The Pretend Friend Ch 04

"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.

She was in the middle of explaining what kind of movies were to be scheduled in which theaters when her phone dinged. Katie read the message quickly and then groaned.

"What?" I asked.

"Charlotte wants to see me," she sighed. "She's been driving me crazy all morning."

I nodded, not knowing how else to respond.

Then her eyes widened, and she turned to me. "Please don't tell her I said that."

"Don't worry." I shrugged. "She'll hear nothing from me."

"I thought you guys were friends."

"We are," I said slowly. "But I wouldn't tell her things between us and the other managers. She and I were friends before and only recently reconnected, so that's the only reason why I'm close with her. But unless it's about work and something she needs to know, I won't tell her anything."

For some reason, I felt like I needed to make that clear and hoped that she would share it with the others as well.

Sometimes it felt weird casually talking to Charlotte around my co-workers. Charlotte didn't seem to care, but she didn't really have to. She was technically the boss. I didn't want anyone to think I got my position out of favoritism, but sometimes I couldn't help but wondered if I did.

"Oh," Katie replied awkwardly. "Okay, I should probably go see her before she gets impatient and comes here."

"Good luck."

She smiled tightly before leaving.

----------

I decided to go see if Lewis needed any help, and it seemed like he was not doing so well. There had been an emergency vomit situation in theater eight, and right after coming back from cleaning that, he had to deal with an elderly couple, who had brought tickets to the wrong theater and were angry at him for not being able to fix it.

I stood behind him, watching the interaction. After another five minutes of back and forth, the couple threw their hands up and stomped away. Lewis turned to me with an exasperated look.

"I honestly don't know why I still work here," he muttered as we left concessions.

I shrugged. "Same."

"You're more cut out for this than I am. Stress gets to me too easily."

"I think you're a pretty decent manager."

He smiled. "Thanks."

We stopped in the middle of the hallway on high side, and he sighed deeply. "How'd it go with Katie?"

"What do you mean?"

Lewis gave me a pointed look, and I raised a brow. "Come on, you guys are so obvious."

"I don't know what you're talking about." My face grew hot.

"Sure," he shrugged as his smile grew. "Whatever you say."

"Lewis..."

"What?"

"There's seriously nothing going on between me and Katie," I said. To be fair, I wasn't lying. As far as I knew, Kate and I were done.

"Okay, I believe you," he laughed.

I doubted he actually did, but I wasn't going to drag this conversation any further.

Down the hallway, the COO's office door opened, and Katie walked out. She didn't seem to notice us at first as she walked down the hallway and stressfully ran her fingers through her hair.

Then she looked up and slowed. Her face was fixed in a grim expression.

"Uh oh," Lewis said. "That doesn't look good."

"I'm gonna bash my head into a fucking wall." Then Katie actually turned to the wall, and Lewis and I rushed forward to hold her back.

"Whoa there, what happened?" I asked as she gave up and slumped against the wall instead.

Reluctantly, we let her go.

"She wants me to cut hours," Katie answered and rubbed at her forehead. "So now I have to go adjust the schedule before the day ends. We're going to get so many complaints from floor staff."

"Shit," Lewis replied.

"That's a lot," I said.

Katie nodded slowly and leaned her head back against the wall. "She has been in a pissy mood all day."

I played with the dials on my walkie, frowning.

"Jess, can you stick with Lewis for the rest of the day?" she asked tiredly. "I'm gonna be in my office, trying not to pull all of my hair out."

I gave Katie a salute, which got her to smile just a bit.

"You've got this, Katie," Lewis said encouragingly. "We believe in you."

"Thanks," she said dryly and then pushed herself off the wall with a sigh.

Lewis and I watched her leave. Then I turned to him. "So what now, boss?"

-------------

By the end of my shift, Katie had managed to finish adjusting the schedule and had sent it out. We were already receiving messages from employees asking about their hours, and Lewis had to send out a short, vague explanation on the message board.

Before leaving, I decided to stop by Katie's office and knocked on her door.

"Come in!" she called from the other side.

I opened the door and stepped in. She looked up from some paperwork, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Oh, hey," she said, setting down her pen. "How was the rest of the day?"

Closing the door behind me, I leaned against it. "Not bad. At least, nothing Lewis and I couldn't handle."

She nodded and rubbed her face tiredly. "Good, good."

"How's everything else going?" I asked. She lowered her hands to look at me. "With work and life, I guess."

"It's exhausting, but I'll manage," she answered, and I knew that no matter what, she would be able to handle it. Katie leaned back against her chair. "What about you? You didn't look well this morning."

I shrugged. "I was feeling a little under the weather, but I'm better now."

"I didn't realize how I was treating you before," she suddenly said. "I'm sorry."

I felt myself relax from tension that I didn't even realized I had, and I smiled at her. She matched it. "It's okay. I'm sorry if I was too harsh."

"I deserved it."

"You kinda did."

She laughed, which prompted me to laugh as well.

"So, we're good?" she asked afterwards.

I nodded, still smiling. "We're good."

There was a knock on the door, and her smile faded. Sighing, she gestured for me to open it. I swung the door open, only for my eyes to widen when I saw Laura.

She glanced between me and Katie as her lips slowly formed a smirk. "I was told you would be in here."

I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at her. "What are you doing here?"

Katie came to the door. "Hello."

"Hey," Laura greeted back as she leaned against the door frame. "I'm Laura. You're Katie, right?"

"Yeah," Katie answered. "Have we met?"

"Please ignore--"

Laura interrupted me. "We met a couple weeks ago. Very briefly, but I never forget a beautiful face."

Katie's cheeks flushed pink, and Laura's eyes trailed down her body.

Oh, god.

"Okay, time to go!" I shoved Laura back from the door and away.

Laura turned her head around. "See you around, Katie!"

I heard Katie replied distantly. "See you."

"You are a terrible, terrible flirt," I muttered as we exited the theater.

"You never told me how gorgeous she was. We could have been having a three--"

"What are you doing here?" I interrupted before she could even finish.

Laura smirked but didn't finish her thought. "Well, a little birdie told us you weren't feeling so well."

Noah. Of course, he wasn't going to keep quiet.

"I'm fine."

"You look like you barely got any sleep in."

I shifted on my feet uneasily. "I slept."

"Did you, or were you up late talking to Charlotte?"

I stiffened. "Did Noah tell you?"

Laura scoffed. "Noah doesn't have to tell us anything. We've barely seen you in the last few weeks because you've been here or with her."

"That's not..." I trailed off, knowing my next word was going to be a lie. Still, I didn't realize how much time I've spent with Charlotte, and guilt filled me at the hurt that flashed across Laura's face. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "You can make it up to me by going out with Alex and I tonight."

"What about Sadie?"

"Someone has to watch Noah, and she offered because she would rather take him to the movies with her girlfriend."

"Oh, they're official now?" I asked.

Laura gave me a plain look. "Yes."

The guilt returned, and I bit my lip. Laura sighed and slung her arm across my shoulders. "Look, we're going to have fun and forget the fact that you abandoned us for Charlotte, okay?"

"Fine," I agreed, mostly out of guilt more than anything. Truthfully, I planned on inviting Charlotte over for dinner and talk again. It seemed like today had been rough for her, and I wanted to see if she was okay.

But it seemed like that would have to wait until tomorrow because Laura was already pulling me outside to her motorcycle.

"By the way, you are going to get absolutely wasted tonight because Noah is having a sleepover at Sadie's. In his own words, he said, 'Mom, please, please don't pick me up. I will be having too much fun without you bossing me around.'"