Hope you like it! Please R&R...(so I know if I'm gonna finish it:)! Summary: Work: Hitching a ride on the forklift to the frozen food aisle, "taste testing" new products, racing mountain bikes to the back room, kicking the vending machine in the lounge in the bottom corner and being rewarded with a soda. BUT AVOIDING THE NEW GUY?

There's a calm reassurance in a routine life. Walking into the large department store in my dress greens and clocking in at exactly nine every night. Saying hello to Layaway Lauren as she prepares for a night of no business. High fiving Fred the janitor slash spy and discussing the latest scheme our boss has pulled on changing the toilet paper from Charmin to dollar store brand. Taking a quick ride from shoe department to food on the edge of the forklift run by Pete. Wearing my dress greens with pride.

Most eighteen year olds wouldn't be happy about spending their summer before college working in a store full time, no less a store that wasn't located in the mall. And hey, I don't blame them. Neither would I. My secret for loving my job?

I don't work.

Well, according to my check that pays for forty hours a week of work, I do. And hey, why would I stand in the way of mucha mula?

Well, not that much. It is Fall Mart and I am only one employee among a hundred. But it feeds the hungry children.

So here I am, sitting behind a register waiting for non-existent customers. Yes, sitting. It's a night shift thing. Marco Mark takes comfy computer chairs from the furniture aisle and lets us sit on them instead of standing so we don't damage our pretty little feet because, what is a society when working girls have ugly feet?

I completely agree.

"Mamma Mia, check out the sex kitten over in aisle two." I spun around in my chair to face my best friend since the age of birth. "Mmm, give me a big bitin' of that. Damn." I chuckled and scanned the mafia looking man from head to toe before elbowing her in the side.

"Go say hi."

"Hi?" She questioned with a disgusted look.

I rolled my eyes. "Or you can be completely obvious and say 'Hey Rico Suave, I think your drop dead gorgeous. Is that a gun in your pants? Or did you leave it in the limo. Are you sure? Can I feel and make sure?"

She slapped my head. "Mama Mia, a guy driving in a limo would not shop here. In the middle of nowhere." She looked at me with obviousness.

I shook my head with a grin and mocked her light voice. "Are those bed sheets your looking at? I think white fits your complexion best. You know…my sheets are white. Wanna take a ride back to my house and see if you agree?" I grinned up at her. "Agree?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. So hilarious, Mia. One of these days your gonna want to bed a dude."

I choked. "Bed a dude? Oh my! Nobody's used that since the eighteenth century. Besides," I shrugged, "I prefer back seating dudes."

"Leave it to you to ruin the romance."

"Leave it to you to fall in love with a mafia man." I grinned and pushed up from my seat, sending Chris stumbling sideways. I shot her an evil look before walking around the register and away from her.

"Mia! Don't!" I laughed and kept my pace down the aisle way to where Rico stood with a water-wet-itself doll in his hands. Okay, so he was a weirdo. Chris dated them, why start something new?

I stopped when Mia appeared at the end of the aisle shaking her head. "Excuse me?" I asked him and his head shot up with a genuine smile. "Hi, I'm Mia."

"Montello." He held out his hand and I shook it before winking at Chris.

"That girl behind me, well, she's kinda shy and…in her words…she wants to take a big bitin' of you." I smiled at his glance behind me before he shook his head.

"Really now."

"Really really."

He looked behind me again. "That's definitely good to know."

I chuckled. "Well, you have a nice night. Thank you for shopping at Fall Mart." I grinned idiotically and turned around to walk past a frozen Chris with a blown kiss. "You can thank me later." I paused at the end of the aisle to watch him walk up to her, and didn't miss when Chris timidly asked if he owned a gun.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I always hated hoola hoops. I could never get them to stay on me, that and when I was twelve I shook so hard my pants fell down in front of my entire class. And that small incident when I spun it on my arm and it hit Grandma Georgina in the face and broke her coke bottle glasses.

She's given me shitty Christmas presents ever since.

"Mia, Mia, Mia. Having sexual fantasies about the hoola hoops again? I told you a million times, it's not nice to mind rape inanimate objects. They can't participate in the true art of the sexual act. It doesn't matter if you imagine them twirling in circles. It's not humane."

I turned to smile at Fred. Fred the spy. Broom in one hand, dustpan in the other. He was equipped for a war. With the dust mites.

"I can't help myself. There's just something about them that makes me want to move my hips in a circular motion." I grinned sadistically.

"You're a weird one, Mia."

I nodded. "Thank you, Fred. I really appreciate it."

"Anytime." He promised. "Oh my," he leaned forward, "you are not going to believe it. Machine Macey's been jipping us four sodas every delivery. I followed her into the hallway and then I lost her. So I opened the boss' door and you will not believe who I saw desking all over each other." He paused dramatically when I leaned forward. "Mr. Bob and his secretary!"

"Secretary Susan!" I gasped. "No."

"Oh yes," he shook his head with disapproval, "I couldn't believe my eyes!"

"Did they see you?"

He grinned now, running a hand over his almost hairless head. "He gave me more vacation time not to say anything."

"I gotta stop by his office tonight." I decided smugly with a smile.

"And I have to finish sweeping up the lounge. Don't tell anyone about the desk adventures, okay?"

"Only Chris." I assured him with a smile as he backed away.

I turned back to look up at the container of hoola hoops with a small smile. "I do not have sexual fantasies about hoola hoops."

"If you did, I'd probably quit my job." I turned around to the deep voice laced with an edge of humor to stare into the bright green eyes that everyone in Jamesville knew. He stood in a green work shirt and khaki pants, his hands tucked deep down inside them, a small smile on his face. Joe Jameson. The most arrogant, asshole golden boy I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. With a job. Here. At Fall Mart. Night shift. With me. No