"What's so hard to get?" Charlotte laughed through the phone, and I grinned. "Captain Janus can control water, right?"
"Right," I agreed as I placed the phone down on the counter to chop the onions.
"And clouds are made of water, you know, from evaporation and condensation."
"I remember that vaguely from biology."
"Yeah, so that's how he's able to control the clouds and--"
"Well, I'm not questioning his ability to control the clouds," I interrupted and rolled my eyes even though she couldn't see me. "More like how would it even crush an army of giants."
"Because it's a lot of water, Jess," Charlotte exasperated, which reminded me so much of Noah when he tried to explain it to me. "That much water being dropped on any person can break bones, not just drown you."
I shuddered at the thought. "Like falling from a cliff into the ocean."
"Exactly!" she exclaimed. "Well, similar since you're doing the falling but same concept in reverse."
I chuckled. "Nerd."
"Hey!" she shouted, but I heard the grin in her voice. I liked that I could recognize it. "So what are you making for dinner?"
Falling back into the friendship with Charlotte happened naturally as if we were picking up exactly where we had left off ten years ago. It had been two weeks since we made up again, and Charlotte came over almost every night for dinner that it was routine at this point.
"That's for me to know, and you to find out," I answered.
"I'll just ask Noah then."
Before I could retort, she ended the call, and soon after, I heard Noah's phone ring from the living room. A grin broke out on my face, especially when a few minutes later, Noah came tip-toeing into the kitchen, poorly hiding his phone behind his back as he peeked around the counter.
"Mom."
I bit down on my grin. "Yes, Noah?"
"What are you cooking for dinner?"
"That's for me to know, and you to--"
"Oh my god, Jess, really?" Charlotte's voice broke through his phone, and I bursted out laughing.
Noah glanced around the kitchen. "Charlotte, I see onions, bell peppers, chicken, and--" He clamped his mouth shut when I shot him a steely glare, and he quickly slid the phone on the counter. "Mom's mad. Bye Charlotte!"
He ran away before I could say anything, and instead, I directed my glare to the phone even though she couldn't see me. "Using my son against me. That's not very fair."
"What can I say?" she laughed. "I think he favors me more."
"That's because you buy him too many milkshakes," I scoffed.
"Well, I can't just show up empty-handed. That's just rude."
"Charlotte, you come here almost every day at this point. You know I don't expect--"
Hands landed on my shoulders as a warm breath brushed my ear with a whispered, "So you're making fried rice."
My heart shot out of my chest, and I whirled around, screaming. Charlotte's eyes widened, and she jumped back from the knife in my hand.
"What the hell, Charlotte!" I screamed.
Noah, standing behind her, bursted out laughing, and I directed my glare to him. He immediately stepped behind Charlotte, who was trying so hard to suppress her smirk.
My glare shot back to her. "I could have literally stabbed you!"
"I didn't know you were holding a knife," she defended.
"Would that have stopped you?"
Her eyes glinted with mirth as she bit down on her grin, which was enough of an answer for me. I set the knife down and crossed my arms.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry," she apologized and put her hands up for good measure. My gaze lowered, and she followed it to where Noah was peeking at me from behind her. She set a hand on his shoulder and guided him in front of her, and my anger faded at the sight of them standing there together. "Noah, please help me apologize to your mom."
Noah blinked up at me with guilty eyes. "Mom, we're sorry for scaring you."
I released a deep sigh and threw my arms up. "Oh whatever. Just don't do that again when I'm holding a knife."
"So we
can
scare you again," Charlotte pointed out. "As long as you're not holding a knife, of course."
Noah bursted out into a grin, and it was so infectious I couldn't fight mine off anymore.
"I'm beginning to think you're a bad influence on my son," I said.
"Charlotte is a great influence!" Noah defended and began to list her qualities on his fingers. "She knows a lot about movies, she is basically a genius, she buys me milkshakes --"
"Which she really shouldn't," I interrupted and eyed the cupholder of milkshakes she left on the counter. Charlotte smiled sheepishly.
"She has a really cool office, she knows everything about Captain Janus, and she --"
"Hold on, hold on, hold on," I interrupted again, my lips slowly spreading into a grin as I looked over at Charlotte, whose cheeks were beginning to flush. "She knows everything about Captain Janus?"
"Yes," Noah answered with a tinge of annoyance at being interrupted again, but I was having too much fun with this new knowledge, especially when Charlotte looked so red. "She read the comics and--"
"Oh my god!" I barked out a laugh and immediately clapped a hand over my mouth.
"Alright, that's enough," Charlotte muttered. She grabbed one of the milkshakes and handed it to Noah. I was trying so hard to hold in my laughter to stop her, and honestly, he deserved to enjoy it after giving me such precious information.
Content, Noah carried his cup out of the kitchen, but when Charlotte tried to follow him, I grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Oh, you are not going anywhere!" I laughed. "You read the comics?"
"Not all of them!" she exclaimed, her face beet red now. "Just, you know, the ones that Noah gave me to borrow. I learned the rest from him and Google."
Warmth filled my chest as my laughter faded, and I smiled. "You read it for him?"
She shrugged. "Just enough to talk to him about it. He's a great kid despite being kind of a loud-mouth, which I have a feeling he got from you."
"You're kind of amazing, you know that?"
Charlotte lifted a brow. "What, just because I read a comic?"
"Not just that." I rolled my eyes. "You read a kid's comic, so you can talk to him about it."
"Hey, it's not just for kids!"
I grinned at her.
She shifted on her feet and looked away. "You did hear the part where I basically called you a loud-mouth, right?"
"I did."
"Okay good." Her lips quirked into a smirk even though she still wouldn't look at me. "Because you are."
It was hard to ignore the warm feelings that fluttered around in my stomach sometimes when I was around Charlotte. I thought that after ten years, they would have gone away, but she made it so hard when she was just undeniably the same.
Sure, she had matured into a more composed, independent, and cool-headed person, and I saw more of that side of her at work and in public. Whenever it was just us, though, she was just Charlotte. Relaxed, playful, considerate, wonderful Charlotte.
Alarm bells rang in my head, and as Charlotte looked down, I followed her gaze and finally realized I was still holding her arm and stroking it gently with my thumb.
"Oh, shit. Sorry," I muttered as I dropped it.
"It's okay," she murmured and glanced around the kitchen. "Do you need some help?"
"Absolutely not," I immediately said, remembering the incident from last week.
Charlotte scowled. "Okay, it was one time!"
"You got it on the ceiling!"
"And I helped you clean it, didn't I?"
"Well, we wouldn't have had to if you just put the cap on correctly."
"I've never used a blender before!"
I shook my head but grinned. "Well, I'm almost done anyway, so you can take a seat there --" I pointed to the bar stool at the counter. "-- and tell me about your day."
"You were there today," she said begrudgingly but took the seat anyway.
"I was on the floor, though, and you were doing...whatever corporate does."
Charlotte rolled her eyes, but her lips tugged into a smile as she launched into her day. I picked up the knife and resumed cooking as I listened contently.
--------------
Despite every part of my body begging me to not come into work the next day, I found the willpower to roll out of bed and go. I woke up with a sore body and the onset of a headache, but it wasn't like I felt sick.
Charlotte had left a little later than usual last night. After watching a movie with Noah and he had gone off to bed, we got caught up on conversations about the past and what we had been up to in the last ten years.
She had gotten her transplant just before college through a successful clinical trial, and she spent the majority of her college years doing the things that she had always wanted to do but couldn't. She majored in business and minored in photography, and I noticed that her eyes seemed to shift with more interest on the latter. I tried to get her to talk more about it, but she dismissed it as merely a hobby.
My eyes were still burning after I dropped Noah off at Sadie's, but I didn't walk him to the door. After getting out of the house, I started to feel more like complete shit. I knew she would have clocked it immediately, and I didn't have the energy to talk.
It looked like work was going to make it worse. It was discount Tuesdays, and the lobby was already filled with guests.
Katie, who had her own office now, still preferred to sit in the manager's office, and so I found her in there with Lewis. Since our...breakup? I still wasn't sure on what to call it, but since then, we had not talked about it. We only communicated when it was about work, and even then, it was sometimes strained. Lately, though, it seemed like the tension was getting better. At least I felt like it was.
They were discussing the schedule in front of a computer when I entered, and they both looked up at the same time. I felt their gazes stay on me as I hung my bag on a hook and grabbed a walkie.
"Hey, Jess," Lewis finally said. "How are you today?"
I turned to them and plastered a smile on my face. "Good. How about you guys?"
They looked at each other and then back at me.
"Good," Lewis answered apprehensively.
Katie gave me a nod, her brows furrowed as she searched my face. I didn't let it linger and turned away. "So what's on the agenda for today?"
It was Katie who answered this time. "I was thinking I could show you the process of making the schedules. It's a busy day, so Lewis might be on the floor a lot. You can pop out and help if things get out of hand."
I nodded in response.
"Speaking of which," Lewis stood up. "I should go check how things are going out there."
He glanced between Katie and I before leaving the office.
Katie patted the chair Lewis had been sitting on. "Come sit. We were just finalizing the schedule for next week. I'll show you what the process is like."
I took the seat next to her. Our knees grazed, but she didn't seem affected by it as she dived into talking about the schedule. I listened intently.
It was tedious work but not difficult at all. Everyone had different days and hours they could work, and it just took navigating those to put together the employee schedule. Right after that, she pulled up the movie schedule for the upcoming week, which was a completely different monster.
We must have spent a good hour in the office, and it was nice to be back in the rhythm of working with her. I had forgotten how much I liked working with Katie.
