth mention that she and the assistant manager haven't spoken about anything not work-related since he found out she was hired at Jupiter Auto Trader? Because that was happening.

"This one, Peter," Mr. D explained to Percy. "My car got stuck in a ditch next to the goddamned Outback Steakhouse on the way, and this one had to come and rescue me since you couldn't be bothered."

"Geez, sorry, Mr. D," said Percy. "I was only setting up your retirement party."

"Whatever. I'll leave you two since you owe her big time." He waved them off and walked over to the chocolate fountain, picking up a strawberry and then putting it back before selecting a marshmallow to dip into the chocolate.

And just like that, Annabeth was alone with Percy. Everything had been going so well! Drew half-complimented her outfit. Leo didn't make anything explode. Frank didn't bring up Annabeth's new job. She should have known it was too good to be true.

"That's kinda gross," Percy noted. "Take what you touch and all that."

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed, not quite committing herself to the small talk. She always hated small talk. Why couldn't people just get to the point?

"So," he said. "You rescued Mr. D?"

"It was nothing, really."

Another awkward pause.

"I just waited for the tow truck with him and drove him to the party," she added.

"That was nice of you."

She didn't know what to say to that. Yes, it was nice of her to go out of her way like that, but agreeing would come off as rude. Conversations were too hard. If Annabeth did any more socializing, she might die—internally, at least.

Percy scratched the back of his neck. "So, listen, I uh... I got you something."

"Oh," Annabeth said. Was she supposed to ask what it was, or would that be annoying? "Thanks."

"Yeah, uh, hang on." Percy zipped into his office, leaving Annabeth to herself. Now what was she to do? She couldn't jump in on the conversation; she'd missed too much and didn't even know what her friends were talking about. She wasn't about to try for some food; Mr. D had kind of touched everything already. Maybe-

"I think I left it in my car," Percy said. "Do you mind coming out with me?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

She followed him through the party and out the front door. Immediately, she was greeted with cold air and regretted not stopping for her jacket on the way out.

Percy unlocked his car and reached in between the seats. "Just a sec..." He emerged holding a little green bag with blue tissue paper sticking out of the top. His smile turned into a frown. "Are you cold? We can sit in the car if you'd like."

Annabeth then noticed that she'd instinctively wrapped her arms around herself in the cold. "Can't we just go back inside?"

"I mean, yeah, but I thought it might be weird if you opened it in front of everyone since it's sort of Mr. D's retirement party," he said.

"Point taken," she admitted. "Alright."

Percy walked around to the other side of the car and opened the passenger door for her, inviting her in with his arm.

She hoped he couldn't see the red rising to her cheeks in the dark. Nobody had ever held a door open for her like that before. She never really considered herself a person who got doors held open for her. Usually, she did the door-holding.

"Thanks," she mumbled, getting into the car.

Percy even shut the door. Why did her world turn upside-down all of a sudden?

He sat down on the other side and put his key in the car, turning on the heat. "Better?"

She nodded.

"Okay," he said, presenting the gift bag once again. "I wanted to get you a little Christmas-slash-leaving gift. Seriously, it's nothing big; I saw it when I went to the craft fair over the weekend with my mom and thought you might like it."

She took the bag and tossed the tissue paper aside. "You didn't have to get me anything."

"I wanted to."

She pulled out a tiny pouch and looked to Percy, who raised his eyebrows as if to urge her further.

Annabeth undid the little ribbon and felt cool metal hit her finger.

"Okay, so I know it's a little weird to buy a ring for a girl you're not dating because my mom was totally teasing me about it, but I saw it and it made me think of you."

Annabeth turned the steel ring over in her hand, taking in the cool metal. The design was plain; there was no jewel or anything like you might see on an engagement ring. Honestly, it was the kind of ring you might expect a bisexual mechanic to wear.

"It's made out of repurposed stainless steel," Percy explained. "I tried it on my mom since I thought you might have the same size fingers, but if it doesn't fit I can get it... adjusted?"

She slipped the ring onto her middle finger. It fit perfectly; just loose enough for her to turn. "It's great."

"It's not weird, right?"

"No," she said. "I like it. Thanks."

"Are you sure? 'Cause you look like you're going to cry."

"I'm fine. It's just..." Nobody had ever gotten her anything like that before. She'd never had a ring she liked so much, except for maybe a cherry Ring-Pop when she was six.

Percy's green eyes were full of concern. Oh, she'd ruined his moment. He was proud of a thing he got for her and she went ahead and messed it up with her sappiness!

And that's probably when she realized that Mr. D was right. Percy was thoughtful. He was probably the most caring person on the planet. Did Percy care about everyone like this, or just her? Selfishly, she sort of wanted it to be just her, but quickly decided that it couldn't be; he was like this with everyone. Annabeth wasn't special.

But she was incredibly lucky to have a boss like him.

"I'm... I don't think I want to leave."

Is it possible that Percy Jackson could save Olympus Auto with the power of love? God, would probably be a very cheesy thing to say.

"You don't?" Percy asked. "Please don't say that because of me. I mean, I want you here, duh, but I thought you were looking to further your career and all that. I won't lie and tell you I'll be able to help you with that, at least, not until I get settled as the new operator."

"No, it's not that," she said. "I thought the informalities and stuff here were bad, but now I'm realizing that people here care about each other. I don't think I'm going to get that at Jupiter."

"I'm sure they're plenty nice there."

Her next words slipped out involuntarily. "They're not you."

Percy dropped his smile. "Me?"

"Yes, you dork." Annabeth was becoming increasingly frustrated with him.

He sat back as if pondering this. "I thought you didn't like me."

"Percy, I'm just an asshole."

"So you don't hate me?"

"No," she said. "I don't hate you."

"But I thought you were a receptionist when you started," he said, leaning in. "That wasn't very cool."

She shrugged. "And then you shared your mom's cookies with me. That was pretty cool."

He chuckled, and then Annabeth realized how close he was. Was that the heating from the car on her cheeks, or his breath?

Then, she realized how she was leaning over the armrest, practically meeting him halfway.

If she leaned in a little closer...

"I have this really stupid idea," Percy said.

"Oh yeah?" she teased.

"Like, it would be really bad 'cause I'm your boss, and next week it'll be my name on your paycheck."

"Uh-huh." She smirked.

"And Leo and Frank might think I'm playing favorites."

"Not to mention that your boss's retirement party is going on inside," Annabeth added, "and it's not too late for him to fire you for..."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "For?"

Oh, what the hell? "This." Annabeth leaned in and kissed him right on the lips. It was a short kiss—no tongue at all—but there was something there. There was a spark, which is weird because Annabeth knew for a fact that Percy had no idea how to light a match.

They pulled away and he chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. That would be pretty stupid of us."

"Oh," she said. She crossed a line. Oh god, she was going to lose her job over something as stupid as-

"You know what would be even dumber?" he asked.

Her shoulders relaxed. It was fine. He was just playing along.

"I'm not sure I do know," she said, faking innocence. "Maybe you could give me a hint."

Percy cupped her jaw in his hand. He may not have been a mechanic like her, but his palm was hardened from work. She leaned into the touch, anticipating his next move.

He leaned forward, breaching the boundary created by the armrests.

She mirrored his movements, laying a hand against his bicep.

Their lips met in the middle again, only this time, the kiss was slow and intentional. Percy traced his tongue along Annabeth's bottom lip, almost asking permission to enter. She happily obliged, taking the opportunity to capture his lip between her teeth.

His reaction was instant; the hand not on her jaw shot up to the back of her head. He grabbed her hair and tugged slightly, causing her to fight back a moan. She clenched her hand around his bicep.

Their tongues pressed against each other in a way that she feared might turn the spark into a fire in their mouths.

Percy pulled back and wiped his mouth against the back of his palm. Only a thin ring of green outlined his dilated pupils.

Annabeth's mind raced with even worse ideas he could suggest. Climbing into the backseat? Maybe he'd just put his seat back and she could sit on his lap and tell him about all the dirty things she wanted to do to him. Heaven knows she wouldn't be able to stay patient while he put the seats down.

Percy cleared his throat, and Annabeth just about despaired. She didn't think she'd make it if he suggested they drive back to his house.

"Annabeth, I-"

Knock-knock-knock!

Percy's eyes widened, and he rolled down the window to reveal none other than Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the stripper Drew accidentally hired for Nico and Will's not-engagement party.

"Percy, I... Oh, is this a bad time?"

He looked at Annabeth. His raven hair was tousled and his lips were kiss-swollen. Yes, this is a bad time, she wanted to scream.

She shook her head. "Hey, Rachel, I can-"

"So I thought about what we talked about the other day," Rachel said, "and I decided that yes, I do want to be your girlfriend!" She leaned in and kissed Percy on the cheek.

Annabeth hoped she didn't flinch.

She slipped the steel ring off her finger and dropped it into the cupholder. "I'll give you guys some time to talk." She held the door so Rachel could get in the car.

"Ooh, nice and toasty; thanks, Annabeth! So nice to see you again!"

"Nice to see you too," she said the way you might tell someone you're sorry for their loss.

Rachel shut the door and hurriedly began speaking to Percy. She held his hand and smoothed out the wrinkles Annabeth had left in his shirt.

She didn't want to see any of this, she thought as she walked back toward her car. She didn't want to go back to the party and face everyone, even if they didn't know what she'd just done.

Annabeth allowed herself one glance back.

Percy's ocean-green eyes were still on her.

Yes, kissing Percy was a terrible idea.  

Chapter Text

A day in the life at Jupiter Auto Trader was as follows: Annabeth would come into work at nine in the morning, briefly greet Lavinia the receptionist, and then pray she didn't run into Octavian while making her way into the garage. She'd hang up her coat and get everything ready for the day. Assuming the closing mechanic, whom she'd never met, put everything away correctly, there wasn't much she needed to do to get ready.

She'd put her AirPods in since she wasn't allowed to play music on a speaker and then figure something out to do. For the most part, it was changing oil and replacing parts, but it kept her busy.

Her coworker, Beckendorf, would come in around ten, maybe ten-thirty if his wife wasn't feeling well, and they'd chat a little bit about this and that—did Annabeth do anything this weekend (no), how far along was the baby (Silena would go into labor any day now).

Beckendorf was a sweetie. It wasn't his fault that Annabeth was kind of miserable all the time.

It was just that Percy and Rachel posted a hard launch on Instagram the other day. Annabeth didn't know what that meant until she Googled it on the Urban Dictionary, but it sucked.

Sure, it was her own fault. Drew said that Percy was in a bit of a situationship with Rachel, and then Annabeth went ahead and kissed him anyway. Kissing your boss was never a good idea, especially if you knew your boss was already in a situationship with a stripper.

"When we went to the doctor's yesterday, I could hear the baby's heartbeat!" Beckendorf explained.

"Haven't you already heard that?" Annabeth asked.

"I mean, yeah, but it's just as magical every single time," he said. "Have you ever felt a baby kick before? It was crazy when I put my hand against Silena and felt it for the first time the other day; I can't imagine what it's like to have a baby kicking you from the inside!"

"Didn't you say Silena was due any day now?" Annabeth asked.

"Well," said Beckendorf, "technically, no. She's not due until March, but I want to be ready since I heard sometimes babies come early."

"Wow, you've really thought of everything," Annabeth deadpanned.

Beckendorf seemed to notice her lacking tone. "Sorry, I can go overboard with the baby stuff sometimes. I know it's not what everyone wants to hear about..."

"No!" Annabeth said, a little too quickly. "It's not that; I... I love how proud you are. You'll be an awesome father, and I'm happy to be a person you can talk about this with."

"Thanks," he said.

"I'm just kinda dealing with something right now," she explained. "I don't need to get into all of that, but I also shouldn't be taking it out on you." She meant it. Beckendorf was a nice guy who just wanted to talk about his future baby and Annabeth was raining on his parade by thinking too hard about her miserable love life.

Beckendorf put down his tools and wiped the sweat from his brow. "You can tell me about it. God knows I'm sick of the sound of my own voice these days."

Annabeth waved him off. "Don't even worry about it, Beck. You don't want to hear about it."

"Sure, I do."

"It's stupid."

"No, it's not," he said, spinning around in his chair. He folded his hands in his lap. "Tell me about it."

Annabeth shrugged. "Okay, but you're going to regret asking."

"No, I won't."

She had Beckendorf's undivided attention; this wasn't just a friendly conversation between coworkers. This guy genuinely wanted to know what was bothering Annabeth.

"So you know how I used to work at Olympus Auto?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, there was this guy that I sort of didn't like," she said, "and then I did like him, and we kissed-"

"Ooh," Beckendorf squealed. "Was he good?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, and then admitted, "He was fantastic."

"I'm sensing a 'but.'"

"A big one," Annabeth said. "He was my boss."

"Damn."

"And also..." She didn't quite know how to put this. "This other girl that he was talking to showed up like, immediately after and said she wanted to be his girlfriend."

"Oh. My. God."

"And she's a stripper."

Beckendorf shrugged. "Good for her?"

"Honestly, yeah. Good for her." For the millionth time, Annabeth had nothing against Rachel being a stripper. Sure, it was a bold if not taboo life choice, but if that was what Rachel wanted to do, Annabeth wasn't going to judge her for that, and she certainly wasn't going to judge Percy for being into that.

She was, however, going to blame Percy for the fact that she couldn't freely crush on the hot manager at Jupiter Auto Trader, not that she saw much of Reyna, anyway.

"So how do you feel?" Beckendorf asked, snapping Annabeth out of her thoughts.

She snorted. "Are you supposed to be my therapist?"

"You're avoiding the question."

Annabeth sat back in her seat and pondered that for a minute. How did she feel? Bad didn't seem to cover the half of it. She felt mad at Rachel for interrupting and mad at Percy for letting her kiss him even though he had feelings for Rachel. Hell, last night she even began to feel mad at Drew and Piper for convincing her to go to Mr. D's retirement party.

Mostly, though, she was mad at herself for thinking Percy's gift meant something. She was even more mad at herself for kissing him.

But Annabeth couldn't exactly explain all of that to her coworker whom she'd only known for a few weeks, so instead of all of that, she just said, "Not good."

Seemingly satisfied with her answer—or lack thereof—Beckendorf smiled and nodded, and for the first time, Annabeth missed his relentless chatter.

"So," she said, "did you get any new sonogram pictures yesterday?"

"Sure did!" Beckendorf said. He wheeled his chair over and started clicking through his phone.

Annabeth tried not to look, but she caught sight of a GPS app he still had open even though he'd been working here much longer than her.

"What's that?" she asked, ready to tease her coworker.

"Huh?" Beckendorf asked, quickly closing his email app. "I just..."

Fearing that she crossed a line, Annabeth said, "Sorry. It's okay. I'm bad with directions too."

"Oh, it's not that!" he said. "It's just, uh... I'm having some problems with my father-in-law right now. I get that Silena's his only daughter and he's feeling kind of protective, but sometimes it seems like he's stepping on my toes. Like, I wanted to pick out the furniture for the nursery with Silena, and the other week, her dad showed up with Ikea boxes!"

"I'm so sorry, Beck," Annabeth said.

"The other furniture isn't such a big deal, but I was building a changing table in the garage... I don't suppose you need one of those, do you?" he quipped.

Annabeth chuckled. "Yeah, I don't think so. I can ask around though."

"Oh!" he said. "Anyway, I can't confront him about it directly because that's really not what Silena needs right now, so I wrote an email!"

She raised an eyebrow. Really, Annabeth had no idea how sending an email was any better.

"I didn't send it though! That's the point," Beckendorf explained. "You write an email—or a letter, or a text message, I guess—with whatever you want to say to the person, and then you just delete it!"

"Huh," Annabeth said. "That makes sense. Did it help?"

He frowned. "I'm not exactly a hundred percent, but I feel better."

"That's good." Annabeth put her AirPods back in and went back to her work.

"Hey!" Beckendorf said, causing her to jump. "I just got a great idea!"

Finally, she accepted that there was no way she'd be able to work in peace. "What's that?"

"So, I was thinking—only if you want to, of course—that you could write an email to your boss you kissed!"

Annabeth gasped. "And then I could just not send it! Beckendorf, you're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Yeah!" she unlocked her phone and opened a new email to Percy. "Help me draft this."

"But they're your feelings."

Shit, he was right. "Okay then," she said. "Make sure this doesn't sound weird."

"Why?" he asked. "You're not actually sending it."

"Just... Just because." She read aloud as she typed. "Dear, Percy..."

Beckendorf interrupted. "Why are you calling him 'dear' if you're mad at him?"

"I'm not mad at him. I'm sad and mad... Like, disgruntled, upset, frustrated-"

"Smad."

"What?"

Beckendorf repeated himself. "Smad. Sad and mad."

Annabeth started her email again. "Percy—nothing else, just Percy, comma—I hope this email finds you well."

"But it isn't going to—never mind."

"My reason for not contacting you this morning is that I am very smad with you. Up until December at Mr. D's retirement party, I had reason to believe that our constant teasing meant you thought I was special. I have enjoyed our time together at Olympus. I liked eating your leftovers with you."

"You did what?" Beckendorf asked.

"His mom makes the best carnitas, man."
Beckendorf shrugged. "Go on."

"I liked the way that you stood up for me when Drew crossed a line, and how you said you were okay with me leaving for Jupiter Auto Trader even though I could tell it upset you. At least, I thought it upset you. Perhaps all of those things were done platonically, and if they were, it would have been perfectly acceptable, and totally my bad to believe that you did not mean them platonically. However, when you gave me the ring-"

"Hold up," said Beckendorf. "When he gave you the what now?"

Annabeth paused her not-email to explain. "He gave me this steel ring that he bought at a craft show and went into this whole explanation about how you don't usually buy jewelry for a girl you aren't seeing."

"Very true," said Beckendorf. "You're cool, but I wouldn't buy you a ring and mean it on a purely platonic level. I couldn't possibly expect you to take it that way. Then again, if a piece of jewelry made me think of a girl, I'd probably realize I was into her."'

Finally, someone who understood her! "Thank you, Beck!"

"Anytime," he said. "Does this mean we're friends now?"

"Yeah, alright."

Then, he urged her to go on.

Annabeth cleared her throat. "However, when you gave me the ring that night at the party, I thought that my feelings for you—which I only then realized I had—had indeed been returned. Only then did I trust you with my feelings, and seeing as you enthusiastically consented to our kissing, I came to the conclusion that you felt the same way about me."

Beckendorf snapped in reply. "I like how that sounded."

"Thanks," she said. "I want you to know that I in no way blame Rachel for any of what happened. I support her career choice wholeheartedly, and it's not her fault that she's a very attractive woman."

"You're going to have to show me a picture of this girl," said Beckendorf.

Annabeth looked up from her phone long enough to say, "Your wife would not want you looking at a stripper's Instagram."

"Okay."

"I do, however, blame your audacity to kiss me when you had feelings for Rachel. That wasn't fair to either of us, and I honestly considered telling her about it for a while. I hope that you told her because she deserves to know. I also blame your audacity for buying me such an intimate present while you were actively pursuing another woman. Such gifts are reserved only for girls you want to date-"

"People," said Beckendorf. "Make it gender-neutral."

"People you want to date," Annabeth corrected. "I hope you know that the way you made me feel that night has caused me to lose ties with most of the friends I made at Olympus, and that my self-esteem, which was already on the floor, is now underground. I know I'm not a conventionally attractive person-"

"Hey, now," said Beckendorf. "You are super hot."
"In a bisexual mechanic way."

"Aww, thanks for trusting me with that information."

"We are friends now, apparently," Annabeth said.

"But for real, you are an attractive person," said Beckendorf.

She waved off his concern. "Okay, so I'd rate myself a generous nine from the eyes of a queer woman, but from a man's? I'm like, a six. Maybe a five in harsh lighting."

"I never thought about it that way before."

"Most people haven't," Annabeth said. "I'm going to continue dramatically reading this out loud while writing it."

"This whole conversation feels like someone's closet drama," Beckendorf said. "Like, I feel like we're two sides of the same coin working out someone else's internal struggles shielded as silly sitcom-esque drama."

"It is weird, isn't it?" she agreed. "Anyway, I was going to finish the email by saying that I probably would have stayed at Olympus had it not been for Percy treating me like that, and then signing it with something snarky."

Beckendorf said, "Just say 'best.' I feel like no insult is the worst insult of all."

She nodded and wrote that into her email. "I like that. All done!"

"Can I see the final product before we delete it?" he asked.

"Sure." Annabeth showed him her phone.

He already knew what was in the email, but he reacted to the written words as if reading them for the first time. "Awesome," he said aloud while continuing to scroll. Finally, he passed the phone back. "This is just perfect. Feeling better?"

"Actually, yeah. I think I'm ready to hit delete on—Oops." She and Beckendorf scrambled to catch the phone before it hit the ground.

"Got it," he said. "That was a close one. Oh. Oh my god."

"What?" Annabeth asked.

Beckendorf stood with his mouth open for a minute and then said, "Please don't be mad."

"Beckendorf, what is it?"

"I will totally understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore, but let me just say, this was the best fifteen-minute friendship I've ever had."
"You're freaking me out, man," Annabeth said, even though she already had an inkling of what happened.

Beckendorf showed her the phone's screen. Yep. It was just as Annabeth feared.

The email was sent.

"I am so, so sorry," Beckendorf said.

"We have to fix this," Annabeth said, taking the phone from her coworker whom she for some reason still considered her friend. "I can't believe I'm about to do this."

"Correction," said Beckendorf. "You can't believe we're about to do this."

She stammered, "Beck, I appreciate it, but you don't have to break into Percy's office with me."

He scoffed. "Of course, I have to help; I was the one that pushed the—Did you say we're going to break into Percy's office?"

"Yeah."

"In that case, I am absolutely in."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Beckendorf, we just became friends. You barely know me. You do not have to break into my former boss's office with me."

He shrugged. "I know that your life is more interesting than an episode of New Girl and that pulling off a heist at eleven in the morning is way more interesting than putting my egg salad sandwich in the vent so it makes Octavian gag while he's with customers."

"That's you?" Annabeth asked.

He nodded. "So, heist?"

"Heist."

Chapter Text

If you'd asked Annabeth yesterday if she'd ever thought she'd end up back at Olympus Automotive, she would have laughed in your face because why would she subject herself to that kind of torture?

Yet there she was on that cold day in late January, wearing a matching black outfit with her coworker-turned-friend who only went by his last name. What even was Beckendorf's first name? Annabeth realized that she had no idea.

"Hey," she whispered. "If I'm your friend now, do I get to know what your first name is?"

He chuckled. "The only person who calls me by my first name is my Grandma Beckendorf, my Mama Beckendorf, and also Silena."

"Silena's dad calls you by your last name?"

"Silena's dad doesn't call me anything."

Awkward. Moving on. "So heist."

"Yeah," said Beckendorf. "How do we get in? I mean, they're open. They'll spot you."

"You'll go in first as a distraction," she explained. "Talk to the salespeople, especially Drew. She'd love to stir a pot."

"Okay," said Beckendorf.

"And while you do that, I'll slip into Percy's office and delete the email. He never locks the door or turns off his computer." That was quite ironic, Annabeth thought, because Jupiter Auto Trader just made all of its employees complete an online data security training. Every time she got a question right, the computer program told her YOU'RE COMPLIANT instead of something generic like GREAT JOB.

"Okay," said Beckendorf. "I'll pretend to be a future father searching for a family-friendly vehicle that'll still make me look like a badass."

Annabeth gasped. "A vehicle like that doesn't exist. Beck, you're a genius!"

"No problem," he said. "In we go?"

She nodded.

Beckendorf led the way. The automatic doors entered slowly, and immediately, he was bombarded with car salespeople trying to make a decent commission.

"Hi!" Will chirped. "Welcome to Olympus Auto! Your chariot awaits, my friend!"

Piper chimed in. "Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you're looking for."

"I've got this," Drew said, practically pushing the others out of the way.

The salespeople were busy, Nico looked like he was playing MythoMagic behind the reception desk, and Leo and Frank were likely in the garage. Since it was a little after eleven, Percy was probably outside calling his mom. Perfect.

Annabeth scurried past the employees and rushed to the back to find Percy's office. She wondered what he might have done to change it up since officially taking ownership of Olympus Auto. She figured there would probably be more pictures of his mom and stepdad and demonic half-sister, Estelle. The miniature refrigerator would probably be filled with regular Coke instead of Diet too.

"What are you doing?"

"Annabeth?"

She turned around, only to come face-to-face with Frank and Leo.

"Hey, guys," she said sheepishly.

"That guy that's talking up Drew and the others represented Jupiter Auto Trader at the mechanic convention a few weeks ago," said Frank. "What's going on?"

"Do you need us to get Percy?" Leo asked. "Because we can do that."

"No!" Annabeth stammered. "I mean..." There had to be an easier way of going about this. She sighed. "I fucked up, guys."

And then she explained... most of it. How she wrote the therapeutic email airing her grievances to Percy and then accidentally hit send. She left out the part about them kissing.

"Oh, shit," Frank said. "Yeah, I wouldn't want Percy reading something like that either."

Leo agreed. "I don't want to deal with Percy after he reads an email bashing him."

"I mean, that too, but I was trying to put it a little gentler," Frank said. "We can be your lookouts."

"And Percy definitely isn't in here?" Annabeth asked.

Both of the mechanics nodded.

"Perfect. Now let me in before he checks his email."

"You'll want this," Leo said, passing her a key.

Annabeth was sure she gave him a confused look. "Percy locks his office now?"

"Since he got together with Rachel," said Leo.

"Thanks, guys," Annabeth said.

Frank nodded. "Anytime. Hopefully, we can meet up under different circumstances sometime soon."

Much to her surprise, she found herself agreeing with him. She missed these guys.

Leo checked to see that the coast was clear and then gave Annabeth a thumbs-up.

She put the key into the lock and then slipped into the dark office. The curtains were drawn, which was weird because Annabeth remembered Percy enjoying natural light, and also those curtains were an atrocious shade of coral.

The rug on the ground was replaced with a shaggy one, also coral-colored. It almost looked like it belonged in a freshman girl's dorm room. All this room needed was a-

"Shit," she swore as she bumped into a Keurig machine. There it was. Was this even Percy's office?

"What are you doing here?"

Annabeth jumped, and a light turned on, revealing none other than Rachel Elizabeth Dare sitting in Percy's desk chair, with her feet up on Percy's desk. She wiped her eyes. Oh, god, was she sleeping in Percy's office? Annabeth had long accepted that Percy and Rachel were happily together, but she didn't think she'd have to see it amidst her heist.

And of course, in typical Annabeth fashion, she deflected. "What are you doing here?"

"Eating lunch with my boyfriend because he works days and I work nights. Duh," she said.

"Huh." That... made a lot of sense. "But you're sleeping in here."

"Hello? I work nights." Rachel turned her attention to her fingernails. "I'm sure you wouldn't understand."

"Hey now!" Annabeth shouted because god damn, nobody got to tell her what she did and didn't understand. Except... "Okay, well, I've never worked nights, so I don't actually know what that whole aspect of your job is like, but I never judged you!"

Rachel cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm serious!" she insisted. "I would never judge anyone for that. I can't even touch my toes and here you are in the splits half the time. Besides, it would be hypocritical of me to judge you when I've literally paid for lap dances before."

Rachel chuckled. "Well, thanks?"

"You're welcome."

"So you're here because..." she prompted.

Annabeth bit her lip and then sighed. "Look, I'd rather you didn't tell him, and I might be too late anyway-"

"You like Percy."

"What?" Annabeth exclaimed, hoping the surprise was enough to cover any feelings she had yet to squash. "No. That's crazy. You're crazy."

"Annabeth, he's the only leftist guy I've met who isn't a total misogynist, and he has six-pack abs. Who wouldn't want that?"

Memories of Percy's white shirt wet from water balloons at the carwash fundraiser back in the fall flooded Annabeth's brain. God, that shirt was practically see-through! "I... I see your point," she said, "but that's not it! I mean-"

"Can I give you some free advice?" Rachel asked.

"I guess?"

"You should unclasp the right side of your overalls. No, the left! Definitely the left."

Annabeth entertained this idea while she was still on her ex-boss's new girlfriend's good side. "Better?"

"Yeah, I like that. It's a little less cutesy."

"Thanks," she said, and she meant it. Usually, people who mean well try to change up her entire style. Rachel was working with Annabeth's comfort zone.

Rachel smiled. "Anytime. So what is it you're here for?"

Annabeth did not want to ruin a budding friendship with a stripper. "To see you, actually! Yeah, I was wondering if you could give me more advice like that. You're just so cool and you have a unique style, and lately, I have had no... no..."

"Rizz?" Rachel supplied.

"Rizz." As much as she hated that word, Annabeth had to agree. Besides, she wasn't exactly lying. She wasn't exactly seeing a light at the end of her dry-spell tunnel. Rachel, however, had a lot of rizz—hence, why she was able to pull a guy like Percy—and probably had a plethora of advice to share with nonthreatening anxious bisexuals such as Annabeth.

Plus, Rachel, whom Annabeth had only ever seen in a winter coat and scandalous lingerie before this moment, was sitting at Percy's desk wearing paint-splattered jeans and a horizontally striped sweater with pet hair all over it. There had to be some kind of secret to being yourself and super hot at the same time.

"I mean, a lot of it is just confidence," she said. "Like, I tried to have a glow-up back in high school after I got my braces off; I thought that maybe if I covered my freckles, then boys would ask me out more, but I just looked like a raccoon with foundation caked onto my face, and besides..." She held up her hands. "I have freckles everywhere. There's no hiding these."

"So what did you do?" Annabeth asked, partially out of curiosity, and partially out of a need to keep Rachel talking.

She shrugged. "Nothing. Or at least, I didn't think so. I went no-contact with my dad and needed a way to pay for art school, so I watched some YouTube videos, did a little practicing on a sculpture I made a while back—super awkward—and then I got a job and kind of worked my way up. I didn't realize it, but that kind of confidence really helped me in the romance department, even with people who don't know I'm a sex worker."

Annabeth thought about that for a minute. It made sense. Of course, being confident with your sexuality would give you confidence. Who knew that was something people were into?

"Hey, I just got a great idea!" Rachel said.

The last time someone presented a great idea to Annabeth, she ended up sending a super embarrassing email to her former boss, so it was within reason for her to be a little wary of any more new ideas.

But she needed to tough this out. Once she got past Rachel, she could get to the computer and delete that heinous email before Percy got off the phone with his mom.

Rachel said, "Obviously, you don't have to say yes if-"

"I'll do it," said Annabeth. "Whatever it is, I'll do it."

She pursed her lips. Oh no, did Annabeth come on too strong? She might have looked suspicious. If she comes off too suspicious, then Rachel won't want to pass along her wise stripper knowledge and Percy will inevitably see the email.

"What are your favorite songs?" Rachel asked.

"Oh, that's easy," Annabeth said. "Pretty much anything by Metallica."

Rachel blinked. "Uh, okay, we can make that work." She connected her phone to a conveniently located Bluetooth speaker and the acoustic intro to "Enter Sandman" started to play.

"You know, I've seen Metallica in concert a couple of times," Annabeth said. "They're really good."

"Cool, so hopefully this doesn't ruin them for you," Rachel said. "Have you ever given a lap dance before?"

Annabeth choked on some saliva and then remembered that she agreed to this, so she just said, "No, I can't say I have."

"That's okay!" she chirped. She got up from the desk and urged Annabeth out of her seat. "We'll use this one since it doesn't have any armrests." She sat down in the chair, and Annabeth prayed that she wouldn't be able to see the embarrassment rushing to her face.

The electric guitar kicked in and Annabeth kind of just stood there. Did Rachel want her to...

"Let your hair down," she said. "Hairflips are my go-to filler move. Plus, they're a great way to cool down."

Thankful that she'd worn her hair in a ponytail that day, Annabeth pulled the elastic from her curls and gave it a half-assed go.

"There ya go!" Rachel said even though Annabeth knew she was absolute shit at this. "Add in some hips!"

"Uh..."

"You know, you kinda look like you're hula-hooping," Rachel noted as the lyrics kicked in. "Just feel the music. Yeah! You can come a little closer if you're comfortable."

Exit light, Enter night...

Annabeth inched closer to Rachel and wondered what Percy would think of her low-key gyrating on his new girlfriend. Then she supposed that Percy would have to be comfortable with a lot of things if he were going to have a healthy relationship with a stripper.

"Woo!" Rachel shouted. "Get it!"

By the time the guitar solo came around, Annabeth was feeling it. Perhaps she was a little clumsy, but she felt good. She was having a good time. Rachel seemed to be having a good time. Everything was alright.

Everything was alright, that is until it wasn't.

"Hey, Rachel! Sorry that took so long! My mom couldn't find—Annabeth?" Percy asked.

Annabeth slowly backed away from Rachel and gave Percy a shy wave. "Hey..."

"What are you doing... in my office... giving a lap dance... to my... girlfriend...?"

Rachel chimed in. "Relax, Percy, I'm just showing her a thing or two."

She knew that she was only trying to help, but something about Rachel saying that to someone else made it seem so much worse.

Rachel cleared her throat. "Percy, I'll meet you in the car, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

She took care to close the door behind her.

Percy rubbed his temples. "Annabeth, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain-"

"Then don't. Let's just never talk about this again."

Never talk about it again? That would be easy. Annabeth hadn't talked to Percy at all since December.

Still, his ability to just let something wild like that go was really sweet, and the fish charm on his phone case seemed to be new, which was also really sweet, and dammit, Annabeth missed this guy.

"You can go," he said finally. "I'm not your boss."

And there came the waterworks. "But I want you to be," she said, her voice cracking.

"Oh," said Percy. "Oh, shit, you're crying. Shit." He opened a desk drawer and retrieved a roll of paper towels for her. They scratched against her nose but it was better than getting snot all over Percy's newly decorated office.

"Sorry," Annabeth said.

"It's okay," he said, taking his shoes off and setting them in the corner of the office.

She snickered. "Did you just take your shoes off?"

"Rachel says that the dirt from the garage would be awful for the pastel carpet, whatever that means," Percy said. "Sit down? I can make you something in the Keurig, but you're going to have to use my Ramen bowl because Rachel says the mugs she painted for me are for display only. Maybe holding pens, but even that sounded like a stretch."

"Thanks. I'm alright though."

"Okay," Percy said. "I have some carnitas in the fridge if you-"

"Fuck. Yes."

Percy put the container in his microwave. "So, we don't have to hash this out now because I'm sensing that emotions are kind of high, but if you wanted to come back to Olympus, you're more than welcome. Hell, your information still hasn't been deleted from our system. Nico said it was automatic, but I think he's just holding out for you to come back."

Annabeth sniffled and swallowed some of her food. "That would be nice."

"Just think about it, okay?" Percy said. "I want you to make this decision when you're... you know, not crying."

She nodded.

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually, yes. Yes, there is." It was finally time for Annabeth to complete her mission. "So I accidentally sent an email to you this morning, and I was hoping that maybe we could just delete it and forget about the whole thing."

"Oh, yeah, totally," he said, unlocking his phone and handing it to her. "I haven't checked my email since early this morning, so whatever secret you're keeping is safe."

She swiped on the email and his phone made a little vibration as it moved to his trash can. Just to be safe—and also because she was incredibly paranoid—she went to his trash folder and deleted the email for good. The relief washed over her like a tsunami.

"Thanks," she said, passing the phone back to Percy.

"I do hope you'll consider my offer though," he said. "I can't find a new mechanic that Leo doesn't hate. I know Olympus isn't really in a good place for me to give you a raise, but I'll bring you lunch every day, and you can even eat it in my office with me and Rachel."

"I'll think about it," Annabeth said even though she already knew her final answer. Besides, lunch meat was expensive, and she'd rather not struggle with the withdrawal from Percy's mom's carnitas any longer.

Percy smiled. "You can hang out in here for a minute if you need to."

"Thank you, but I should go rescue Beckendorf. We've gotta get back to Jupiter before Octavian realizes we're gone," she said, getting up and grabbing the door knob. She turned to address Percy one more time before heading out. "Thanks for everything, though. See you around."

"Hopefully sooner than later," he said.

Annabeth closed the door and headed back into the lobby, where Beckendorf was stalling.

"Gee, I don't know about this pen either," he said to Nico. "Do you have another one?"

"Oh my gods, just sign your name," Will whined.

"Beck!" Annabeth called. "You ready, family man?"

"Aww, yeah!" He dropped the pen and rushed to catch up with Annabeth. "You're going back, aren't you?" he asked.

"How did you know?" Annabeth said.

"Not that I haven't loved having you around, but these people..." he said. "They're your people. This is your place."

"Thanks, Beckendorf."

He patted her on the back. "I should be thanking you! I finally realized that the fake email thing was a bad idea. I'm just going to confront Silena's dad. I made that changing table myself, and it's not going to go with the eggshell color he picked out for the nursery. Eggshell! Can you believe it, Annabeth? What kind of kid deserves to grow up in a plain white bedroom?"

"What color are you thinking then?" she asked.

"I was thinking yellow or pink, except probably yellow because Silena and I decided to keep the sex a surprise. Shopping for clothes later on is going to be interesting 'cause..."

As Beckendorf rambled on, Annabeth realized how thankful she was that she had at least one friend at Jupiter Auto Trader all these weeks, but also that she was even more thankful that everyone at Olympus was her friend. Hell, they were her family. She should have known better than to leave that family behind.  

Chapter Text

Annabeth hated Valentine's Day just as much as the next anxious bisexual mechanic, which meant she hated it a hell of a lot. She'd also been single for far too long, and when that happened to her, she sort of turned salty on couples. People who were happy and dating each other made her blood boil. Disgusting. How dare people show public displays of affection?

So on that particular day, she was desperately trying to avoid eating Chipotle in Percy's office with him and Rachel. She'd already heard one too many jokes about Percy and Rachel being her work parents, and she also simply was not in the mood to help them plan the perfect Valentine's Day date.

"Seriously, guys, I don't want to impose on your holiday," Annabeth insisted. "I'm happy to just go eat with Frank and Leo." Even though Leo would steal chicken out of her burrito bowl when she wasn't looking, it would be worth it to leave. Anything would be worth it if she could escape lunch with her boss and her boss's girlfriend.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Rachel chirped. "We love having you around, Work Daughter!"

Annabeth's fork broke in her burrito bowl.

"So if the Titanic showing starts at nine, do you want to make dinner reservations for seven?" Percy asked, showing Rachel something on his computer.

"That works, but where do we even go?" she asked. "Annabeth, do you know any good places?"

"Percy's mom's house," she said automatically. "I mean, I've never actually been there, but the food is fantastic."

"Aww, that's a shame," Rachel said. "I was going to ask you what they're hiding there that Percy won't show me."

Percy sighed. "I told you, Rachel, I would love for my mom to meet you, but she gets attached to the people I date, even when she hasn't met them. I don't want to subject you to that until I know we're ready for that step."

She pouted but seemed to relent because she changed the subject right then and there. "So I did a bachelor party last night."

"How'd it go?" Percy asked.

"I was just getting to that part, silly! I was just talking with the groom-to-be about—you know—boundaries and stuff, and this guy came up and asked me what I was doing after the party," she explained.

Percy frowned. "Guys are gross."

"It's okay though!" Rachel said. "I played dumb."

"Was it hard?" Annabeth thought she said that in her head. That was an inside thought. That was not something she should have said to her boss's girlfriend in front of her boss, especially when the girlfriend was so nice.

Rachel dropped Percy's hand and said, "I actually have to go pick up my dry cleaning. See you tonight?"

"Can't wait," Percy said.

Rachel kissed him on the cheek and then left.

Annabeth buried her head in her hands. "I should apologize to Rachel."

Percy shrugged. "I don't think it's that big of a deal. Rachel's pretty quick to forgive and forget. Besides, she really did have to pick up her dry cleaning. Is it wrong that I'm excited? Because I am so excited. I probably shouldn't be telling you those details of my life, though."

Annabeth crinkled her nose. "You think?"

"Sorry," Percy said, giving her a sheepish smile.

"No, I'm sorry," said Annabeth. "I get kind of grouchy on Valentine's Day. It's such a stupid greeting card holiday. Like, shouldn't partners make each other feel special every day?"

He raised an eyebrow. "No date?"

"Not in a long time," she confessed.

"I get that," said Percy. "Being alone on Valentine's Day sucks."

She jumped. "I mean, I'm not sad or anything. I'll probably get wine-drunk and watch WrestleMania. Not a bad evening in my book."

He raised an eyebrow and then made one of those faces that let Annabeth know he pitied her. "You sure?" he asked.

"Yes," she said through a forced smile. "I'm sure."

"Hey!" he said. "I've got an idea!"

The last time someone had an idea, Annabeth ended up in a compromising position in her boss's office. She'd rather not find herself in that kind of situation again. "That's okay, Percy. I'm looking forward to a night in-"

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I would love to set you up. I know some other single people so if you just let me know what kind of person you're looking for, I could-"

"I'm alright," she said. "Thanks."

He shrugged. "Just let me know if you change your mind. I know this guy who is just the funniest, and my mom says it's important to find a partner who can make you laugh."

"That's really nice, but-"

"You know where to go when you change your mind," Percy said, "and you really should consider it because I know someone who is so much fun to be around, so even if you don't hit it off, you'll have a great night."

"I promise, I will let you know," she said.

"Perfect," he said. "Now that that's over with, I need some advice. I think Rachel and I are finally going to do it tonight if you know what I mean."

Oh no.

Percy continued, "And I was wondering since you guys are kind of friends... If you could tell me what I should be doing. I want to get this right; she probably has a lot more experience in that department than me, so if you could just-"

"You know what?" Annabeth asked. "I think I hear Leo calling me. Yeah, I should probably get back to the garage. Bye, Percy!" And with that, she ran off, leaving most of her lunch in the office, not that she had the stomach to hold it between Percy's proposition and his mushy relationship.

***

Annabeth regretted leaving her lunch behind in Percy's office. She was starving and had to accept the consequences.

"Seriously, I don't think that counts as a balanced meal," Frank said. "Just order DoorDash."

"No!" she insisted, taking another handful of Leo's Hot Tamales candies. Her mouth was on fire from the cinnamon spice. This was her lunch now.

Leo groaned. "But that was my candy from my Valentine!"

"Leo," Annabeth said. "You are aroace."

"Nobody can love me like I love myself," he said. "I gotta treat myself sometimes."

Annabeth clenched her fists. "You can treat yourself whenever you want, Leo! You don't need an excuse to love yourself!"

Leo's eyes widened as if Annabeth had just slapped him or something.

Frank cleared his throat and broke the silence. "I got Hazel a gift certificate to Color-Me-Mine so we can go paint a bowl together before we get dinner tonight, and then it should be ready to pick up by the time we've finished dessert at her favorite macaron shop."

"That's kinda stupid," Leo said. "Don't most people buy their girlfriends those Pandora charm bracelets?"

"I think I would commit arson if someone got me a Pandora charm bracelet," Annabeth said.

"You don't count; you hate love," said Leo.

"I do not!"

Frank muttered, "You've kind of told us about how it's a greeting card holiday and how you think chocolates are kinda gross all day."

"I didn't say that all chocolate is gross," Annabeth said. "I'm just saying that the chocolates from Target Valentine's Day boxes with pictures of like, Batman or something on them are gross. Also, they're totally thoughtless!"

"What if your girlfriend likes Batman?" Frank asked. "Then maybe she'd like Batman chocolates."

"Leo likes Batman," said Leo, referring to himself in the third person for some reason. "Maybe I should get him Batman chocolates."

Annabeth groaned. "You guys are not getting it."

"You know you can be upset about not having a date, right?" Frank asked. "This is my first time having a date in years, so I know how it feels to be lonely on Valentine's Day."

"I am not lonely," Annabeth said. "I just think that Valentine's Day is stupid. End of story."

Fortunately, Frank and Leo didn't get the chance to respond. Unfortunately, it was because an overly chipper Will Solace opened the garage's side door and shouted to them in a way that made Annabeth suspect he was a cheerleader in high school. "Hey, guys! Can you come up to the lobby for a few minutes? I promise it's really important!"

Spoiler alert: It was not important.

Annabeth and the guys followed Will up the steps and into the lobby, where Drew and Piper were whispering to each other. An unsuspecting Nico sat behind the reception desk, sorting through some paperwork he was behind on.

Will cleared his throat. "Okay, everyone! It's Valentine's Day, a.k.a. the one day of the year when I can make a complete fool of myself and everyone will think it's cute!" He gestured to Percy, who was sweeping the floor. "Hit it!"

Percy hit a button on a boombox, and suddenly the lobby was flooded with customers who weren't actually shopping for cars. Will led the mob, front and center, with Drew and Piper on either side of him.

It was Annabeth's worst nightmare.

It was a flash mob.

"Honeybee" by Blake Shelton blasted through some obnoxious speakers while Will and the dancers broke into a two-step. Where did that cowboy hat come from? Why did Will own a cowboy hat?

Annabeth looked at Leo, who seemed to be enjoying the spectacle despite his least favorite genre of music. Frank didn't seem to hate it either.

Nico was blushing from behind the desk. Annabeth didn't know that was something he was able to do. He was going to be so mad when the song ended. This was not Nico's thing. He hated this kind of attention.

Will slid across the freshly waxed floor on his knees and threw his hat in the air as the song ended. "I love you, Nico di Angelo!" he shouted.

Nico froze for a minute, and Annabeth braced herself to witness a couple's squabble. The flash mob might become more interesting than the WrestleMania she was going to watch that night.

At last, Nico stood up. "You know this is the kind of thing that makes me all uncomfortable..." he said, "but dammit, I love that song, and I love you too, Will!" He ran out from behind the desk and yanked his boyfriend to his feet by his sparkly tie. Will put his cowboy hat over their faces so their audience couldn't see them kissing.

"I don't think I've ever seen Nico's legs before," Frank said.

"I can't believe he isn't throwing hands," said Annabeth.

Leo shrugged. "Maybe I should do something like that for Leo."

Frank said, "You definitely should not."

"It was so sweet though," Leo continued while they walked back to the garage. "Maybe I just want everyone to know how much I love myself."

"We already do," Annabeth said.

"Your opinion doesn't count," Leo said. "You're sort of a Valentine's Day asshole."

"Hey!" She looked at Frank.

Frank winced and then shrugged. Even the nicest guy at work thinks that!

"Hey, you know what we could do instead of working?" Leo asked. "We could make a Hinge profile for Annabeth."

"Do we even have post-worthy pictures of her?" Frank asked.

Leo shrugged. "Who cares? We can just steal them from her Instagram. I'm thinking the one of her at the Metallica concert is definitely in."

"I will block you on Instagram if you don't stop talking about this," Annabeth interjected.

Leo passed a cardboard box to Annabeth. "Go fix the minivan while Frank and I work our magic."

"No magic is going to be worked," she said, taking the box. She climbed into the van and started dissembling the last AC unit they tried to put in.

"What would you say your ideal date is?" Leo asked.

"No."

Frank put his fingers against his chin. "Probably a concert, right?"

"I was just gonna say WrestleMania and chill."

"Do you even know what that means?"

Annabeth tried to tune the guys out while she worked on the van, twisting some wires together just so.

"Here's a nice picture," Frank said.

"That looks like a LinkedIn headshot!" Leo shouted. "Absolutely not!"

Annabeth put her AirPods in and cranked up her music. She couldn't take any more of this. She let herself get lost in her work for hours while Frank and Leo fucked around on Hinge. Little did they know that she already tried Hinge. And Tinder. And Bumble. Dating apps just didn't work out well for her. If her profile was set to no gender preference, it would only show men. If she had it set to women only, it showed couples looking for a third, straight women who were looking for a gay friend, and men for some reason.

There was one time she found a woman, but when she found the courage to send her a message, all she got in reply was "420? I bet I can out-smoke you."

Annabeth did not smoke.

Seeing as the new air conditioner that Leo got on the side of the road wasn't compatible with this minivan, Annabeth got to work taking it out, untwisting wires, and blowing on the cartridges. What was she supposed to do with it now? Put it back on the side of the road?

"Hey, Annabeth!" Frank shouted. "Can you check your text messages and confirm your number for your Hinge account?"

"No," she said. "Guys, I appreciate the thought, but I'm fine. I have a nice night planned-"

"With Moscato and WrestleMania, we know," Leo said, "but according to this app, you have hundreds of matches just waiting to meet you!"

"I'm pretty sure it goes down to like, twelve once you filter out people whose names start with the letter J," Annabeth said. "Seriously, just let it go." She wiped her hands on a towel and tucked a loose curl into one of her braids. Her light makeup was probably running from the heat of the garage, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. It wasn't like she had a date anyway.

"Hey!"

"Ah!" Annabeth jumped. "Percy, hey, what are you doing here? I was just heading out for the night."

"Just wanted to thank you for the advice," he said. "I think Rachel and I are going to have a really nice night." He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah, of course," she said, not that she gave him any advice. Maybe this was an excuse for him to brag that he was getting laid and she was not.

"Do you want me to move your car into the garage?" asked Percy.

Annabeth furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would you do that?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if you'd want it sitting out in the open all night."

"Percy, I'm going home."

He chuckled. "Oh! That's what I forgot to tell you! Yeah, so Connor is here for your date."

She choked on some saliva. "What?"

"Annabeth, you could have told us that was why you didn't want us to make you a Hinge profile," said Frank. "Have so much fun on your date tonight!"

Leo punched Frank in the arm. "She probably didn't tell us 'cause she's nervous! I know I'm nervous about my hot date tonight!"

"Leo, you just told me you're taking yourself to see Rocky Horror," Frank said.

Percy ignored all of this and said, "C'mon, give me your keys and go freshen up."

"Percy, I'm not dressed for a date," Annabeth said. She wasn't wearing anything cute, she didn't shave her legs last night like she planned to, and she already had a date with her Dollar General Moscato!

"Oh, you don't need to dress up," Percy explained. "Connor's taking you somewhere casual. Drinks, maybe some dinner if you guys are up to it. I think you'll hit it off. He's funny."

"What's his last name?" Leo said, pulling up Instagram on his phone.

"Stoll," said Percy.

"Got him. He's cute. At least, I think so."

Frank looked over Leo's shoulder. "Is that a twin brother?"

"That's his older brother, Travis," Percy said. "He and I are friends from business school. He wanted to set Connor up for a Valentine's Day date just as bad as we wanted to set up Annabeth!"

"Do you wanna see?" Leo asked, holding his phone out for Annabeth to see.

"No," she said. "I am not going on this date!"

"But Connor..."

"Is a victim of circumstance," she said.

"He's also here," Frank said, looking out the window. "He drives an F-150."

An F-150? A somewhat environmentally friendly truck? That's not so bad. Annabeth was worried he'd show up in like, a Corvette or something. She couldn't ever date a guy who drove a sports car.

"What's he look like?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh. My. God," Leo said. "Metallica t-shirt. Ripped jeans."

Frank looked like he was about to tear up. "He's perfect."

"Guys, I can't see," she complained.

"Please, give him a chance, Annabeth," Percy said.

Leo nodded. "We'll stall him while you go to the bathroom and... do girl stuff!"

Annabeth groaned. "Fine, I'll go, but not for you guys. I'm only doing this because Connor made the trip out here and it would be rude of me to stand him up."

Frank shrugged. "Well that's not the spirit but it's a spirit."

Instead of entertaining the guys any further, she turned around and slumped off to the bathroom, because now she supposed it did matter that her makeup was a little runny.  

Chapter Text

When she emerged from the bathroom, Leo gave Annabeth a look that said, Really? That's the best you could do?

The truth was, yes, it was the best she could do to freshen up for her impromptu date. Without a change of clothes or a decent mirror, all she could do was wipe away her smudgy eyeliner and let her hair out of its braids. Her work hairstyle wasn't exactly first-date material.

She shrugged her leather jacket on while Percy introduced them. "Cool, so Connor, this is Annabeth. Annabeth, Connor."

"Nice to meet you," she said, holding out her hand.

Only when he accepted her handshake did she look up at him. He was a little on the skinny side, but nowhere near as scrawny as Leo. His brown curls were cut close on the sides, and a little longer on top. He had one silver stud on his left ear and chipped black nail polish on his fingernails.

And Leo and Frank were right. He was wearing a Metallica t-shirt. Where did this guy even come from?

"It's nice to meet you too," Connor said.

"Well, I won't keep you," said Percy. "Do you have everything, Annabeth? Coat, wallet, keys?"

"Yeah, I do," she said, exasperated. Maybe under different circumstances, she'd be more willing to go on a date with a needle in a haystack of a man like Connor, but with the pressure of the entire staff being in on this plan, it wasn't exactly enticing.

"Do you care if we just drive together?" Connor said when they got into the parking lot. "My truck has seat heaters. Everyone loves seat heaters."

"Uh, sure." The truth is, Annabeth would have preferred to ride separately. She'd probably be preoccupied the whole night worrying about getting back into the garage for her Mini Cooper.

She opened the passenger side door to Connor's F-150 and climbed into the seat. He put the key into the ignition and the seat warmers kicked in right away.

"It also has a steering wheel warmer," he said.

"Cool." She needed something else to say. "So you already know what I do. What do you do?"

"What do I do?"

"For a living."

"I'm a wedding planner."

He was a what? "That's cool. How'd you get into that?"

"I was one of those kids who had a wedding Pinterest board slowly collecting ideas throughout middle and high school. Of course, I would never do half of those now. Like, why would anybody want their dog to walk down the aisle? I can't say no—it's not my special day—but I can at least warn my clients. Dogs are so... unpredictable. They pee in the venue, people have allergies, and you really can't trust them to walk in a straight line. Plus, the old people kind of hate it when dogs sub for the flower girl or the ring bearer. Oh my god, I just ranted to you about my special interest. Your turn."

"That's okay!" Annabeth said. "I like hearing people talk about things they're passionate about."

"So you do that," he said.

Honestly? Annabeth was worried that if she started talking, she would run out of things to say at dinner.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Shit, I should have checked with you first," Connor said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Rainforest Cafe?"

This was about to be the weirdest first date Annabeth had ever gone on, and she was kind of into it. Well, she was into the prospect of a lava cake. The animatronics, she could have gone without.

"Yeah, that sounds alright," she said.

"Perfect." Connor put the turn signal on and steered the truck off the freeway. "Do you like music?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm pretty into Metallica."

"You're just saying that 'cause I'm wearing this t-shirt."

"I would never! I've seen them in concert twice!"

Connor chuckled. "Sure, but do you have a Metallica tattoo?"

Wait. "Do you?"

"Nope."

She couldn't help it. She found herself laughing.

The truck steered into the parking lot. The Rainforest Cafe wasn't particularly full, probably because it's not exactly a romantic destination. There were a couple of kids running around the parking lot.

She got out of the truck and could already hear those god-awful animatronics. At least she was dressed appropriately.

Connor smiled sheepishly. "This was the only place that didn't have like, an hour-long wait. I hope that's okay. I didn't want to wait an hour for food."

She shrugged. "All good." It wasn't all good. She was feeling less and less optimistic about this date. The only thing she was going to get tonight was a serious migraine.

Connor opened the door and gestured for her to enter the busy restaurant. Fuck, she could already hear a crying baby. She fought to keep from covering her ears when a host screeched a high chair across the hardwood flooring.

"Hey," Connor said to the teenager working up at the host stand. "I have a reservation under the name Stoll."

The host perked up. "Oh my gosh, you're here! Follow me this way! We've got a special seat just for you!"

Wow, talk about service, Annabeth thought to herself as she and Connor were led through swinging vines with fake leaves, past a statue of a frog larger than a ten-year-old, and finally over to a table right up against a massive fish tank. The blue light cast a soft glow onto the table. It was almost romantic.

Annabeth sort of wanted to take a picture of the fish tank to send to Percy. He seemed to like fish.

Then she realized that sending a picture to someone else was not appropriate for a first date and that it was probably wrong to think of Percy in the first place when Connor just pulled her chair out for her.

"So," he said, unfolding the menu. "Are we drinking tonight?"

"Huh?" she asked, suddenly snapped out of her straying thoughts.

He just smiled. "Are you in a booze kind of mood? Or do you not drink? Because I'll do whatever you do."

"Oh," she said, replacing the food menu with the drink menu.

"I'll probably just have one drink and then switch over to soda," Connor said. "You know, since I've gotta drive us back to Olympus after this."

Annabeth nodded. "I guess I should do the same thing since I have to drive myself home from there."

The server came by before Annabeth was ready.

Connor went first. "Yeah, can I do the strawberry mojito?"

Annabeth froze. "Uh, yeah, I'll do the same."

The server left and Annabeth desperately wanted to shout NO! COME BACK! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US ALONE!

"That's a good choice," Connor said.

"I usually go for beer," she said.

He shrugged. "They don't carry a lot of good beer if that makes you feel better."

Even though that didn't make Annabeth feel much better about ordering a fourteen-dollar drink, they returned to their silence. She tried to skim the menu, but the letters were doing line dances and jumping off the page more than usual. Her dyslexia was bad, but never that bad. Maybe it was the lighting.

"So," Connor said. "Anything looking good?"

"I... I don't know," she said.

He smiled. "I could recommend stuff if you like."

"Uh, okay." She was desperate for Connor to fill the space with conversation.

He pursed his lips. "I'm thinking we skip the appetizers so we'll have room for the lava cake."

Fuck. Yes. "That sounds good," Annabeth said.

"You might like the-"

"Y'all ready to order?" the server asked, arching a pierced eyebrow.

"Uh, not really. Can we have a couple of minutes?" Connor asked.

She walked away silently.

"My brother hires some of the weirdest people," muttered Connor.

"Your brother?"

"He's the general manager here," he explained.

"Cool." That explained why this was the only place where Connor could get a Valentine's Day reservation.

Connor turned his attention back to the menu. "So anyway-"

ROAR!

EEK! EEK!

Annabeth raised her hands to cover her ears and then lowered them because that's a weird thing to do in front of a guy she'd never met until tonight.

"Every. Fifteen. Minutes," Connor said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how Travis deals with this every day of his life."

The animatronics stared Annabeth down with their beady red eyes. She shuddered. "Yeah," she agreed.

"Anyway, now that that's over," Connor said. He looked around for some kind of interruption. "Coast is clear. You can't go wrong with the fish tacos, although I usually get them without the beans. Uh, shrimp tacos are cool. You don't see those much."

Seafood? Annabeth loved seafood, but what if Connor wanted to kiss her at the end of the date and she miraculously didn't say no? She couldn't kiss him with fish breath!

He moved on to the next section of the menu. "Taco salad's kinda good. Sorry, I feel like I keep recommending taco stuff..." Connor squinted at the menu, so at least Annabeth wasn't the only one having a hard time reading.

"Don't make fun of me but the fajitas are kinda good too," he said.

Those fajitas were more than twenty dollars if Annabeth read the menu right.

"Can't go wrong with a sandwich..." he said, trailing off. "Oh! I'll probably get that pulled pork burger."

Annabeth squinted at the description.

"It's down there," he said, pointing to the spot on his menu.

This was super embarrassing. "I know, it's just the light and I have dyslexia..."

"Oh! Me too!"

She raised an eyebrow. It really seemed like Connor wasn't having a hard time reading the menu.

He gave an awkward chuckle. "Travis had to memorize the menu in its entirety for his manager training and I was his study buddy. I'll never call restaurant work easy again!"

"Huh," said Annabeth. "I bet you use that one in icebreaker games."

He shrugged. "Not really. That one makes me sound crazy if I don't give the context."

They stared at each other for a minute. Connor's earring practically lit up under the spotlight pointing at a panther animatronic. He sipped his mojito through the double straws.

He opened his mouth and then-

ROAR!

EEK! EEK!

CAW!

Annabeth was never much of a clubber; this was almost the feeling she tried to avoid when she declined Piper's invitations to go to the club. Hell, it probably would be the exact feeling once she finished off her mojito.

A baby in a high chair started crying when the gorilla looked over. Annabeth sort of wanted to cry too.

"Have you noticed our server?" Connor asked.

"What about her?"

"Like, where is she? We've decided, right?"

Annabeth looked around. It seemed as if their server had disappeared in the animatronic chaos. "I don't see her."

"Oh, god, hide me," said Connor. He ducked under the table and said quietly, "Tell him I've gone to the bathroom."

"Tell who?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, hey there!" It was as if Connor had disappeared under the table and rematerialized above Annabeth, except in a different outfit, and with a haircut that could be mistaken for a mullet and a gold ring through the center of his bottom lip.

"Hey," she said, giving a shy wave to Connor 2.0.

He grinned like a kid in a candy store. "So you're my brother's hot date, huh?"

"Uh, yeah," she said. Though, she didn't know about hot. "I guess."

"Travis Stoll," he said. "When Percy told me he had someone to set my little bro up with, I couldn't believe it, but here you are! You're real!"

She nodded. "I suppose I am. Real, that is."

"You're great," he said. "Connor is going to be so sorry he showed up late when he sees you!"

"Oh, actually..." Annabeth stopped when she remembered that she was supposed to be covering for her poor embarrassed date. It was she who should have been embarrassed! She was meeting family not even halfway through the first date!

"Do you want me to hang out while you wait for him?" Travis asked. His grin was crooked just like Connor's. Annabeth almost wanted to check beneath the table to see if Connor was still...

Travis followed her line of sight under the table. "Connor, you asshole! Get up here and say hi to your date! This is..." he turned to Annabeth. "What did you say your name was?"

Connor emerged at last and said, "We've already met. I'm just trying to get away from idiots who might try to crash my date and embarrass me!"

"C'mon, Connor-"

"I know what this was," he said to his slightly older brother. "You were going to coerce Annabeth into an elaborate prank that would ensure I would never get another date!"

"Aww, chill out, man," Travis said. "Have you guys even ordered yet? There's plenty of time for you to get to know each other."

Annabeth started, "Well, actually-"

"Is there?" Connor asked. "Do you even want me to have a partner, or are you too busy basking in your relationship with Katie?"

"Nah, bro..." Travis and Connor continued to talk over each other.

Annabeth just wanted to order her pulled pork burger... or was it a pit beef burger? She didn't even remember. She was planning to say "I'll have the same" whenever Connor ordered.

"Oh, yeah?" Connor said.

"YEAH!" Travis yelled, pulling out a notepad. "WHAT'LL IT BE?"

"TWO PULLED PORK BURGERS!" Connor shouted, undoubtedly drawing attention to their table. "NO MAYONNAISE FOR MY DATE YOU SET ME UP WITH!"

Annabeth hid behind her menu.

"AND A SPRITE FOR ME AND- Annabeth, what did you want?"

"I'll have a Coke, please," she mumbled.

"A COKE FOR MY DATE!"

"OKAY!"

EEK!

ROAR!

SQUAK!

She couldn't fight it anymore. This time, she did cover her ears when the animatronic show started. The baby in the corner was once again scared by the gorilla and he threw his pacifier across the floor. Annabeth could relate because she sort of wanted to cry as well.

Travis walked away, scribbling furiously in his notebook.

"Sorry you had to see that," Connor said.

Annabeth asked, "Do you and your brother fight a lot?"

"Huh? We weren't fighting."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "Because it seemed like you guys had a lot to unpack."

His shoulders slumped. "That's sort of how we've been talking to each other lately. Travis is engaged and I'm happy for him—don't get me wrong—but now there's all this pressure on me to find someone and settle down like he is, and I've tried. It's just..."

"Hard," Annabeth finished. "I get it."

"You do?"

"Yeah, totally," she said. "Just this morning-"

ROAR!

EEK!

CAW!

As much as that animatronics show had saved Annabeth on this date, she was starting to feel like it also interrupted her every time she finally started to get somewhere with Connor.

"I thought that was supposed to happen every fifteen minutes," Connor said. "Where'd that asshole brother of mine go?"

He took a sip from his drink and said, "Sorry, I shouldn't talk about him that way. I do love him. He's just kind of insufferable sometimes."

Annabeth knew a thing or two about insufferable people.

"Don't get me wrong, it's nice to meet you, but I spent all week insisting to Travis that I was fine and didn't need a date on Valentine's Day to be happy, and what does he do?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

"He posted about not wanting his 'little bro' to be lonely on Valentine's Day," Connor said, putting air quotes around 'little bro.' "And just when I was thinking that nobody ever bothers to read Travis's Facebook, he reconnects with some guy he met in business school, and here I am."

Annabeth knew a few things about getting sent on dates against her will.

"Sorry," Connor said. "You're really cool, but it's not fair to make you go out with someone who never even wanted to go on a date in the first place. I guess I've just been in a weird place lately."

"Heard that," Annabeth said.

"Actually?"

"Yeah," she said. "My boss just got into a new relationship and he thinks everyone should be as happy as him, so he set me up even though I told him no about a million times. And my coworkers even tried to sign me up for online dating!"

"Holy shit, that is bad!" Connor laughed.

"Your food."

Annabeth looked up. It wasn't Travis—thank god—but the server that had taken their drink orders. She gave them each a burger and then mixed up their soda orders. It was fine. Connor just swapped their glasses.

"So," he said. "I'm sorry I've kinda been a dud date."

"You've been fine," Annabeth insisted.

He frowned. "You don't have to pretend. I barely let you talk about yourself, I got in a screaming match with my brother, and I took you to the fucking Rainforest Cafe on Valentine's Day. You seem like a really special woman. You deserve better."

"I mean, it's not like I've had much to say," Annabeth said. "I was planning on drinking Moscato and watching WrestleMania all night, and I tend to get thrown off when my plans change."

"I get that," Connor said. "WrestleMania rocks."

Annabeth smiled. Then, she had an idea. "Hey, would you want to get this to-go? You could come over and watch. I mean, I could drink that whole bottle of wine on my own, but for the sake of this conversation, let's say I could use someone to share it with."

He shrugged. "I'd love to. As long as I'm not imposing."

She shook her head. "You wouldn't be."

"Alright," he said. "Do you mind if I order a volcano cake?"

"Fuck, yeah," said Annabeth. "Do it." She took apart her burger so the bun wouldn't get soggy on the ride home.

Connor looked back toward the kitchen. "Have you seen our-"

ROAR!

EEK!

CAW!

***

"Come on!" Connor shouted. "How do you pick the right outcome every single time? Are you sure this isn't a rerun?"

Annabeth poured herself another glass of pink Moscato. "I told you, I'm good at this! It's a wonder I don't have a gambling addiction."

"Then I should be doing better!" he said. "I ran an illegal sports gambling club back at my high school!"

Annabeth couldn't believe she'd gotten this far with a date. For over two years she hadn't gotten past making half-assed plans with someone online, let alone meeting someone in person, but with Connor, it was just so easy. They were both having bad days and they still managed to hit it off!

She wasn't even weirded out when he laughed so hard that his shoulder pressed against hers, and somehow, they ended up under the same blanket placing bets on which wrestlers were most likely to win. She didn't even mind when he teased her for knowing so much about the wrestlers' stats.

An almost disaster of a date turned out to be a really good night. Travis covered their meals, they took the lava cake home, and then they both ended up with tummy aches.

The credits began to roll too soon. "What the hell?" Annabeth asked. "It's over already?"

"Yeah," Connor said. "It's ten o'clock already. Damn, it's ten o'clock! I think I have more than overstayed my welcome." He pushed his side of the blanket away and got to his feet, swaying from the alcohol.

"Shoot, Connor, you shouldn't drive home," Annabeth said.

"I guess I am a little tipsy."

She laughed. "More than a little, I would say. C'mon, I have some sweatpants that would probably fit you." He didn't need to know those were her special pants reserved for crying and eating ice cream.

He wiggled his eyebrows. "I get to wear your pants?"

"Don't you dare spill anything on them," Annabeth warned.

He contorted his fingers into a Vulcan wave from Star Trek. "Scout's honor."

Annabeth didn't even mind grabbing some extra sheets to turn the couch into a bed, and later, she would recall that Connor helped her find the right end of the fitted sheet and that he didn't even ask if he could sleep in her bed with her.

In the morning, she woke up to the smell of burning toast and the sound of Connor slapping a small stove fire with a towel. He did try to make her breakfast though, and that counted for something.

Annabeth wondered if Rachel ever made breakfast for Percy.  

Chapter Text

"Maybe it's 'Hotel California,'" Frank said. "That would make sense."

"Would it, though? There's already a song by the Eagles on it," said Annabeth.

It was another unusual day at Olympus Auto, although, at this point, Annabeth supposed this was a usual day since it was already so out of the ordinary. It was Leo's turn to work on the air conditioning in the run-down minivan, and for some reason, he thought it might be smart to use a snow cone machine instead of an actual AC unit.

Meanwhile, Annabeth and Frank were debating what the last track on Leo's 'Fixin' Tunes' playlist might be.

"So what do you think it might be?" Frank asked.

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Maybe a Billy Joel track. 'We Didn't Start The Fire,' perhaps."

"'We Didn't Start The Fire?' C'mon, at least let it be 'Big Shot,'" Frank said. "'We Didn't Start The Fire' is like Billy Joel for people who don't know Billy Joel."

"And 'Crazy Train' is for people who don't know Ozzy Osbourne, and 'I Wanna Rock' is for people who don't know Twisted Sister," said Annabeth.

"Hmm, my hands might be tied," he said, returning to his work.

Annabeth went back to sorting the small parts Leo dropped, only to be interrupted by a soft buzzing in her pocket. Her phone screen lit up to show a text from Connor. I'm here, it said.

"Cover for me, guys?" Annabeth asked. "Connor's here."

"Why do we have to cover when Connor's here?" Frank asked. "Percy probably wouldn't mind."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I can't let Percy know his forced blind date actually turned out okay. It would be like admitting defeat."

"Or—hear me out—maybe it would be like admitting that you found a nice boyfriend and you're happy with him," Leo said.

"Hey now," said Annabeth. "We're not using labels yet."

"I would be," Frank said under his breath.

"Whatever," she said. "Just keep an eye out, alright?" She pushed the button on the wall that would open the large garage door—the one they usually drive cars through.

The door slowly rose toward the ceiling, revealing Connor's black Converse, ripped black jeans, and a black AC/DC shirt. He broke out into a shuffle dance. "Ladies, gentlemen, and gentlethems!" he shouted. "It's the act you've all been waiting for! Give it up! For!"

Connor extended his arms. One hand held a warm Starbucks drink, and the other held some kind of pastry. "Coffee!" he finished.

Annabeth laughed and took the food. "Thank you," she said. "Very good show."

He played with his concert wristbands and homemade bracelets. "Just trying to impress the lady. And her uh, coworker guys. Hi, I'm Connor."

Instead of introducing himself like a normal person, Leo said, "We know."

"Okay then," Connor said. "I can't stay long; I gotta run to a meeting. The grooms want baby animals to come out of their wedding cake, and now I have to explain Pope Leo the Tenth to them."

Annabeth winced. "Yikes, well good luck."

"Thanks, babe," he said, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. "Enjoy the cookie!" Connor ran off at a speed that made her wonder if he actually had time to bring her coffee.

"That was nice," Frank said.

Annabeth took a sip from her coffee and took the cookie out of the bag. A dopey little snowman's face stared back at her. How cute. It was just an overpriced sugar cookie, but the effort was nonetheless appreciated.

The coffee was perfectly warm and didn't even burn her tongue. Did Connor take the lid off in the car so it would cool down a little? That guy thought of everything.

"Wow," said Leo. "That guy could be the perfect boyfriend if only you'd admit that he is, in fact, your boyfriend."

"Not my boyfriend," Annabeth said.

"He sure seems to think so," Leo insisted.

The door at the top of the steps that led into the lobby opened, and, of course, Annabeth spilled a little bit of coffee on herself. Fantastic.

"Emergency staff meeting," Piper said. "Percy's doing that thing where he makes his personal life our problem."

Leo climbed out the window of the minivan. "Works for me!"

Frank shrugged. "As long as we're still on the clock."

Annabeth finished off the last of her snowman cookie and followed the guys up the stairs.

Percy was already reading something off a clipboard. The last time he brought a clipboard to a full staff meeting, it was because he didn't know what to buy his mom for Christmas. Annabeth couldn't imagine that this would be much better.

"Maybe his stepfather's birthday is coming up," Nico muttered.

Will bit his lip to stifle a laugh. "I bet like, his sister's friends don't like him and we have to brainstorm ways to fix it."

"Or he's afraid Rachel's going to dump his ass," Drew said.

Everyone looked at her.

"What?" she asked, throwing her hands up in defense. "We're guessing. That's my guess."

Percy cleared his throat and started speaking as if Drew didn't just totally diss his relationship. "So my cousin is in town today for a motorcycle convention and she'll be stopping by for a couple of hours."

"So close," said Frank.

"I'll ignore that," Percy said. "So basically, Thalia owns a motorcycle dealership, and she's kind of a jerk—you know how older cousins are—and I need you guys to help me look cool in like, a successful respectable way."

"Oh, joy," said Drew. "Job of my dreams."

"Seriously, man, you have got to stop caring so much," Leo said.

Everyone mumbled their agreements and Annabeth and the guys tried to head back to the garage.

"Guys, I can't take any more of her teasing," Percy said. "What can I do to make myself look cooler?"

"Yikes, he's getting the whiteboard," Will said through gritted teeth.

Sure enough, Percy propped the whiteboard from the break room against a chair. He took a blue marker from his pocket and wrote in big letters, OFFICE BRAINSTORM.

"Who wants to start us off?" he asked.

Everyone groaned.

"Oh, look. A customer," Piper deadpanned before rushing to the door.

Percy put the cap on the back of the marker and got ready to write. "Don't be shy; there are no bad ideas."

Drew raised her hand. "You could stand to dress a little better."

"I thought you liked my business casual," he said.

"We appreciate your business casual because it means we can wear jeans on Fridays," she said. "You're the owner now. You could stand to at least not take your suit jacket off as soon as you walk in. Maybe find a tie."

"I don't do that."

"Then where is it now?" Drew asked.

He hung his head. "In the office." Thus, TIE became the first item on the list.

Leo raised his hand. "I think it would be great if you bought us Dunkin' Donuts every day instead of every other week."

Percy starts, "Leo-"

"No bad ideas, right?"

He sighed and wrote DUNKIN' on the list. "Anybody else?"

Frank raised his hand. "Annabeth, Leo, and I should just stay in the garage the whole time so we don't get footprints on the nice floor." He shot a wink at Annabeth.

"Hmm," Percy said. "I sort of thought Thalia would want to meet everyone... Oh, she'll probably just let herself in the garage anyway. You've been quiet, Will."

Will folded his hands. "I don't know how to say this kindly, but I don't think your motorcycle-riding cousin will let the coral carpet in your office slide. Or the curtains. Actually, we should probably just take down most of the new stuff in your office."

"But Rachel picked that out," Percy said.

"Speaking of Rachel," Drew said. "Was she planning to come by today?"

Percy nodded. "Of course. She never misses lunch with me and Annabeth."

"I'm going to ignore how weird it is that you make Annabeth third wheel your lunch dates, hon," she said. "Maybe your cousin shouldn't know that, like, you're dating a... You know."

He raised an eyebrow. "But I already told Thalia that I have a girlfriend."

Drew facepalmed. "Well, she can't meet Rachel."

"There's nothing wrong with Rachel," he said. "Sure, her career is a little unique, but that shouldn't be any reason to-"

"Emphasis on shouldn't," Drew said.

"Are you saying Thalia would-"

Annabeth couldn't take much more of the fighting. "Look, I think everyone here agrees that Rachel doesn't deserve any heat for what she does. However, that doesn't change the fact that there are people out there who will judge her for it, and who might also judge you for dating her."

"That's what I was trying to say!" Drew said.

"Percy, you need to seriously think about whether or not your cousin is going to judge you and Rachel for that," Annabeth said.

Percy looked at the floor for a minute and then back at Annabeth. "Definitely not Rachel, but probably me. She's kind of ruthless."

"So maybe we should keep Rachel away today, just to be safe," Will said, looking at his lap.

"You're probably right," said Percy. "I can take it, but she shouldn't have to."

"Cool," said Leo. "Can I go now?"

Percy looked at his whiteboard. "I think so. Find me if you guys have another suggestion, okay?"

"Yep," Frank said, even though he was already halfway to the garage.

"Thanks for all the help, Annabeth," said Percy.

She didn't exactly know how to respond to that. It wasn't like she'd been particularly helpful. "No problem," she said. "I have to get back to work."

Her coffee was cold by the next time she took a sip.

***

Percy's cousin Thalia arrived not even an hour later, or so Annabeth heard. Thanks to Frank's helpful suggestion, the mechanics got to hide in the garage for the duration of Thalia's visit, although based on what little she knew, Annabeth wasn't so sure that Thalia would want to leave without seeing the garage.

"Finally," she said to nobody, putting the last screwdriver into its proper cubby hole.

"Lookin' good," Frank said, peering over a box of spare parts to admire Annabeth's handiwork. "Think you can clear off that table for me?"

"Update!" Leo called from the minivan. "Thalia is in the lobby talking to Nico while Will and Piper hide the last of the weird new decorations in Percy's office. Sounds like they're having a little trouble with the Ninja Turtle sculpture. Did you guys know Percy had a Ninja Turtle sculpture?"

"Maybe Rachel made it," Frank said. "She was an art student, right?"

"Sounds about right," said Annabeth.

"The real question is," Leo started, "which Ninja Turtle is it? Because if it's Raphael, that's way too heavy for me to help out, but Michelangelo, I could probably handle." He flexed his non-existent muscles for show.

Frank said, "It doesn't matter anyway. We're not allowed to leave the garage."

"Hell yeah, we aren't!" said Annabeth.

He got all bashful, but she could tell he was proud of his strategic suggestion.

"Ugh, Percy's spamming the GroupMe," Leo complained, checking his cell phone.

"We have a GroupMe?" Annabeth asked.

"I think Percy made it when you were at Jupiter."

Oh yeah. Annabeth worked at Jupiter Auto Trader for a little while. She owed Beckendorf a text, now that she thought of it. Maybe Silena had the baby. In that case, Beckendorf would probably be too busy to text her back, so maybe she wouldn't bother.

"I'll... I'll add you to it," said Leo. "Thalia wants to check out the garage. Is there anything in here that'll make Percy look like an idiot?"

"Well," Frank said, leaning his head toward the dusty old Hog in the corner.

Oh, that's right, Annabeth realized. "We'll make complete asses of ourselves if it looks like we're too afraid to fix that." They'd been putting off the motorcycle since it was an antique and probably wouldn't sell as fast as something like the minivan, assuming they could fix the AC. People tended to come to Olympus Auto looking for practical vehicles to drive their kids to and from soccer practice in. Awesome motorcycles? Not so much.

"Well, that's fantastic," said Leo. "I don't suppose either of you know what to do with that thing?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I mean, it just needs the muffler replaced."

Frank pulled out his lunchbox. "And you think you can do that?"

"I can certainly take a stab at it." There wasn't much time, so she abandoned her label maker and grabbed a wrench.

Shoot, she'd learned about motorcycles in school, but only for like, a week. She studied what she needed for the final and then forgot about it because she never ended up using it. She worked at a car dealership, not a motorcycle dealership.

"This garage has small penis energy!" a new booming voice shouts. Oh, god, that must have been Thalia, and she sounded every bit as bad as Percy described.

But Annabeth knew how to deal with bullies like her. "Well, considering I have exactly zero inches of penis, I'm an outlier dragging the average down, and should not be counted."

"Ha!" Thalia said. "I like this one! Show me around, cuz."

Percy, clearly thrown off by the conversation between two women about penises, gaped for a second, and then said, "Let me show you some of the projects."

"Hey, now," Thalia said. She ran a hand through her black and blue streaked hair. "Is that one working on a motorcycle? In your used car garage?"

"Uh," Percy said. He raised an eyebrow. "Are you working on a motorcycle, Annabeth?"

She looked at the motorcycle and then back at her boss. Instead of answering, she simply waved her wrench in the air as if to say, duh.

"What's wrong with it?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth's plan to deflect Thalia clearly had not worked. Well, it did, but maybe a bit too well.

"Muffler needs replaced," she said.

"What, so the buyer can just take it right off?" Thalia said. "I'm joking; you can't sell that without a muffler."

Annabeth didn't know what to say; she wasn't an expert in motorcycles. She just nodded.

"Okay," Percy said. "Let's let Annabeth get back to work. I can show you the lot if you want." He pressed the button to open the garage door.

Thalia pushed it again, causing the door to stop halfway raised. "Why would I want to look at your lot?"

He went red. "Because... because all the cars that are fixed are out there?"

She rolled her eyes. "Either you're trying to avoid introducing me to your new girlfriend, or you're trying to sell me a car, and I honestly can't decide which is worse."

"The car thing," Leo butted in. "That's worse."

Thalia shot a finger gun at the mechanic. "Bingo. So which one is she, Percy?"

"Which one of what is who?" he asked.

"Your girlfriend, dipshit," she said, smirking and crossing her arms. "Where is she? I was promised an introduction."

"Uh..." Percy looked panicked. Honestly, Annabeth found it sort of satisfying to see her usually confident boss so thrown off because another person asked him a question he didn't know how to answer. It was kind of this reminder that yeah, even bosses feared interrogations about their love lives. He was no different than Annabeth, at least in that regard.

He looked around the room, probably for something to distract his cousin with. On one hand, Annabeth could have helped him out by asking Thalia about the motorcycle muffler. Besides, she wasn't confident about how to fix it. She probably needed the advice.

Then again, watching him squirm was all too satisfying. She wanted to enjoy it for as long as it lasted.

And then his sea-green eyes landed on her, and the joke suddenly wasn't so funny.

"Oh," Thalia said. Her lips contorted into a devilish smile.

No.

No, no, no.

Thalia stuck her hands in the pockets of her leather vest. "Damn, I didn't think you had it in you, Perce."

There were about a million things Annabeth could have said to put a stop to it.

She could have said, I HAVE A BOYFRIEND if there wasn't the fact that Connor technically wasn't her boyfriend.

A better thing to say would be, Percy is my boss, and I do not condone such unprofessional behavior. Then she just thought about what happened in December in his car. That kiss was certainly not professional behavior.

Before she should say anything at all, Percy gave her those seal eyes that don't suffice as a pout. He folded his hands and pleaded behind Thalia before breaking his pitiful act altogether, saying, "We're keeping it on the down-low."

No. No, no, no. Percy was about to owe Annabeth big time. Like, more than Panda Express big time. She would need more than his leftovers from his mom's Sunday dinners; not even the whole damn meal would compensate her for this unfortunate circumstance.

Thalia crouched down to where Annabeth was sitting. God, she wore Doc Martins. She was way cooler than Annabeth. She could have stomped right on her face in those shoes and Annabeth would have thanked her. Maybe she would have even begged her to do it again.

In other words, Annabeth was losing her mind and it was all Percy's fault.

"I s'pose we've already met, but it's nice to meet you again as Percy's girlfriend," Thalia said.

Percy had gone back to doing that sad seal face behind his cousin.

"Uh, yeah," Annabeth said. "Nice to meet you too."

"Ha!" Thalia laughed. "I can tell when I'm not wanted. I'll leave you to your work."

"Thanks," said Annabeth. Was she more or less cool to Thalia now that she was Percy's fake girlfriend? Was that even what she was? Percy silently begged in a way that implied she had the option to back out, yet she didn't feel like she could refuse his forced proposal. "Uh, enjoy the rest of your tour," she added, although that came out more like a question.

Thalia shot another finger gun. "I'm gonna take a piss and then harass your salespeople. Meet me in a few?" she asked Percy.

"Sure!" he said, giving a cheesy thumbs-up. A thumbs-up? That was why he got made fun of.

The door slammed behind Thalia and then Frank looked up from his sandwich. "What just happened?"

Leo stuck his arm out the minivan window as if he were driving it, feeling the cool highway wind in his hair. "Well, Frankie, you see, Percy just coerced Annabeth into pretending to be his girlfriend."

"I did not coerce anybody!" Percy said, putting his arms in the air. "I asked, and she said yes."

"Was I there for it?" Annabeth asked. "Because I don't remember you saying, 'Hey, Annabeth! Mind pretending to be in a serious relationship with me in front of my obnoxious cousin even though I have my own girlfriend?'"

"Well, you could have said no!" he said.

Leo banged the side of the van with his wrench. "This is not worth fighting over. You guys have to do that thing where you set rules and-"

"I didn't feel like I could have said no!" she shouted back at Percy.

"Rule number one," Leo continued, "is that you're not allowed to spend the night at each others' houses."

"I thought those were the friends-with-benefits rules," Frank said. "I mean, not that I would know for certain. Hazel likes reading those romance novels with the cartoony people on the covers."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "And does she just read them to you?"

"No! I mean, I'm just saying that they have to establish how they met before they can make the rules, and those rules mostly pertain to what kinds of physical boundaries they have."

"Boundaries were made to be broken," Leo said, lowering his goggles over his eyes.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at her friends. "You owe me big time, Jackson."

"I know," Percy said. "I promise I won't do anything you're uncomfortable with. I just really need you to do this for me because-"

The door opened back up. "Can I have your wallet?" Piper asked.

Percy raised his eyebrow. "My wallet?"

"We're going to hide it in your car and tell Rachel you lost it so she stays away longer," she explained.

"Wait," said Percy. "Rachel is here?"

"Great," Annabeth said. "Now you can introduce her to Thalia and explain your mistake." She crouched back on the floor and started picking some small parts for her little project.

"We can't do that," he said. "You were the one who said that Rachel shouldn't meet Thalia."

"And I didn't mean that I should!" she said.

Frank started eating some popcorn out of his lunchbox. "Oh, please do. I need the drama."

"Frank, what the hell?" Annabeth asked. "Whose side are you on?"

"Don't talk to me unless you've read The Love Hypothesis. This is just like The Love Hypothesis."

Percy facepalmed. "This is nothing like your romance novels."

"They're my girlfriend Hazel's romance novels," Frank objected.

Annabeth snorted. "Sure, Frank."

"Seriously, Annabeth," Percy said. "You don't even have to hold my hand; just pretend you don't hate me."

"I don't hate you!"

Frank took another bite of popcorn. Why did he have to chew so loud? What kind of monster ate popcorn kernels on purpose?

Percy smiled. "Then prove it. Do this one nice thing for me and I'll... Well, I already buy your lunch every day. Wine? Is that good?"

"Your mom's carnitas would be nice," she said. "And now that you say so, yeah, Moscato would be nice too."

He held out his hand. "Cool."

"Cool." Annabeth accepted the handshake.

"Are you going to make rules that you'll inevitably break?" Frank asked with his mouth full.

"So how did we meet?" Percy asked.

"Uh, Mr. D hired me?" Annabeth supplied.

He looked at the floor. "Oh. Right."

Shoot. He felt bad. Like, he should have been feeling bad—there was no doubt in Annabeth's mind about that—but he was trying to make things right.

"Fine," she said. "Maybe... your car broke down and I came to pick you up."

"Ooh!" Frank shouted. "But it was so cold and you brought him hot chocolate and blankets and then he fell asleep in your car on the way back!"

"What the hell, Frank?" Leo asked. "You know what? Never mind." He rolled up the minivan window.

Percy shrugged. "That works. You ready?"

"No touching," Annabeth said.

"Agreed."

The door opened again and Piper looked at everyone from the top of the stairs. "Percy, can I have your keys?"

"What?"

"We're telling Rachel you can't find your keys now so she'll stay away."

Percy tossed his keys up the stairs. "We're right behind you."

Chapter Text

"There's centipedes coming out of the sink in the girls' bathroom," Thalia said, wrapping her arm around Percy's neck. It wasn't a chokehold by definition, but it certainly wasn't a hug either, he supposed.

Centipedes? Was she kidding? That wasn't something you could kid about, especially to a business owner. She would know. She ran a motorcycle dealership.

"Like, out of the drain?" he asked. This wouldn't be good. Was he supposed to call an exterminator for the bugs, or a plumber for the drain? Would he have to call both? That sounded expensive, and money wasn't exactly an abundance.

"Ha!" Thalia said. "You should see the look on your face! You're practically a ghost!"

"I am not!" Percy said. If anyone was a ghost, it was Nico.

He felt a cold hand in his own. Annabeth was calloused and her skin was dry. It was nothing like holding Rachel's hand. Rachel was soft and sometimes a little sweaty, but that could have just been from the peach-scented lotion she used.

"I'll take a look at it then," Annabeth said. "I have a feeling it's not nearly as bad as she says."

So this was what it was like when Annabeth Chase liked you. Percy didn't realize this was a question he wanted an answer to, yet there he was, wondering just how good of an actress she was. She didn't strike Percy as someone who liked to hold hands, but he'd never seen Girlfriend Annabeth in action before. For all he knew, she was a big fan of physical touch.

That would be rather unfortunate; Percy suffered constantly from clammy hands and he was a huge fan of taking things slow. He and Rachel didn't sleep together until after he'd unpacked his childhood trauma. Both are equally big steps to take in a relationship, if you asked him, so they should probably happen around the same time. If a girl didn't find him attractive after hearing about his abusive ex-stepfather, then she wasn't worth it.

All things aside, Percy loved physical touch; it just had to be with the right person. It had to be with someone he really knew and had an emotional connection with. Sex, to him, was physically vulnerable, and was all the better with emotional vulnerability.

So it was a little bit weird that his stomach flipped like a pancake when Annabeth squeezed his hand because all they'd ever shared was a couple of arguments, some carnitas, and one heat-of-the-moment kiss when Percy was very confused about his feelings. Sure, the kiss cleared things up, but not in the way he was hoping. If he'd kissed Annabeth and felt nothing but saliva and her chapped lips against his, he'd be fine, but there was more than that. There were feelings. He almost broke his no-sex-without-deep-emotional-conversations rule for her!

"Percy?" Annabeth asked, breaking his stream of consciousness. "Does that sound alright?"

"What?"

Thalia laughed. "You were so busy staring at her that not even food talk could bring you back. Damn, Kelp Head, you are down bad."

He chuckled. "Yep. So you were saying..."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Thalia was going to join us for lunch if that's okay."

Lunch? The lunch that Percy usually had with Rachel and Annabeth? "You know," he said, "I'm not very hungry right now."

"Come off it; you're always hungry," Thalia said.

Before he could reply, his stomach decided to demonstrate the call of a dying whale.

His cousin smirked and said, "Told ya so. I'm getting on the Taco Bell app."

Percy shuddered. Taco Bell was one thing he and his cousin couldn't agree on.

"Chill out! We can get a party box and split it!"

"No tomatoes, please!" Annabeth called after Thalia. She then whispered to Percy, "Is she going to your office?"

He shrugged. "Anything of mine is free real estate when she's around."

This was not good. Rachel always came over for lunch. She even rescheduled her doctor's appointment last week so she could come in and see him. If they didn't eat lunch together today, they wouldn't see each other until tomorrow, and Percy kind of wanted to see his girlfriend.

"Where's Rachel?" Percy asked when Thalia disappeared into the office.

Annabeth shrugged. "Nico?"

Nico closed out of his game of online MythoMagic and said, "Yes?"

"Where is she?"

"Uh, I think she's ordering Taco Bell using company money," Nico said.

Annabeth facepalmed. "Not Thalia. Rachel."

"She's crawling around in Percy's car trying to find his keys."

"Hear me out," Annabeth said. "We have two lunches."

Her eyebrows knit together and she pursed her lips in thought. This was going to be a very good plan, Percy thought.

"Okay," he said.

"We have Taco Bell in your office with Thalia, and we have like, a picnic or something with Rachel since your office is sort of out of commission," she said.

Percy liked where this was going. "We can set up some blankets in the garage since it's cold outside; Rachel gets cold easily." So did Annabeth, even though she wore shorts in the winter, but he didn't think she'd appreciate him saying that aloud.

"And then everyone acting weird around Rachel would make sense," Annabeth said. "There's no way she isn't at least a little suspicious by now."

Nico cleared his throat. "So should I get everyone else on board?"

"Yeah," said Percy. "Act like we're keeping her out of the garage, but keep her out of the office too."

"I'll text Frank and Leo; they can set up the garage," said Annabeth.

"I think we have some tea candles leftover from that engagement party you threw for me and Will," Nico added. He began to dig around the drawers of his desk, retrieving various decorations from several assorted holidays and occasions. "Do you think we can repurpose this tiny Christmas tree?"

"Uh," Percy said. "Maybe see if you can find the streamers from Mr. D's retirement party."

"Leo says he found a blanket in the back of the minivan," Annabeth said.

Percy winced. Rachel didn't need to know where that came from. In fact, neither did he. He didn't want to know who else he'd be swapping germs with today.

A breeze hit Percy's back as the automatic doors opened behind him. Like any good car salesperson, Piper sprang from off the wall and hustled to the door.

"Hello!" she chirped. "Welcome to Olympus Auto, where your chariot awaits. My name is Piper. How may I help you?" She passed her business card to the poor person, who seemed to be struggling with some bulky bags.

"Hey, let me help you out with those," Percy said, setting down a box of Easter eggs to help the poor delivery person.

She blew some faded green hair out of her eyes. "Thanks."

He almost dropped the paper bag onto the floor because of how heavy it was. He looked at the brown packaging. Taco Bell? "Who ordered this much Taco Bell?" he asked.

The delivery girl passed the other bag to Annabeth and set her drink tray on the reception desk. She checked her phone and then declared. "Someone named Percy Jackson. Is there a Percy Jackson here?"

He gaped like a fish. "Uh, yeah, that would be me."

"And did you order ten large Baja Blasts, two Supreme Taco Party Packs, two Supreme Soft Taco Party Packs, two twelve packs of Cinnabon Delights, and eight cinnamon twists?"

"Thalia," Percy muttered.

The delivery girl shifted her weight uncomfortably and said, "Yeah, so that comes down to one-hundred thirty-seven dollars and twenty-four cents. Would you like to pay with a card or cash?"
He fumbled for his wallet while still holding the bag of shitty tacos and handed his precious debit card over. Did he even have that much money on it? This purchase would definitely cut into the emergency money he kept on the card.

"I can't believe she would come in here, diss your store, and then make you buy her an excessive amount of tacos," Annabeth said.

"I can," Percy said.

"Yeah, but Taco Bell? I mean, sure, I'm not exactly well-versed in Mexican food, but that place down the street from here has the best tacos in town."

He sighed. "Yeah, even Frank can eat those tacos."

Annabeth's bag chose that inconvenient moment to split open, and a box of tacos tumbled to the floor.

"Phew!" Nico said from behind the desk. "Good thing no tacos fell out!"

***

Keeping up with a fake girlfriend while carrying several pounds of Taco Bell was a lot harder than Percy anticipated. He wanted to open the door for Annabeth because that seemed like something a fake boyfriend would do for his fake girlfriend, but then he realized that doing so would involve handing her the tray of Baja Blasts he was carrying, which did not seem like something a fake boyfriend would do to a fake girlfriend.

So of course, Percy froze like a total idiot and effectively clogged the doorway to his office.

Annabeth squeezed past and used her hip to push the handle.

"Well, it's about time," Thalia huffed.

"Oh, so sorry," Annabeth said. "We were only carrying the food you ordered under Percy's name."

His eyes widened. Leave it to Annabeth to piss off Thalia before he could even unwrap a soggy taco.

"Shit, cuz, did you want me to Venmo you?" Thalia asked, much to his surprise.

Was she for real?

"Actually?" he asked.

She nodded. "Just send me a request."

That wasn't so bad. Percy could get used to having Annabeth as his fake girlfriend. He hadn't even thought about that time in December when they made out in his car—until now.

Hoping that his embarrassment didn't show on his face, he sat down on a lawn chair because, of course, Thalia took his nice desk chair. Annabeth pulled up a seat slightly nicer and set her bag of tacos on the table.

"Should we put some of these in the break room?" she asked. "I sincerely doubt three of us can eat forty-eight tacos."

Thalia laughed again. "That's a good one, Beth. Can I call you Beth?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Anyway, Percy and I used to have taco-eating contests as kids, carnitas eating contests, and tamale eating contests... We ate a lot, didn't we, Perce?"

"We still do," he said. For the record, Percy totally won the Great Taco Eating Contest in fifth grade. Come to think of it, that was probably the last time he and Thalia raced to see who could eat more food in a matter of an hour...

Oh.

Oh no.

"Perseus Jackson-"

"Your full name is Perseus?" Annabeth snorted.

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "You've been dating since December and you didn't know?"

Annabeth turned red. "I mean, I did know! I just... forget... sometimes. People at work don't really call him that."

While she stammered, Percy kicked a lingering piece of fuzz from Rachel's carpet under the desk.

"What was that?" Thalia asked.

Percy was quick to say, "Nothing."

"No, I thought I saw you kick something."

He forced a laugh. "I think you're imagining things. How about that eating contest?" He winced as soon as he suggested it. God, his stomach was already begging for mercy and he hadn't even put one of those nasty tacos in his mouth yet.

This response seemed to satisfy Thalia. "Bring it on!"

He slipped his phone to Annabeth under the table; they couldn't risk missing any important updates from Nico and the others.

Note to self, Percy thought. Nico di Angelo could keep an eye on things if he ever needed to take an emergency sick day.

"Alright, cuz," Thalia said. "Thirty minutes, forty-eight tacos."

"Do I get a taco?" Annabeth asked.

"Watch the time for us, Annie."

"Just Annabeth is fine," she reiterated. It was like sitting across from Mr. D; Thalia couldn't seem to take "just Annabeth" for an answer.

"Okay," Annabeth said, picking up her phone. Were her hands shaking? It was kind of her to be worried, whether it was for their cover or Percy's stomach, but she wasn't the one who was about to wolf down an ungodly amount of tacos.

"Three... Two..."

I'm sorry, he mouthed to Annabeth.

"One..."

All hell broke loose when she started that timer. Percy didn't even have time to worry about his dignity; he left that in the past.

The tacos didn't even taste like tacos; they wouldn't have even if they'd been good tacos. The soft tacos went down faster than the hard shell tacos, but he only knew it was a hard shell when the tortilla chip scraped the back of his throat like a knife.

At that moment, Percy was no longer a grown-ass adult pretending to date an employee. He was no longer in his office at Olympus Auto. Olympus Auto no longer existed. There was only him, Thalia, and a pile of tacos.

"Can I please have a taco?" an unknown voice said. "You're going to have to feed me at some point..." The voice quickly faded away as Percy all but shoved a taco down his throat.

Only when the iPhone default alarm blared in his ear did he realize what he'd just done.

Annabeth rematerialized in the seat next to him. Still frozen with what could only be a combination of shock, fear, and disgust, she stared at Percy and his cousin with her fingers partially covering her face.

Shit, he thought to himself. Nobody except Thalia had ever seen him eat like that. Rachel hadn't even come close to witnessing anything like that.

Thalia grinned and started to count her wrappers aloud. "Twelve, thirteen..."

Percy corralled the paper taco wrappers that had fallen onto the floor and began to stack them as he counted in his head.

"You forgot this one."

"Thanks." He took the wrapper from Annabeth, careful not to graze her fingers as he added it to his gluttonous collection. He couldn't remember his previous taco-eating record. It never mattered what that number was as long as it outnumbered Thalia's tacos, which it normally didn't, seeing as she was the older cousin. There was one time when he was in middle school and his mother scolded him for eating thirteen tacos in one sitting, but that was a long time ago. Surely he'd shattered that record today.

Annabeth whispered, "Are there any tacos left?"

"Shoot, I just lost count," he snapped.

"Uh, sorry?"

That was a dick move. "No, I'm sorry," Percy said. He dug through the wrappers for a taco. There had to be one left. There were dozens of tacos in that box!

"Ha!" said Thalia. "Twenty-four tacos in half an hour! Beat that, Kelp Head!"

Was that a... Nope, that was just a pile of taco sauce packets. She had a surprisingly high tolerance for spicy foods, but Percy sincerely doubted she wanted to eat Diablo hot sauce for lunch.

"There's food from my mom's house in the refrigerator in the rec room," he said to her. "It's probably better than Taco Bell."

"Don't you want it?" she asked.

His stomach gurgled with displeasure at the mere idea of putting more food into it. "I think I'm full."

"Okay," Annabeth said. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he said.

Thalia sat back and belched. "How about you stay here and count up Percy's taco wrappers? He can be a gentleman and get food for his girlfriend." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Can't you?"

"Uh, yeah," he said. He got to his feet and his stomach dropped. This could not be happening. Percy Jackson was not about to barf and lose the taco-eating contest in front of his cousin and fake girlfriend. Hell, he was not going to barf in front of his employee, who probably didn't have much respect for him to begin with.

"What's wrong, Kelp Head?" Thalia asked. "Bit off more than you could chew?"

Annabeth deadpanned, "I'm pretty sure neither of you were chewing."

"I'm fine," he said.

Annabeth started sorting taco wrappers and Percy left a crack in the door as he left for the communal refrigerator. He was going to give the carnitas to Annabeth anyway. It was nice having someone around who loved his mom's food as much as he did. Rachel didn't like spicy things, so it wasn't like he'd be able to cook much of anything for her. At least, he wouldn't be able to cook anything good for his girlfriend.

Then again, he thought as the refrigerator glow cast light in the breakroom, bland versions of his mom's best recipes would still be better than Rachel's London broil. She put the roast into the Crock Pot. The dish was literally called London broil—emphasis on the broiling part.

Percy grabbed the Tupperware container that he might have accidentally stolen from his mom's house and put it into the microwave for a couple of seconds, watching it spin around and around in the light. Oh, gods, the spinning made his nausea worse.

He looked down at the nubby carpet. Was that red stain ketchup or blood? He decided it was likely to be spaghetti sauce from Nico's lunch and that he couldn't be mad over that. Admittedly, Nico did some tasks that were above his pay grade. If anyone could spill sauce on the carpet and get away with it, it was Nico.

It seemed as if the microwave was taking longer than usual simply because Percy was in a hurry. He left his fake girlfriend alone in his office at the mercy of his cousin. He now owed Annabeth a lot more than whatever he originally offered her in exchange for this favor.

He opened the microwave a second before the timer went off because he wasn't a total monster and then he took a fork and knife from the drawer and a paper towel from the roll on the counter because he forgot to buy napkins when he was at the grocery store yesterday.

As he suspected, he made a good decision in leaving the office door cracked open not just because Thalia would lock him out, but because he got to overhear Thalia threatening Annabeth the way Percy assumed Rachel's dad might threaten him if he was present in his daughter's life.

"Seriously, Beth. You hurt my baby cousin and it's on sight."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," Annabeth replied, almost robotically.

Percy barged in before the confrontation could get worse. "Hey!" he said casually, pretending he didn't hear anything. "I'm back with carnitas... babe..." He and Annabeth never actually discussed using pet names, but that one seemed safe enough. Besides, it wasn't like he was trying to kiss her in front of his cousin.

"Thanks," Annabeth said, taking the container from him.

"Careful," he wanted. "They're hot."

"Thanks," she said again. He noticed a dusting of red across the bridge of her nose and then decided to look back onto the pile of wrappers on the desk. Annabeth probably wouldn't appreciate him analyzing how she felt about getting the "cousin talk" from Thalia, even if it was all based on a fake relationship.

"So," Percy said, trying to smooth the awkwardness. "How many tacos did I eat?"

Annabeth sighed. "Twenty-four. It's a tie."

"A tie?" he and Thalia asked in confusion.

"Yeah," said Annabeth. "You ate twenty-four tacos, right?"

Thalia nodded and stroked an invisible beard. "So what I'm hearing is we need some kind of tie-breaker..."

"How can we do that?" Annabeth asked. "You ordered forty-eight tacos. There are no tacos left, and I really don't want to watch either of you eat more tacos."

"Aww," Thalia teased. "Percy's about to get dumped for eating too many tacos."

"No, I'm not," he said shortly.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Geez, it was just a joke. Chill. Are you really that fragile?"

"No," Percy said. "I just..."

"Maybe don't joke about my boyfriend?" Annabeth supplied.

"Uh, yeah, that..." For some reason, the word 'boyfriend' really hit. Like, even more than it did that time Percy went out for dinner with Rachel and some of her work friends and she called him her boyfriend in front of everyone. It didn't seem to hold as much weight then as it did just now with Annabeth in front of Thalia. Selfishly, Percy kind of liked the way the word sounded in her low clear voice more than in Rachel's chirpy soprano.

"Percy," Thalia said. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah," he said defensively even though he was not, in fact, listening.

"Then how long have you guys been together?"

Shit, shit, shit. They had a story. What was that story? When was that story?

Annabeth cleared her throat. "We got together in December after Percy's car broke down. I picked him up and then he fell asleep in my car. He just doesn't remember that part. Right?" Annabeth looked at him with her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, right." Yes, that was the story. "Leo wasn't picking up his phone and Frank was out on a date night with his girlfriend." Was it too much to hope Thalia would be more interested in Frank and Leo's whereabouts than in his fake relationship with Annabeth?

"In December?" she asked. "So you guys are like, past the honeymoon phase, huh?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I guess we're at the point where I can tell him he looks like a hog eating Taco Bell."

Damn, she was good.

"Uh-huh, but are you far enough along that you'll kiss him after the Taco Bell?" Thalia asked. "I only ask because I had a girlfriend that would. Remember her, Percy?"

He laughed sheepishly; he could see where this was going and it was not anywhere good, especially now that the Taco Bell was threatening to make another appearance.

"Yeah, I remember," he said. "She must have been a really good girlfriend."

"Uh, yeah, until she cheated on me with a white man. He had a mustache!" Thalia scoffed.

"You don't say," Annabeth said, trying to sound invested. Oh, poor Annabeth. She had no idea that the two of them were about to fall into one of Thalia's traps.

"Yeah, but I knew she loved me because she still kissed me after that time I ate like, seventeen tacos at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Hey, I beat my record today!" She paused and smiled, basking in her accomplishment. "But I ask you, Annie: would you kiss Percy right now?"

"Uh..."

The answer was no, clearly. Annabeth wouldn't have kissed Percy before the tacos. She kissed him that time back in December, which coincidentally, was the month she said they got together, but that didn't mean as much to her as it did to him. She wasn't someone who needed emotional intimacy for physical intimacy, Percy must have gotten the wrong idea about what happened. Why else would she have not brought it up?

"Oh, c'mon, Perce!" Thalia shouted. "Kiss your girlfriend!"

And Percy found himself in quite the situation. He would either make an ass of himself by admitting that Annabeth was only pretending to be his girlfriend because his real girlfriend was a stripper, or he'd be a total asshole if he just leaned in and kissed Annabeth. Either way, ass would be involved.

He looked at Annabeth. "I mean if that's okay with you..."

The color had already drained from her face. "Well..."

Maybe it made Percy an asshole on the inside, but he was kind of hoping Annabeth would pass out and free him of the whole situation.

She turned toward him. Was she really agreeing to this? Her body said yes but her face said no.

"We don't have to kiss in front of my cousin if you don't want to," he reiterated.

"It's okay," she said quickly.

He leaned in and reached out his hand, but then realized that he had no idea whether or not touching Annabeth's face would cross some kind of boundary. Then again, he was already about to kiss her with his taco breath.

She reciprocated, inching closer so very slowly. Percy should have known Annabeth's pride couldn't handle being dared to kiss a guy with taco breath. This had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the challenge.

Annabeth squinted her eyes shut like she was about to get sprayed in the face and come to think of it, she probably felt his taco breath, so she kind of was.

Percy mirrored her movement, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he felt himself thinking too hard about the mechanics of kissing a woman. How close were they? Did he shut his eyes too early? Also, Thalia was right there! Surely she had noticed the awkwardness of the situation.

And just when Percy was ready to thank any deity he could recall from that Ancient Greek History class he took as an elective in college that nobody else was in the room, the door creaked open and a high soprano squeaked, "Percy!"

Annabeth jerked away like Percy was a hot stove. "Rachel!" she shouted. "Hey!"

"Percy, how could you?" Rachel fumed. Her face was about as red as her hair, and even darker than the pretty sundress she wore. It was a pretty dress. She'd probably picked that out just for the surprise date Percy accidentally planned for them.

"I, uh..."

She stormed off before he had a chance to explain, which is kind of funny because he had no idea where to even begin.

"Does someone want to tell me who the hot redhead is?" Thalia asked.

Percy had had just about enough of Thalia's assholery. "Look, Thalia, if you hadn't-"

"Okay!" Annabeth intervened. "Why don't you go find Rachel, Percy?"

"And leave you?" he asked. The last time he left her alone with Thalia...

She said, "I've got this," and winked.

Percy chose to trust his now-ex-fake girlfriend and go after his real girlfriend.

"Rachel!" he called, heading out the door. He hustled into the lobby, where Will and Drew looked at him with wide eyes.

Nico ate a handful of gummy bears and said with his mouth full, "She's in the garage."

"Thanks!" Percy shouted back.  

Chapter Text

When Percy found Rachel, she was sitting amidst the picnic that Frank and Leo set up. It was a beautiful picnic despite being inside a garage. The blanket was spread out on the ground in a way that looked oh-so-inviting. Some candles sat atop the corners, still unlit.

It seemed like the mechanics had found an actual picnic basket to put the food in, and they'd dimmed the lights to set a mood. Rachel sat on the blanket in her pretty little dress; she must have been so cold.

She reached into the basket and stuffed her face with a brownie.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for this," Frank said, squatting next to her and rubbing slow circles on her back. "Percy would never hurt you without a good reason."

"Are you saying there's a good reason to hurt me?" she shrieked.

"Uh, no! I mean... he wouldn't hurt you on purpose?"

Leo tried his hand at comforting Rachel. "Look, you know Percy doesn't just go around kissing girls for no reason! It has to be special for it to mean anything."

Rachel sobbed harder and blew her nose into Frank's t-shirt. He winced at the contact.

She cried, "But why would he kiss her?"

Leo smiled. "Annabeth's gay, so it doesn't count?"

"She's bisexual!" And then she began to cry harder, which Percy didn't think was physically possible. Damn, that woman could probably cry enough tears to balance out the pollution in the Hudson River.

It was time for Percy to take over. This was his mess, after all, and it was his responsibility to clean it up. "I can take it from here, guys," he told Frank and Leo. "Thanks."

Leo went to sit on a workbench, but Frank grabbed his sleeve and dragged him up the stairs and into the lobby.

Finally, Percy and Rachel were alone, and he was more scared of her than he was of Thalia.

He gulped. "Please let me explain."

"How could you?" she cried. "Is it something I did? Have I not been a good enough girlfriend for you?"

So maybe Percy wouldn't get the chance to explain his unique situation. "No! Rachel, you've been great; it's just that my cousin-"

"Well, I hope you have a good explanation for this!"

Oh, okay then, he thought. This was his chance to explain. He took a deep breath. "Look, I know it looked bad, and I want you to know that doing... that... was never part of the plan," Percy said. He took a seat on the blanket next to Rachel. "My cousin Thalia came over to visit and she wanted to meet my girlfriend, but she's kind of a judgmental asshole, and I didn't want her to treat you badly."

"So you told her you were dating Annabeth?"

"It's hard to explain," he said. "I'm sorry for lying, and I promise I did plan on having a nice picnic here in the garage with you after, but I needed to take care of that whole situation."

She sniffled. "Why would someone be mean to me? I thought you were close with your family."

"Well," he said. That one wasn't as easy to explain. "Thalia's mean to me. I'm sure she wouldn't judge you for being a sex worker, but she'd give me crap about it and then you'd feel bad and I just didn't want to get into all that."

The sobbing slowed, but there were still tears in her bright eyes. "You're embarrassed of me?"

"No!" Percy said. At least, he didn't think he was embarrassed of his stripper girlfriend. He'd just gotten used to saying he was dating a sex worker aloud.

Then again, there weren't many people he talked about Rachel with. His mother would probably have a heart attack if she found out, and then she would probably try to give Rachel money so she didn't have to give people lap dances anymore...

Maybe Percy wasn't embarrassed, but his girlfriend's occupation wasn't exactly information he gave out to just anybody.

"Look, I just don't like the idea of Thalia being a dick about that. Annabeth... She's taken that kind of heat to her face. She deals with it all the time being a woman in a male-dominated industry," Percy explained. "It's something I admire about her. I don't think I'd survive a day if I went into like, cosmetology or something."

Rachel narrowed her eyes. "So why don't you go date Annabeth if you like her so much?"

"Because I'm dating you, Rachel!" He was practically shouting at that point. "I care about you; I don't want you to get hurt just because my cousin is an immature asshole!"

She was crying again; her mascara ran under her eyes. "You think I don't deal with judgment from people every day? You're the only one from high school I've tried to reconnect with who hasn't shunned me for what I do. I thought you were different!"

Rachel stood up and put her coat on.

"Rachel," Percy said.

She turned to look at him.

He didn't exactly want to hug her or hold her hand. "Do you think we can work this out?" he asked, standing up.

"No," she said. She stormed off toward the-

"And I'm taking this with me!" She snatched the box of brownies. That was fine. Percy had a stomach full of tacos. Rachel deserved the sweets.

She climbed the stairs and glanced behind her one last time. "Goodbye, Percy."

He waved. "Bye, Rachel."

When the door slammed shut he sighed and sat back down on the blanket. Leo and Frank did a good job setting up such a romantic date, even if it was last minute. A bottle of champagne from the New Year's party had a little bow tied around it, and it smelled like someone made sandwiches to fill the basket with.

It was a shame to let a date like this go to waste, he thought, but sitting alone eating sandwiches and drinking champagne was kind of depressing. Besides, he couldn't exactly picture himself enjoying this with Rachel anymore. It was weird. It took him over a month to commit to dating her, and even longer for him to feel any kind of draw toward emotional intimacy with her. It just didn't make sense that he would fall out of love with her so fast. Rachel was plenty pretty, and he supposed he enjoyed dating her, but he just felt sad in the way you might feel saying goodbye to a good friend. That was a different kind of love than what he thought he'd experienced for the past three and a half months.

"Hey," a new voice said. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

Annabeth stood above him, her hands in the pockets of her denim overall shorts and her Yankees cap twisted backward on her head. She only ever wore that when she had a bad hair day, she would say, but Percy had never seen her curls look anything but beautiful.

He smiled weakly and patted the blanket next to him.

She sat down and asked, "Have you ever listened to Leo's fixin' mixtape? Like, the whole thing?"

Percy cocked an eyebrow. "Uh, no, I don't think so."

"Huh," Annabeth pursed her lips. "I was just curious because... Oh, you're... Are you good?"

He shook his head. "I think Rachel and I just broke up."

"Oh," she said. "I'm sorry. That sucks. Is there anything I can do? Like, should I explain?"

"Nah," Percy said. "I think I just need to process everything. Like, I should be sad right now."

Annabeth picked at the blanket. "You're sort of crying."

"I know," he said. "I hope that's not too weird. It's just that... Well, I thought I'd be sad about breaking up with Rachel, but really, I'm just sad about not being sad."

"You're losing me."

"I think... I think maybe I was in love with her at one point, but I just..." He was frustrated.

"Hey," Annabeth said. "This is a really weird question, but do you mind if I eat some of this picnic?"

"Knock yourself out." Percy picked up the wicker basket and set it near her.

She fished out a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and took a huge bite. "Oh my god, this is amazing," she said with her mouth full.

He smiled. "Maybe... don't talk about food."

"Sorry," she said.

They sat there for a minute, Annabeth enjoying her sandwich and Percy enjoying her company. He let his eyes fixate on one particularly curly curl of blonde hair. He sort of wanted to unravel it and watch it bounce back like a spring, but that was probably the ADHD talking. One simply does not touch a girl's hair.

"Have you ever fallen out of love with someone?" Percy asked.

"That's deep," Annabeth said, "but I guess... I guess, maybe I have."

"And did they... Did they seem less attractive to you?" he asked.

She pursed her lips and shrugged. "I don't know. Not really. Sometimes I get satisfaction when I see a recent picture of this guy I liked as a kid and see that he grew up ugly."

Percy wasn't so sure that was what he meant.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to talk about this, but is that what happened with Rachel? Are you no longer attracted to her? Because even Nico thinks she's hot and he's gay."

"But you don't know her," Percy said. "We dated and I definitely thought she was attractive when we really got to know each other, and just a couple minutes ago, it all was gone. Like, I didn't even want to hug her when she was crying."

"I'm not a touchy-feely person either if that makes you feel better."

"It's not like that," he said. "I like hugs and holding hands and... and sex; it's just that I didn't want to touch her in that moment, and I don't think I'll ever want to again."

"Oh," Annabeth said. "Yeah, I definitely don't get that way."

"Maybe it's different for women."

"No," she said. "I don't think so."

"Is there something wrong with me?" he asked. "I just... Things were so great for me and Rachel; we had such a great connection. I was vulnerable with her, and she told me about her dad... I feel like we lost that and then I panicked over the physical stuff just now. I'm supposed to hug her goodbye at least, right?"

She shook her head. "No, there's nothing wrong with you."

"I don't know if I like how I feel about it all," Percy said. Was this why his mother was still pestering him over how he couldn't keep a girlfriend longer than a couple of months? Or why he couldn't just use dating apps like every other person?

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I feel like it's too late for me to be freaking out over this stuff. Like, other people had this stuff figured out in high school."

She nodded. "I didn't realize I was bisexual until the summer I turned twenty. I had a crush on the only other girl in my apprenticeship group, and I guess I had had a crush on her for a while and just hadn't realized it. She was straight, of course."

"Just our luck," he said. "You crush on a straight girl and I fall for a girl who is literally a stripper even though I need to be emotionally intimate with someone before I'm physically intimate with them."

"Percy, that's-" Annabeth started.

"What?"

She opened her mouth to say more but then stopped. She started again. "If you're comfortable, you should talk about this with Leo."

That churning in Percy's stomach was back. Leo? Why Leo? This conversation was all too overwhelming. He wasn't like Leo. He wanted a girlfriend. He had gotten crushes on girls. He had sex with Rachel and liked it, dammit!

"Oh shit," he said, taking the picnic basket from Annabeth.

He then proceeded to throw up twenty-four tacos' worth of barf into the poor little picnic basket.

***

Stomach emptied and tears dried, Percy emerged victorious—kind of—from the garage. He may have had a bad bit of nausea, and he may not have had a girlfriend anymore, but he had Annabeth, who clearly did not hate him, and Annabeth got to finish her grilled ham and cheese sandwich before Percy threw up in the picnic basket and effectively ruined the rest of the lunch.

And Percy had a cousin to deal with.

"Hey, hey!" Thalia shouted, hopping off the ledge of the reception desk and sauntering over to Percy and Annabeth. "Good one, cuz!"

Percy accepted her high-five and then said, "Thanks... What was a good one?"

"That prank!" she said. "Your girlfriend explained the whole thing! You had me real good!"

"Girlfriend" was in air quotes, so Percy assumed Annabeth explained the truth with some embellishments.

She pointed to Annabeth. "If you ever want to work on motorcycles, you call me up! And if you ever want to date my cousin for real... Well, you'll have my full support!"

Chapter Text

"Okay, so does everyone understand?" Will asked.

"I have a question," Leo asked. "Why are we counting our steps and what does it have to do with team bonding?"

"Also!" said Piper. "Do I have to count each step myself? And do stairs count? What happens if I lose count?"

Will stared for a moment and then gave his answer. "So you're going to use a pedometer. It's a machine you can just put in your pocket and it counts your steps for you."

Now that Percy thought about it, he could have just bought pedometers for the people who didn't have smartwatches. Now he didn't have the money for a financial advisor.

Drew looked down at her pink pocket-less dress and then back up at Will.

He seemed to notice her lack of pockets right away. "Uh, you can just guess for today if you want, or maybe you can just sit today out-"

"Oh, hell no," she said. "I am so going to win that Panda Express gift card. Maybe a belt..."

Leo squirmed in his seat as Drew eyed up his toolbelt.

Will cleared his throat and spun the whiteboard around so that everyone could see what he wrote on the other side. "To answer Leo's question about team bonding, we'll each be assigned randomly selected partners I've already paired you with. Oh, look! I got Nico."

"Nice," Nico muttered.

"I'm shocked," Percy heard Annabeth mutter to Frank and Leo.

"Anyway," Will said, brushing past the fact that he paired himself off with his boyfriend and left everyone else to the mercy of, well, him. "Frank will be with Drew, Leo will be with Piper, and Annabeth will be with Percy, so if you all want to meet with your teammates-"

"Come on, Piper!" Leo shouted. "Let's grab our pedophiles and claim the garage so we can plan our strategy in secret!"

"Pedometers," Will corrected amidst a facepalm. "They're pedometers."

Nico secured his pedometer in his pocket and immediately sat back down at the reception desk.

Frank and Drew went outside, probably to Drew's car to find a belt or something she could fasten her pedometer to.

Percy turned to his partner. "So," he said. "Are you hungry for lunch now? Or did you want to wait until noon like we usually do?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "I suppose we could eat lunch now. We've gotta talk strategy."

"Strategy?"

She led the way into his office. "Well, duh. I'm not losing out to Drew and Frank."

Percy pulled out a chair for her to sit in as she continued to ramble about other people's habits. He should have anticipated that her ego would turn a friendly work competition into a life-or-death mission.

"So do you know how many steps a day you average?" she asked. "Because I get a lot moving around at work, but maybe not as much as the salespeople..."

She trailed off again in a way that made Percy think perhaps she was talking more to herself than to him, but he wasn't that invested in a work bonding event that wasn't even his idea.

"Maybe," he said, "we could see how many steps we get today and make the plan from there."

"I don't know," said Annabeth. "That's probably everyone's strategy. If we start strong, we'll have an advantage."

"Soup?" Percy asked, passing her his extra thermos.

"What kind is this?"

"It's like, a tortilla soup," he said. "There's salsa and peppers and stuff in there, and I left some sour cream in the fridge if you want."

"Where's the-"

"Right here!" he said, opening a new bag of tortilla chips. They were the kind shaped like little bowls. That, Percy thought, was an impressive innovation.

He crushed some of the chips and let the pieces fall into his thermos, and then he passed the bag over so Annabeth could get some. She dipped a tortilla chip into the soup and took a bite.

"This is gas," she said. "Tell your mom she did an awesome job."

"Oh," Percy said. "I actually made it."

Her gray eyes widened. "Holy shit, you can cook!"

He stuttered, "Uh, yeah, I guess I can. I mean, these were just some ingredients I had lying around, but now that Rachel is out of the picture, I can make whatever I want for dinner."

"You mean Rachel didn't like your food?" Annabeth asked.

"She doesn't like spicy stuff," Percy said, using air quotes.

"Huh," she said. "Well, you don't have to worry about that with me." Just for show, she dipped another tortilla chip in the soup.

No, Percy didn't have to worry about Annabeth not liking what he cooked. He learned to cook from his mom, so while his cooking wasn't as good as hers, it was damn near close. Actually, Rachel was the only girl Percy cooked for who didn't like his mom's recipes. How did he think he could sustain a long-term relationship with someone like that when plenty of people like Annabeth would probably give up a kidney for this food—not that Percy would ask Annabeth for a kidney. That might overstep a professional boundary.

"WALK, FRANK! WALK FASTER! TAKE SMALLER STEPS, DAMMIT!"

Percy cleared his throat. "So Drew's torturing Frank."

Annabeth nodded. "Sounds like it."

"Anyway-"

"We should talk strategy," she said. "Good call. I don't always get a ton of like, actual steps in 'cause I've been working on small parts lately, but I have this habit of bouncing my leg, so if I wear the pedometer in this pocket, maybe..." She clipped the little blue step counter onto the front pocket of her jeans and bounced her foot.

"There ya go," Percy said.

She pursed her lips. "I don't know how well that's going to work, but I do a lot of moving around as it is. You'll see. What about you?"

For some reason, he was thrown off by this question. Of course, she would ask what he was going to do to help them win the competition. It was a team activity, after all, and Annabeth's love for Panda Express rivaled her love for Percy's mom's food.

"Shoot," Percy said. "I'll be honest, I kind of sit at the desk and take calls most of the day."

"On your cellphone?" Annabeth asked. "You could walk around the building and take your calls."

Percy picked up his phone to show Annabeth the tangled coiled cord that tied him to his office. "Say hello to the ol' ball and chain."

"Yikes," she winced. "What else do you do?"

"I go out onto the floor when the salespeople need me," he said.

"So we can assume they won't tell you they need you this week," Annabeth said. "You'll get fewer steps that way."

Percy dropped his spoon into his thermos. Shit. "I don't think they'll compromise their work just so they can beat me at a silly competition." He honestly didn't think anyone would care about the competition when Will proposed the idea last week. He'd underestimated Annabeth's competitive edge.

"Uh, yes they will," she said. "Did you not just hear Drew yelling at Frank?"

Yes, he did hear Drew. Maybe matching headstrong Drew with soft-spoken Frank was a bad idea. "They'll probably forget about it after today. You know how things wear out."

She raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but your breakup with Rachel was gossip all last week, and Piper still looks at you like you have two weeks to live."

"Point taken," he conceded. He stirred his spoon around in his soup, hoping to spread what was left of the heat in his shitty worn-out thermos.

"So you'll move around a little more?" Annabeth asked. "We have to win."

It seemed like everyone else wanted to win too. Well, Will wanted everyone to have a good time, Percy thought, but his point still stood. "I mean, I'll do my best but my job kind of comes first..."

"For real?" she asked. "Can you at least try?"

"I guess, but I'm not sure what there is for me to do..."

She finished her soup and stood up. "I'm sure you'll figure something out!"

Percy looked down at the sad soggy tortilla chips in his soup. "I'll try." Seeing as Annabeth had all but declared their lunch finished, he screwed the lid back onto his thermos and gathered the spoons so he could wash them in the breakroom sink.

But not even time to perform basic chores was granted to a man outside of his lunch break, so Percy sat back down in his chair as the phone rang.

"This is Percy Jackson, Olympus Automotive general manager, speaking," he said, running a hand through his hair.

Some guy who dropped his Mustang off last Friday was confused as to why it wasn't ready on Monday. It wouldn't be that hard for Percy to explain that the employees no longer came in on the weekends and that since there was nobody in the building, the Mustang would not be ready. The mechanics probably explained that to him when he dropped the car off.

Of course, Percy couldn't find an opening for his completely reasonable explanation because he had to listen to the story of how the muffler broke including all the twisted drama in this man's dysfunctional family.

So Percy simply tuned out and checked his email. The Girl Scouts would not be coming back for their biannual carwash, so there's a couple hundred dollars down the drain. He was even going to buy them one of those cupcake cakes. They wouldn't have even had to cut the cake because it would be just a bunch of cupcakes pushed together! Parents love that shit!

He wrote REPLY TO GIRL SCOUTS on a sticky note and stuck it to the bottom of his computer monitor. Maybe there was another group that would want to have a carwash fundraiser.

Idea time... Later.

"And then my mother told me that I couldn't get back in the house if I went out to the bar, so I just grabbed a lawn chair and drank in the backyard!" the angry customer continued.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Percy said to show he was listening even though he was not, in fact, listening.

Maybe he could post an ad on Olympus Auto's website to make it easy for any groups who want to do carwashes. They could just fill out a form and Percy would contact them. That would be nice and easy, especially for the groups led by kids at the high school downtown.

But again, that would be a task for Future Percy because Present Percy had a mountain of emails that piled up while he was eating with Annabeth. It was worth it though. Quality time with Annabeth was always worth it, even if Percy had no idea what it was that made time with her so special.

He wrote MAKE AD on another sticky note and stuck that to the bottom of his monitor.

He scrolled to the next email, which once again, was from Mr. D. He was harmless. He was just doing that thing where he sent an email 'checking up' on things when really he meant to set up a call and tell Percy all about his personal life because he was bored in his retirement.

CALL MR. D, he wrote on yet another sticky note, which he stuck to the bottom of his monitor.

The next email was from a client, and so were the next three. Another sticky note was added to the collection. He could bang those out in twenty minutes, so it could be a later problem.

Estelle was texting him asking if he'd like to order from her field hockey fundraiser packet, so he put that on his to-do list as well.

He turned his attention back to his email. The next couple were spam. Spam. Spam. Spam.

Once all his emails were marked 'read,' he sat back in his seat and looked at the accumulation of sticky notes on his monitor. They were piled so high that some of them were overlapping. That was a lot of work, and he was in no state of mind to confront it at the moment. In fact, he was tired. He had been up late the night before because he realized that he had forgotten to lock the back door in the breakroom. At least Annabeth was in the area and could lock it up for him, but he still had to walk her through how to do it. He owed her for that one.

Maybe he deserved a nap. It wouldn't be for long. He wouldn't be comfortable sleeping upright at his desk if he just pushed the keyboard out of the way and laid his head down in his arms...

***

Something violently shook Percy awake.

"Jesus, man," Leo said. "We've been looking for you everywhere. Will wants to go over the step counting competition thingy before we leave."

"What?" Percy asked.

"I said that Will wants to report the step counting thingy."

"I heard that," Percy said. "How long was I out?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know. I don't work in your office."

He must have been out for a long time if the day was almost over, and he hadn't checked anything off his to-do list. He was in for a long night at the office. In his head, Percy started a mental list of places he could order takeout from.

"I'll be out in a minute, Leo," he said finally.

"We're all waiting on you," said Leo, "but no pressure."

For a reason Percy couldn't place, he felt a lot of pressure. This was the guy Annabeth told him to talk to about his Rachel problem?

Everyone was assembled in the lobby again, and Will had that stupid broken whiteboard he stole out of the break room. Percy was pretty sure that was a hazard, but admitting so would require adding another sticky note to the bottom of his computer monitor, so that would be a problem for a much later Percy.

"Nice of you to join us," Will said. Where did he get the pointer from? Percy didn't remember giving him the money for that.

Someone elbowed his side. "Where have you been all day?" Drew hissed. "Piper almost got into it with a Karen!"

Shit, that was Piper's biggest weakness.

"Is everything okay?" Percy asked.

"Will and Nico took care of it," she said.

"Okay!" Will said, whacking the whiteboard with his fancy teacher pointer that Percy most certainly would not have given him company funding for. He was really committed to the exercise bit; his tie was decorated with little winged sneakers. "So I hope everyone's having a good first day of step-counting!"

Frank, who was red in the face for some reason, groaned.

"What happened to him?" Percy asked.

Drew smirked. "We're in it to win it, hon."

That didn't exactly look like winning to him, but he chose to ignore the potential teammate abuse; his to-do list couldn't handle that.

"And now, for the grand reveal!" Will said, attempting to spin the whiteboard around. It got stuck because it was broken and should never have been taken out of the breakroom. "Hang on. Uh, just remember everyone, today's results aren't indicative of the entire competition, so there's plenty of time to catch up—Ouch! Nico! A little help, please!"

Nico left his spot behind the reception desk and helped Will pick up the entire whiteboard off the ground. "Okay. Allora, caro-"

"We can fix it!" Will insisted. "Put it back on its hinges!"

"We can't," he said. "Just spin it around and prop it against the desk."

"I refuse to believe that we cannot fix this," said Will.

"No, babe-"

The whiteboard crashed to the ground again, effectively waking Frank up. He started clapping. "Yeah, good job, everyone!"

Annabeth facepalmed.

Thud!

"Good enough," said Nico.

"What? No! We have to put it back on the hinges," Will said. "Nico, come back!"

But it was too late. Nico was already settled in his seat behind the desk.

"Fine then." Will propped the whiteboard up against his legs. "So here's our Day One results!"

"What the actual hell, Percy?" Annabeth asked.

As Will Solace launched into a generic speech about how steps at home count for the contest and how there's still time to improve, Percy scanned the results, looking for the source of Annabeth's frustration.

Oh.

He wasn't exactly surprised to see that Drew and Frank were winning, and Piper and Leo in second place made sense, but Will and Nico were in third place and he and Annabeth were dead last. That didn't check out. Sure, Percy wasn't a car salesperson, but he moved around plenty at work. He thought he did at least.

And then he remembered the accidental four-hour nap he took because he didn't feel like doing any of his desk work.

"Woo!" Drew shouted. She dragged Frank to his feet and gave him a two-handed high-five. "Good job, buddy! Now, keep walking! Walk for your life!"

Frank raised his fist in the air weakly. To say he pumped his fist would be an exaggeration.

The small assembly began to dissipate; Percy imagined the employees were ready to go home after a long day of actually working and not taking naps.

Speaking of, he had work to do. He had a mountain of sticky notes on his monitor waiting for him to dive in. Hopefully, he wouldn't drown.

"Percy." Annabeth stood in his way with her arms crossed.

"Oh, hey, Annabeth," Percy said. "Great job today." He meant it. They may have come in last, but she got a lot of steps in without him. That was certainly impressive.

"Wish I could say the same to you," she said.

Shit, she was serious about wanting to win. Percy always knew she had a bit of an ego, but he didn't think it was that bad. Then again, coming in dead last probably wasn't a good feeling.

"Look, I'm sorry," he said. "I sort of kind of accidentally... fell asleep."

She raised an eyebrow. "You fell asleep."

"Yeah," Percy explained. "I just have a lot of work piling up, and sometimes... Sometimes, I fall asleep instead of facing my problems." That's a reasonable thing to do. Normal people use sleep as a way of avoiding their problems.

"Percy, that's concerning," she said.

"Okay, well, I can't walk a million steps a day like you can," he snapped.

"And you can't be bothered to try," Annabeth snapped back.

He stopped in his tracks. It seemed like he wouldn't be getting a head start on his overtime work. "Look, it's not even fair. All the others got paired up with the salespeople. They get more steps!"

"Oh, so you'd rather have someone else carrying your dead weight?"

"That's not what I'm saying. I just-"

Annabeth threw her hands up in surrender. "Fine, I'll just do all the work. Don't expect me to share the Panda Express card with you."

He couldn't deal with this right now. "Fine. Do that."

Chapter Text

Annabeth brought her lunch the next day and ate in the garage with the other mechanics. Percy could hear her laugh at something one of the guys must have said. He imagined her throwing her head back the way she does when she finds something especially funny. He wondered what she brought for lunch in the brown paper bag from her apartment. She didn't seem like someone who liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Everyone gave Percy weird looks all day. They knew about the fight; he just knew it. It was obvious, anyway. Annabeth brought her own lunch and didn't even eat it with him, and Percy had enough takeout from the new Korean barbecue place to feed both of them, but nobody to share it with, except for Nico, who Percy suspected took the extra food out of the refrigerator while he was napping in his office for the second day in a row.

That was supposed to be Percy's dinner.

"Is everything okay?" Will asked while Percy was double-checking the refrigerator for his leftover Korean food.

"Yes," he said quickly. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because," Will said, "Annabeth ate a granola bar and a banana in the garage for lunch."

"That's all she ate?"

"Well, she thought she had a soda but she accidentally grabbed a can of White Claw instead, so yes. Just the bruised banana and the granola bar. That's what you're concerned about?"

Percy pinched the bridge of his nose. "No. I mean, yes, that is not a sustainable meal. We just didn't see eye to eye yesterday and I think she needs some time to cool off. That's all."

Will's eyes widened. "This doesn't have anything to do with the step-counting competition, does it?"

He couldn't admit that to Will. He worked so hard putting the team-bonding competition together. He even risked using the broken whiteboard. Granted, he paired himself with his boyfriend and left Frank at the mercy of Drew, but overall, Will seemed very proud of his work.

"No," Percy said. "The competition was a great idea."

"And you and Annabeth are okay?" Will asked.

He didn't normally condone lying to employees, but this time, he made an exception. "Yup."

The car salesman nodded. "Alright then."

But Percy's conscience got the best of him, per usual. "I'm sorry," he said, shaking his head. "You said she was eating a banana and a granola bar?"

"A bruised banana," Will clarified.

Even though he told himself he would give Annabeth some time to cool off, Percy found himself opening the GrubHub app on his phone and scrolling to find the place with the fastest delivery time. Call it a work-related interest. He couldn't have a mechanic going hungry on the job.

***

Percy found Annabeth tossing a shiny wrapper into the trash can behind Nico's desk while he scrambled to hide his computer monitor.

"I know you play online MythoMagic on the clock," Percy said.

"What? No..." Nico said, quickly clicking into a new browser window.

"Nico, can you give Annabeth and me a minute to talk?"

"It's my desk," he said.

Annabeth brushed her hands against her jeans. "It's fine; I should be getting back to work."

"But we have to come up with a new strategy for the step-counting competition," said Percy. Hopefully, he wasn't coming on too strong. By the look on her face, it seemed like he'd struck a chord.

"Percy, it's-"

"I bought you lunch," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Then what was Nico eating?"

"Hey!" The receptionist waved his arms around in defense. "It was unlabeled!"

Percy sighed. Nico had him there. "I ordered Chick-fil-A."

Annabeth faked offense. "Percy! You compromised our morals for a chicken sandwich?"

"Actually, I compromised our morals for a sandwich and two milkshakes," he said. "I had a gift card."

"Gift cards don't count!" Nico chimed in.

Percy facepalmed. "Yes, thank you, Nico. Annabeth, can we maybe go to my office?"

"Whatever you want to say to me, you can say to Nico," she said.

Nico turned his attention back to what was undoubtedly another game of online MythoMagic; Percy could see the reflection in his blue light glasses.

"Carry on." Nico gave them a finger gun.

"So, strategy," Annabeth said.

"Yeah," he said. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

Percy shrugged. "I mean, we both know how many steps I took yesterday. You took so many. How do you do it?"

"Well," she said, pursing her lips in thought. "I guess... I have a smaller stride since I'm shorter than you, so I get more steps than someone your height would get walking around the block. I babysit my little brothers a couple of times a week, and they're a bit of a handful. And... Oh! I run in the mornings with Connor."

"Connor?" That's a person he hadn't thought about since like, February. There went Annabeth being his single ally at work.

"Yeah, he's like the perfect running buddy," she said. "We're kind of training for a 5K right now."

"What?"

"It's like a race, sort of. We're more in it for the charity part because it goes towards screening awareness for colorec-"

"I know what a 5K is," Percy said. "I guess I just didn't realize you and Connor were still seeing each other."

"Tea," Nico said.

"Yes, thank you, Nico," said Percy.

As Annabeth explained that the date at the Rainforest Cafe wasn't a complete disaster, Percy found himself with a pit in the middle of his stomach, like he'd eaten bad dairy, except he couldn't remember eating anything questionable lately. Connor? Travis from business school's brother? That was the person Annabeth decided to give a second date to? She could do so much better, Percy thought to himself. Like, she deserved someone who could cook, for starters.

"So yeah," she said, wrapping up the story Percy wasn't listening to. "It's kind of casual right now. We're not using labels. Anyway, you should run with us tomorrow."

"I should?"

"Yeah," said Annabeth. "Bright and early. I'll text you the address."

"Wow," Nico said. "Never eat lunch in the office ever again."

In unison, Percy and Annabeth said, "Thank you, Nico."

***

It was early, but it was not bright. It was still very much dark, and Percy was freezing his ass off in the middle of this park between Annabeth and Connor's houses. They weren't living together at least, Percy thought, but he wasn't trying to dwell on that fact. He had no reason to.

He also had no running gear. He didn't even really know what running gear was. Percy was one of those guys who lifted in the safety of his own home, where nobody could judge him for his mildly embarrassing workout playlist, so usually, he just wore shorts and the misprinted t-shirt from that time Olympus Auto tried to give out free stuff to customers who spun a wheel.

Percy figured that he'd look like a total ass if he showed up to meet Annabeth's "not-boyfriend" wearing a botched shirt that said "OLUMPUS AUTOMOTIVE," and it was too cold for shorts, so he went with a pair of Adidas sweatpants and a sweatshirt from high school he found in the back of his closet.

He spotted Annabeth and Connor over by a bench. She was stretching her legs and laughing at something Connor said.

Connor wore man leggings under a pair of shorts. Percy's mom tried to buy him those man leggings once to wear after his away swim meets, but he never really went for it. Connor's mom was probably very happy that he was not freezing his balls off.

"Hey!" he waved to the not-quite-couple.

"Percy, hi!" Connor said. Some brown curls peeked out from under his hat as Percy got closer. "Nice to have you joining us!"

"Nice to be here," he said, even though he was beyond cold. Was it too much to hope that running would warm him up a little?

Annabeth stuck her hands in her pockets. "You remembered your pedometer, right?"

"Yup." He gestured to his pocket, where the little machine clung for dear life. "Even got some steps in making breakfast this morning."

"Perfect," she said. "So we usually just do a couple of laps around the park. Neither of us really knows how many miles it is, but it should be enough to get us a couple thousand steps."

"I can do kilometers, though!" Connor chimed in. "I play Pokémon Go!"

"Yes, Connor will be hatching Pokémon eggs while we run," Annabeth clarified.

"I have to hatch twenty eggs in the next week so I can complete the challenge and level up before Travis."

Percy nodded as if he knew what the hell they were talking about. "Sure," he said.

A couple of laps around the park didn't sound so bad, and besides, he wasn't in bad shape. He lifted weights; it was probably hard to see because of his coat, but Percy was undoubtedly bigger and more muscular than Connor. He wondered if Annabeth ran circles around the guy while he struggled to hatch Pokémon.

For some reason, the idea of getting to spend time running with Annabeth while Connor struggled to keep up was kind of appealing to him.

"You ready to kill this competition?" Annabeth asked.

Percy gave a thumbs-up.

"Woo!" Connor shouted. He took off jogging down the path, his plastic Gatorade water bottle in one hand and Pokémon Go pulled up on his phone in the other.

Annabeth sprinted to keep up and then fell into pace with her... situationship? It wasn't technically a situationship if they were on the same page about not technically being boyfriend and girlfriend, Percy thought. If it were him, he'd probably put a label on it before someone else got the chance to steal Annabeth away from him, not that he was into Annabeth or anything. He was the one that set her up with Connor, for crying out loud! He was happy for them, even if their current status was confusing.

Percy sprinted to catch up with Annabeth and Connor, except the sidewalk path was just wide enough for two people, so he had no choice but to trail behind them. He made sure to keep his distance because if Annabeth wasn't mad at him yesterday, she sure would be today if he were to accidentally flat-tire her.

The space between them grew and he tried to muster up the breath to tell them he was going to take a water break, except he then realized that he had left his water bottle in his car by accident, so he kept running.

And then he got this feeling in his throat that was kind of weird, but he chose to ignore that because he was more thirsty than anything else, but he couldn't ask Connor for a sip from his water bottle. That would be like admitting defeat. How did he do it? He was built like a goddamn string bean!

"Okay back there, Percy?" Annabeth called.

"Yup!" he squeaked. There was snow on the ground left from last week. Maybe he wouldn't be able to taste the dog piss and car exhaust if he closed his eyes.

Except he couldn't eat snow because that's disgusting, yet he couldn't ask Connor for water because he already drank some and then shared it with Annabeth, and something about that felt sort of intimate to Percy, so he decided to keep quiet.

When did they get so far away, though?

He needed to stop.

He put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath, which was almost worse than if he had kept running because he felt like every part of him was going to explode. A hamster was running on a wheel in his chest to keep him going, but the wheel had finally flown off its hinges so now a hamster and a hamster wheel clanged around in his chest and smacked his lungs from all kinds of angles.

"Hey, man, you good?" someone asked.

"Fine," Percy said. Was it too much to hope the person asking him was Annabeth? Hell, maybe it was a stranger. He'd take that.

"Why don't you have some of my water?" A green Gatorade water bottle was thrust into his vision, and a pale freckled hand screwed the lid off.

"Thanks," Percy muttered, taking Connor's water bottle. The water dribbled down his chin as he clumsily sipped.

"Everything okay?" Annabeth asked although Percy couldn't quite see where her voice was coming from.

"Yeah, Percy just overdid it a little."

"Shit," she said. "Take him over to the bench so he doesn't pass out."

"Oh. Yeah." A hand on Percy's shoulder guided him off the path and onto a wooden bench.

Annabeth sat next to him and asked, "How are you feeling? Any better?"

No, Percy wanted to say. The water on his face made him even colder, but the running made his insides feel like they were on fire, and he was pretty sure the hamster in his chest got wedged behind his pulsing lungs and was suffocating. Also, he didn't like Connor.

"I'm fine," he said.

Annabeth reached into his pocket. "Here, we can put your pedometer on Connor for a little while."

Percy should have never set those two up.  

Chapter Text

"I dunno," Annabeth said. "It's like we both kind of want it to go somewhere, but neither of us is taking the initiative. I don't like hard conversations, and as great as Connor is, he's... Well, he's a bit lazy. Honestly, it's taken so long, at this point, I'm wondering if the universe actually means for us to be an item, you know?"

"Uh-huh," Percy said, nodding from the other side of his desk.

This wasn't a conversation Annabeth ever pictured herself having with her boss, but who better to understand the situation than the guy who not only set them up but got to see them together a couple of days ago? Percy had more insight into Annabeth's relationship with Connor than her father ever had with any of her dates in high school.

"Like, we get along well, and I guess we'd be a good couple, but the fact that neither of us has made any kind of romantic effort beyond sex is concerning, right?" she asked.

She thought the mention of sex would get Percy's attention, but of course, it didn't. He'd been preoccupied lately, and it felt like he was even more so when she talked about Connor, but she was probably just imagining that.

So Annabeth turned up the heat—figuratively speaking, of course.

"And I mean, he does have a fetish for Care Bears, and to each their own, but lately, I've been wondering if that's a dealbreaker for me," she said. "Like, sometimes, I swear he's tracing the outside of a sunshine on my stomach when we're cuddling."

Percy choked on some broccoli. "Excuse me?"

"Gotcha," she said. "Lost ya for a minute. Where'd you go?"

He turned red in the face. "Uh, nowhere. Just had to dissociate."

Annabeth nodded. "Heard that. Connor doesn't have a Care Bear fetish, by the way."

"If anything, he'd be into Pokémon," Percy said. "You know how some guys are."

"And I wouldn't touch those guys with a ten-foot pole," she said. "Or guys who experience sexual attraction to Care Bears, for that matter."

"I'd be worried if you would," he replied. He stretched his arms out behind him and yawned. "Sorry, I think I'm still tired from the torture you subjected me to the other day."

"Hey!" Annabeth said. "I invited you, and you said yes."

"Only because I didn't want you to be mad at me anymore."

"I was never mad at you," she said. God, she could never find it in herself to be mad at Percy even if she tried. That was another reason she wasn't so sure about making things official with Connor. She wasn't into Percy per se, but something was certainly lingering ever since they kissed back in December. The fact that it happened months ago and she was still comparing Connor's kiss to his was a little concerning, and frankly, she wasn't so sure it was fair to string Connor along like that. Hell, was it even stringing Connor along if she didn't have romantic feelings for Percy?

She didn't know. She was just confused, and not only because she found not one, but two whole men attractive for once in her life. She wasn't interested in Percy, and Percy clearly didn't reciprocate whatever feelings she had for him back in December; he was the one who set her up with Connor!

"I'm sorry we lost," Percy said.

Annabeth shrugged. "I mean, you buy me lunch every day anyway, so the prize wasn't a major loss. At least we didn't come in last, although I still have no idea how Leo and Piper managed to make that comeback."

"Well, yeah, about that," Percy said, "but I'm also just really tired all the time. I have so much work piling up, and I just know next month all these parents are going to come in and buy cars for their kids as graduation presents, and-"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "What's really wrong?"

"Rachel is seeing someone else," he said.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "I thought you were over her before she even dumped you."

He dumped his leftover Panda Express into a clean Tupperware container. "Well, yeah, but that's kind of the problem. I'm supposed to feel something when she posts pictures of her in a bikini with this new guy's arms wrapped around her."

"Let me see," Annabeth said.

"Nah," he said. "I mean, I'm supposed to feel some kind of way, right? Honestly, I'm not sure I felt any kind of way when she sent me pictures of her when we were together."

"You mean like nudes?"

Percy flinched. "No, I'm not really into that kind of thing. I mean like, Snapchats where she just happened to be in some kind of a work outfit." And by work outfit, Percy meant the sexy clothes she wore to her job as a stripper because his ex-girlfriend Rachel was a stripper.

"Have you talked to Leo about this?" Annabeth asked for probably the third time this week. They'd had this conversation a lot, yet Percy wasn't seeming to get the hint. She wasn't the right person to help this guy realize he was probably somewhere on the asexuality spectrum. As an aromantic asexual person, Leo should have been the one to help Percy figure this out. It wouldn't be Annabeth's place to intervene.

He sighed. "No. If I'm being honest, you're the only one I feel like I can talk to about this."

She was slightly taken aback by that and hoped it didn't show on her face. "Me?"

"Yeah," he said. "There's my best friend Grover, but he's got a wife and kids now, and Travis just turns everything into a joke."

Annabeth smirked. "So you want to talk to me about your dating crisis because my life has no direction and I'm not funny?"

"No!" he said, waving his hands around.

She laughed. "I'm kidding."

He folded his hands in front of him and cleared his throat. "I knew that."

"Sure you did."

They both whipped their heads toward the door when there was a knock.

"Is Annabeth in here?" Piper asked.

Annabeth got up and answered the door. "Hey, Piper."

"Someone's here to see you." She had the grin of a devil and her eyebrows were raised high enough to defy the laws of gravity.

"Connor?"

"Connor."

Annabeth swiped one last piece of orange chicken from Percy's Tupperware container even though she was already bloated.

She heard him whine in protest as she followed Piper out into the lobby, where sure enough, Connor was waiting with a large brown paper bag and the most obnoxiously large coffee she'd ever seen in her life.

He smiled at her, although his smile always looked more like a smirk.

"Hey," he said. "I brought you lunch."

Oh. Oh, shit.

Connor didn't exactly know about her eating lunch with her boss daily. It wasn't bad that she did that because it didn't mean anything, but he didn't need to know that.

"That's sweet of you, Connor," Annabeth said, "but I already ate lunch... Can we raincheck?"

"But it's Olive Garden," he said. "It won't be the same by dinner."

Oh, wow, he went all out. "I know. I'm so sorry; if I'd known, I wouldn't have eaten Percy's Panda Express."

"You ate with Percy," Connor said as her words set in. "I guess we can heat this up for dinner."

"Thank you, Connor," Annabeth said. "It was nice of you to bring that."

He offered a smile, but it didn't quite have the same intensity as his full smirk. "I actually had a question for you."

"Okay, shoot." Were they about to have the boyfriend-girlfriend conversation here in the lobby? There were much better places for that. If things between them didn't work out, Annabeth would rather not associate a failed relationship with her place of work.

"So I was wondering what you're doing on the thirtieth? My brother is getting married and I was wondering if you wanted to come," he said, fiddling with the paper bag from the Olive Garden. "I know it's really short notice, but I've been busy with the planning and, well, you know, so I get it if you already have plans, but-"

"That sounds great, Connor," Annabeth said before he could dig his grave any deeper. "I'll have to find something to wear, but between Piper and Drew, I can probably manage. Just let me double-check the date, okay?"

He smiled the way Annabeth had come to look forward to. "Alright then! Travis owes me twenty bucks."

"Don't spend it all in one place!" she called after him as he stepped through the automatic doors.

The doors shut and Annabeth turned back toward the direction of the garage. It was far past time she got back to doing the job she was hired to perform.

"Damn, Panda Express and Olive Garden in one day," Nico said from behind the reception desk.

"Yes, thank you, Nico," Annabeth said.

"You are free on the thirtieth," he said, spinning his monitor around to show Annabeth the employee schedule. "You can take a half day."

She rolled her eyes. "Of course, I'm not free on the thirtieth. It's a Friday. What kind of person has a wedding on a weekday?"

He shrugged. "Sometimes people who want to save money have their weddings on Fridays. Wouldn't your boyfriend have told you that?"

Before she could correct Nico's usage of the word "boyfriend," Drew Tanaka materialized next to her.

"What's this about a wedding?" Her brown eyes shot daggers into Annabeth.

She started her answer quite intelligently, with an, "Uh..."

"Connor invited Annabeth to his brother's wedding at the end of the month, and she can go, but she's acting like there's a chance she might not be able to," Nico supplied.

Annabeth sighed. "Yes, thank you, Nico."

"What are you going to wear?" she asked.

"Drew, I don't even know if I'm going," Annabeth said.

"Why wouldn't you go?"

"Jesus!" she shouted at Will. "When the hell did you get here?"

Will flipped his hair. "I came as soon as I felt tension."

Sometimes Annabeth struggled to deal with her coworkers. "There's no tension. Connor just invited me to a wedding and I'm not sure I can go."

"Not just any wedding, hon!" Drew said. "His brother's wedding!"

Will covered his mouth and gasped.

Annabeth said, "I'm not sure what difference it makes. A wedding's a wedding."

"His brother's wedding," Drew said.

"If you haven't made anything official by now," said Will, "saying yes to this wedding will do that."

"Please," said Annabeth. "He can just say I'm a friend."

"You'll be meeting all of his family," Nico said. "Like, his mom will be there. She'll be looking for her future daughter-in-law."

"What did you tell him?" Drew demanded.

Annabeth stuck her hands in her pockets. "I told him I'd have to double-check my schedule, but-"

"Annabeth!" she shrieked. "You have to go! Weddings are the perfect place to figure out if a guy is the one."

She wasn't exactly a believer in the concept of there being one perfect person for her, but Drew had a point. This would be a good opportunity to get to know Connor's family. If they were as crazy as hers, she'd have no part of it and would break things off with him before they could get past their extended talking stage.

And then Will said something that probably wasn't supposed to set Annabeth off the way it did, but nevertheless, it did.

"What if he's planning to propose?"

That was about when the nausea settled in. Annabeth couldn't take it anymore—the attention, the pressure, Will's voice, which she secretly found annoying, all of it.

"I'm going back to work now," she announced. She didn't care if it sounded rude. She needed an out and she needed it now.

"Will there be an open bar?" Nico asked. "Because if there's an open bar, I think you should seriously consider going to the wedding."

"Thank you, Nico."

Chapter Text

Annabeth continued to ponder her coworkers' words. Yes, it was past time she and Connor put a label on their relationship. She knew that, somewhere deep down. What she didn't know was whether or not the lack of a label meant that they weren't suited for each other. She couldn't put that on Connor—he was a great guy, who clearly wanted to make sure Annabeth was comfortable before pressuring her into being his official girlfriend—but Annabeth wasn't sure it wasn't her fault either. She didn't like to rush into things, and just as much as Connor didn't want to pressure her, she didn't want to pressure Connor. Maybe that was the problem. He wasn't worried enough, and she was worried about seeming like she cared more than she did. Because she didn't care. Well, she cared, but a healthy amount. A normal amount of caring. On a scale of one to ten, how much did neurotypical people care about situationships?

And screw Will Solace for putting that awful thought about wedding proposals in her head!

As soon as she thought that, she felt bad for thinking of Will like that because she actually enjoyed working with him, but her point still stood. How could he say something like that and not expect her to completely freak out? She'd been contemplating all kinds of worst-case scenarios in her head for who knows how long!

If Connor proposed, she'd have no idea what to say. Refusing wouldn't be a nice thing to do, especially in front of all his friends and family, but she couldn't accept either. That would be an awful idea! They barely knew each other!

Annabeth had been screwing the same parts together for about twenty minutes before Frank finally broke the silence.

"Do you need any help with that?"

"Thank you, Frank," she said, "but no."

"Okay," he said. "Do you have a minute?"

Leo groaned from somewhere behind a pile of miscellaneous air-conditioning parts. "Not this again!"

"It's fine," Annabeth said, sitting back and hugging her knees to her chest. "What's up?"

"Well, I've been thinking about doing something special for Hazel because she got promoted through Jupiter," he said. "She'll get to train to manage her own location, and I'm super proud of her, and I want to surprise her with something, but I don't know what."

"Well, what does she like?" Annabeth asked. "Will she like it if you take her out to dinner?"

"How am I supposed to surprise her with dinner?" Frank asked. "Like, she'll know we're getting dinner."

"Yeah, but she won't know where you're going," Annabeth said.

He pursed his lips. "Mmm, but if I put her in my car and drive her to a surprise place, that's a little too close to kidnapping... for both of us, honestly."

"Fair enough," Annabeth said. "Should you get her a gift?"

"Oh," he said. "I never really thought of that. She knit me a sweater last month..."

"Frank, do you know how long it takes to knit a whole-ass sweater?"

He winced. "I'm afraid to find out."

"Exactly."

"So I should get her something?"

Annabeth nodded. "Not a ring, though. She'll overthink it." Annabeth was still overthinking that awesome stainless steel ring Percy tried to give her before she almost quit her job last year. It was more than a cool ring for a cool bisexual woman. It had to mean something. You didn't buy a ring for someone you weren't dating if it didn't mean something.

"Maybe a necklace to go with the suit she bought for the job interview," Frank wondered aloud. "Yeah, that'll be cool."

"Just don't get a charm bracelet!" Leo shouted.

Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Do not buy her a charm bracelet."

"Okay," said Frank. "Thanks."

"Yeah, of course," Annabeth said. "That's cool of you to do that for her."

He smiled. "It was cool of Connor to show up and bring you lunch."

"I guess so," she said. "I'm not a huge fan of grand gestures though."

"I don't think it was supposed to be that way," Frank said. "I think everyone was just bored."

That made a lot of sense. "Yeah," she realized. "Connor probably wanted to ask me to the wedding while we ate lunch in his car or something so nobody else would hear, except we didn't get to eat in his car because I'd already eaten with Percy."

"Yikes," said Leo.

"Are you going to go to the wedding?" Frank asked. "I haven't been to a wedding in forever."

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "We're not even official."

Frank smiled. "I'm sure you'll make the right decision no matter what you do."

Leo finally emerged from behind the pile of miscellaneous junk. "Alternatively, you could go to the wedding and learn more about Connor. He'll be working, right?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Well, yeah, since he planned the wedding."

"So learn how he acts under pressure. See him in a new environment," said Leo.

"I guess you have a point there," she said. After all, learning how Connor behaved at work could make or break the potential for them to put a label on their relationship. For all she knew, he could have been a complete jackass as a wedding planner, or maybe wedding planners weren't Annabeth's type. Maybe that was one of those "red flag" jobs, although she preferred to think that if that were the case, Percy wouldn't have set them up.

"If he proposes, I'm blaming you guys for making me go in the first place," said Annabeth.

Leo looked up from his work and grimaced.

"Ew," Frank said. "If he does that, he's an asshole and you'd be dodging a bullet."

It was Annabeth's turn to be surprised. "I don't think I've ever heard you swear before, Frank."

He turned red. "Yes, you have!"

"When?" she demanded.

Frank didn't have an answer for that. "I just think that's not a nice thing to do... to you, and the bride and groom."

Annabeth hadn't really considered Will's theory in that light. The reason why a proposal like that wouldn't make her uncomfortable wasn't just that she was a person who was uncomfortable with grand gestures. It was a rude thing to do. Connor's brother and his wife would be offended. Everyone would be uncomfortable.

Even though he was a hopeless romantic, Connor didn't seem like the kind of person who would disrespect his situationship or his family like that. There wasn't all that much to worry about unless someone referred to her as his girlfriend and then they'd struggle to correct that, except neither of them would know how to explain why Annabeth went to the wedding with him as a date if she wasn't his girlfriend and then things would just be weird and then-

"I did it! Ta-da!" Leo shouted from somewhere behind his pile of scrap metal.

"Did what?" asked Annabeth.

Frank facepalmed. "Please don't tell me it's functional..."

"First testing sequence!" Leo shouted. He hit a switch and something sounded like a computer booting up.

"Leo," Annabeth said calmly, "what is that?"

The same way you might say, There's leftover hummus in the fridge, Leo said, "It's a tire-changing robot."

Annabeth didn't get a chance to ask any questions before a metal arm-looking thing on a platform that sort of looked like a Roomba vacuum cleaner emerged from behind the pile of scrap metal Leo had been evidently devoting to not working.

"Huh," she said. "It works."

"Don't jinx me," said Leo. "I still have to test it on a car."

"Oh, god," Frank said. "Please don't use it on a—he's using it on a client's car."

Annabeth swore under her breath. "I don't think I want to be here for this."

"Uh-uh," said Frank. "You are not leaving me alone with this."

So she stayed and braced herself for impact. Honestly, she didn't think Olympus Auto's finances would be able to handle someone getting an on-the-job injury. Hell, Percy wouldn't be able to handle the guilt.

"It's Hazel!" Frank shouted.

"Where?" Leo asked.

He held out his phone, showing them both a call screen with a really cute contact photo of Hazel dressed up as a witch for Halloween.

"What do I do?" he asked.

"Uh, pick up?" Annabeth suggested.

He stammered, "But I'm a terrible secret keeper! I'll spoil the surprise and ruin it!"

"And she'll be mad if you don't pick up," said Annabeth.

Frank accepted the call. "Hi!" he said in a shrill voice.

"Yep!" he said. "I'll be there for sure!"

He paused to listen to his girlfriend. "Uh, trash day is on Wednesday, I think... I don't want to text the landlord; he's scary."

Annabeth's eyes widened. Frank and Hazel moved in together? When had that happened? Why did nobody tell her?

"Uh, yeah," Frank said. "Cupcakes would be a great thing to bring. Hey, did you remember to place that Amazon order?"

Another pause.

"Oh, no, I didn't need anything. I just knew you needed that drawer organizer for your socks... Well, yes, those too, but I'm in mixed company if you know what I mean." His face turned red. "Yes, I love you too. See you tonight." He hung up and turned to face Annabeth again. "Sorry about that."

She shook her head. "Don't be sorry," she said. And then, "You didn't tell me you moved in together."

Frank turned even redder if that was possible. "Yeah, we moved in a few weeks ago. We're hoping to have a little housewarming party once we're settled, but between her promotion and us both working full-time, it's been hard to get everything unpacked."

Annabeth smiled. "Let me know if you need help assembling Ikea furniture."

"Will do," he said, "but you might have to fight Hazel for that job. She says it's like a puzzle."

"That's because it is!"

Frank laughed.

All this talk of commitment got Annabeth thinking about her situation with Connor. "Hey, can I ask you a weird question?"

"Sure."

"Am I a jerk for not being Connor's girlfriend? Officially, I mean."

Frank pursed his lips. "If Connor hasn't asked you to be his girlfriend, then, maybe not? I don't know. Maybe you're both stringing each other along?"

"Well, shit." Annabeth didn't realize that was what she was doing, but she supposed it made sense. The problem, however, clearly wasn't her behavior considering Connor was doing it too. The problem was that she didn't know how exactly she felt about Connor. Was she into him and afraid of her feelings? Was she not into him, but stringing him along because of her fear of loneliness and worry that she may never find someone willing to tolerate her like that? Was she a lesbian after all?

She quickly ruled that last possibility out; no way was she a lesbian. Kissing Percy last December confirmed that for her.

"Do you think I should stop seeing him?" she asked.

Frank shrugged. "I mean, I'm no expert. I think I just got lucky with Hazel, but if it's been this long and you're still not sure, chances are-"

"Woah!" And with that, they were reminded of Leo's presence, which unfortunately meant that his robot testing had commenced.

The not-quite Roomba helping the tire-changing robot move had those wheels that would make it easy for it to climb stairs, which the mechanics learned as they watched it climb up the stairs towards the lobby.

"Stop that robot!" Leo yelled.

Frank grabbed the railing and bolted after the robot, but he tripped and tumbled down the stairs. "It's heading for the lobby!"

"Yes, what an astute observation," Annabeth said. The robot wasn't moving that fast. She climbed around Frank and up the stairs.

The robot used its metal arm to turn the doorknob.

"What the actual fuck?"

"I told you!" Leo shouted, pulling his goggles over his face and revving his blowtorch. "I designed it for speed. It's on the move, people!"

Annabeth chased the robot into the lobby, but it was too late. The mechanical arm on wheels was already wreaking havoc. Nico stood on top of his desk to avoid the chaos on the floor. Will ushered some customers out the front door.

"It's got me! It's got me!" Drew screeched. Sure enough, the robot was chewing on her pink floral scarf.

Shit, that was a really cute scarf, Annabeth thought.

"I've got this!" Piper shouted. She put her index fingers in her mouth and whistled.

The robot continued reeling Drew's scarf into its metallic clutches.

"Seriously?" Annabeth asked Piper. She can't believe she ever had a crush on that woman.

Frank finally emerged from the garage, holding a sledgehammer in one hand and a makeshift net in the other, which was really just a lot of plastic shrink wrap bunched up together. Either way, it seemed like a promising option.

"Catch!" He threw one end of the plastic to Annabeth, who caught it.

Before she could get over the shock of actually catching something that was thrown at her, Frank started running toward the robot, and she got the hint.

The two of them ran at the robot with their cellophane and began wrapping. Annabeth immediately shifted into tunnel vision. No longer could she hear Drew scream at her and Frank to be careful with the precious scarf that her Great Aunt Hitomi got for her in Japan last year. No longer could she hear Leo yell about proper robot care and buttons that probably could have made their rampant robot problem go away faster. Annabeth was struck by a power trip that could only possess a queer woman smothering a robot with plastic wrap. She was pretty sure that if anybody at Connor's brother's wedding asked her about her job, this was what she would talk about—not that she was going to the wedding. She needed more time to think about that.

"Got it!" Frank shouted, yanking the plastic wrap so the robot toppled to the ground in front of Drew.

The lights that kind of looked like eyes on the machine flickered and then went out.

At the same time Drew yelled, "You saved me!" and wrapped her arms around Annabeth, Leo wailed, "You killed her!"

Annabeth wiggled her way out of Drew's embrace and said, "Yes, of course. Wouldn't want your special scarf getting chewed up."

A door slammed shut and footsteps echoed from the hallway, getting closer and closer. The steps were filled with authority that could only belong to someone with actual authority.

"Shit," said Leo.

"What the hell is going on out here?" Percy asked.

The robot chose that moment to momentarily come back to life, squirting Percy's baby blue polo shirt with oil.

Frank covered his mouth.

Annabeth tried to come up with an excuse, but nothing came out when she opened her mouth. How did you explain to your boss that your coworker's tire-changing robot was out of control and you had to use whatever force necessary to stop it from eating your other coworker's favorite scarf her Great Aunt Hitomi bought for her in Japan?

"Leo was testing out his tire-changing robot," Frank started, "but then it went out of control out here in the lobby, and Annabeth and I had to wrap it in cellophane to keep it from destroying Drew's favorite scarf her Great Aunt Hitomi got for her in Japan."

"It's from Japan!" Drew echoed.

Apparently, it was that simple.

Percy sighed in a way that made Annabeth think he might have been both mad and disappointed. "Just... get that thing out of here and clean this place up. I'm too tired to deal with this right now."

And with that, he turned around and walked back to his office.

The small crowd began to disperse. Frank and Leo bent over and collected the pieces of the robot that had fallen apart in the commotion. Will coaxed Nico back onto the floor. Drew tucked her scarf back into her hair.

Annabeth turned to go back to the garage. She needed to text Connor back.

"What's wrong with him?" Piper asked, practically materializing out of nowhere.

"Hmm?"

"Percy," she clarified. "He seemed off just now."

Annabeth shrugged. "Rachel's dating someone else. It's probably not my place to get into." That much was true. Percy didn't need everyone to know he was having a major sexuality crisis, even if he didn't entirely realize it himself.

"Okay then," Piper said in a way that made Annabeth feel a little bit shitty for not giving more context. That was also valid. Everyone could tell that Percy wasn't as shaken as he could have been by the breakup. "Did you decide if you were going to that wedding?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll go. Leo and Frank made some solid points, and I think it could be fun."

"And you're not Connor's girlfriend."

"Not yet, anyway," she said. "I guess I'll know for sure after the wedding."

"Uh-huh."

Annabeth waited for her to continue, but she didn't.

The two women stopped in front of the door leading down into the garage, but Piper didn't do anything to indicate the conversation was over.

"There's something you're not saying," Annabeth declared.

Piper sighed. "I'm just trying to figure out how to say it without pissing you off."

"Just get it over with."

"Fine then. I think you need to be careful."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm not being careful?"

"I know you can take care of yourself," Piper said. "I just think you need to really consider Connor here. You can't lead him on while you still have feelings for Percy. You and I both know that's not a fair thing to do."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Annabeth said, maintaining a perfect poker face.

Piper dismissed the conversation and went back to work, leaving Annabeth alone in the doorway.

She glanced down the stairs. Somewhere in the garage, Leo was probably piecing together his precious robot while Frank was probably doing the job he got paid to do.

Annabeth needed to go back to work too if she and Frank were going to do enough to cover for Leo's slacking.

"Hey," Frank said when she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Coffee?"

"Thanks," she said.

"Thank Connor. While we were wrangling Leo's robot, he had these sent over."

Annabeth took a sip of the coffee. "I'll be sure to shoot him a text."

Frank set his drink down and opened a filing cabinet, rifling through the manilla envelopes in the drawer.

"Where's Leo?"

"Right here!" Leo shouted, bounding down the stairs. "Sorry, I was talking to Percy, but get this! He didn't even mention my robot! I thought I'd at least get a, 'Hey, cool robot, Leo.'"

"So what did he want to talk about?" Frank asked

Leo waved the question off nonchalantly. "Just some macho guy stuff. You know the drill."

So Percy finally approached Leo like Annabeth had been advising him to. That was certainly a step in the right direction.

"What was that all about with Piper?" Leo asked, changing the subject. "I thought I caught the end of it. Kinda seemed weird, but probably not as weird as my conversation with Percy."

"I have no idea what she was trying to say," Annabeth said.

Except that was a lie. She knew exactly what Piper was talking about. She just wasn't ready to face it.  

Chapter Text

To put it nicely, the entire staff went apeshit when Percy broke the news.

And yes, that was Annabeth putting it nicely, considering the news caused Nico to swear up a storm in Italian. She didn't even know that Nico spoke Italian.

"Look, I don't agree with the way we're all reacting to this," Will said amongst the commotion, "but seriously, Percy? You couldn't have told us about this a month ago?"

"I forgot!" he said. "I promise, it won't be too much of your time. You'll all be out by eight, and I'll buy dinner."

"I desperately need a raise," Drew said.

"What about those of us who have plans?" Annabeth said.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Respectfully, you told me you were watching WrestleMania reruns tonight."

Ah, that was right. When she told Percy about her evening plans, she so conveniently left out the part about Connor coming over to fuck her silly. Instead of amending her earlier statement, she diverted the conversation. "What about Frank's plans? It's his date night with Hazel!"

"Frank hasn't complained this whole time," Percy said.

"They were having board game night! Isn't that just the sweetest most wholesome thing you could possibly think of?" she asked. "Why would you want to ruin that for team bonding?"

"Frank, do you mind canceling your plans?" Percy asked.

Frank looked at the ground. "I guess not, since this is mandatory. Hazel did make cookies though..."

Will started to object. "So did you just forget the fantastic team bonding competition I put together for y'all? Hello? Step-counting?"

Percy put his hands on his hips. "Guys, this is nonnegotiable. We are in desperate need of some team bonding. We don't want another incident like the Saint Patrick's Day fundraiser."

Everyone groaned at the mention of the Saint Patrick's Day fundraiser.

"Exactly," Percy said, his point proven. "So we're all staying after today for some team bonding."

Piper sucked the last of her Starbucks frappuccino off the paper straw and then asked, "So what kind of bonding activity is this?"

"Thank you for your enthusiasm, Piper," Percy said.

"I think you mistook my question for interest," she said. "I still want to go home."

"Okay, guys, that's enough," Percy said. "I paid for this team bonding quest thing, so we're all going to stay and have a good time."

"I'm sorry," Leo said between laughs. "Did you say quest?"

"Yes, I did. Is there something funny about that?"

Annabeth wondered whether or not everyone would follow if she stood up and left the break room right then. If she dumped her mug out in the sink, went to the garage, gathered her things, and got into her Mini Cooper, would others follow? Percy couldn't force them to bond over a tacky game he paid way too much for if there was nobody to bond.

Annabeth's phone screen lit up, showing a text from Connor. Hey, no pressure or anything, but I'm double-checking the seating arrangements for the wedding and was wondering if I should save you a seat?

Again with the wedding stuff. Truthfully, Annabeth didn't know why she hadn't told Connor that she would go with him to his brother's wedding yet. Every time she drafted a text, it just sounded wrong, or she got a weird gurgly feeling in her stomach.

"Now," Percy said. "Who would like to read the instructions?"

Annabeth took that as a no on the collective action idea and turned her attention back to her phone. She needed to respond to Connor. Now.

"Annabeth?" he asked. "Do you want to do the honors?"

Shit. Busted. "What?" she asked.

"Can you read the instructions?" Percy held out the bigass intimidating pamphlet that probably had multiple volumes.

"I'm dyslexic," she said quickly.

"Piper?"

Piper snorted. "I'm also dyslexic."

"Okay, weird coincidence," Percy noted. "Nico?"

No answer.

Percy sighed. "Guys, where is Nico?"

"He has a migraine," Will said.

"He didn't have a migraine five minutes ago."

"Well, he has one now, so he went home," said Will.

Lucky Nico, Annabeth thought. She wished she'd thought to fake a sudden migraine. Then again, she didn't have the Batman-esque ability to disappear the way Nico did.

"Leo?" Percy asked. "Would you like to read the instructions?"

Leo laughed. "Believe it or not, I am also dyslexic."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Can everybody who isn't dyslexic please raise their hands?"

Frank was the only one to raise his hand.

"Wow," said Piper. "It's as if people who grew up with learning disabilities are more likely to go into jobs that don't require a degree from a four-year university."

"I went to college," Will said.

"You completed the Disney College Program," Drew said. "That doesn't count. That isn't even relevant, hon."

"I have soft skills that I learned from my semester working at Disney World."

"You sold your soul to the mouse to sell Mickey bars and overpriced balloons," said Drew.

"Wow, look at that," Percy said in an attempt to reel the group back in. "We're bonding already. Thanks for sharing your fun fact, Will. Seeing as Frank is the only one who isn't dyslexic—somehow—I'm volun-telling him to read the instructions."

"Oh, I don't-"

Percy dropped the instruction pamphlet onto Frank's lap.

"Jesus," Leo exclaimed. "Tell me that it's been translated into a million languages and we have all of those languages."

"I think just English and Spanish," Percy said.

Frank flipped through the comically large book. "I don't see much Spanish... and I don't see many pictures either... Shoot, I do need to learn how to advocate for myself."

He turned to the beginning of the instruction booklet and cleared his throat before reading. "Introduction: Assembling the Team."

Piper snorted. "Tacky, much?"

Frank looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face as he continued to read. "A notorious burglar is on the loose and robbing several companies in your area. It is up to you and your team of detectives to figure out the burglar's secret identity and stop him before he can get to your store."

"Cool, any questions?" Percy asked.

Drew raises her hand. "Can I please go home? If I don't get my chicken cutlet out of the freezer like, thirty minutes ago, I won't be eating dinner until after ten."

"No," said Percy. "Any other questions? No? Okay, keep reading, Frank."

He sighed. "Look around the room for clues."

"Like, this room?" Will asked. "I don't think I get it."

Percy facepalmed. "It's sort of like an escape room. You have to find all the clues in this room to move on to the next room."

The microwave went off and Frank got up. Damn, Annabeth needed him to stay seated in front of her so Percy wouldn't see her work on her response to Connor.

"What?" he asked. "I don't want my Kid Cuisine to get cold."

"Are you the one keeping all those Kid Cuisine meals in the freezer?" Piper asked. "Because if so, I am so sorry for eating one last week. The macaroni and cheese was just so tempting."

"It's okay," he said. "Hazel says they're no good for me because of the microplastics, so I have to hide them here."

"Frank, you really shouldn't be eating so many of those if they've got microplastics," Annabeth said.

"Did you know that humans consume a credit card's worth of microplastics in a week?" Leo asked.

Frank stirred his macaroni and cheese with his fork and said, "No, I did not."

"Guys," Percy said. "Can we please look for the first clue?"

"It wasn't in the microwave," said Frank under his breath.

Annabeth snorted in a failed attempt to keep from laughing.

Will opened a cabinet and a piece of paper shaped like a puzzle piece fell out. "Oh, joy. A clue," he deadpanned. The flowers on his tie seemed to wilt.

"There must be other puzzle pieces hidden around this room like that one!" Percy said. "We should check the rest of the cabinets!" He started opening the cabinets while the others stared.

"So did someone come in here overnight and put these in our cabinets?" Leo asked.

"I'm pretty sure this is going to tell us to go to the lobby or something," Drew said. "Like, we can find the other puzzle pieces if you guys want, or we could just go into another room and see if we can find the... the key? I'm not going to lie, I wasn't paying attention to the instructions. No offense, Frank."

"None taken."

"Guys, we need to find the puzzle pieces," Percy said. "What if there's like, a series of clues to get us to the identity of the killer?"

"I thought it was a burglar," said Annabeth

"I'm pretty sure the clues are just going to send us to different rooms," Piper said. "Isn't that how these things usually work?"

"I can't believe I didn't escape with Nico," Will muttered within earshot of Annabeth.

"Look, I found more pieces!" Percy said. "Let's try to put them together!" He moved Frank's Kid Cuisine to the side and laid out the paper puzzle pieces.

Just to be a good sport, Annabeth put a few together that seemed to make sense.

"Frank, read the pieces!" Percy shouted in an eerily accurate camp counselor voice.

"We're dyslexic, not illiterate," Leo said. Then, he read from the pieces on the table: "Great job finding all the pieces, but your quest has only just begun."

The employees collectively groaned at that.

Leo continued. "The burglar was last seen in the lobby."

"That wasn't even a riddle," Drew said. "Who the hell wrote these god-awful clues? Percy, I think you might have been scammed."

He ignored Drew's harsh critique. "To the lobby!"

A few groans followed Percy out to the lobby. Piper took her time pushing her chair back in. Drew brushed the puzzle pieces into the trash. Will looked out the window as if contemplating an escape plan.

"Do you think I can bring my dinner?" Frank asked.

"Of course, you can bring your dinner," Annabeth said. "We're adults. We can leave if we want to. I sincerely doubt we're getting overtime for this."

"You know you didn't have to make that," Leo said. "I think Percy said he was getting pizza for dinner."

"I'm lactose intolerant," Frank said.

Annabeth cocked an eyebrow. "That TV dinner has macaroni and cheese in it."

"Shoot."

"Okay!" Percy shouted in the middle of the lobby. "Frank, can you read the instructions?"

Frank looked down at his macaroni and cheese and then back up at Percy.

"I can do it," Annabeth said, taking the instruction booklet from Frank. "It says, The burglar knows you're after them and has laid a trap in your lobby. Wait, so we didn't have to solve that puzzle to figure out where we were—never mind. It doesn't matter. Thanks to the..." She squinted. "Does this say obstacle course?"

"We have to do an obstacle course to get to the garage," Frank said.

"Hey, look," said Drew. "I think I see a clue outside!"

"Oh, you're right!" Will agreed. "I'm going to go investigate with Drew. We'll be right back!"

Percy waved his arms. "Wait, guys, there's no clues outside!"

"You can never be too sure!" Will called on his way out.

There was simply no way Drew and Will were coming back, Annabeth thought as they pried the automatic doors open just wide enough to slip out. After hours, they didn't have keys to get back in, but they did have the keys to their cars.

Percy sighed, and Annabeth almost felt bad for him. The keyword being almost. More than anything, she was pissed that Will and Drew didn't let her in on their plan.

"Well, on that note, I guess read the instructions, Frank," Percy said.

Frank ate another bite of macaroni and cheese. "Annabeth has them," he said with his mouth full.

"Annabeth?" Percy urged.

She looked at the cheesy little setup in front of her. "Well, it looks like we've got a hopscotch kinda thing, an egg and spoon race, and... is that a Ripstick?"

"That looks like the knockoff brand my foster parents got me because they couldn't afford the real thing," Leo said. "Ha, yeah. It was called a 'Riptide' or something stupid like that."

"Oh, my dad got me a real Ripstick," Piper said. "I didn't even know there was a knockoff brand."

"But are you sure that's what we're supposed to do?" Percy asked Annabeth. "Maybe you should read the instructions."

Annabeth was not comfortable reading the instructions, but what was she going to do instead? Text Connor about the wedding? Yikes, that sounded equally uncomfortable.

"Fine," she growled, squinting at the page. The letters switched places and spun around like they were performing some kind of country line dance—not that Annabeth would know anything about country line dancing because she certainly did not know the "Footloose" dance.

"Whenever you're ready," Percy said gently.

But Annabeth was not ready. Dyslexia was her enemy, and reading out loud was its weapon against her.

"Uh," she started, "Get to the other slide—I mean—side..." Were those Bs or Ds? Why couldn't everything be written in capital letters?

Piper glanced over her shoulder. "Whoever wrote this clearly was not dyslexic. That font is tiny."

"Hey now," Percy said. "Maybe he—I mean they—are dyslexic and just wanted to save paper."

"Uh-huh, likely story," Piper muttered.

Annabeth continued to read. "Clear the booby traps..."

"Ha," said Leo, the aroace guy. "Booby."

Annabeth felt her phone buzz in the front pocket of her overalls. It was probably Connor asking for a response because making the table arrangements was part of his job that he got paid to do, and Annabeth had her read receipts turned on, so he knew that she saw his text but didn't respond, and his feelings might have been hurt and that's not something she wanted.

Piper snatched the instruction pamphlet out of Annabeth's hands and gave it back to Percy. "Alright," she said. "It's an obstacle course. We gotta get to the end for the next clue I'm assuming."

"Or," Percy said, "we could read the instructions and find out."

Piper stretched out her legs and started hopscotching. When she got to the end of the small pathway, she deadpanned, "Oh, would you look at that? I did it."

Leo followed suit, slightly tripping as he hopped.

Frank finished the last of his Kid Cuisine meal and threw out the container. He cracked his knuckles even though there was no possible way that would help his case.

Look, he was a big dude. He had big feet. The blue tape on the floor outlined boxes about the size of a regular person's foot.

"Do we all have to do this?" Frank asked.

"Yes," said Percy. "C'mon, do it for the team!"

Frank wrung his hands. "I don't think I'm going to fit without falling over, and I'd rather not fall over tonight."

"The instructions say if you go over the line, the whole group will have to start over," said Percy.

"Where'd you get the instructions?" Annabeth asked.

Leo gasped from the beginning of the egg and spoon race course. "You read the instructions ahead of time!"

Frank continued to worry. "But my feet are kinda big..."

"You know what they say about big feet," Piper said, a devilish smirk painting her face.

Leo smiled. "Big socks!"

Annabeth couldn't stand it anymore. "Go ahead, Frank," she said. "Just do your best; I'm sure it's fine."

"Just don't fall in the hot lava, or else everyone will have to start over," Percy said.

"When did the lava get here?" Frank asked softly.

Piper groaned. "C'mon, Frank! You can do it!" Her words were encouraging, but her tone was... less than enthusiastic.

He sighed. "Here goes, I guess."

As soon as he started... hop-scotching? Hopping the scotch? Annabeth put a pin in that question. As soon as Frank began his attempt at a pretend life-or-death game of hopscotch, he stumbled.

Yes, it was funny. No, he didn't completely fall on his face. Yes, people laughed anyway. No, people did not include Annabeth. She actually missed the incident because she was trying to come up with some way to reply to Connor, who had been left on read for at least an hour at this point.

Hi, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get back to you.

Except that sounded like an email that would end with "Regards, Annabeth," so she deleted that one and started again.

Sorry, some work stuff came up. Yes, count me in for the-

And then she remembered Connor was due to arrive at her apartment at eight, and this stupid team bonding thing was supposed to be done by eight.

Hey, she started again, I got caught up in some forced team bonding at work. Can we rain check tonight?

It pained her to hit send on that one, but it would be rude not to. Besides, it wasn't like her and Connor's not-date could have happened if she hadn't canceled on him. And to think she wore her good underwear today!

His response was immediate: That's ok! Take care!

Of course, she never did get the chance to answer him about the wedding because Frank stuck his hand in the "hot lava."

"Yikes!" Percy said. "Alright, shake it off. Everyone, come back. We'll have to try that again."

"Wait," said Piper. "Leo and I made it. Leo and I are alive and Frank is dead."

"Do I get to go home now?" Frank mumbled.

"No," said Percy. "The instructions say-"

"How do you know what the instructions say?" Leo asked. "You aren't even holding them!"

Annabeth looked at the instruction booklet and squinted. Then, she stopped squinting because she remembered that her nose did this weird crinkly thing whenever she squinted. The text said All team members must make it to the end without stepping in the lava, or everyone shell start over!

That probably didn't say shell, but Annabeth didn't care enough to correct herself. The point was that Percy knew the instructions by heart.

"Well, Annabeth?" Piper asked. "Was he right again?"

She nodded. Selling her boss out to her coworkers wasn't what she thought she'd be doing on a weekday, but, then again, she also thought Connor would be tied to a chair that evening. Instead, he was probably going to sit in her driveway for a minute after seeing her text, shift his car into reverse, and drive home. Not in reverse, though. He would shift the car into drive once he backed out of the driveway, and then drive down the street and make a right at the first traffic light, except he'd turn the steering wheel too fast and make the turn a little too sharply. He wouldn't hit anything. Connor Stoll wasn't a dangerous driver; he was just a mildly unpleasant driver.

Anyway.

"Yeah, Percy nailed it," Annabeth said.

Leo gasped and pointed at Percy accusingly. "So you did read the instructions ahead of time!"

"I don't think that's it," Piper said, folding her arms over her chest. "I think Percy wrote this stupid quest."

Leo gasped. "Percy's the Oracle?"

Piper cocked an eyebrow. "Uh, sure. Yeah."

"He's not a very good Oracle."

"No," Piper said. "No, he isn't. This whole thing is a waste of time."

"Wait, guys..." Percy said.

"No," said Piper. "Drew told you she had dinner to make, Will and Nico have cats they need to feed, Frank has date night, and... Leo, what is it you were gonna do?"

"I was going to dissemble my alarm clock and turn it into a motorized lighter."

Piper nodded and continued. "Yeah, Leo was going to dissemble his alarm clock and turn it into a motorized lighter. Leo, you don't smoke. Why do you need a lighter?"

"Just in case."

Piper shrugged. "So we're going to go." She zipped up her jacket and headed over to the automatic doors, which had been turned off for some time. She pried them open and then looked over her shoulder. "Coming, Leo?"

"Yeah." He hurried over to the doors.

Frank looked at Annabeth and mouthed a quick sorry. "I can uh... I can feel that macaroni and cheese hitting. I forgot my Lactaid, so uh... Yeah." Without another word, he shuffled his way across the cones that made up the egg and spoon race. He tripped over the Ripstick skateboard on his way out, but Annabeth figured he wouldn't like the attention that would come with asking him if he was okay.

The doors slammed shut on Frank, and when he finally got through they shut the whole way and Percy and Annabeth were alone.  

Chapter Text

Percy sighed. "You can go if you want," he said to Annabeth. "I know you have better things to do."

Annabeth wanted to go, but Percy was making this sad and dejected face like some kind of baby seal whose mother had just been kicked off a cliff into oblivion. His green eyes which were somehow always a little bit dilated glanced back and forth between the floor and Annabeth and the eggs and spoons.

Annabeth knew what she had to do. "Nah, I was just going to watch WrestleMania. You know that."

"Well yeah," he said, "but the way you were looking at your phone made me think you might have had other plans."

"Oh," Annabeth said. "You mean..."

"Like, the kind of plans that include Connor."

Busted. "No," she said. "Just WrestleMania, but now I'm doing this."

"You don't have to stick around for me."

"Yes, I do," she said. "We have to escape these booby traps and get to the garage, right?"

"Oh, yeah," said Percy, a smile returning to his face. "We have to complete the egg and spoon race, and then we get to ride the Ripstick to the garage."

"We don't have to do the hopscotch thing?"

"Annabeth," he said, "I made those boxes way too small. Can we please not talk about the hopscotch?"

"Whatever you want." She shrugged, passed the instruction pamphlet to Percy, and mounted an egg onto her spoon. "If I drop this-"

"Don't worry about it," Percy said. "You can just get another one. Well, hopefully not 'cause I have to clean this up."

"No pressure," she quipped.

Percy pointed to the cones in the middle of the floor. "All you have to do is weave through the cones and get to the Ripstick. Then... Well, then I'll go, and then we can ride the Ripstick to Destiny."

Annabeth chose not to ask what he meant by that, instead focusing her energy on balancing the egg on her spoon. Did he hard boil these? He definitely knew how to hard boil an egg, but the question was whether or not he'd know to do that for an egg and spoon race.

She would just have to be especially careful.

"You can do it!"

"AH!"

Annabeth's egg landed on the linoleum floor with a splat! The yolk and white oozed on the tile and towards the sole of her shoe, confirming that Percy did not think of hard boiling the eggs.

"Maybe I should have used Easter eggs," he said sheepishly.

For fear of saying something mean to a man whose ego had already taken a beating that night, Annabeth kept her mouth shut, mounted a second egg onto her spoon, and slowly started to weave her way through the cones. "What do I do now?" she asked.

"Just wait for me," he said. He held the instructions out in front of him as if searching for something to do with them.

"Percy," said Annabeth, "you know the instructions by heart. You wrote them."

"Fair point." He discarded the instructions on the ground next to him and then put an egg on a spoon.

"Not too fast!" Annabeth shrieked as he came bolting between the cones.

"Shh, you're breaking my concentration!"

He neared the final cone, and for a second, Annabeth thought he'd done it. The man had completed his own obstacle course with the speed of a shark and the balance of a... a person who was good at balancing things.

But of course, all good things must come to an end, and that included the Olympus Auto t-shirt that Annabeth was counting on reusing at her next shift because she got a little lazy with the laundry. She was going to do the laundry! It was just that she ended up doing Connor instead. In the laundry room of her apartment.

She needed to reevaluate her priorities because there weren't enough "I'm sorry you had to see that" brownies to patch up her relationship with the old lady whose cats she fed on holidays.

So because she didn't do her laundry and certainly didn't plan on showing her face in her apartment's laundry room for a while, she was seriously disappointed when Percy tripped over the final cone and almost dropped his egg. Fortunately, the egg didn't fall onto the floor.

Unfortunately, the egg smeared all over Annabeth's last clean work shirt.

"Shoot," Percy said. "I am so sorry about that." In a weak attempt to make it better, he ended up rubbing the egg into Annabeth's chest.

"It's fine," she said shortly, pushing his hands away. "Don't even worry about it."

"I can get you another shirt," he said.

"I thought we were out," said Annabeth. She distinctly remembered asking for a new work shirt a month ago, and Percy saying he was starting to set aside money to order new Olympus Auto t-shirts for the mechanics. These would be black with traffic cone orange font instead of traffic cone orange with black font. Oh, the joy.

Percy started walking towards his office, beckoning her to follow him.

Ignoring the fact that they just stepped in the theoretical lava from the hopscotch booby trap game, Annabeth followed.

Percy stopped just short of his office and untied his lanyard from his belt loop, searching for just the right key to the unmarked door in front of him. He turned the key in the lock and tugged the door open. "Welcome to the supply closet."

Rubbermaid bins of party supplies, plasticware, office supplies, and various bathroom cleaning sprays covered the shelves.

Annabeth had no idea Olympus Auto Trader had a supply closet this extensive. Sure, she figured the extra cupcake toppers from Nico's birthday party had to go somewhere when they weren't needed, but she just thought they were at Percy's house or something.

She started to speak. "This is..."

"A lot," Percy said. "I know. It really needs to be gone through." He sighed, probably disappointed in himself for letting all the clutter acquire. He reached onto a shelf, and Annabeth looked away when his shirt rode up, revealing some of his tan stomach. Was that the beginning of a v-line she saw?

Okay, so maybe she didn't avert her eyes as much as she meant to.

Percy dropped the box onto the floor and opened it up. "These are from the 2020 pool party that nobody showed up to."

"Well, of course, nobody showed up," Annabeth said. "Global pandemic and all."

"I mean, duh," Percy agreed, "but Mr. D put so much into that event and nobody even bothered to tell him they wouldn't come. He never planned an event again."

"Oh," Annabeth said. "That's..."

"It's awful," Percy said. "When I took over last year, I knew team bonding events were something I wanted to bring back. It's just hard for them to be successful when people don't want to come."

"Which is why you made them mandatory," Annabeth concluded. Underneath his charming humor and himbo attitude, Percy Jackson was just a guy who desperately wanted people to like him. "Have you considered that people might not have come to any of Mr. D's staff parties because they didn't like him very much?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well," she started, "people really seem to like you. Honestly, I'm not against spending more time with you even if it is at my place of work."

"That's really nice of you to say-"

"No, I mean it," Annabeth said. "People would probably come to a party if you just sent them invites and accommodated Frank and Hazel's date night. Sometimes, people are less inclined to come to things and actually have fun when you make them mandatory."

"I guess I see how that could be a problem," Percy admitted. He held out the shirt. "Anyway-"

"Right." Annabeth took a shirt. It was bright blue and had a pegasus wearing a pool innertube on the front. "OLYMPUS AUTO POOL PARTY 2020" was written underneath the image in Comic Sans. Yikes.

Beggars can't be choosers, so she ducked into the bathroom to change.

***

When Annabeth came out of the bathroom sporting her new-slash-old t-shirt, she found Percy on his hands and knees.

"I told you I could help clean that up," she said.

"It's okay," said Percy. "You can go home."

"But we didn't catch the robber-villain-bad-guy... or whatever."

He looked up at her. Maybe it was the angle, but the sea in his green eyes looked even more expansive than usual, but not in a romantic way. Like, in the way you thought of when you're reminded how vast the ocean was and how few ocean creatures have actually been discovered by man and-

"It's a burglar," Percy said. "We haven't caught the burglar. We really don't have to if you don't want to. I get it. You have Moscato and wrestling."

Annabeth already canceled her date with Connor, so really, she had nothing better to do. "I'll stay," she said. "I can help you clean up when we're done."

"Oh, okay," he said, reaching for the binder. He began to read from the cheesy script he probably dictated to a computer program. "Now that you've avoided the burglar's traps successfully, you have found his sec... sec..." He squinted.

"You don't have it memorized?" asked Annabeth.

"I mean, not word for word, but I'm pretty sure we find like, his secret hideout and there's one last obstacle we have to cross." He sighed. "I promise, it's a cool one. It was supposed to be the grand finale, but everyone left."

He looked kind of glum for a minute, and Annabeth wasn't really that good at making sad people feel better. At least, her track record wasn't good. She patted Percy on the back. "I can't wait to see it."

"That means a lot," he said.

"I mean it, you know," she said. "You work really hard. Too hard, sometimes."

He offered a weak smile. "The last obstacle is in the garage; come on."

Annabeth genuinely had no idea when Percy got the time to get into the garage unnoticed by her, Frank, or Leo, but he did. And he did a lot of damage.

She and Percy stood at the top of the stairs overlooking the most massive ball pit she had ever seen in her entire life.

"I was never allowed to play in these as a kid," she said. "Helen said they were dirty, but that never stopped the twins from playing in them."

"You call your mom by her first name?" asked Percy.

"Helen's my stepmother," Annabeth said.

He cleared his throat. "She sounds..."

"Like a bitch? You'd be right." She was done talking about her mild family trauma. "Tell me about this obstacle."

"Uh, this was just an excuse to turn the garage into a giant ball pit," Percy said. "But basically, we have to swing from one side to the other without falling in." He passed her a rope.

"You're crazy if you think I'm going first," she said. She trusted Percy's character; he would never intentionally put her in danger, but she didn't necessarily trust Percy's engineering skills. If she was going to swing on that rope, she'd need to see Percy do it first.

He smiled. "Alright, Wise Guy—girl. Wise Girl." He grabbed the rope and gave it a tug for good measure.

Annabeth looked down into the colorful pit beneath them. Percy had moved all the cars out of the garage to make space for the plastic balls. Hopefully, none of the mechanics' tools were left on the floor, or else Percy might hurt himself falling in. Would he even be able to stand up and make it back to the stairs? That was a deep pit. Or maybe Annabeth's depth perception was skewed and it wasn't so deep. In that case, Percy could break something, and yes, it would be his own fault, but-

"Ready?" he asked.

"Hey, up to you man. I'm not the one swinging to my death."

Percy shrugged. "Three... Two..."

Before he could finish his countdown, he grabbed Annabeth by the waist. She shrieked and clung onto his broad shoulders as the two of them swung across the garage and towards the other end. While midair, she realized that there was no platform on the other side. They would fall into the ball pit no matter what.

When they began to swing upward, Percy let go of the rope and they fell through the air, holding onto each other for support.

Annabeth probably screamed again and held on tighter as they fell into the sea of plastic balls.

Her assumption that Percy had filled the pit sufficiently was correct; the plastic broke her fall. She moved her limbs around; nothing hurt. She was fine. She was alive.

"Woohoo!" she shouted for no reason.

Percy's face appeared above hers. "Please rate your satisfaction with your team bonding package on a scale of one to ten."

Annabeth giggled. "An eleven! Holy shit, that was awesome! Percy, you rock!"

"Thank you, thank you." He took a faux bow.

"I can't believe someone would break up with you." The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. Sure, they were friends, but he was still her boss, and probably a little sensitive about the breakup. She either hurt her friend by digging up old wounds or pissed off her boss and was about to get fired.

He chuckled. "The Rachel thing was completely my fault."

"No, it wasn't! You are not worth dumping over a stupid misunderstanding!" Yes, bringing up her boss's dating life wasn't smart, but no way in hell was she going to let him beat himself up over what happened.

He sighed and then scratched the back of his neck. "I uh, I talked with Leo like you said I should. I get it now."

Annabeth sat up in the ball pit. "Yeah?"

"It's... It's interesting. I thought I just had trouble clicking with people that way, or that maybe there was something wrong with me."

Annabeth wanted to assure him that there was nothing wrong with him, but she had a feeling he wasn't done.

"I'm not asexual like Leo; I've definitely enjoyed that aspect of my life, but I think I enjoyed it less when I started falling out of love with Rachel," Percy said. "There've been times when I only viewed sex as a means to an end too, so I did talk to Leo, and it turns out that's a thing. I guess I'm... I'm demisexual."

This was not how Annabeth thought she'd be spending her evening.

"I never really knew how to put it into words, but I really do need a deep emotional connection with someone to feel attracted to them. I don't feel sexual attraction to strangers. Did you know that other people do? Shit, of course, you know that. You're other people."

"I am other people," Annabeth added. "But I'm happy for you! Thanks for telling me." She didn't care that he was her boss. The balls clacked against each other as she reached to give him a hug.

He hugged back. "Thanks, Annabeth."

"Yeah, of course. I'm here for you," she said, her voice muffled by his shoulder.

Someone at the top of the stairs cleared their throat, making themself known.

Annabeth practically pushed Percy away because mechanics don't hug their bosses after hours, especially not mechanics in situationships.

"Connor! Hey!" she shouted, completely butchering her attempt at nonchalance. She completely forgot to text him about the wedding, and now it looked like she bailed on their date to... to canoodle with Percy in a homemade ball pit.

"Hey," he said. "So this is the important stuff the employees of Olympus Auto do after hours that they can't get out of."

"Connor, I can explain-"

But Percy cut her off. "It was a team bonding thing," he said. "Everyone else bailed except Annabeth. She's great, man. You're lucky to have her."

Annabeth used Percy's shoulder to help bring her to her feet, which was probably not the best move. "I'm gonna talk to Connor, and then I can help you clean up."

"You don't have to-"

"Yes, I do," she said. "We established this."

She trudged through the pit and then up the stairs to Connor. How did he even get in? She thought the doors were locked from the outside.

"I might have broken into the window in Percy's office," Connor said as if reading her mind. "I just really wanted to see you. I felt so bad that you got stuck at work, and... Well, to be honest, Annabeth, I don't know what to think now."

She sighed. "Okay, what you saw wasn't what it looked like. Percy just had something important to tell me."

"I don't usually hug my boss."

"Your boss is also a fifty-year-old French lady."

Connor shrugged. "Okay, yes, but even if she were an attractive person my age, I wouldn't be hugging her."

"Are you really upset about this?" Annabeth asked. "Connor, we're not even official."

"Because you don't seem to want to be!"

"You also never asked," she pointed out.

"Would you have said yes if I did?" asked Connor. "I mean it. If I asked you to be my official, exclusive girlfriend, what would you have said?"

Annabeth gaped for a minute. "I... Well, first off, we are exclusive. I haven't been seeing anyone else. Or fucking anyone else, for that matter."

"Annabeth."

"Okay, fine. I probably would have asked for time to think about it," she admitted, defeated. Shit, Connor was right. Why would he ask her to be his girlfriend if this was the answer he knew he'd get? Hell, Annabeth wouldn't ask Annabeth to be her girlfriend if this was how she felt. "Connor, I don't think I should go to your brother's wedding with you."

He nodded. "I was going to say the same thing."

Ouch. "Okay."

"I'm sorry it ended like this."

"I should be sorry for stringing you along," Annabeth said.

Connor sighed. "I also strung you along."

"Do you think we can be friends?" she asked, trying to keep her voice level. "I really liked hanging out with you."

He stuck his hands in his denim pockets and nodded. "Just give me a little space, okay? I'll reach out when I'm ready." With that, he turned around and left, which took longer than it should have because again, the front doors were locked. He had to pry them open. Annabeth wanted to offer to get him an ice pack when he pinched his fingers, but neither of their egos could have handled that. Also, the closest thing in the break room to an ice pack was one of Frank's Kid Cuisine meals.

So instead of letting him embarrass himself the second time he slammed his hand in the door, Annabeth went back into the garage.

Percy held a massive vacuum cleaner hose and was using it to suck up the plastic balls one by one. Thunk! Thunk-thunk-thunk!

He still hadn't looked at her. He probably didn't hear her enter over the whirring of air and plastic in the vacuum.

Thunk-thunk-thunk!

Percy held the vacuum hose near his face and looked down the tube. Then, he held his hand in front of the vacuum hose and watched as his palm was suctioned to the end. He did it again. By the third time he did it, Annabeth was laughing through her tears.

"You're such a dumbass!" she yelled, not caring that her voice cracked.

Percy shut the vacuum off. "What was that? Oh, you're crying." He waded his way through the remaining plastic balls and stood at the bottom of the steps. "Did Connor get the wrong idea? I can talk to him."

"No," Annabeth said. "We just... we've been needing to have that conversation for a while."

"Doesn't make it any better."

"Well, you're here," she said. "That's pretty nice."

"You wanna break open some of Frank's Kid Cuisines and talk about it?" Percy asked.

"Absolutely," said Annabeth. "Absolutely, I would."

Chapter Text

"Okay," Percy said. "First off, I just wanted to say that I appreciate you all giving up your lunchtime for this. I promise I won't take up too long."

"Just tell everyone I'm going to be in charge so we can get back to hearing about Piper's disaster of a date last night," Drew said, sitting up straighter.

Percy cleared his throat. "If that didn't give things away, I won't be here next Friday afternoon because I'm traveling for a wedding. A buddy of mine from business school is getting married and I've gotta take a half day to get there on time."

And by "buddy," Percy meant Travis Stoll, brother of none other than Connor Stoll, whom Annabeth just got out of a situationship with over an incident involving Percy coming out as demisexual, a ball pit, and a lack of feelings between her and Connor that probably should have been discussed sooner.

"Ooh, do you have a plus one?" Will asked.

Percy smiled and sighed. "No, I do not."

Drew stood up and addressed the group. "Okay, so as your substitute manager-"

"Nobody is in charge," said Percy. "And no, Will, you cannot make a Tinder account to find me a date for this wedding. Technically, that's catfishing."

Will put his hand down.

Drew shrieked, "What do you mean nobody is in charge?"

Percy shrugged. "Just that. You guys know what your responsibilities are. I can set the phone in my office to forward to Nico's. It's only an afternoon. You'll all be fine. I just need a volunteer to stay a little later and lock up."

Normally, Annabeth would be down to make a little extra money but sometimes Percy did this thing where he gave employees who put in extra work sandwiches instead of overtime pay, and Percy already bought her lunch every day.

She looked at Frank, who was staring down into his Kid Cuisine.

Was it too much to hope that Leo would be willing to lock up the garage? Sure, Piper would volunteer, but the mechanics didn't want anyone who didn't even have a driver's license near their work.

Percy seemed oblivious to the silent argument. "It's okay if you guys don't know your schedules for sure yet. Someone just let me know by the end of the day if they can do it."

Still, Frank avoided eye contact and Leo used his plastic cutlery as drumsticks against the table.

"Okay," Percy said after a moment of awkward silence. "That's all I have for today. Enjoy the rest of your-"

"Excuse me!" Will said, jumping to his feet. "For those of you who haven't noticed, Nico has a jar of jellybeans on the edge of his desk-"

"Which are Will's jellybeans," Nico clarified. "They are not mine."

Will ignored his boyfriend and continued. "We're having a little guessing game, so if you think you know how many jellybeans are in the jar, write your name and your guess on a slip of paper and give it to Nico-"

"Please don't," said Nico under his breath.

"And the winner will get a to-be-determined prize!" he finished. "Any questions?"

Leo threw out the rest of his sandwich and said, "I'm going back to work."

The group began to disperse. Nico took the stupid jellybean jar back to his desk. Piper dodged Will's questions about how many she thought were in there. Frank went to the bathroom because he made the mistake of buying mac-n-cheese Kid Cuisine meals instead of the corn dog ones again.

Drew was annoying Percy, probably over not getting picked to be in charge when he went to the wedding.

Annabeth finished off the last of the empanadas Percy brought from his mom's house. She had never been to work without Percy before, now that she thought about it. Sure, he made some runs to pick up group lunches, and her daily tasks didn't depend on having a boss present, but still. She'd probably have to pack her own lunch on Friday. She wasn't even sure she remembered how to pack a decent lunch anymore.

"So here's the thing," Drew rambled on. "Someone has to make sure everyone's doing their job. I get that Nico is picking up extra tasks, but I don't know if he can handle answering more phone calls and keeping an eye on Will's jellybean estimation jar. That's why you need someone like me to oversee things. I can make sure everything goes smoothly and-"

"Hey, Annabeth!" Percy interrupted. Oh, god, she was about to become Percy's excuse to not talk to Drew, which made her guilty by association.

"What's up?" she responded anyway.

"Can I ask you something?

And now she was about to be tasked with locking up the garage after work on Friday. Oh, the joy.

Percy did this thing where he got whatever he wanted by giving everyone around him these sad baby seal eyes. Annabeth was sure he didn't do it on purpose, but she also had identified this problem of hers where she simply could not find it within her to tell him no.

So she got to him first. "Are you ready for the wedding?"

His mouth tightened. "Almost. My mom hemmed the suit pants I got, and I put gas in the car, but Travis is kind of giving me a hard time about not having a plus one."

"But you just got out of a relationship," Annabeth said, feeding Percy's negative energy.

"I know!" he said. "I'm surprised they even gave me a plus one. It wasn't like Rachel and I were together for that long. Anyway, now they're telling me this is some kind of sign that I should bring a date to the wedding."

"What about your mom?" Annabeth asked. "You could bring her." Percy was kind of a momma's boy. She was honestly surprised that he wasn't already planning to bring his mom as a plus one.

He groaned. "That was the plan! I asked her, and you know what she told me?"

"What?"

"She agreed with Travis! She said I should get a date! Do you know how hard dating apps are for a demisexual guy? I just swipe left on everyone because news flash: I'm not attracted to strangers!"

It was kind of funny seeing Percy go off like that; Annabeth had to bite her lip to keep from chuckling at his misfortune.

But then a plan struck her. This plan would certainly relieve her of garage-locking duties! "Not to invite myself to the party or anything," she said, "but if you wanted, I could come to the wedding with you."

Percy cocked an eyebrow. "Are you sure? Connor's going to be there. You won't be able to avoid him; he's Travis's brother."

Ah, yes, that was the one flaw in Annabeth's plan. After they officially ended their situationship, she asked Connor if he would be willing to remain friends. After all, they had fun together. They laughed over episodes of Wrestlemania and they liked the same kind of beer. She didn't see a reason why they couldn't have a successful friendship if they took sex and romance out of the equation.

But Connor, understandably so, told Annabeth he needed some space and that he'd come to her when he was ready. She wasn't upset about it. That was a very mature thing of him to say. The only problem was that now she had all this free time, which she'd rather not fill with things like staying after hours to lock the garage up. She briefly considered getting a pet, but she could barely take care of herself sometimes, and her landlord didn't allow pets.

Then again, having to go home and walk a dog would be a great excuse to not have to stay after hours to lock up the garage.

Baby steps, Annabeth, she reminded herself.

"I'm sure," she answered. "I'd be with you most of the time, anyway."

"I suppose that's true..." Percy said, still seeming unsure.

"And," Annabeth added, "I have experience pretending to be your girlfriend."

Percy nodded, likely remembering the time they fooled his cousin Thalia into thinking they were dating. "Alright, Chase, I'm sold. A Stoll wedding should be pretty informal. I think it's outside, so probably no heels unless you want to sink into the dirt."

It was Annabeth's turn to raise an eyebrow. "When have you ever seen me in heels?"

"Fair point. Well, I'm going to run to my office and forward you the information. Are you comfortable carpooling? Actually, never mind. We'll chat later. Can you ask Leo if he can lock up the garage on Friday?" Percy was talking a mile a minute about details that Annabeth didn't consider before she set her plan into motion.

The good news was that Annabeth had finally reached the point in her time at Olympus Auto Trader where going to a wedding with her boss as a date didn't surprise her.

***

Percy was right in saying that the wedding was outside. The venue was a wide-open field, and throughout the whole ceremony, Annabeth was distracted wondering whether or not this was an actual venue. Did the Stolls or the Gardners pay someone to have a wedding here, or did they just scope out a random plot of land?

And that then had Annabeth wondering what would happen if a deer or a fox or something wandered down the aisle.

Suddenly Percy's friend Travis Stoll was married to a girl named Katie and everyone was clapping while they made out in front of their families and friends.

Weddings were so weird, Annabeth thought.

"Well, that was a nice ceremony," Percy said while he and Ananbeth's table waited for their turn to get dinner.

Annabeth was famished. She probably could have eaten whatever deer almost ran across the ceremony.

"I'm not gonna lie to you, Percy, I zoned out for most of that," she said.

Percy exhaled. "Oh, thank goodness."

"What?"

"I thought you were paying attention and I was going to have to BS knowing what happened. I think I fell asleep with my eyes open," he said.

"Remind me to never have a wedding," said Annabeth.

Percy gave her a false salute. "Will do."

For some reason, she felt the need to backtrack. "I mean, I don't disagree with marriage as a concept. I think it's great that people can commit to each other like that, and I would love that. With someone. Someday."

"Uh-huh."

"I think it's weddings and the wedding industry I'm not a fan of. Like, capitalizing on someone's marriage isn't exactly the most... moral, I guess. Then again, I suppose I would have a wedding if I really, really loved someone who really, really wanted a wedding." It was probably good that things didn't work out between her and Connor. Before she could say that aloud, she declared, "I'm going to stop rambling now. You don't wanna hear this."

Percy nodded. "No, you're right. I think it would be more romantic to use that kind of money for traveling. I'd love to whisk someone away, just the two of us. Getting married should be about me and my partner, not like, me and my partner and my family and my partner's family and my drunk friends and my partner's drunk friends."

"Yeah!" Annabeth said. "I hope you find your romantic traveling partner." She meant that. Percy was a good guy.

He smiled. "Same to you. Unless your partner wants a wedding so bad and you love them enough to do a wedding anyway. I hope you find that person, but for your sake, I hope that person doesn't want a wedding."

"Thanks, Percy."

The little old lady sitting next to Annabeth cleared her throat. "You two are such a cute couple."

"Oh," said Percy. "No, we're just... friends..."

"He's my boss, actually," Annabeth added as she picked a thread from the black fabric of her dress pants.

The lady—probably someone's grandma—looked at them in disbelief.

Did they look like they were dating? Annabeth didn't think so. She and Percy weren't even touching. Sure, they made awkward eye contact a couple of times while they were waiting for the ceremony to start, but she thought that was just because a baby threw up in the middle of the aisle. She and Percy were exchanging a silent look of disgust with one another. It wasn't like he was looking at her and then he noticed the baby vomiting, even if the sun was behind Annabeth and Percy was probably straining his eyes looking in her direction.

Besides, why would Percy be looking at her if he wasn't even attracted to her? He couldn't be attracted to her. They lacked a romantic connection, or at least, that was what it seemed like. The physical affection he was so comfortable showing to her at work recently was so casual. They hugged in the ball pit because they were friends, and she was probably the only one whose heart raced from the contact. Sure, he bandaged her hand after she got a papercut the other day, but he didn't mean anything intimate by it. Annabeth could tell by the way he immediately turned around and said, "All better! Okay! Bye!"

Then what was up with the incident from last December? asked a prodding voice in the back of Annabeth's mind. They made out in his car, and it was good. Could Percy have made her feel like that if he wasn't attracted to her?

For his sake, Annabeth hoped he was attracted to her back then. Otherwise, he'd have just been using her for some unknown reason, and she'd have to kick his ass.

When she shook herself out of her spiraling thoughts, Percy was looking at her. God, his sea-green eyes bore into her soul. If he kept looking at her like that, she might be convinced he was attracted to her.

"What?" she asked defensively, hoping he wouldn't say anything about the color rising to her face.

"They called our table," said Percy.

Oh. That was all.

Not that Annabeth cared either way whether Percy spent his time staring at her or not. She didn't. She just had nothing else to think about other than how hungry she was.

Annabeth filed into line behind Percy, suddenly very aware of her footsteps. Why was she taking the same amount of steps, just with a smaller stride? Why was Percy also doing that? The line was moving incredibly slowly. They could realistically just take one big step every few seconds and then they wouldn't be so close to the people in front of them.

Still, Annabeth persisted in her tiny steps. Should she have let that old lady get in front of her? She probably should have.

"Oh my god," Percy groaned.

"What?"

"Vegan. It's all vegan."

Annabeth managed to keep her disappointment inside. Sure, she would never hate on someone for their diet. She knew plenty of vegans. Most of the Tinder profiles on which she swiped left were vegans. It was a good diet for the environment. She admired vegans for their commitment to an animal product-free lifestyle and envied that they had enough money to pay for that lifestyle.

On the other hand, Annabeth was very much in tune with her body, and she knew that her body needed meaty sustenance to survive, especially if she was expected to do the "Electric Slide" dance and pretend that the garter toss tradition wasn't gross and misogynistic tonight. Did this wedding have an open bar? Shit, Annabeth would be hella wasted if she drank on an empty stomach.

"What's the food?" she asked.

"Uh..." Percy squinted. "I see spinach lasagna-"

"They can't just do regular lasagna?"

"Ricotta cheese. Damn, my stepdad makes the best lasagna."

Annabeth tensed. "Percy, as much as I would love to hear about your stepdad's lasagna, I need you to focus. What else is there?"

"That sign next to the lasagna says meatballs, but with quotes around it."

"Bleh."

"I see something with chickpeas. I don't hate those," Percy said.

"Whose side are you on here?"

Percy grabbed a plate, passed it to Annabeth, and then took one for himself. "Here goes nothing, I guess." He took a big scoop of whatever that chickpea thing was and piled it onto his plate.

Annabeth supposed she could take some and eat the potatoes out of it, and then maybe she could just load up on salad and wedding cake. Shit, would they even have a wedding cake? She scanned the reception hall. No dice. Maybe it was somewhere being kept cold.

"Did you get enough?" Percy asked, looking down at Annabeth's sad excuse for a dinner.

She pursed her lips and spoke in a murmur. "I don't want to take a ton and not eat it. That would be rude."

Percy nodded. "Alright then."

She followed him back to the table.

Percy set his plate down and then... And then he pulled out Annabeth's chair for her.

"Uh, thanks," she grumbled, sitting down. She scooched her chair back in before Percy could do something stupid like trying to push it in for her.

Percy sat next to her and picked up his fork, pushing some chickpeas around on his plate.

"Is it good?" she asked.

"I haven't tried it yet." He stuck his fork into a chickpea and scooped up some other... stuff... with it. "What is this? Is this vegan rice?"

"I thought rice was already vegan," she said.

He took a bite. "Not bad," he said with his mouth full.

"What was it?"

"I don't know, but it tastes like rice... kind of. Close enough for me," he declared.

Annabeth shrugged and used her fork to push the chickpeas to the side of her plate. "Would you believe me if I said I like falafel but not chickpeas?"

"That checks out," he said.

Annabeth studied the little not-rice bits on her plate. She needed to just try some and get it over with. Then again, she had a pretty strong gag reflex, so if she hated it, everyone would know, and it would be kind of gross. She didn't want to add an incident like that to the list of unprofessional things she'd done with or in front of her boss.

"Shoot," Percy said, picking a chickpea off his lap. "I forgot to get a napkin."

The silverware didn't even come rolled up in a napkin, so yeah, she and Percy had just completely forgotten to get napkins. "I don't have one either; I'll get some." Better to put some time between her and that not-rice stuff.

She got up and pushed her chair into the table, pretending that she hadn't accidentally hit Percy's ankle with it. It was fine. Everything was fine.

Annabeth sped back over to the vegan meal table—not that there was a nonvegan meal table—and said to a guy with a mop of brown curly hair, "Excuse me; I'm just gonna reach for the-"

"Oh, hey, Annabeth!" Connor said.

Shit.

"Sorry, Connor," she said. "I was going to send you a heads-up text, but you said-"

"It's fine," he said. "I'm glad you could make it. It's nice to see you."

Annabeth nodded. "Nice to see you too."

He smirked. "So you're here with Percy."

"It's not like that," she stammered. "I swear. He was just annoyed because Travis and his mom were on his ass about finding a date and-"

"Seriously, Annabeth, it's all good," said Connor. "You and I weren't meant to be. I see that now."

"Okay, but-"

"And I don't care if you're here with Percy romantically or not," he said. "I mean, secretly, I kind of hope you are. He's a great guy, and you deserve someone like that. I won't pry anymore. You're clearly weirded out by this conversation."

He was right. This conversation made Annabeth incredibly uncomfortable.

"I will say one more thing though. If you want to be with Percy, you should go for it. He's great, and you're great, and the two of you give me a serious case of bisexual panic."

Annabeth couldn't help but laugh at that. "Thanks, Connor."

Connor shot finger guns. "No problem." He passed her a small stack of napkins.

Chapter Text

Annabeth set the napkins down between her and Percy, and then she forgot the joke she was going to make about running into her ex-situationship in the vegan food line because Percy spoke first.

"Are you okay? I noticed you with Connor."

She nodded. "Actually, yeah. He seemed pretty happy to see me."

"What did he have to tell you about then?" asked Percy.

Annabeth shrugged. "You know him. He was just being goofy." No way was she going to tell Percy that Connor secretly rooted for them to get together, or that he got bisexual panic from watching them.

She never did have to find an excuse because she and Percy had to cover their ears to keep safe from a shriek coming out of the speakers.

"Jesus!" Percy exclaimed.

The old woman who had earlier assumed Percy and Annabeth were a couple stared on as if she hadn't heard a thing.

Travis cleared his throat and then spoke into the microphone at a normal volume. "Thank you so much to my cousin Harley for testing the microphone. I'm sure both Katie and I will treasure the memory of your screams for years to come," he deadpanned. "I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for coming to celebrate with Katie and me today. I would especially like to thank Connor for planning the wedding and being my best man, and the United States Postal Service for giving my mom the day off."

"I didn't know Connor and Travis's mom worked for USPS," Annabeth murmured to Percy.

"She must be one hell of a mail carrier," said Percy.

"Okay," said Travis, "I'm going to—Will you freaks quit tapping your glasses? We'll get charged if you break something."

The dude-bros behind Annabeth set their silverware down on the table.

"Geez," Travis said. "Anyway, I'm going to pass this off to Connor, who has been my best man since he was born."

Connor stood up and took the mic. "Thank you all for being here today; I hope you're all enjoying the reception. If you like the quinoa, and chickpeas, and lasagna, you can order meal prep kits from Monster Vegan."

Percy whispered to Annabeth. "Is that what this rice stuff is?"

"Maybe? Google it."

Connor's continued with his speech. "It's not every day that a love like this is found. What Travis and Katie have is special. I'll never forget the time that Travis and I went out for drinks and he said to me, 'Dude, Katie saw my ileostomy bag and she didn't scream and run away!'"

"How do you spell 'quinoa?'" Percy asked.

Annabeth hissed, "I don't know."

"I hope that all you single folks out there can find something like this," Conner said. "Find someone that won't be afraid of your ileostomy bag."

"Dude," shouted Travis. "Stop telling everyone about my bag!"

Katie, the bride who wore a flower crown instead of a veil, reached for the mic and lowered it to her face. "Travis has his reconnection surgery in a month, and I can't wait to support him through that."

"It says it's a plant," said Percy. "It-"

Annabeth elbowed him. "Are you listening to this?"

"Uh, I'd rather not."

"For the record," she said. "I would support you if you couldn't use your asshole."

"Is that what they're talking about?" he asked.

Connor spoke into the microphone again. "So let's see who the next happy folks in the room are gonna be! Can all the unmarried ladies—over eighteen, please—come out to the dance floor so we can do a bouquet toss?"

"I dare you to go out there," said Percy.

Annabeth frowned. "Absolutely not. Hide me."

He lifted the tablecloth, indicating that she might like to crawl beneath it.

"And if you're having a good time," continued Connor, "my name is Connor Stoll and I would appreciate you leaving me a good review on Yelp. If you're not having a good time, my name is Bob."

Nobody was going to force Annabeth to go out and fight a bunch of women for a bouquet, right? That would be some form of cruel and unusual punishment.

Then, Annabeth made eye contact with that batty old lady.

"I don't see a ring on your finger, young lady."

"Oh, god," she groaned.

Percy quickly came to Annabeth's aid. "She's good. She doesn't have to play. She came with me."

The old lady shook her head and pointed a shaky finger in the direction of the dance floor, where a gaggle of girls had collected. Some of them were Katie's bridesmaids, who seemed nice enough, but there were also a couple of older ladies who looked like they caught bouquets for sport. Also, Connor looked like he was ready to play.

Annabeth stared. "What is he doing out there?" she asked.

Percy shrugged. "Beats me."

She supposed he could do whatever he wanted; he was the wedding planner, after all.

She should have stopped staring at Connor because he chose that moment to turn around and wave Annabeth over.

Annabeth shook her head and mouthed, No, thank you!

Connor shook his hips to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and threw out an invisible rope. Then, he started tugging.

Percy winced. "Shit, Annabeth, I want to help you, but he's... He's so..."

"Pathetic?" she supplied.

"A little. Please rescue him."

She groaned. "Can't you?"

"I'm not a single lady."

"Neither is Connor!"

From the dance floor, Connor started reeling in the rope.

Annabeth sighed and got to her feet, slowly hopping towards Connor as he pulled on the invisible rope.

"Finally!" he yelled.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, your rope was too damn long!"

"It got you out here, and that's what matters." A smirk lit up his face.

"What are you doing, Connor?"

He shrugged. "I just want you to play! It's fun! Let loose!"

She glanced back at Percy, who offered her a queasy smile and a double thumbs-up.

"That is an awesome outfit, by the way," Connor said.

"Thanks," Annabeth said, glancing down as if she'd forgotten what she was wearing.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"No."

"Do you want an edible?"

Annabeth choked on some saliva. "Do I want what?"

Connor pulled a Ziploc bag of gummy bears out of the inside pocket of his blazer. "Edibles."

"Like CBD?" she asked.

"These are a little stronger, but yeah, it's cannabis. Marijuana. Mary Jane. Pot. Whatever you call it," he said, urging her to take the baggie.

Annabeth took the bag. "Do you want me to Venmo you?"

He shook his head. "I have plenty where that came from. I gave Katie one right after the ceremony because she was so worked up over the pictures. She's usually such a nervous public speaker, and it seemed to help with that too."

Annabeth stood on her tiptoes and saw Katie, whom Connor had only ever described as shy, dancing to Beyonce.

"Alright," she said, opening the baggie.

"Just only-"

Annabeth shoveled a handful of gummies into her mouth.

"Take one," Connor finished.

Annabeth gasped. "Oh my god, Connor!"

"Dude," he said. "This is... I mean, I can't say I'm not looking forward to seeing you totally zonked, but uh... You rode here with Percy, right?"

She nodded.

"That's good."

"Connor!" she whisper-shrieked. "I just took several times what you told me to!"

"Just enjoy it! It's not like a trip or anything," he said.

"Okay, you single ladies!" the DJ said. "And... gentleman."

"Whoo!" Connor yelled. Maybe he'd taken some of those gummies too.

Katie turned around, and Annabeth noticed the lace flowers on the back of her dress. Those were pretty.

"One..." the DJ counted.

Katie held the bouquet up high.

"Two..."

"I'm so gonna beat you to it," Connor said.

"Three!"

And the bouquet was up in the air for what seemed like a long time. Maybe the gummies turned Annabeth's world into slow motion. She wasn't sure.

Connor jumped and swatted at the bouquet, but he missed the catch.

And it landed in Annabeth's hands. "Ha!" she said. "Beat you to it, Stoll!"

Then she realized. "Shit. Shit. Shit-shit-shit."

All eyes were on her.

"Hi!" Katie yelled. "Congrats, whoever you are!"

"Thanks!" said Annabeth. She clutched that stupid blue bouquet of daisies like it was some kind of security blanket.

Connor grabbed Annabeth's wrist—the one with the flowers—and raised it into the air. "CHAMPION!" he yelled. "Let's go, Annabeth!"

She did not intend for this to happen. It should have been one of Katie's bridesmaids or one of her crazy bouquet-toss athlete aunts. If people didn't think she and Percy were a couple before, they certainly did now that she was declared victorious in a stupid superstitious game.

In a daze, Annabeth stumbled back to her seat next to Percy's. "Holy shit," she declared, setting the flowers on the table.

"Yeah," he said. "Congrats."

Annabeth zoned out for a while, not thinking about anything except that she wanted to lock herself in a closet and listen to Hozier with the volume on full blast.

"I like the blue," Percy said, turning the flowers over on the table. "These are pretty."

"See how it shines..." she sang softly.

"Are you okay?" he asked, chuckling.

She looked up at his beautiful face. What god gave him that sharp jawline? Annabeth feared she might cut her hand if she were to touch it.

Percy gently pulled her fingers from his face. When did they get there? Did she do that? "You seem kind of out of it."

"I'm a winner," she said.

"Yes, you are," he said, "but you're kind of... Oh, don't do that." He took her glass of cheap Moscato and put it in front of him.

With her face squished against the stained tablecloth, she looked back up at Percy. "I have to tell you something."

"Uh-huh," he said.

Then, the DJ started talking again, totally captivating Annabeth's attention. "Alright, everyone, we're getting ready to cut the cake, so if everyone could just return to their seats..."

"Annabeth." Percy snapped his fingers in front of her face.

"Oh, no thank you. Don't do that."

His eyebrows knit with concern. "What were you saying? You had to tell me something."

"Oh, yeah," she drawled. "I'm like, totally zonked."

"Excuse me?"

"Connor gave me these gummies."

Percy sighed. "You don't say."

"I do. And I feel so so good right now," Annabeth said.

"You've been drinking too, haven't you?" he asked.

She nodded, not taking her head off the table.

Percy steadied his glass of water. "Careful. Did you want anything more to eat? Quinoa, perhaps?"

"Cake."

"Yeah, I think they're working on that," he said. Annabeth couldn't quite read his expression.

Percy chuckled at something that Annabeth couldn't be bothered to look at. Her head was too heavy like it was filled with lead or something. She could just stay on the table.

"Annabeth, you're gonna have to get up if you want cake," Percy said.

"Can't you get it?" she mumbled.

He sighed.

Quinoa was a funny word, Annabeth thought.

"Oh my god," a new voice said. "Percy, I'm so sorry. I tried to tell her and then she took so many; this is all my fault! But also, I swear I didn't like, drug your date on purpose. I just..."

"Quinoa," she whispered aloud. What a silly word. Why would someone call something that? What the hell even was a quinoa?

"Connor, it's fine," Percy said. "We carpooled. Besides, I don't think she'll last much longer."

"Shame you two didn't get to do much dancing," said Connor.

Percy laughed. "Something tells me she'll be alright with that."

A little bit louder, she said, "Quinoa..."

"Can I get you guys some cake?"

"Quinoa," Annabeth said aloud.

"Would you mind?" Percy said.

Connor nodded. "Yeah, of course. And you want more quinoa too?"

Percy laughed. "No, we're fine in the quinoa department."

Annabeth heard footsteps as Connor left. She hoped he would bring cake. She wanted cake. She also hoped that the cake wouldn't be cut so small. Then again, she'd probably eat Percy's cake if that were the case. He'd probably let her. They had this kind of relationship where he provided food and Annabeth ate it. It worked pretty well for her.

"Alright," Percy said, laying Annabeth's coat atop her shoulders. "Thanks so much for the cake, Connor. Let Travis and Katie know we had a good time."

"Totally," said Connor. "Thanks for coming. Get home safe!"

"Come on." A hand tugged Annabeth to her feet.

"Will you carry me?" she asked Percy.

He cocked an eyebrow. "You didn't even wear heels."

"Please?" Her feet felt like jello. She wasn't going to make it to the car.

"Let's get out the door first."

"Quinoa."

***

The majority of the trip was a blur. There wasn't much that Annabeth could recall, just that she hushed Percy the whole way back to her house so she could hear the radio.

"It's literally a baseball game," he said.

"Shh!"

And she remembered the part she regretted the most, which happened around the time Percy pulled into her driveway.

"I'm walking you to the door," he said. "Don't even fight me on it."

"Carry me?"

"I don't know which apartment is yours," he said. "And I don't want your neighbors getting the wrong idea about me." He got out of the car and came around to the other side to open her door.

Annabeth held out her arms.

"You won't be happy with me tomorrow if I carry you in," Percy said. "Come on."

She whined but got out of the car anyway, letting herself slump against him for support. His arm was soft against her head. Nice.

"Which one is yours?" he asked.

She pointed to the elevator.

When they got in the elevator, he asked again, "Which floor is yours?"

Instead of responding, she pushed all of the buttons.

"Alright then," said Percy.

"I have to tell you something," Annabeth said.

And then it all got fuzzy from there. Well, it got fuzzier than it already was.

***

Annabeth woke up the next morning with minimal to no memory of what had happened the night before, but she knew it was bad, and she could only hope that Percy wouldn't bring whatever it was up ever again.  

Chapter Text

Percy thought maybe he'd get a text from Annabeth the day after the wedding saying something like I'm so sorry! That was so embarrassing; please forget about me telling you I love you.

Or maybe she would have mailed him an edible arrangement with a card saying Oops. That sounded like her.

Then again, there was a chance she wouldn't show up to work on Monday. Percy would open his computer to an email telling of her resignation effective immediately, which would be kind of an asshole move of her. Then again, she had quit once before, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.

He took his key out of the ignition and sat in his car for a minute. If Annabeth was coming into work, he was in for an awkward day. If she wasn't, he would be in the market for a new mechanic and probably couldn't afford it.

He sighed. "Here goes nothing."

And then he got out of the car and went to work.

The automatic doors opened, thanks to Nico, who had arrived at least ten minutes before Percy now that he and Will had moved into a closer apartment. Their early arrival had become such a problem that Percy had a duplicate of the keys made so they wouldn't have to wait outside in the cold. Yes, Will abused that privilege.

"Morning," Nico said.

Percy waved.

"Hey, boss! How's it going? Tell us all about the wedding!" Will said.

"Oh!" Percy had not prepared a speech about the rest of the wedding. All he could remember was Annabeth, high on Connor's edibles, confessing her love to him.

I'm pretty sure I've been in love with you since before last December when you made out with me in your car.

Then she went on to accuse him of only making out with her as part of his exploration into his sexuality. That was only part of it! And it only confused him further! He enjoyed making out with Annabeth for the few minutes they were given more than he ever enjoyed sex with Rachel.

And yes, he did have a couple of fantasies of slow dancing with her at Travis and Katie's wedding, and maybe of carrying her to the car. He got the latter part, but not because they were drunk on giggles and romance. Annabeth was high and her judgment was impaired.

And no, Percy did not want to think about what those fantasies might have meant because Annabeth was his employee and he was her boss. That would be inappropriate.

He used to think that those kinds of thoughts should be suppressed mostly because they would make her uncomfortable, but now that he knew they wouldn't, he wasn't exactly sure what to do about that. Technically, it was unprofessional, but also he was the boss. This was his car dealership, kind of, and he could do whatever he wanted.

Then again, there was a voice in his head asking him, What if that was just a fluke? What if Annabeth was so high on Connor's gummies that she was making weird stuff up?

And that voice would probably win, Percy supposed. After all, every other word out of her mouth that night was "quinoa."

Best case scenario: Nobody would talk about it, and everyone would pretend everything was fine.

Worst case scenario: Annabeth didn't like Percy like that and would quit today because of the incident.

"Good morning, Nico. Will, what's going on? Did you announce the winners of the jellybean guessing competition yet?" Annabeth shot finger guns at her friends as she came in the front door.

"Not yet!" said Will. "I'm waiting until lunchtime."

She made eye contact with Percy and it was like her gray eyes were boring into his soul. Lasers might as well have come out of them. "Percy, hey." She stepped closer and spoke in a lower voice. "I am so sorry about Saturday night at the wedding; I hope I didn't say anything stupid. Thanks for getting me home okay."

"Uh, yeah, sure! Gotta go! Bye!" Percy turned around and almost broke into a sprint on his way to his office.

He sat down in his spinny chair and looked up at the ceiling. He was in hot water. How was he supposed to look at Annabeth without remembering her confession? Should he tell her about it? Would he want to know if he said something like that to her? Should he call his mom?

He jumped as someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," he hollered. Except maybe he shouldn't have done that. If it was Annabeth, he couldn't handle that. God, it was like he saw her naked or something. He knew this big thing about her, and that didn't feel fair. There had to be some way to even the score.

"Hey," Piper said.

Percy sighed in relief.

"Do you have a minute?" she asked. "The local magazine does this small business feature where their readers vote on their favorite businesses across the area and I think we should enter."

"Uh-huh." Did he remember to tell Annabeth that she looked pretty on Saturday? He'd be kind of an ass if he didn't, and he wasn't sure that he did, which made him feel like even more of an asshole.

Piper continued. "I think we have a shot at winning. There's only so many used car dealerships in the area, and Jupiter isn't eligible because they're corporate-owned."

"Yeah, sure," Percy said. Maybe Annabeth did remember the incident and she did like Percy like that and they would have to draft some kind of HR paperwork. Olympus Auto didn't even have an HR department!

Piper stopped and raised an eyebrow. "You haven't been listening to anything I'm saying."

Percy shook his head. "Sorry, Pipes. I'm all over the place. This weekend was... weird."

She took a seat in the chair across from Percy—Annabeth's chair. "Does it have anything to do with the wedding you took Annabeth to?"

Shoot. It was a bad idea to bring that up in a conversation with an employee.

"I'm going to take your silence as a yes," said Piper.

He sighed. "I shouldn't be talking about this with you; it would be unprofessional."

"Did you guys fuck or something?" she asked. "Because if so, we all saw it coming."

"What? No!" Percy said. "Annabeth just got high and-"

"Holy shit," Piper interrupted. "Start from the beginning, please."

So Percy did. At a certain point, there was only so much he could do to keep from being unprofessional with his employees, so he unpacked all of it from the very beginning.

He told Piper about how neither he nor Annabeth paid attention to the ceremony and how they laughed at the vegan food. He got to the part about Connor speaking to Annabeth at the food table and how he slipped her some edibles during the bouquet toss game. He told Piper how thankful he was that Annabeth was okay at the end of the night, but-

"She like, trapped me in the elevator with her," said Percy, recalling how she pushed all the buttons to extend their time in the small space together.

Piper raised an eyebrow. "Can we keep this SFW?"

"Nothing about this conversation is SFW," Percy said.

"Can we keep it safer for work than where I think it's going?"

He rolled his eyes. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Pipes. It's... Honestly, I think it might be worse than a stupid mistake like that. She told me she had feelings for me."

"Woah," said Piper.

"Yeah, she's been into me for a while, apparently," he said.

Piper sat back in her seat and pursed her lips.

"Do you think she meant it?" Percy asked. "I've never taken edibles before. I've never been high on anything before. Can someone make something like that up when they're high?"
Piper shrugged. "I suppose it's possible, but I've found in most people that substances sort of act like a truth serum. You know?"

"No, that's why I'm asking you."

"It's like when you have a sex dream about someone," she said. "Like, you might not think you want to have sex with that person, but somewhere, deep down inside, you do."

"I can't say I get those a lot," he said. Being on the ace spectrum did that to a guy.

"We're bordering NSFW territory," said Piper. "But I think you get what I mean anyway."

"Are you saying Annabeth does like me like that?"

She shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't be surprised, but that's gonna have to be between you guys."

"You wouldn't be surprised?" Percy asked. "Why not?"

"Look, man, I don't know. I'm just really attuned to that kind of thing. My friends call me the Love Doctor."

"Nobody calls you that."

Piper amended her statement. "My friends call me the Love Whisperer."

Nobody called Piper that either, but Percy decided to let it go. That wasn't what mattered. "Should I say something to Annabeth about it?"

"Hmm. Do you think she remembers confessing her love to you?"

"I don't think so?"

"I'll take your tone as a you don't know. Have you seen her yet today?" Piper asked.

Percy said, "Briefly."

She raised her eyebrows to the heavens. "And by briefly, you mean that you saw her and then freaked out because you remembered her confessing her love for you."

He rubbed his temples. "Yup."

"Respectfully, boss, even if she doesn't remember anything from Saturday, she can tell something is off now. You're almost as bad at secret-keeping as Frank."

"Ouch."

"If you don't mind me asking," Piper said, "do you like Annabeth like that?"

Percy thought that being demisexual would make those feelings a lot easier to distinguish, but he thought he felt that way for Rachel. Maybe he did feel that way for Rachel at some point, but he can't remember having any thoughts during sex with her besides, this is kinda fun. I hope she's having fun. Hehe! Haha!

With Annabeth, he didn't need to see her naked to know that sex with her would be mind-blowingly awesome, yet at the same time, he didn't want to think about her naked because that would be disrespectful, and he respected her. He loved how her fashion sense was arguably more masculine than Piper's or Drew's, and certainly more than Rachel's, but that she was still comfortable in her femininity. He could probably count on one hand the number of women like that he knew, and that was because Annabeth was the only one. He loved how she wasn't afraid to speak her mind and call him out when he was being an asshole, yet also how she knew the time and place to do so because sometimes, Percy could see smug satisfaction on her face when someone BSed themself into their consequences.

And sometimes—most of the time, actually—when she looked at him, 80s love ballads from his mom's favorite movies played in his head. The first time it happened, he wondered if he needed to tell Leo to turn his music down, but nope. REO Speedwagon was just a part of Annabeth.

"Percy," Piper said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Yes or no?"

"What?"

"Do you like Annabeth?"

He sighed. "I think I do."

"Okay, then go tell her what you heard so you can give her a big 'ol smoochy smooch," Piper said.

"Woah!" he shouted. "That's... That's not professional."

"Neither is this conversation. Look, all I'm saying is that you should go for it because half the office is rooting for you, and I don't want to have to pay the other half if you guys have some falling out."

"Wait," Percy started, "are you guys taking bets-"

Piper cut him off. "You can listen to the Love Whisperer or not. The choice is yours." She got up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll just enter us in the magazine contest myself; you've got a busy day ahead of you." And with that, she left.

Percy sighed. He didn't want to go out to the lobby and find himself at the mercy of the self-proclaimed Love Whisperer, and he certainly didn't want to find himself at the mercy of Annabeth Chase, but if he sat in his office... Well, his subconscious seemed to enjoy treating him to a YouTube-esque compilation called Annabeth's Greatest Hits: The Good, the Pretty, and the Hot Makeout Session Percy Can't Stop Thinking About.

For the record, Percy had never fantasized about boobs until that incident.

So out into daylight, Percy went, facing the likes of Will Solace, who immediately bombarded him about the stupid jellybean jar competition.

"Hey, Percy!" he said in his chipper Texan accent. "We seem to be missing a lot of guesses for the jellybean jar; did you get yours in?"

"Yes, yes," he said, waving the car salesman off. The truth? Percy did not place a guess in the jar. Will's effort was sweet but his timing could not have been worse.

"Great, thanks!" Poor Will was oblivious. "Annabeth!" he shouted.

She froze. "Will-"

He handed her a slip of paper. "I know for a fact you haven't guessed how many jellybeans are in the jar yet!"

She took a pen from the front pocket of her overalls and scribbled something down on the paper. "Here ya go."

Will put the paper with the others and then walked away to harass someone else. Oh, good. He found Piper.

"What did you guess?" Annabeth asked.

Percy jumped. "Huh? Nothing!"

She raised an eyebrow. "You really should; I know it's stupid, but Will's proud of it."

"Uh-huh! Gotta go! Bye!" With that, he turned around and scurried back into his office. Maybe there was paperwork he could do or a carwash fundraiser he could host now that the weather was getting warm again.

He slowed down when he passed Piper and Will, who were now joined by Drew.

Will almost dropped the jellybean jar.

Drew's jaw was practically on the floor.

"Hey, guys," he said, offering a cheesy wave.

Nobody responded, so he shrugged and finished the short trek back to his office.

"Oof!" a voice said.

"Sorry, Nico!" Percy said, helping Nico off the floor.

Nico's eyes widened when he noticed Percy. "Hey, are you good?"

"Yeah, it's no problem, man."

"No, I mean..." he trailed off and continued air-drying his hands. "I mean like, in general."

Never had Percy seen Nico take a genuine interest in someone's general well-being. Most of the time, when he greeted the receptionist Nico grunted instead of saying hello.

"I'm good. How are you, Nico?" Percy asked. Something about the conversation felt forced.

"Uh-huh," Nico said in an I-don't-believe-you tone. Without answering Percy's question, he walked back to the reception desk and ignored the ringing phone.

Percy supposed he would have to take that call for Nico in his office. Who ever heard of a receptionist who wouldn't receive phone calls when he didn't feel like it? It was literally in the job title.

***

Percy may or may not have woken up from an avoidant power nap at his desk to Will knocking on the door and yelling, "It's time! It's time!"

The tiny clock in the corner of the desktop computer monitor read noon, which meant Percy only had five or six hours left. That was five or six hours in which it would be possible to run into Annabeth. He could do it. He could make it through this day without any awkwardness.

And then he'd have to come up with a new plan to avoid her all day tomorrow. Wow, being on the receiving end of a love confession was exhausting.

"I'm a little busy right now, Will," Percy said, fully intending to go back to sleep.

"This'll just be a minute!" he called. "C'mon, at least bring Annabeth her lunch."

Fuck. The one essential part of his day that he forgot to acknowledge was his routine lunch with Annabeth—the one that involved him bringing lunch for her. Why did he do that again? He couldn't remember.

What was important was not that he would have to endure lunch with her, but that in his state of distress, he forgot to bring or order lunch for either of them.

He pulled up the first food app on his phone—Taco Bell, they hadn't had that in a while—and he got ordering. "Coming!"

Will frowned at him from the other side of the door. He still held that stupid jar of jellybeans like a plushy or something. "Everyone is waiting."

And by that, Will meant that yes, it was too much to hope that Annabeth wasn't there.

Percy followed him into the breakroom and said in what he hoped was Annabeth's general vicinity, "Lunch is running a little late."

"You forgot, didn't you?" she teased. "It's alright; I think I have a granola bar in my car."

"No, no," he said. "I got Taco Bell."

He couldn't see her face, but he was sure he wouldn't have liked to. "You hate Taco Bell," she said.

"Yes, I do."

"You ate like twenty tacos and declared you'd never eat it again."

"I know what I said." He could choke down whatever it was he ordered. He was pretty sure he just clicked on the last order or something. If the tacos triggered flashbacks of the time he beat Thalia in a taco-eating contest, then so be it.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "What did you order?"

He shrugged. "I just ordered whatever it was we last got. It'll be a surprise."

"And by that, you mean you reordered over a hundred dollars' worth of tacos."

"Shoot," he said, reaching for his phone.

She shook her head in amusement. "Hey, thanks again for getting me home safe on Saturday. I hope I wasn't too annoying."

Will cleared his throat and stood at the front of the room. "Now that everyone's here..." he said, "we can figure out who the winner of the jellybean guessing contest is!"

Frank offered a weak, "Yay."

Will set the jar down on the counter and started reading slips of paper from the basket where everyone placed their guesses. Well, it was the basket where everyone was supposed to place their guesses. Percy never exactly got around to that, and he can imagine a couple of others forgot too.

"Okay, our first guess is... your mom. Guys, really?" He shrugged. "That person won't be winning the prize."

Piper's lip quivered as she tried not to laugh.

"You would tell me if I did something stupid, right?" Annabeth asked.

"The next one says 420. Oh, close one, but not quite!" Will took a green dry-erase marker and wrote 420 on the board.

"Okay, up next we have..." He raised an eyebrow. "This... This is not an SFW drawing."

"Yikes," Percy muttered to Leo. Maybe he should have put in a real guess. He might have won the prize.

Wait, he realized. He didn't provide any kind of prize to Will for the contest. Ugh, he was such an asshole!

"You guys," Will said. "These guesses are ridiculous! I tried to put together a fun activity and only one person so far has given me a number!"

"And that number was a weed reference," Leo said, his voice low.

"Seriously, I'm disappointed."

"Sorry man," said Percy. "I think I forgot to put a guess in, but I promise, I would have guessed something legit."

Will's eyes widened. "Oh, so you lied to me this morning? Real nice. Real. Nice."

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "You guys need to take office bonding activities more seriously." That was bullshit. It was obvious Nico was trying to suppress a laugh.

"I never took you for a liar, Percy, but today is proving me wrong," Will said, crossing his arms.

"Will!" Piper scolded.

"What else is Percy lying about?" Frank asked. "I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding..."

Drew stood up. "No more lies, and no more making people look stupid! Annabeth has been oblivious all day, and I can't take it anymore! Annabeth, hon, when you were high as a kite on Saturday, you told Percy you had feelings for him and now you don't remember and he won't come and talk to you about it!"

Frank gasped and dropped the corndog from his Kid Cuisine.

Who knew Drew had a moral compass? Percy certainly didn't.

"Also..." she said, "these are hair extensions!"

For the first time all day, Percy really looked at Annabeth. Her face was red and her jaw hung slack.

"Annabeth, I-"

"Forget it. I'm eating the granola bar out of my car." She got up and left the room.

"Damn," said Leo. "I think I stepped on that granola bar the other week when my car was in for inspection and she gave me a ride."

Piper shook her head. "Making a girl eat squished granola bar? That's cold, Percy."

Frank said, "Well if it was a crunchy granola bar, it would just be a crushed bag of crumbs."

"I suppose if you need someone to help eat all those tacos, I could take one for the team," Nico said.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah, because that's what matters here."

Will groaned and wrote 69 on the whiteboard. "Well, everyone, thanks so much for supporting my fun little project. There were eighty-one jellybeans, so whoever made the totally serious guess of sixty-nine wins."

"Yes!" Nico stood up and pumped his fist.

"Congrats," Will deadpanned. "Since Percy didn't come through with the gift card, you win a jar of jellybeans."

"They taste like my childhood trauma!" Nico shouted with his mouth full.

Chapter Text

Annabeth didn't know what to do when she found out what had happened on Saturday—what she'd said.

She wasn't sure what the protocol was for something like that. Was she supposed to slap Percy? She couldn't do that; he was her boss. Maybe she could have taken that jar of jellybeans and spilled it over his head. That was at least a couple of degrees away from some form of aggravated assault.

But she didn't do that either. Instead, she did the only thing she knew how to do.

She went back to work.

"Hello, old friend," Annabeth said as she climbed into that old minivan with the broken air conditioning unit. It wasn't her day to work on it, but she needed a challenge. She needed something—anything—to distract her racing mind from what Drew said at lunch.

Who knew Drew had a moral compass? That was probably the most surprising part of the day for Annabeth.

She heard footsteps as Leo and Frank made their way back into the garage. God, she couldn't let them see her crying.

"For the record," Leo said, "I had no idea that rumor was flying. Neither did Frank."

She said nothing because she'd never hear the end of it if they heard her voice waver. They wouldn't make fun of her; they would just continuously ask her if she was alright or if she wanted them to hit Percy for her. Frank was the human embodiment of a teddy bear and Leo was... Well, he was Leo. Long story short: they could not hit Percy, even if they ambushed him at the same time.

"That is super shady though," Leo continued. "Do you remember any of that?"

"Leo," Frank scolded.

"What?" he asked. "That was shitty of him to not tell her she said that. Frank, man, if I was tripping and confessed my love for you, you would tell me, right?"

"I mean, yeah, because it would be funny. You don't fall in love with people."

"Point taken. If I did have the capacity to feel romantic love or sexual attraction, and I said something like that to you, you would tell me, right?"

Frank pursed his lips. "Before today, I'm not sure, but after seeing what happened, I probably would. It wasn't right of Percy to let Annabeth go around not knowing something like that."

"I'm right here," Annabeth said.

"I think it was worse that he told the salespeople," Leo said.

"I don't think he told all of them," said Frank. "It had to have been a rumor or something."

"Seriously," said Annabeth. "Can you not talk about me like I'm not here?" Something fell out of the air conditioning unit. She reached under the seats to find it and hopefully figure out what it was.

"Sorry, Annabeth," Frank said. "We mean it in a we-care-about-you way, but we'll stop now. Isn't that right, Leo?"

"Okay!" he said. "Let me just... There!"

"Please, no," Annabeth mumbled as ZZ Top started blaring out of a speaker. She couldn't handle it. Not today.

Leo drummed along using something metallic against something else metallic.

"Leo!" Annabeth yelled. "Knock it off."

"Geez. C'mon, Frank."

Annabeth didn't see the guys leave, but she heard them.

"Where are we going?" Frank asked.

Leo responded, "Outside for a smoke break."

"I don't smoke."

"Neither do I, but don't you think it's unfair that smokers get breaks just because they have addiction problems?"

"Wait," Annabeth said. "Can you shut off the-"

The door slammed behind them, and Annabeth was alone with ZZ Top.

"Dammit," she swore under her breath before returning to work.

The music lineup was straight-up depressing. Annabeth wasn't sure she'd ever made it this far through Leo's Fixin' Mixtape before. Maybe if nothing good happened today, she'd at least learn what the last song was.

She hummed along to a Rolling Stones song while she continued to search under the seats for the missing... Aha! She found it.

She put the piece in and then put the keys in the ignition. Still nothing. The little strings Frank attached to the air conditioning unit didn't budge.

Annabeth shut the van down and got back to work, taking apart more pieces than she ever had before. Various screws and plastic pieces and thingies lay about on the seat beside her. She was a mechanic, not an HVAC specialist.

The loud dad rock on Leo's cassette tape did nothing to drown out Annabeth's thoughts. Was it even a good idea for her to keep working at Olympus if she'd confessed feelings for her boss? Would Jupiter even take her back? Beckendorf would certainly put in a good word for her, but ultimately, she was at the mercy of some HR dweeb at corporate. Admittedly, Annabeth liked working for a small business.

She never considered the personal consequences of working in some place where the coworkers were more like family. Everybody knew everything about everyone. Percy must have told someone about what happened, but it wasn't Frank or Leo. Did it even matter who he told? Everyone found out anyway.

Everyone found out before even Annabeth knew. She didn't even have time to figure out what her feelings for Percy were before everyone else heard that she had feelings.

Did she have feelings for Percy?

Her head said, absolutely not. Percy gossiped about what Annabeth said Saturday night instead of confronting her about it directly. That was a cowardly move.

But then bits and pieces of that night came back to her. Annabeth remembered how he sat on the elevator floor with her while they waited for it to stop on each of her apartment's floors before hers. She remembered how he got her a glass of water and watched her drink from it before sending her to bed.

Did he help her untie her shoes? She thought she remembered something like that.

Despite having no recollection of coming on to Percy, she trusted that he wouldn't have taken advantage of her, which sure, was the bare minimum, but how many guys would rummage through the cabinets of someone they were supposed to keep a professional relationship with and pour them a glass of water? That was above and beyond in Annabeth's book.

And even if Percy gave her definitive confirmation that he didn't feel anything but hehe haha when they made out back in December, that wouldn't change the fact that thinking about it was the last thing on her mind each night before she went to bed.

She put the keys in the van again, and when she turned the dial on the air conditioning, it made a sound, which would have been a good thing if not for the smoke. Evidently, she needed to take the A/C unit apart even more to make it better. Annabeth didn't know how to put something like that together from scratch. That wasn't what she went to trade school for.

Maybe it was hopeless.

"Hey, can we—Ow!" Percy yelled, jumping off the seat of the van.

Annabeth shrugged. It wasn't her fault he didn't look where he was sitting and probably had a screw up his ass now.

"Do you need to be here right now?" she asked.

"Yeah! I mean, no. Kind of?" he said, although it came out more as a question. "Look, I respect your boundaries, so if you really want me to go, I will, but we have to figure this out because we're just going to do this all over again tomorrow if we don't."

Shit. Annabeth hated it when he was right. "Look, you can sit and say your piece, but-"

"You're still upset," he said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. You don't have to say anything until you're ready to."

She nodded and started reattaching the pieces on the air conditioning unit.

"First off... Actually, can I just say something? I know it's not my place," said Percy, "but if that thing was still making those awful noises after you took all those pieces out, shouldn't you take more pieces out?"

"I can't build an air conditioning unit from scratch," Annabeth said.

He shrugged. "We can build an air conditioning unit from scratch if we put our heads together and watch a YouTube video. If we're missing pieces, we can snatch some from Leo's spare parts pile."

They both glanced over at the Trader Joe's bag that Leo used to store his spare parts.

Annabeth shuddered. "Fine." She got to work dissembling the rest of the parts. At the very least it would give her something to do with her hands while she listened to Percy's lame excuse for being a terrible person.

"Look, let me just start from the beginning," he said. "After Connor gave you the edibles, you got pretty loopy, and it only got worse. I promise I made sure you got home safe, and I didn't like, try anything."

"I didn't think you would."

"Thanks," said Percy. "Anyway, you were loopy at the wedding, so I figured it would be best to drive you home. I don't regret seeing you the whole way to your door because you only got worse from there."

Annabeth admitted, "It's pretty fuzzy. I remember sitting on the floor of the elevator for a while."

"So you do remember what you said to me?" he asked.

She shook her head.

He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry for telling. I only told Piper, actually, but I should have come to you first."

"You should have," Annabeth agreed.

"I'm sorry about how that turned out. I'll talk to Piper," Percy said. "And... I'll stop going to used car salespeople for advice."

"Yeah, that was kind of stupid of you."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm trying to apologize-"

"You could have gone to Nico. Nico wouldn't have spilled."

Percy snapped his fingers. "Shit, he wouldn't have." He scratched the back of his neck. "But yeah, apology still stands. I should have spoken to you about it first."

"Even before Nico?" she teased.

"Even before Nico."

Annabeth asked, "What did I say exactly though?"

He sighed again. "It's... Well, you told me that you were pretty sure you'd been in love with me since what happened in December. Before then, actually."

This was the first time Percy had ever mentioned what happened between them in his car that night.

"Is it true?" he asked.

Annabeth, in her state of shock, hit her head against the dashboard.

"Sorry," Percy said quickly. "You don't have to tell me."

"I... I don't know," she said. "I think we have something that goes beyond an appropriate employee-boss relationship."

"Yeah."

They sat there in silence for a minute, Annabeth watching the YouTube video and putting pieces together, and Percy quietly picking out the pieces that needed to go in the machine.

"That looks about right," she said. "Not much different than it did before, but let's give it a whirl." She put the keys in the ignition, trying not to shiver from Percy's stare. Why was he looking at her? They'd just put together an air conditioning unit and they were going to find out if it worked.

She turned the dial. This was it.

A gentle breeze filled the van, and finally, Annabeth looked at Percy. Eighties love ballads played in her head while the wind blew his hair back and forth. She thought she saw a little sliver of pink as he licked his lips. A pod of dolphins swam through his eyes.

"Sorry, what are we listening to?" Percy asked, pulling Annabeth out of her eighties fantasy.

Annabeth's eyes widened. As it turned out, the music was not just in her head. She'd never heard this song. Well, she knew "Can't Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon, but she'd never heard it on Leo's Fixin' Mixtape. "Holy shit," she said. "The last song."

"Woah." Percy sounded equally bewildered.

They sat through the first chorus, listening and basking in the air.

Annabeth finally risked a glance back at Percy, only to find him looking at her.

"I can't stop thinking about that night," he said. "Back at Mr. D's retirement party. In my car."

Color rose to Annabeth's cheeks. "Oh. Yeah. Me too."

"You forgot this." He held something small in his hand—the stainless steel ring he bought her as a Christmas present before she left Olympus to work for Jupiter. "I found it in my cupholder after I got home that night. Didn't you like it?"

Annabeth took the ring and turned it over in her hands. The metal was warm, probably from being in Percy's pocket. "I did. I do."

"So keep it," he said. He took the ring from her hand and slipped it onto her middle finger. It fit like a glove.

"You don't think this is a little unprofessional?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I mean, sure, but nothing about this place is professional."

Annabeth twisted the ring on her finger. It felt right, having something there. "You really can't stop thinking about that? About us..." She trailed off. "I thought that maybe I was just an experiment. I thought you were just trying to figure out how far on the ace spectrum you are."

He shook his head. "I didn't start thinking about that until long after I got with Rachel if we're being honest. I never felt with her the way I felt—the way I feel—with you."

"Oh." Annabeth looked at the ring around her finger. Her boss was into her. Her friend—her demisexual friend, who required a deep emotional connection with someone to feel sexual attraction—felt attracted to her.

Percy fiddled with something in his pocket and then said, "You don't have to answer right away, but I'd love to take you out sometime. For real. No carwashes. No ball pits. No weddings."

"No edibles either," Annabeth said.

He chuckled. "No edibles. So, Annabeth Chase, will you sign this totally legitimate HR paperwork so I can take you out on a real date?"

"Let me see those terms." She took the packet of paper from his hands. Wow, he thought of everything. "As an HR official couple, signing this form entitles me, Annabeth Chase, to lunch every day, a key to Percy's apartment, and no less than two dates per week."

"You like it?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "I don't see anything about meeting your mom on here. She sounds cool."

"We can rework the details," said Percy.

"Sure," Annabeth said. "I'll sign, but maybe you should kiss me again just to make sure last time wasn't a fluke."

He shrugged. "I won't complain about that."

She set her screwdriver on the dashboard and scooched closer to Percy.

He brushed some curls out of her face and licked his lips again.

Annabeth wasn't sure who closed the gap, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was kissing Percy. Her lips moved against his, and maybe she was rushing things by pressing her tongue to his, but she didn't care. In her mind, she was making up for lost time.

Percy pressed his hand to the small of her back and pulled her closer so her chest was flush against his.

Annabeth nestled a hand in his hair and tugged a little, causing him to grunt into her mouth.

When the angle got to be too much of a strain, Annabeth broke contact and climbed across the seat so she was straddling him. "This okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "More than okay. Let me just make a note to add this to the HR paperwork."

"Shut up." She went back to kissing him, more intensely this time.

Percy shifted to capture her waist in his hands, reaching beneath her overall shorts where her shirt was riding up.

Would it be such a bad idea to have sex with her boss in this minivan, Annabeth wondered. It was practically a relic, and it wasn't like they hadn't crossed into unprofessional territory.

CRASH!

Annabeth jumped and snapped her head to look out the window, and so did Percy, although they didn't take their hands off each other for a second.

Nico di Angelo stood at the bottom of the stairs, his mouth wide open and his hands outstretched.

Scattered all over the floor was a colorful array of jellybeans.