Chris sat on the floor, just outside the door of his new job. He flicked the cigarette into the far corner of the parking lot, took a deep breath then went back inside. The mail room was as busy as he had left.
"Finally back from your break huh?" his boss shouted at him. Chris hated him. He wanted to punch him in the face everyday.
"Nope, just came in to make sure you had not eaten everybody." Chris said under his breath.
"What was that wise ass?" the boss said turning around. Chris nearly repeated it, but Martin had got him this job and he needed it.
"Nothing." Chris muttered.
"Good. Now take load twenty, up to the legal department." he said pointing to one of the large carts.
"What?" Chris said. The cart was over filled with bags of mail, ranging from small to extra large. "My time is up at five, it will take me till seven to get through all that." Chris said.
"Last time I checked you said you needed the extra hours?" the boss said. "Anybody need..." he began to say to the rest of the room.
"I'll do it." Chris muttered. He grabbed the cart and began to push it towards the elevator. He looked back at his fat boss and gave him the finger as the door closed. He began to think of how things got the way they were. It had been his fault of course. He had always been the root of most of the problems. He had a knack for messing things up. It was he who had gotten into a fight with a bunch of older kids, that was how he had met Martin, Martin had bailed him out of more jams than he could count. Even after he had treated him, he was still looking out for him. After the incident at the apartment, Martin had come to him and tried to square things up. It had taken three weeks, but after his own mother would not take him back, he realized he was stuck here in New York. Martin gave him the keys to the apartment, told him he could live there rent free. Maybe he had felt guilty for taking Chris's girlfriend away, but it was something Chris was not expecting. Now Roxy and Martin lived together in some high rise apartment. As the door to the elevator opened, he walked out and began handing the mail out to the people in their office's. Martin had not just stopped there, he had also given a good word to his work place, and that was how he got this job. Chris remembered it was here, that Martin had started. Working in the mail room. Now he was upstairs with the big wigs. So if Martin could do it, so could he. Well if he did not mess it up. He already was on bad terms with the boss, as well as many other people.
"Hey!" someone shouted. "Mail boy!" a voice shouted. Chris turned round. One of the office people, handed him a large box. "This needs to go out tomorrow, first thing." he said. He was back in his office closing the door, before Chris could say anything.
"Don't pay any attention to them." a female voice said.
"Hey Andrea." Chris said. He looked back at the elevator. Andrea was one of the other mail runners.
"I just finished my load, heard you took the last one. Figured I would give you a hand." she said. Chris sighed a relief. "Just don't tell the dough man." she said with a smile. Chris liked her, not in the way she liked him, which was obvious but he still had feelings for Roxy. The two ran through the rest of the mail easily.
"What are you doing this weekend?" Andrea asked him as they walked towards the exit.
"Have to look for another job." Chris lied. He knew she wanted to ask him out again. "Rent is killing me, and these hours are not cutting it." he said. She nodded.
"Well see you Monday then." she said as she turned away. Chris turned and walked towards the bus stop. It was not like she was ugly. In fact she was quite attractive. The thing was, She was black. Not that he had a problem with black women. But they had always intimidated him. She had short black hair, hazel eyes and was quite thick. But mostly around the hips and ass. He loved looking at her walk away. Her ass swayed just the right way. She had a nice pair of tits too. Not as big as Roxy, but there was not many women as big as Roxy. He sat at the bus stop, looking at his phone, when a car pulled up.
"Get in." Andrea said.
"It's no big deal. The bus..." he began to say.
"It was not a question. Get in." she said. The other people at the bus stop looked at him. He got up and climbed into the car.
"Look. It isn't often. I fall for a guy. So let's talk. What's up?" she asked. Chris quickly pulled on his seat belt. Her erratic driving made him nervous.
"Nothing. Just got out of a ..." he began to say.
"Don't even. I know all about that." she said cutting him off. "You left her and him, in the same apartment. No goodbye, no nothing just up and left. If you did that to me, with a guy like him, right there. My legs would be in the air touching the ceiling too." she said narrowly missing a car.
"Well..." he began to say.
"No well anything." she said back. "Did you? Or did you not leave?" she said with authority. She looked at him.
"Yes. But.." he began to say again.
"But nothing! Soon as you left, you gave up all rights to what you had, with both of them. You just wanna waltz back in and pick up where you left off. Motherfucker please!" she said. He had not seen this side to her, and it was not pleasant.
"Look. I don't usually get all mad. But yes. I like you. For some reason, I still don't know. Maybe it's the Eminem look, you got going on. But I do. And I have seen you checking my ass out. Plus I know you have a thing for big boobs. And I got em." she said letting go the steering wheel and giving her boobs a squeeze. "So this is how it is going to go." she said pulling up to the subway station. He looked at her.
"Tomorrow night. You will meet me here. Around Ten pm. We will go out. My treat. See where it goes. If nothing then, so be it. But if there is something, then we go from there." she said.
"Ok." Chris nodded.
"Again it was not a question." she said as he got out the car and headed down into the subway. He began to wonder what he had gotten himself into. What would happen if he did not show up. He could just say something came up. He got onto his train and sat there pondering. His phone rang.
"Hello." he answered.
"Hey Chris." Martin said.
"Hey." he replied.
"How is it going?" Martin asked.
"What do you want?" Chris said. He had no patience for his old friend. Even though Martin had done a lot for him. He knew it was out of guilt, more than anything.
"Fine. Let's get it out in the open. Roxy and I are thinking of getting married." Martin said. The news hit Chris like a punch to the stomach.
"You guys barely know each other." Chris said. Which was not true. They had known each other the whole time, Chris and her had dated. Now it had been months after. People had gotten married in a shorter length of time.
"Well, it's a thought. Has not been written in stone. But I thought you should know." Martin said.
"Well I could do with a car. So if that guilt thing is still working. I will take a car and we can call it even." Chris said bitterly.
"Fuck you. Call me back when you grow up." Martin said hanging up. Chris gripped the phone hard. He wanted to throw it, but without it, he would not have a way to be contacted in case of more hours.
The apartment felt so empty. Now that it was just him. He popped a frozen dinner in the microwave and sat at the table. He remembered the times, the three of them sat here eating dinner. It was so quiet now. He knew Andrea was right. It was his fault. He did leave. But he thought she would chase him. But she did not. She did not even ask about him. Now that he thought about it, why would she? They never really hit it off. They were put together on a blind date, and it had been great the first few weeks. But then things just went sideways. When she lost her job, he offered her to stay with him, of course she was going to take it. Then things just got worse. He made his mind up, he was going to go with Andrea. Maybe he could get his mind off them, for a while.
The cold air was biting him as he stood waiting for her. He was going to give her a few more minutes then he was going to go. He looked at his watch it was thirty-five minutes after ten. A car raced to a stop right in front of him. A car behind it beeped it's horn.
"Beep that fucking horn, one more time." Andrea said getting out of the car and walking towards the back of the car. Chris ran and stopped her.
"What?" she said as the car passed her. Chris smiled.
"What are you smiling for?" she said with a smile on her face.
"You. You're so quiet at work." he said as she got back in the car. He walked around and into the car.
"That's work Andrea. This is the real me. My parent's told me to stick up for myself, cause no one else will. So.." she shrugged.
"Where we going?" Chris asked.
