"Okay, I get where you're coming from Ashlyn, and I do believe you." Jace said as he sat back in his office chair, causing a displeasing squeak due to it's many years of use. "You need to be careful around him though. He may only be the temporary manager when I'm not here, but he has connections to the owners."

I knew this was true, it's how he scraped by the managers training, but I wasn't going to admit to something that I didn't do. His accusations were downright wrong. "Please don't fire me, Jace." With my eyes cast down to the dark carpeted floor I twiddled my thumbs together nervously. I didn't dare look at him. I didn't want him to see the tears of fear and upset that were swimming in my eyes.

With a small amused smile on his face, Jace stood up and made his way around to the front of his desk. "I'm not going to fire you Ashlyn. I just told you that I believe you."

"Y-you're not?" I asked, to which he replied with a small shake of his head.

The amount of relief this small gesture gave me was overwhelming and I let out a deep breath. Without even thinking, I was out of my seat with my arms wrapped tightly around Jace's neck. "Thank you so much. You have no idea how relieved I am."

I must have had my arms around his neck too tight because it sounded like he was choking on his next words. "I think once you let me go and allow me to breathe I'll understand the relief."

Oh God. I let go immediately and stepped back. A deep shade of crimson rose up and gave my pale freckled cheeks some colour. "I'm sorry." Well this meeting turned from incredibly nerve wracking to incredibly awkward all in the span of twenty seconds.

"No. It's fine, really." Jace also had a blush on his cheeks as he said this and I knew it was for the exact opposite reason that I was blushing.

I had probably just made his crush on me much worse. I really wish he had a crush on someone other than me. It was really awkward to work with him when he was staring at me, and I didn't want to keep hurting him by not returning his feelings.

"You can go and finish your shift now." He walked to the other side of his desk and tore up the incident report that was written up about me. He must be feeling a little awkward too now, because he was refusing to look at me and was sending me away.

Jax was waiting for me when I came out of the office, leaning against the wall. "What was that all about," he asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder towards the office.

"John wrote up a report on me." I was in a bad mood when Jax had picked me up after my shift so naturally he had to be told every detail.

He pushed himself off the wall and pulled me to the counter. "He didn't fire you did he?"

The concern in his voice warmed my heart. It felt nice to have someone who cares. "Nope, thank goodness. Could you imagine what my mum would do and say if he had fired me?"

I didn't even want to think about it. Me having a job was the only thing that kept us both going. If I didn't have a job, then I'd have no money for food, bills, rent, and no money to pay for her alcohol, drugs and nightly outings to the pub.

Those latter ones mentioned were her top priority of course. As long as she had those, she didn't care about anything else.

I did care, though. Not only did my income keep me alive and off the streets, but it paid for my Uni education. That, was one of my two vices. Studying and coffee.

I was struggling to keep up with my course fees though. Not to mention everything else. So I was considering the option of finding a second job. Not that I had much time for it.

"…anyway who cares what the dragon lady thinks."

I blinked up at Jax in confusion. I had missed the entire beginning of his reply. He rolled his eyes at the realisation that I hadn't been paying attention at all to what he had been saying.

"Go back to work Ash. We'll talk later when you feel like paying attention." The sound of his soft chuckle made me smile and we both made our way to the two registers.

We quickly put ourselves to work. Rosie was making her way over here and we wanted to look busy before she decided to launch into one of her tangents. She has been hounding me about how the date was ever since she came back to work.

No matter how many times I told her that I absolutely did not want to talk about it, she never gave up. Most times I felt like slapping her silly, just to shut her up about it.

It was even worse when she spotted Micah and Jenny swapping saliva in a corner of the store. It only made her more curious, and more persistent.

I might fool her into thinking that I don't care, that it doesn't bother me but deep down, it's killing me to see them two together. It doesn't seem to matter how much he has hurt me, my heart is set on having feelings for Micah.

The fact that they can be so happy together and care-free after knowing how much they hurt me, seems to hurt just as bad. I truly thought he cared about me. I tried not to let it show just how much I was hurting, but it wasn't always easy.

Jaxon's soft, mint scented breath blew across my face, causing strands of my hair to tickle the side of my cheek as he murmured into my ear. "Stop thinking about him would you? You always get this sad and hurt look on your face, and you know I don't like that."

His murmurs were followed by the annoying annoying beeping sounds of the barcodes being scanned. Jax hates working the registers so I have no idea why he's doing it now.

Seeing that we were busy, Rosie went straight past us and went to the front door to collect the films that had been returned over night. We weren't completely lucky though, because she came back towards the counter.

"You stole my job Jax," she stated with a light flirtatious giggle. She refused to believe that Jaxon was gay and that she had no chance with him at all. Yet another thing she was persistent with.

It was funny sometimes though. Whenever he would ignore her flirty comments, or when she rubbed herself against him by 'accident' and he would just walk away, she would huff and stomp her foot like a five year old.

She was my form of entertainment whilst simultaneously being a pain in my ass. We never even 'officially' became friends. She spoke to me one time, and of course I was nice to her. She took that as an invitation to follow Jax and I around like a bad smell.

From what I know, she doesn't have very many friends. Perhaps if she used the filter between her brain and mouth, people would be more inclined to become her friend and talk to her about things, without having to worry about her telling everyone she blinked at.

As usual, Jax ignored her, much to her annoyance, and closed the money tray of his register. "I'll talk to you when she's not around making pointless passes at me," he mumbled as he walked behind me and towards whatever section of the store that Rosie didn't occupy.

On his way there though, he walked past Micah and Jenny, who were taking advantage of Jace not being out here. He reached his arm up and swiped his hand along the shelf, causing a few DVD cases topple off the shelves and interrupt their heated kiss before clattering to the floor loudly. "Oops, better pick those up guys. You ought to be more careful next time."

When he heard my low chuckle, he turned and winked at me with a satisfied smirk playing on his lips. That, is exactly why Jax is my best friend.

"Why does he keep ignoring my hints? It's like I'm invisible." Rosie's whiny complaint made me scowl in Jaxon's direction. He left me here to deal with this alone. Bloody hell.

"He's gay, Rosie. I've told you so many times now."

She stomped her foot and blew a few stray strands of hair out of her face. "I know that the whole gay thing is just an excuse Ashlyn. I just don't see why he wouldn't like me."

I didn't respond and just kept working. If she wasn't going to accept the fact that he's gay then I'm not going to waste my breath trying to convince her.

When she realised that I had no intention of responding, she made a low growling sound and started working. I felt sorry for the customers that had to be served by her. Soon they all started lining up to be served by me. Only the impatient people were willing to be served by her.

Soon, but not soon enough, it was time for my break. Jax was already sitting in the staff room waiting for me. After a quick run to the bathroom, I dropped down onto the couch next to him and started chomping down on my lunch. My stomach could not wait any longer for some food.

The soft growl of appreciation made Jax laugh and almost spit his drink out. "Jeez Ash."

"Shut up, I'm hungry," I said with a light whack to his arm. "You know," I began hesitantly, "I was thinking of finding a second job." I didn't look at Jax. Instead, I shoved another forkful of my chicken salad into my mouth, and kept my eyes glued on the couch, tracing the strange pattern.

"What? Why the hell would you do that? You barely have time for anything because of this job." He had stopped eating and from the corner of my eye I could see him staring at me.

I knew he wouldn't like the idea, which is why I was hesitant to say anything to him. It's true that I didn't have enough time for it, but I needed money more than I needed time right now. I would just have to give something up. "I know Jax, but I need money. It's getting harder and harder to keep up."

"Ash, look at me," he demanded.

I slowly lifted my head up and let my deep brown eyes meet his sparkling blue ones. I was expecting to see madness or disappointment in his eyes, but all I saw was sympathy with a tinge of pity.

He used his thumb and forefinger to keep a gentle hold on my chin to make sure that I didn't look away from him. "I will help you with the whole money thing. I've told you that a million times."

"A million and one times now, I guess," I retorted in a soft voice, trying to put a bit of humour into our conversation.

"Ash I'm serious," he said, raising his eyebrows. "You already have too much on your plate. Looking after your mum, studying, working, taking care of the house. If you get a new job then it will all be too much."

I sighed and closed my eyes. I knew he would talk me out of it eventually. "Okay, fine. I won't get a second job. Just yet." I would just wait until the next opportunity came up.

"Good, now feed that monster hiding in your stomach before it decides to eat me too."

Hi lovelies!

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~Alyssa