#FIRE THE HER SUPERVISOR FRIEND EMPLOYEES

[thoughtsbeewild]

Evil selfie mom director has been FIRED!! HOW EXCITING! KARMA IS ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS TO THESE EVIL FEMALE BITCHES.

LOVE HOW HER STUPID BEST FRIEND IS POSTING ON FACEBOOK. To try to use the lord name in vain in a facebook post, stating to save to fucking save her.

Like why should the people above help you? You helped your best friend evil director plot against other employees to get them fired in order keep your fucking job. You and your fucking best friend director were having side conversation ON COMPANY CALLS AND CELL PHONES during work hours SNITCHING INFO FROM OTHER EMPLOYEES LIKE AS IF YOU WERE THERE FRIEND FOR THAT EMPLOYEE. WHEN REALLY YOU WERE TRYING HELP YOUR BEST FRIEND EVIL DIRECTOR GET RID OF EMPLOYEES THAT YOU , THE SUPERVISOR , HER SUPERVISOR FRIENDS EMPLOYEESS, AND YOURSELF WERE HAVING OFFLINE CONVERSATIONS ON WHICH FRIEND SHOULD BE KEPT EMPLOYED. IF YOU BITCHES DIDNT LIKE US, YOU TELL YOUR EVIL DIRECTOR BEST FRIEND FIRE THEM USING TWO FACE EMAIL DOCUMENTATION, TWISTING EVERY FUCKING WORD TO HUMAN RESOURCES. BUT YOU DONT GET , YOUR FUCKING WITH PEOPLE LIFE, THIER FAMILY. WHEN THE FUCKING TABLES TURN, YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE.

What a hypocrite bitch, your director best friend helped you get that mother fucking job and got a bonus for recruiting you in the company organization.

NOW THIS QUEEN EVIL DIRECTOR IS OFF THE BOARD, WE ARE PRAYING HER BEST FRIEND THE SUPERVISOR WHO WAS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HER POWER/AUTHORITY FIRE TALENTED EMPLOYEES AND PROTECTING HER PIECE OF SHIFT FRIEND EMPLOYEES BECAUSE THEY WERE FRIENDS AND KISS THAT ASS. KARMA

[king-ludwig-ii]

in work drama updates: the person who outed me is the same person who’s been ratting people out to our supervisor.

This one guy joked about not working out his full two weeks bc he was so excited to leave so they went to management and told them that he straight up said he wasn’t going to show up on his last day so they sent him home half a week early.

Another coworker told them she was in the final round interviews for another job and they also went to management and they ended up firing her the same day

[ifancyharry]

Northern attitude (1)

in which YN moves to a small town in the Alps and Harry is her grumpy neighbor

word count: 8k

When YN got called to her boss’s office, that Friday morning, she was absentmindedly registering the data she’d gathered the day prior from the soil of a closed wildlife zoo. She had gotten so nervous, she accidentally tapped an extra zero on the computer and she had to do it all over again at home once she’d gotten an email from her supervisor telling her the numbers didn’t match. To say she was embarrassed was an understatement, and she’d gotten right at it, eager to correct it, despite her coworker telling her she could easily do it the following work day. 

As she had paved the short walk from her desk to her boss’s office she tried to think of something she’d done in the past days that would require such an odd behavior on her boss’s part. 

Of course her boss couldn’t possibly have known about the extra number error, unless Dante — her boss, who was a rather nice one and wanted his employers to call him by his first name, because it was such a unique name he couldn’t possibly answer to such a simple and common thing as ‘boss’ —  was some kind of supernatural being able to foresee the future. She frowned as she tossed the thought from her head. She likes to think she would’ve noticed if her boss was not human, but despite his uncommon name, he was a pretty normal guy, somewhat laid back and kind of understanding with his employees, so nothing stuck out in that sense.

There was another thing that came to mind when she tried to find a reason for his unpredicted call, probably much more possible than her starring in an episode of Supernatural with Dante, and that was, maybe, that her break up had finally caught up to her. She’d tried to keep it as low as possible, not that she had a lot of friends at work, but one coworker of hers was particularly noisy and would ask once in a while how her boyfriend, Aaron, was doing. So when said coworker had asked, she’d just shrug it off with a ‘he’s all right,' without mentioning how she’d found him in bed with her best friend only a week before. 

She’d kept her crying to a minimum, excusing herself to the bathroom every once in a while when the image of her boyfriend on top of her best friend crept inside her mind when she wasn’t busying herself with work. 

So she really can’t understand how Dante figured it out. Her work had been impeccable, and despite her many bathroom breaks, she swore nothing had changed in her demeanor.

YN doesn’t know why when something unexpected happens, she always thinks about the worst possible scenario. Her mind fogged with images of Dante firing her, Dante being a supernatural something, biting her head off because he predicted she’d type the wrong number and probably make his company go bankrupt, ruining a life’s work — of course YN didn’t have such responsibility (she was supervised in everything she did) and her job was rather dull, just a lot of bureaucracies and not as much research as expected. 

She certainly hadn’t imagined Dante’d called her in his office because he wanted to offer her a promotion. She honestly couldn’t believe her ears and she’d almost asked him to repeat himself had it not be for his endless monologue about the importance of team work and how she had to take one for the team, besides, moving to a small town in the Alps was nothing, and it was only for two years, so why would she decline? 

Wait. Moving? To the Alps? (She honestly doesn’t even know where the Alps are, but is too embarrassed to ask him, and promises herself she’ll google it once she gets back to her desk.)

Turns out, the position was vacant because her coworker Anais had just found out she was expecting a baby, so she couldn’t move anymore (especially to the Alps!, he’d said), and Dante had immediately thought of YN, because well, as he said, she was young and didn’t have anything holding her back. YN remembers she frowned at that, because she really didn’t have anything keeping her there, if not the possibility of running into her ex at the supermarket hand in hand with her friend.

With that in mind, she kind of accepted before really taking the time to think about it, desperate to get out of a place that felt suffocating all of a sudden. 

Dante had been ecstatic to hear that, going on and on about how they recently found out traces of a wild grizzly bear that had been thought extinct for many years, and how she’d love working in the field as opposed to her office job.

He explained how her living situation was already sorted out (and paid for by the company), she figured probably because Anais had done the house hunting prior to finding out she was pregnant and couldn’t go. Dante had told her she’d be leaving in two weeks, and the plane was non refundable so she couldn’t just change dates. Plus, he said, they were expecting her, so she better pack fast! (YN had felt ravish at that, because she never truly felt indispensable for her actual coworkers.)

She’d managed to pack all her and her dog’s — a one year old dachshund named Baguette —  stuff in ten days, making sure she had enough warm clothes to last her at least all winter, because as it turns out, she had googled where the Alps are, and they’re really, really, cold. Temperatures dropping below the zero in March cold.

YN, who, she’d like to think, wasn’t someone scared of changes and adapted to situations rather well, was kind of excited as she had gotten on the plane, ready to leave her life behind, because, really, how bad could it be?

. . .

Turns out, it was pretty bad. And when YN says bad, it means bad, because she isn’t one to use words lightheartedly. When she says bad, she means her suitcases got stalled at the airport because of custom checks bad. Gets dark at four in the afternoon bad. Had to walk in the freezing March weather (along a steep climb!), because there wasn’t any kind of public transportation kind of bad. 

So, yes, it was pretty bad. Not to completely drain her of her enthusiasm, but definitely enough to dim it. 

When she reached the gate of the house, she took her phone from her pocket and unlocked it, opening the mail’s app and looking for the one her landlord had sent her with all the details (he technically hadn’t sent it to her, but to Anais; Dante had forwarded it to her and assured her the landlord — a certain Mr. Styles, knew about her arrival and would greet her in his house — more like his garden — with open arms). 

She nodded to herself once she finished reading the instructions, opening the gate with the code Mr. Styles had written in the email. She repeated the combination of numbers a couple of times in her head, so she could remember it better in the future, and once she heard the gate had been unlocked, she pushed it open with one hand, looping her fingers around the embroidery on the metal.

“C’mon, Baguette!” She said, lowering to the ground and picking up her small dog. Baguette got extremely tired from walking and she certainly couldn’t blame her. She felt pretty tired too, almost enough to get already in bed at five in the afternoon and sleep though the night, and she let herself gleam in the cozy daydream while she paved the way to the small house she’d be staying in, annex to a much bigger one where she figured Mr. Styles (and probably his wife? His family? She didn’t know) lived in. She felt herself grimace once she realized she didn’t even have her pajamas, so before she could fulfill her little dream, she had to at least stop at a supermarket to get something to sleep in.

She prayed in her mind it was close, because really, she didn’t know how long she had before her feet would give up on her.

YN wasn’t one to pry on people’s personal spaces, never had been (not even when she passed her crush’s house in 8th grade and her mind begged her to take a quick peek inside to see if he was home) and she regarded houses as very personal, intimate, spaces, so she doesn’t know why, on her way to her own house, she stopped to get on her toes and look inside what seemed to be a kitchen window. The house seemed empty, the lights turned off expect for a small lamp in the corner, and she possibly couldn’t have known that Mr. Styles had just gotten out of his car and was walking towards her with a look that, had she seen it, probably would have scared her.

“What the hell are you doing?” He snapped, making her jump. She turned toward him right away, watching him shut the car door loudly, a stern look adorning his otherwise gentle features.

“Uhm… hello?” She questioned, furrowing her brows at him, “I’m YN, the — she cleared her voice and pointed with her thumb in the direction of the small house — the new tenant. Who are you?”

YN tried to rattle inside her brain if Dante had mentioned a flatmate she’d be sharing the house with, but nothing came to mind. So who was he? 

“YN?” He asked, the furrow in his brows only deepening. He had gotten incredibly close to her and YN felt unease at having her personal space involved like that, which is kind of ironic, must she say. 

She nodded, mumbling a small yes along with it.

“I thought Anais was supposed to come?” 

Did he know Anais? How did he know her? 

Oh! 

Oh. 

Could he be? 

He certainly couldn’t! 

He was much younger than she���d imagined!

She thought Mr. Styles would be an odd, off putting kind of elderly person, who maybe had a wife or an old dog Baguette could play with. She certainly couldn’t have imagined Mr. Styles was this handsome (yet scary), tall guy, with a mop of chocolate brown curly hair down to his shoulders, eyes as green as the deepest forest she dreamt about while reading fantasy books when she was younger, broad shoulders and… were those swallows she could see from the low collar of his white cotton shirt? And who wears only a shirt in this weather? He must be mad!   

“Oi!” He waved a hand in front of her face to catch her attention, “i’m talking to you.” 

She mumbled something incomprehensible and then she gulped before nodding her head, “sorry. Anais couldn’t come anymore, Dante told me you knew.”

She watched as Mr. Styles scoffed, muttering a ‘what a prick’ before shaking his head, a strand of curly hair falling in front of his eyes, which he pushed out of his face with a couple of gentle fingers. YN noticed the various rings adorning his hands, and she wondered for a brief moment wether they were a gift or if he’d buy them himself.

He looked over her briefly and YN shifted her weight from foot to foot, thinking he was probably wondering why she didn’t have any bags with her. She was getting ready to explain how the airport security had detained them, but the words haltered in her throat when she saw him raise a hand and letting the sleepy Baguette in her arms sniff it, before scratching his ear.

“What a cute doggy” he said, lowering himself to be face to face with the small dog, “what’s your name?” He asked directly to Baguette, and YN felt as if all of a sudden she was the dog and Baguette was her owner, and she blushed at that thought. 

“This is Baguette!” She chimed awkwardly.

“Ha” he snorted through his nose, “cute name. Baguette” he repeated, and the name rolled off his tongue so sweetly YN imagined what hers would sound like coming from his lips. Probably much more stern and less saccharine. 

 “Okay, I have to go.” He raised himself, making her jump a little in her place. He straightened his shirt and looked at her with a crossed look, “you know how to get in, right? Or do I have to explain that too?”

YN couldn’t possibly know what other things he had explained, but she wasn’t clueless and had realized Mr. Styles didn’t particularly like her, so she figured it was best to say she did and figure it out on her own. So, she nodded and he gave a short nod back, walking past her towards his own house. 

She watched him unlock the door with a set of keys and then disappear behind the front door, her gaze fixed on his broad shoulder covered only by the thin fabric of his shirt. She felt Baguette wiggle her tail from where she was holding her between her arms, and YN rolled her eyes at her dog, “of course you like him already! Traitor!”

. . . 

YN didn’t knock on Mr. Styles’s door with the intention of bothering him. 

She just wanted to ask him where she could buy something to sleep in and perhaps something to eat, an overpriced airport sandwich being the only thing she’d eaten all day. So, she thought, her intentions were pretty harmless, and it’s not like she was expecting an invite in for dinner or something like that! 

She truly didn’t mean to be a bother, but her stomach had started to grumble half an hour ago, and she dreamed of the hot shower she’d take after, which she couldn’t possibly take if she wasn’t certain she’d have something to sleep in comfortably. 

When a couple of minutes had passed and there was still no trace of Mr. Styles, she wondered whether he was even home. Her mind lingered just a second on the possibility that he was actually avoiding her, but YN was one of those people that always chose to see the good in others, so she got rid of the thought as quickly as it had come. 

She knocked on the door again, this time harder and firmer, and she waited patiently. She was almost about to give up, when the door opened before her with a swift movement that caught her off guard.

Mr. Styles looked displeased once he set his scrutinizing gaze on her figure, and YN could almost feel his eyes touch her. 

“What?” He asked, his brows furrowed on his forehead.

“I was just wondering if you knew a place where I could…like… it’s just that… I think you probably noticed, I don’t have my suitcases. And it’s honestly fine, the airport was packed so I don’t really blame them, and the hostess was so nice! She offered to refund me for the problem, but I didn’t want to go through all that… but now I really need my clothes so I don’t… ugh” she sighed frustratedly. YN tends to kind of talk really fast when she’s nervous. She’s always been like that, especially in front of boys, and her ex boyfriend always used to get mad at her for that — said it was embarrassing and made her look dumb; she’d tried many times to explain it wasn’t something she could control easily, but he’d suggested she’d fix it fast (especially if she wanted to meet his friends).

“Sorry” she exhaled, closing her blabbering mouth in a straight line. 

Harry waited for her to continue what she was saying, his face stoic and impossible to read, which didn’t help soothe her nerves. 

“Is there a place where I can get some clothes?”

“You moved across the country without clothes?” He asked, his brows closed in a furrow across his face that made YN even more nervous. She felt dumb. She wanted to explain what had happened without sounding silly.

“Ughhh, nooo. They kept my bag at check-in, so I don’t actually have any clothes, apart from these” she pointed towards her flimsy cotton sweatshirt that was definitely inappropriate for the cold weather. 

YN tried not to pay too much mind to the grimace of what seemed like disgust when Mr. Styles looked at her clothes, and she shifted uncomfortably on her feet while she waited for his response. 

“It’s almost six in the evening. Everything’s closed.” 

YN felt her heart fall into her stomach as her brain registered the words that came out of his mouth. 

Six. In the evening. 

Everything. Closed. 

“What?” 

Harry rolled his eyes at her surprise, “everything closes at five here. You didn’t know?”

YN felt hopeless because how could she have known! She’d literally been on a plane for ten hours! 

She looked at Mr. Styles with her big, widened eyes, and Harry didn’t have to wait for her to say it to know the answer.

YN felt like crying, right there in front of this man she didn’t even know the full name of. Her boyfriend had been right when he’d call her dumb. Because she was dumb. Who moves across the country this unorganized? 

“Look, I really need to go right now.” Mr. Styles broke the tense silence that had fallen upon them, and he watched as she nodded her head slowly, seeming lost in thought. 

“Okay.” She muttered, and it felt weird seeing her so quiet, but honestly, it wasn’t Harry’s problem. Her douchebag of a boss should’ve warn her, or at least she could’ve researched a bit on the place she was moving to!

He cleared his throat and YN woke up from her trance, she swiftly moved to the side to let him out. Harry closed the door behind him and locked it with his keys. 

He shivered as a gust of cold wind fell upon them, and he watched with the corner of his eye how YN tried to squeeze herself in the flimsy sweatshirt she was wearing. Ha. She didn’t even look up the weather first!

He kind of felt bad for her, in a remote part of himself, but he also judged her for her carelessness.

“Bye” she waved gently from beside him, and he nodded towards her in a form of greeting. 

He pretended to busy himself with his phone, not feeling like talking to her anymore, but when she started walking towards her own house, he looked up in her direction, his eyes on her back. 

Her shoulders were sagged and she displayed a very different demeanor than she did this morning. Harry shook the feeling of her sadness from his gut and walked towards his gate, ready to meet his friends.

. . .

YN was hungry. And she felt gross. And the combination wasn’t the best. 

She wanted to shower and lay down on her bed, that looked extremely comfortable and clean, but she was still wearing her airport clothes, and there was no way in hell she’d sleep in those.

She debated whether she could sleep naked, but it was way too cold for that, and she had work in the morning, so she didn’t want to call in sick her first day. 

She was hopeless.

For a minute, she was so hungry that she contemplated eating some of Baguette’s food, but then she felt so disgusted by the idea she felt like throwing up, so she decided it was probably better not to. She couldn’t afford to throw up the only meal she’d had all day. So, she waited. 

Her original plan was to stay up until 5 in the morning, go buy some pajamas and then nap for an hour until she had to wake up at 7.

But the combination of starvation and exhaustion didn’t really go well, because she was so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She wondered for a moment if the ground was comfortable, and just as she was about to lay down and test it, she heard a knock on her door she almost believed she’d imagined at first.

She walked slowly to the door, her brows furrowed, and when she opened the door, she swears to god she was about to pass out. 

At her feet lay a tray with takeout boxes, she couldn’t see what was inside them, but she figured anything was better than eating Baguette’s food. Next to the tray was a grocery store bag, closed with the handles tied in a knot, and she picked it up curiously. 

She bent down to pick up the tray and she closed the door behind her with her foot. 

She opened the yellow grocery bag first, and she still remembers the sigh of relief she let out as she saw what was inside: a clean long sleeve t-shirt and a pair of blue plaid pajama pants. She could smell the sweet and clean smell of the fabric softener, and she inhaled the scent in deeply.

She put aside the clothes and opened the take out boxes, eager to eat something. She grabbed a fork from the pantry and opened the first box, which contained what seemed to be a homemade meal, some kind of pasta with tomato sauce and meat. She scooped up a big bite and she felt better already, her brain finally being fueled after a really tiring day. 

. . . 

When she lay in bed that night, fresh off the shower and her tummy full with the best pasta she’d ever eaten, she cuddled with Baguette next to her and her mind wandered off to Mr. Styles. Maybe, she hadn’t really bothered him that much after all.

. . . 

Harry hates people. And, therefore, he hates places full of people. Especially supermarkets. He hates supermarkets. 

All those people in line, carts crushing into each others because of the carelessness of their owners, the annoying, commercial music coming from the speakers insinuating itself into his ears, the loud echo of voices commuting in one big buzz. 

He hates supermarkets and most especially waiting in line. The self-check out was the best addiction to the small town’s supermarket, and ever since he’d found out how to scan his items by himself, he’d never, not once, gone back to the served check out. Apart from today, that is. Because the other registers appeared to be broken, and they couldn’t have picked a worse day to be, in his opinion. Rush hour, in a small town, is around 4 in the afternoon, and Harry knew that, and he had always tried to avoid the supermarket at that hour, but Niall had called, and he needed  some kind of special sausage they only had at that particular supermarket, and when Harry had groaned, he’d swat at his arm playfully and he’d said: “you should thank god I feed you!”, and that was true in all its entireness, so Harry couldn’t really find it in him to argue with that. So, that’s what he was doing, at 4 in the afternoon, rush hour, holding a pack of a dozen sausages because his friend needed it.  

He was lost in his thoughts when he heard her. That sweet voice that had taunted him the night before, so much he had asked Niall for some of the pasta he’d prepared “in case he got hungry later”, of course, that wasn’t entirely the reason. The reason being the cute and annoying girl standing in line a person before him, and the thought of her starving and with nothing but a cotton sweatshirt to shield her from the inevitable cold of the night. 

“I’m so sorry it’s taking me so long,” he heard her say, as she let out a nervous chuckle through her mouth, “I just can’t find my card”. 

“Only cash with this register, lady. There’s a sign right there” the cashier pointed towards the sign and YN felt herself get red with embarrassment. Eager to get it over with, she had run to the first opened register she could find, not paying much attention to her surrounding, which, she then realized, she probably should’ve.

“I just flew in last night, I still haven’t got time to…” she shook her head as she realized the cashier didn’t care. Of course she didn’t. Once again, she felt silly and alone. 

“Okay” she whispered to herself, “i’ll just leave it all here and come back later?” 

Harry, that was standing in line just a person from her, had listened to the exchanged quite attentively, and he’d rolled his eyes at her.

He cleared his throat and she snapped her head in his direction, and he didn’t miss the way her cheeks had turned pink once she’d recognized him. 

“I’ll pay for her things” he offered, and the person in front of him, a middle aged man, breathed out a sigh of relief and whispered a “thank god” that YN didn’t miss. She smiled apologetically at the man, who didn’t even as much as throw a glance at her, and she watched as he stepped to the side to let Harry pass before him.

YN started packing her bags and she refused to look at Mr. Styles as he paid for her groceries and his own, too embarrassed to acknowledge the encounter that had just happened. 

When he passed her, he grabbed one bag from the floor and started walking towards the exit of the supermarket, and YN watched as his bicep flexed under the weight of the bag. 

She hurried to pick up his pace, and once she found herself walking at his side, she opened her mouth to thank him: “thank you so much, Mr. Styles. I genuinely didn’t know, otherwise I never would’ve chosen that register! The sign was just so small and I never pay attention to my surroundings so it was an honest mistake, I swear!” 

Harry rolled his eyes for what seemed like the millionth time, “will yeh stop calling me Mr. Styles? ’s not like I’m bloody fifty years old!” 

“Sorry” YN blushed embarrassed, as she tried to walk quickly beside him. His legs were very much longer than hers, and he walked pretty fast despite the added weight of the groceries.

“What should I call you?” 

“Harry.” He groaned, rolling his eyes. 

“Ok. Harry.” She said, nodding her head, liking the way his name sounded rolling off her tongue. “I will send you the money right away, I’m so sorry you had to do that for me” 

“’s fine. Don’ worry ‘bout it.” 

YN cleared her throat and nodded, looking down at her shoes as she kept walking beside him. Every once in a while, she would lose her balance due to the weight on her hands, and her arm would brush against his, the contact not going unnoticed by her. She wondered if he noticed too and if he cared, she knew he probably didn’t, but it was nice.

“Oh!” She remembered as they walked their way back to his house, “thank you for the food, too. And of course the clothes!!! You didn’t have to, but thank you. I was so hungry you have no idea. And the food was so so so good! Did you make it?”

“No.” He answered briefly. 

“Well… it was really yummy. I’ll have to meet the chef!” She joked, and because she felt her arm get tired, she switched the bag to her other hand, trying to balance the weight, “are they from around here?”

“Yes.” 

YN nodded understandably, “You know, I was a little scared to come here because I’d be all alone. Well, not entirely alone because I have Baguette, but… I’m so happy you’re my neighbor! You’re so nice” 

Harry snorted through his nose at her words, “tha’s a first”, but YN, even if she heard him, didn’t say anything. 

When they finally reached the house, Harry walked her to the door and placed the bag on the ground, massaging his arm that had gone a little bit sore. 

“Thank you” she repeated, smiling warmly at him. 

Harry shrugged and was about to turn around, when he heard her say “wait! Do you want to see Baguette?” 

. . . 

Harry left her house about half an hour later, incredibly late and with his phone blowing up from Niall’s calls. 

He had looked around quickly once he’d walked inside, and he noticed some of her belongings scattered around the living room, some pillows that he didn’t recognize as his own lying on the couch. He wondered for a brief second what her room looked like, not regarding the furniture (that he had picked a long time ago with his mother), but what it looked like with her living in it. Did she change the sheets or did she keep the ones he chose? Was it tidy or messy? Did she sleep with Baguette? 

It was weird to him, thinking this way about her, because never would he have thought of her as more than an annoying girl. But, he could admit she was kind of cute. Annoying, but definitely cute. 

He had played with Baguette while YN put away the groceries, and they didn’t talk much because he didn’t feel like talking. He’d never given much confidence to people he didn’t know, and, despite YN calling him ‘nice’, he didn’t really know much about her.

He had excused himself after about twenty minutes of playing with Baguette, and after a quick rub on the dog’s belly, he left her house without muttering more than a ‘bye’.

He didn’t care if he came off as rude, he’d always been that way, and he certainly wasn’t about to change for this girl he met just the day before!

. . . 

YN loved her work. 

Since she was little, she’d always loved wild animals, and she’d dreamed one day of doing the job she’s supposed to do now: gather sources about this rare bear that had been sighted and write a report about it to send to Dante. If the report was good, she’d be published on Dante’s scientific magazine, which was a great opportunity for YN to get her name out there and be regarded in the scientific community. 

All this was, honestly, easier said than done, because since the moment she stepped foot inside her new office, she received nothing but glares from her coworkers. Apparently, everyone was gutted about Anais’ replacement, and she tried really hard to be kind and explain that “no, Anais isn’t coming! But it’s a beautiful thing because she’s pregnant!!!! Dante sent me, I’m no Anais but I can try”, but, despite her big efforts, she was met with the indifference of the others. 

She thought once on the field, the interviews would’ve gone a little better, because she was nice and she figured people loved nice, but as soon as she tried to talk to someone about this sighting, they recognized her immediately as a non-local (which apparently was a big deal) and refused to talk to her, feigning ignorance at her questions. 

She felt defeated. And she started questioning for a bit whether moving to this small town was even a good idea in the first place.

Of course, she’d escaped from her ex and from the possibility of ever meeting him again, but was it worth it? In that moment, she couldn’t say.

When she returned to her office that Thursday afternoon, she tried to gather the little information she had gotten, but it wasn’t even close enough to write the introduction!, so she closed her laptop with a heavy sigh, full of her disappointment, and she promised the day after she’d do better. 

The day after, YN decided to do what she did best back at her previous job, figuring maybe that the excessive responsibility had influenced her work. She decided she’d take a walk on the reserve and try and gather as many sources from the territory she could. 

The bear had been spotted inside a terrain one hour down a three hour long pathway, which, for a wildlife animal, was pretty dangerous. She couldn’t even imagine what would happen if someone stumbled across the bear, and she truly feared for the animal’s life, knowing all too well human’s cruel nature. 

The walk was tough, and the muscles in her legs were burning with fatigue. After about forty minutes of walking, she decided she’d stop at the first refuge she’d find, drink a little water and maybe even grab something hot to drink to warm up her freezing hands. 

She spotted a cabin after a couple of miles, and she felt her heart jump happily in her chest at the thought of finally resting for a bit. She tossed her backpack into the ground and put away the little journal and pen she’d kept in handy to scribble down things she observed along the pathway. 

Once inside the small cabin/cafe, she immediately felt her insides warming up. Everything was made out of wood, including the ceiling, and she observed how every chair had cute, fluffy blankets draped across the backrest. 

The place was just what she needed after a really long and tiring walk, and she regarded with contentment how she was the only customer. 

“Hello!” A shrilling voice called behind her, and she jumped in her place a little at the sound. She turned around immediately and she smiled at a blonde guy that was standing behind the counter. He was tying a blue apron behind his back and once he’d secured it, he cleaned his hands on its front, smiling warmly at her once their eyes met. 

“Hi” she said, shyly, “could I get some hot cocoa, please?” 

“Yes! Of course!!” He beamed, and YN wondered if she was maybe the first customer of the day or if he acted this way towards everyone that came in. 

“Here or to go?” 

“Here, thank you.” 

“Okay! Just take a seat and I’ll bring it to you in a moment”.

YN nodded her head at his words and took place at a small table near a big window that overlooked the entire valley. 

She’d been to the mountains just once with her family when she was very little, but she’d always dreamt of living in a slow-paced, small town, as opposed to the big city she left behind. 

She loved the green and the sun shining high in the sky warming her skin, and she loved drinking hot drinks in spring. She wasn’t really a fan of the snow, though, that had always seemed to scare her, and she was happy she had both spring and summer to get through before the winter, and she figured she’d probably be accustomed to the place once it’d start snowing, so she decided not to worry too much about that now.

She fished out of her backpack her journal and started reading through her notes to see if there was something remotely good to start with.

 unusual path for a bear 

 too many houses in proximity of the sighting

 not much food can be found on the trail 

    (…)

She figured it was not much but a start nonetheless. 

She was so engrossed by her notes she didn’t even hear the nice blonde guy approaching her, so when he placed the cup in front of her she jumped a little in her place.

“Woah, easy there! Yeh’re a jumpy thing, aren’t ya?” He giggled, pushing the cup in front of her as soon as she cast aside the journal.

She blushed immediately at his words, “sorry” she muttered. 

“’S fine, didn’t mean to embarrass you”

She threw him a quick smile before glancing down at her hot chocolate, and she noticed happily that he had topped it with a big amount of whipped cream. 

“Wait!” He chimed before she could take a sip of her drink, “forgot something.”

He ran back towards the kitchen and came out as quick as he went, holding a small, ceramic, plate in his hands. 

He put it on the table in front of YN and smiled warmly at her, “Freshly made ginger biscuits!” 

YN felt like crying. 

This was the first time someone was so nice to her, and after the fiasco she went through with her interviews, she really could use someone that at least acknowledged her. 

Of course, Harry had been nice, too, but in the days that had come, she’d seen less and less of him, and she’d started to wonder whether he was actually avoiding her. 

“This is so good!!! Thank you” she beamed, finally feeling relaxed after what seemed like a long time but was actually just less than a week.

“Do you want to sit? If you’re not… busy?” She gestured to the empty seat in front of her and watched as he sat immediately in the chair, placing his elbows on the table.

“Usually there’s more people around but… you know, ’s rush hour, so…” 

YN threw a glance at the clock on the wall, that ticked 3.58 pm. “Rush hour?” She asked, curiously. 

“Oh! Yeah. I don’t where you’re from, but here, rush hour is at around 4 because everything closes at 5.30” he shrugged, stealing a cookie from the plate on the table between them.

YN nodded and took a sip from her drink, “shouldn’t there be more people if it’s rush hour?”

He furrowed his brows and cleaned his mouth from the cookie’s crumbles with the back of his hand, “no”.

YN nodded understandingly once again, even if she didn’t truly understand his thought process. She figured in small towns people lived differently. 

“Are yeh here on vacation?” He asked her and she tried not to feel too disappointed that he understood right away that she wasn’t a local. 

“No” she shook her head, “I moved here last Monday. I’m here for that bear sighting” 

“Oh” she noticed his eyes widened, “nasty stuff that was! I hope that bear ’s long gone by now!” 

She frowned at his words; she really would have liked seeing a real-life bear.

She chatted with him — she’d found out his name was Niall — for what felt like minutes but was actually an hour, and once she’d realized how late it had gotten, the sky had turned dark and gloomy, and she’d hurriedly collected her things and payed for her order, saying bye to Niall with the promise of coming more often. The clock ticked 5.13 pm and she figured it wouldn’t really be that dangerous to walk back home. It wasn’t late in the night, and despite the dark sky, it was still mid afternoon. So, after saying goodbye to Niall, she threw her backpack across her shoulder and started walking back. 

Five minutes in her walk and she was already feeling uneasy. She hadn’t noticed at first but on the pathway there weren’t any lights, so she couldn’t see more than her own two feet; any little shadow or sound seemed to scare her, and it took her a lot of convincing to not just go back and ask Niall to take her home. The option had seemed tempting, but what could he really do? Close the cafe just because she was scared of the dark? and, despite talking his ear off all afternoon, who even was he? YN had a reputation for being easy going and able to make friends with pretty much everyone, but time had taught her that not everyone wanted to actually be her friend. 

That thought made her think about Harry, and how she hadn’t seen him in almost five days. After he had played with Baguette in her home, she thought she had found if not a friend at least someone to hang out with, now that she was in a new place completely alone, but maybe, she’d figured, it was Harry that didn’t want to hang out with her. He had seemed pretty grumpy, but she’d seen through his facade pretty quickly, and she had thought he was actually nice. Now, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was just a one time thing.   

She clutched the strap of her backpack extra tight as soon as she heard the sound of a car behind her, the headlights of the car illuminating her and the path before her. She shivered as the sudden thought of being alone on a street with no way of escaping came to her mind, and she picked up her pace to walk quicker. Beside her fear, there was also the question on how could someone drive in this particular pathway that, as she knew, was actually closed to cars. 

She was wondering if the driver had some kind of permit, when the car — that actually seemed more like a pick up — stopped beside her. She unintentionally turned her head to look inside, and before she could say anything to the guy inside, he beat her to it: “what the hell are yeh doin’ here alone?” 

She looked at Harry with wide eyes, her face half hidden behind the darkness of the sky, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized it was him and not someone who wanted to hurt her. 

“I lost track of time” she said shyly, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously. 

“Get in.” He ordered, and she saw him unlock the car doors with a button on the steering wheel. 

“No, it’s okay! I can just walk, it’s not that far…” 

“Get in!” He stressed, but, “please” he added, once he realized his tone may have come out a little too sternly. 

“Okay” she whispered, wrapping her fingers around the handle of the car door and opening it. She threw her backpack on the car mat at the end of the seat and placed a hand on the car door to balance herself. The pick up was a little tall, so she had to literally climb inside the truck with her legs. She hoped she didn’t make too much of a fool out of herself. 

He grabbed her arm to help her, and once she was settled in the seat, he let it go quickly, almost as if he was uncomfortable with touching her. 

He didn’t say anything for a while, but YN noticed how he turned on the heat as soon as he saw her hugging herself against the cold. 

The pickup was big, but she could still smell his perfume — or cologne? She didn’t know — lingering in the air. 

YN stayed silent, not wanting to bother him, although it proved to be kind of difficult for her, because she wanted to ask him a lot of things. 

She remembers thinking he was mad at her. She still doesn’t know why, and why in the world could he possibly be mad at her, but, still. Aaron used to get angry over the most silliest things, so she figured every guy was the same. 

She almost caught herself asking him, but she remembered pretty quickly Aaron’s words: “not everyone wants to be your friend”.

She still had a little trouble understanding that. 

She heard Harry clear his throat, and she wondered if he was about to talk, so she patiently waited. He didn’t. He seemed antsy, and YN noticed how tightly he was gripping the wheel, so, she decided to ease the tension between them with the thing she did best: asking questions. 

“How are you allowed to drive here? Do you have some kind of permit? Because I researched the territory for my article and it strictly said ‘no cars allowed, must be on foot’, sooo… how can you? Are you some kind of… I don’t know — she shrugged, pouting her lips thoughtfully — are you some kind of boss, around here? That’s why people cook for you?”

Harry closed his brows in a furrow and brought his left hand up to massage his temple, “no” he simply said. 

“What does ‘no’ mean?” 

“It means no.” He said matter of factly. 

“Ugghh — she huffed — I know what ‘no’ means! I was asking figuratively. Are you always this grumpy?” 

“Thought yeh said I was nice” he grinned, a dimple denting his cheek. 

“Forget it” she mumbled, turning her head to look outside the window; there wasn’t much to see, with all the darkness, but anything was better than looking at him. 

“I’m not ‘some kind of boss’” he mocked her amused, glancing at her quickly before averting his gaze back on the road, “I own the terrain, so I can do whatever I want on it”.

YN turned her head to look back at him, wondering if he was making fun of her or if he was actually serious. He seemed serious. 

“You own it?” 

“Yeah” he nodded, amused by her reaction. 

“I can’t believe it”

“Why?” 

“This was were the bear was spotted! I could have asked you all along instead of interviewing people who closed the door in my face!” She pouted, crossing her arms in front of her chest. 

“They really closed the door in your face?” He asked, furrowing his brows, the smirk disappearing from his face quickly and his lips closing in a tight line. 

“Yeah” she huffed, “but it’s okay. I mean… I get it if they don’t want to talk to me but… I really need to do my job! I really wouldn’t bother them if it wasn’t necessary”

“They closed the door in your face. It’s not okay.” He said sternly, back to his old grumpy self, “who did you talk to?”

“Oh… that woman that lives in the first house right after the cafe. Wait. Do you know the cafe?”

Harry snickered at her question, “yeah, I heard of it”.

“Just her?” He added. 

“No” she shook her head, “I talked to Mr. Donovan too. I remember his name because Matt Donovan is a character in one of my favorite series! So… pretty easy to remember. He was actually nice before I told him I was writing an article for a magazine. He closed the door without even saying bye” she shrugged.

“That’s not okay” he repeated. 

“Well, it’s no problem at all now!!!! Because I can just ask you” she beamed, clapping her hands excitedly. 

“No. I wasn’t here that weekend” 

“What?” She asked, looking at him with big eyes. 

Harry refrained himself from laughing. “Yeah.” He nodded, “i wasn’t here. Sorry” 

“Great.” She groaned, tossing her arms in the air, her enthusiasm quickly dissolving. 

She heard him laugh through his nose, “i’m taking the piss out of yeh. I was here”

“Oh thank god!” she sighed relieved, finally seeing some ray of sunshine coming her way, “you’re cruel! don’t ever do that again!” She pointed her finger at his face and then swatted his arm when she heard him chuckle. 

thank you for reading!!!! i love you all, let me know if you'd like part 2 and what you want to see happen 💖

[plumesofio]

“Tme/tma is wrong because no trans person has gendered power over another” that’s just straight up not true. I’m trans and yet sure as shit have power over transw&fs. If wym is that other trans ppl don’t inherently all have power over tw&fs I get what ur saying, that’s an overly simplified view of things. But like. Some do and I get why tw&fs wanna talk abt it.

During my first job out as trans, I was still early in transition and most ppl just saw me as a kinda ugly cis girl. I’d cut my hair shortish and started dressing masc and wore my little he/they pin. I was the only trans person there at first. And yeah it wasn’t a great time that first year. Customers at my job would ask me what I was and misgender me on purpose. But with my coworkers, as much as I chafed against this being the case, I was taken in as one of the girls. Later a new supervisor transferred in, let’s call her Laura. She was a cishet white woman with a little pride flag pin, ‘cause she had a gay kid and allegedly supported gay ppl. She got my pronouns wrong a lot, no matter how often I corrected her (and when she used em she only used they, never he) and that sucked major ass. But for the most part she was nice enough to me. A bit after that though, a visibly trans woman was hired, Destiny. We quickly became friends so I got to hear a lot about how the work environment was going for her. To put it briefly, Laura started up a little mean girl clique with other employees that was all awful to Destiny. Like misgendering her, insulting her, giving her all the worst manual labor tasks, spreading rumors. Destiny is one of the kindest most genuine human beings on the planet I’ll have you know, she didn’t do a thing to deserve this treatment. It came to management’s attention but instead of firing Laura she just got transferred to a better position somewhere else. Even outside of that, customers would call in to complain about Destiny over nothing while misgendering her. Eventually she even got hate crimed when a customer called her a slur and threw a full drink at her. Neither of us work there anymore. But the point is—I could’ve joined that mean girl clique if I’d wanted to. I had the ability to be horrible to Destiny with little to no downside if I so chose. I had oodles of social power over her even though we were both trans. This isn’t the situation of every transmasculine person but like. There, in that store, I was the tme, and she was the tma. Plain as day.

I doubt the tme/tma framework will be used in its current state forever, it’ll probably improve over time. But if you want every trans woman and fem to just Accept that no trans person has any power over them? You have a lot of perspective to gain.

[redbullcateringfiction]

Chapter 7 -

Cantata

Arabella is the executive assistant for Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff. 10 years into her career, it looks like the tide is changing, and she's beginning to question her relationship with him. Is it something more, or nothing but an idea lingering in her head?

F/M, Fluff, Boss/Employee Relationship, Romance, Pining, Love, Slow Burn

Seventh chapter below the cut or click here for AO3

Click here for the previous chapter on Tumblr, and click here for a list of all chapters

(Total: 30502 words thus far)

Sorry about how long this chapter took. I am, in fact, getting a literal PhD. So sometimes I have to focus on that and not Toto Wolff, although it is really hard. There's a joke somewhere in there about fanfic authors. Feel free to make it.

~redbullcateringfiction

“So…how was dinner with Toto?” Bono asked. 

“How did you know about that?” I shot him a glance.

“You do know that you’re in a hotel filled with your coworkers, right?” He responded. Fair enough.

“Well…it was nice,” I shrugged. 

“That’s good, that’s good. Hey,” He said softly, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me in. This was never good. Bono only ever pulled me in for a whisper when he was about to tell me something very, very bad. The list of previous times was short.

The engineering supervisor had just fired the craziest person on the team. It’s good to be a little crazy in Formula 1, but Gino had taken it 5 steps too far, and was lucky to have not gotten hit by a car. Anyway, the engineering team desperately needed me to distract the media and coordinate his removal with security in such a way that no one would happen to notice the short Italian man being dragged out by his ear.

My mom collapsed during a race. Turned out to just be heat exhaustion.

In most recent memory, Lewis has COVID. I had just spent a few hours with him and Toto, in close proximity. 

Bono had a talent for lowering his head in such a way that no one could possibly hear what he was about to whisper to you, and this was no different. “Look yourself up,” He whispered, while simultaneously gently letting go of me. This could not be good. At the same time, my phone buzzed with Jeffrey’s contact popping up for a phone call. This has to be bad. There is no alternative. 

I declined his call, and immediately went to Safari as Bono looked over my shoulder. 

“Who was that?” Bono asked.

“My lawyer.”

“Your lawyer? You have a lawyer?” He asked, with such a sudden expression of shock.

“More a friend who’s a contracted lawyer. A lawyer friend. Who I have a contract with. A friend who is a lawyer who I have a contract with,” I explained.

“You said ‘contract’ so much I’m starting to think it’s some sort of freaky 50 Shades thing.”

“Jesus, Bono,” I complained. 

“You have to admit you made it sound like that.”

“Fair,” I groaned, finally typing my name into the search bar.

Trending ~ 1 minute ago - It’s not silly season, right? How is there F1 drama already? with a picture of Cathal and me from years ago.

Trending ~ 1 minute ago - Why is Cathal Lynch obsessed with his ex-girlfriend? Cathal Lynch appears in… 

Trending ~ 1 minute ago - Cathal Lynch shows for Pre-Season Testing wearing Red Bull shirt 

“Jesus, you gave me a scare. That’s not that bad. He’s just being weird again,” I sighed, turning to Bono. My heart rate started to slow down. Bono raised his eyebrow. 

“And yet…you’ve clicked on none of them,” Bono sighed. “Keep scrolling.”

I did as he said. Suddenly more recent articles pop up. 

2 minutes ago - Four Odd Bottles releases new song, “Bitch”, moments after Cathal Lynch spotted in Bahrain  

4 minutes ago - It’s time to cancel Cathal Lynch: “Bitch” is a retelling of Radiohead’s “Creep”…and somehow creepier  

8 minutes ago - Was Arabella a “Bitch?” A lookback at Cathabella 

10 minutes ago - “Bitch,” please. How Arabella Lazaar used Cathal Lynch to make her seem more integral to Mercedes than she really ever was 

23 minutes ago - “Bitch,” is a great song. Sorry, not sorry.  

45 minutes ago - Is “Bitch” that bad? The conversation on new Four Odd Bottles song takes over Twitter. 

48 minutes ago - Expletive-filled song by Four Odd Bottles is the newest crazy ass song from a fucking creep  

“Oh…oh no,” I sighed. 

“Listen, I wasn’t going to not tell you,” Bono explained, grabbing me by the shoulders again. “Here’s the thing. And listen to me carefully. This is about Cathal. Not you. Public Relations is about to call Toto and ask that he puts forward a request to have him banned, even if temporarily. I had them wait until the two of you got back. Are you still listening?”

I was, but I couldn’t blame him for asking. I knew my eyes had glazed over. “Yeah, yeah. PR. Banning. All that.”

“Okay. Arabella, this guy is a fucking creep. But we’re going to fix this,” Bono explained.

“No, no. I will,” I sighed.

“No, no. You will not touch this. Yes, it's almost entirely your job, but this is the time you pass off a responsibility to someone else. And you will absolutely not listen to that song. Do you understand? Do not listen to it. It’s fucking weird,” Bono pushed his hair back.

“I imagine it is. I also get the sneaking suspicion I should listen to it,” I explained. “I can’t understand what’s going on without it.”

“Arabella, all you need to know that’s going on with it is that your ex-boyfriend is still writing songs about you, but this one is just plainly mean and weird. And he used you as a publicity stunt for it. Like, c’mon. That’s what you need to know about it.”

“Arabella, come over here for a second,” Toto called, suddenly appearing in the hallway behind me. Shit. I stepped towards him, and he grabbed my shoulder. That had now happened a bit too frequently in the past few minutes. I know this is a shit show. But this must be a real fucking shit show.��“I’m sure you already know about it. After all, no one can really seem to keep their mouths shut. Anyway, I’m about to call the FIA. This is the first time something like this has happened, so don’t hold your breath. Hopefully though, they’ll seek to make an example out of this kind of behavior. Regardless of how messy this is for you , no team should be dealing with shit like this. Bono!” Toto suddenly called out.

“Yeah, yeah?” Bono asked, nearly running over. 

“Who invited the little…Lynch? Who invited Lynch? Do you know?”

“I’ve asked around. Don’t think he was invited by anyone,” Bono shrugged.

“Oh, good. I was worried someone had invited him. Since he just showed up with a paddock pass, this is a different situation. Alright, I’m about to make the call. Arabella, I know it’s difficult, but I need your complete focus, alright? 100%. This is no one’s problem, except his. Thankfully, this has to be a violation of something. Yeah, celebrities are publicity stunts in and of themselves, but usually they’re invited.”

“I’m just going to head off to Lewis’s team meeting while you make the call, okay?” I offered.

“Of course you will. Schatzi, you’re brilliant. This is why you’ve been doing this for so long. Only you could handle this,” Toto smiled. He patted me on my back and walked off, immediately hopping on the phone. 

“Alright then, let’s go,” Bono answered, guiding me to the meeting room. As soon as we walked in, all of Lewis’s team quickly set down their phones and looked at me with horrified looks.

“If I can keep my mouth shut about this, everyone else can, alright?” I nodded. “Toto will be in here in not 5 minutes. If we aren’t talking strategy when he comes in, he’ll keep us here all night.”

~

“Okay everyone. Goodnight. See you all in the morning. Bright and early,” I waved goodbye to Aero. I looked at my watch. 9:35pm. We had really pulled it off with plenty of time for many people to get a full night of sleep. Except the engineers, but that was by choice. Many of them would be practically foaming at the mouth at the gate wanting to run in and get to work on the car. All night they would discuss different strategies to turn everything into a well oiled machine. For many of them, the driver is just driving their good work. Yes, a good driver makes all the difference, but to them it's their car.

“Arabella,” Toto called after me. I had gone into autopilot and started walking towards the elevator without a thought to whether Toto needed anything from me. I turned around with my hands up.

“Sorry, sorry. What’s up?” I asked, approaching him. 

“You’re absolutely brilliant,” He said, opening his arms and giving me a great hug. First kiss, second kiss. Each cheek, just a brief touch. “Just absolutely brilliant. No one but you, yeah? No one but you. Okay, I have good news.”

I looked up at him as he finally let go. “Yeah, and what’s that?”

“He won’t be let in the gates tomorrow. Or all weekend. Or all season. Temporary ban for the season. Turns out it's a violation of some rule to use a paddock appearance for personal gain when it’s not written into your contract. Since he wasn’t invited, the contract was pretty explicit in not allowing that,” Toto explained. “Bad news is when he gets turned away at the gates tomorrow, I expect the press will be all over that. But it’s not too bad. The FIA won’t name you or the team as the cause or anything. Just plain breach of etiquette. I can only imagine what ridiculous thing that psycho will say about it though.”

“Thank you. Really, thank you,” I answered. “Did PR have any notes for me?”

“They’re hands off of you if I’m honest. Main concern is the look for the team. Even had to call Red Bull’s PR since he tried to make it seem like they invited him. I recommend you take a look at the new news if you want a laugh about it. Crazily enough, I was the 2nd call to the FIA. Red Bull had already called them about it to get him banned because of the implications,” Toto laughed. Yeah…I have to admit. It’s kind of funny when you think about it. I laughed with him.

“So…I can do what I want when it comes to it?” I asked. 

“I know you very well, and I imagine the worst thing you could manage to do would be good for the team. So, yes. Whatever you want. I trust you more than them,” Toto smiled. 

“Well, let me think about it, yeah? I’ll let you know before I go through with it,” I explained.

“Don’t bother. Like I said, I trust you.”

I gave him a look with a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, well now I’m concerned. What is that supposed to mean?” He asked with a slight giggle.

“Speaking about it at all? Is that fine?” I asked.

“I had no idea what you were about to say. Don’t mess with me like that, Arabella! Yes, of course, speaking about it is fine. Just nothing stupid, obviously.”

I nodded. “Well…I ought to be off to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I shrugged. 

“Oh, of course. Goodnight,” Toto nodded, as I wandered towards the elevator. As I arrived in my room, I stared at my phone. My mind begged me to check to see the updated news. Afterall, who could resist reading the various essays that weren’t really about themselves, but were instead about their ex-boyfriend talking about them. We had dated for some time, but not nearly long enough for Cathal to still be this pissed off about it. In fact, I had started to doubt whether he really still cared, or was just using a shitty microcelebrity like myself to constantly relaunch himself into fame. All the songs he had written about me when we were together were just crappy love songs, but they had so many little suggestions as to who the woman (or women) might be, that the fans and media couldn’t resist speculation. Since we have broken up and he has yet to find another muse as satisfactory, instead he just keeps milking a years-old break up. 

It would be sad if it weren’t so frustrating. I never really quite liked the spotlight. Yes, I had been photographed with several celebrities, especially drivers and Toto, but there was always an understanding among the media that it was nothing more than business. Maybe a few F1 articles might mention me by name, but nothing quite like the sudden spur of attention I got when Cathal “accidentally” went public with our relationship. I tried to make it work after that. I had just spent 2 weeks being the face of a multi-year search for “the girl,” and then spending the next several months being the center of attention because I was a famous singer's partner. Not to mention, I also happened to be brushing shoulders with a world-champion driver and was the certified micromanager of a world-champion team principal. 

But after the breakup, nothing for Cathal changed. I guess things for me didn’t change either. I kept the same exact life going. Maybe he figured since I hadn’t really had some sort of breakdown, quit my job, and moved continents, that I hadn’t moved on, and he gave himself permission to keep going on and on. But I have changed. I have moved on. Cathal only remains relevant in my life because he forces himself to be. I can’t allow myself to give him what he wants by obsessing over the news articles. Nothing will change for now, at least until Cathal is turned around at the gates tomorrow morning.

Instead of torturing myself, I called Jeffrey back.

“What time is it there?” He answered instead of a hello. 

“Not even 10pm, calm down,” I explained.

“Well, have you seen the news?”

“Obviously, I’ve seen the news, Jeffrey.”

“Sorry, sorry then. Have you heard the song? It’s fucking amazing. He manages to sound like a misogynist, a lemon, and a weasel all at once,” Jeffrey laughed.

“No, Bono told me to avoid it.”

“Bono? Like, Peter Bonnington? You’re friends with Bono?” Jeffrey asked, sounding so very impassioned that it began to feel like he didn’t believe me. 

“Yes, Peter Bonnington. And yes we’re friends. He’s practically my work husband.”

“I thought your work husband was Toto,” Jeffrey cackled, evilly.

“Very funny. Listen, I called you back not to be your court jester. I called you back because I need your help.”

“Oh, you finally admit it, yeah?”

“Jeffrey. I will cut you out right now.”

“Alright, alright. You did sign a contract though.”

“Jeffrey!”

“Fine, Arabella. I’m listening.”

I took a deep breath. “I need to do something. This time Cathal took it too far,” I explained.

“You don’t even know how far though, Arabella. Not without listening to the song,” Jeffrey groaned. “Before you do anything, you need to understand the full scope.”

“I’m not listening to it.”

“Fine, don’t. Let me explain it to you at least.”

“No quotes.”

“No quotes, got it. Alright, get in your head for me the song Creep by Radiohead. It’s not quite a cover, probably to avoid any copyright issues with him writing a freakish song, but it’s similar enough for you to imagine. Then, he must say ‘bitch,’ 40 times. Basically, the whole argument in the lyrics is a woman who tries to appear incredibly nice but is trying to keep some sort of hidden motive under wraps. That motive? An obsession over a celebrity that she constantly stalks. But instead of her calling herself a bitch, it’s the celebrity calling her a bitch. The funniest part about all of it though, is that he is obsessing over you.”

“Is that quite as funny as you think it is?”

“Oh…yeah, I guess not. I guess…it’s just creepy.”

“No, it’s hilarious,” I laughed. “He just seems like an idiot, doesn’t he?”

“More like a stalker who completely misunderstood the appeal of Creep. Absolute nonsense.”

“Well, what do you think I should do about it?”

“Honestly, you could just write an extremely short tweet and it would probably destroy the European internet. This man competed in Eurovision with a song about you.”

“Yeah, and didn’t even qualify,” I mumbled. “Anyway, no. I want something serious.”

“Well, then, write a statement. I’ve got a friend at The Guardian. It’ll be published in 20 minutes.”

“You’re bullshitting me,” I replied, starting to mess with the skin on my fingers. An unfortunate hold over from my more anxious days. 

“Not at all. He’s an editor for the essays column. If you write it well, we can get it published. But I’d wait until the morning at least to see what happens when he comes through the paddock.”

“He won’t be coming through the paddock. FIA issued a temporary ban. He’ll be turned around at the gate,” I explained. I could hear Jeffrey tap his fingers, and I waited for his response.

“Write the essay tonight. Get it to me in the morning. Just remember, I’m 3 hours behind. You have to send it before 6am there, so I can make any necessary edits,” Jeffrey ordered me.

“Hold on, hold on! What do I even write about?” I asked. I picked my fingers faster.

“You know what to write about. Send me a cute headshot for the article too, and any pictures you might have of the two of you together,” Jeffrey continued.

“No, no I do not. I am an assistant, not a writer.”

“Oh hush. Give me everything, I’ll take out anything that needs to be gone.”

I took a deep breath. “Alright.”

“Alright, go on and write! Talk to you in the morning.” Jeffrey hung up. I sat staring at my phone for a few seconds before jumping up and grabbing my laptop. There was no time to hesitate. I sat my fingers on the keys and began to write. 

~

“I’ve got a surprise for you!” Cathal smiled, as he threw down an envelope onto the couch. 

“What is it?” I asked, barely looking up from my computer. He picked the envelope back up and placed it in my hands.

“Sundae, don’t touch my laptop,” I sighed, setting my computer off to the side. Sundae immediately began typing on it. I couldn’t shoo her away. It was too cute. I opened up the folder he gave me and there sat a whole bunch of pamphlets. 

“Uhhh,” I began filtering through them, just picking up on little details here and there.

“I booked us a resort in Morocco! We can visit your family!” Cathal cheered. I looked at him. I could feel my eyes nearly bulging out of my skull. I tried to tone down my expression, but my face was fighting my brain.

“So we can do what?” I asked. I couldn’t have possibly heard that right.

“Oh no. Did I mess up? To visit your family,” Cathal remarked, quickly sitting down next to me. This sent Sundae right to his lap. 

“No, no. You didn’t mess up. Not a mess up. Not one at all. I just wasn’t expecting it,” I smiled. 

“Oh, good. It's during the winter break. Ramadan is then, right?” Cathal asked. 

“Ramadan is in May this year,” I explained.

“I thought it was a winter holiday?” Cathal questioned. 

“It’s a Lunar calendar. It was in January in the 90s or something.”

“It can’t be a Lunar calendar. Don’t Jewish people have one too? Chanukkah is always around the same time.”

“They have leap months,” I explained. 

“Oh…sorry. Well, when will it be during the winter break again?” 

“Like…10 years or something?” 

“Well...hold on...actually, I don’t know if I can reschedule it out that far.”

“I actually think visiting during Ramadan would be the worst possible time considering I’m not religious,” I explained.

“Oh, then good!” Cathal smiled. Yeah. Awesome. I can’t wait. 

“This was really nice of you. I’m so excited to visit them.”

“Great! Yeah. Maybe we can make it an annual thing.”

“Let’s not. I mean…I’m just not close to them. I’m happy to visit my parents in the Netherlands, though.”

“I thought you were super close to them. You visited them every year, didn’t you?”

“As a kid I did. It’ll be good to see them though. Don’t worry. I’m really excited,” I beamed. 

“Good. Quit scaring me though. You’re making me worried I did something wrong.”

“Sorry.”

~

I kept writing, and starting over. I’d write the whole thing, and start it over again. There was no way I’d be happy with it though. Every edit and every change only made me more frustrated. I do know that it’s time I finally put this to rest. So as I desperately searched for the words to say that in a way that would make sense, I kept writing. I wasn’t thinking about what I was writing, just the words I wanted to use somewhere, at some point. By the time I looked down, I had it. 3am. A whole 3 hours early. I sent it over to Jeffrey. My phone buzzed just a few seconds later.

Jeffrey: I’m looking it over now. Passes the smell check though. Go to bed. 

No way he read it that fast. I stared at his text and started to think of a snarky reply to his order, but he was right. I didn’t have much time to get a lot of sleep. I would have to smush 8 or so hours into only 3. I shoved my face into the pillow, trying to force the sleep to come. Instead, I think I just suffocated myself until my brain was deprived of enough oxygen for me to be knocked out. 

It worked though. I woke up just 3 hours later, and rediscovered what I already knew. You cannot possibly smush 8 hours of sleep into 3. I decided to spend most of my morning routine trying to get rid of any signs of sleep deprivation on my face, and thought I did a pretty good job. I stepped out of my room and knocked on Toto’s door. 

“Coming,” I heard him call. He swung the door open, and there he stood in the process of buttoning up his shirt. 

“Oh, how did you sleep?” He asked, turning his head as he looked at me. 

“Shit, do I look tired?” I asked, trying to adjust my hair as best possible.

“It’s a common greeting in the morning, is it not? You look fine,” Toto smiled. He took his hand through his hair and stepped to grab his bag. I caught the door with my foot. “But you must be tired if you thought that was the implication, yeah?”

“I think I sort of…forced myself to go to sleep somehow. I don’t feel too tired though.”

“That’s a lie,” Toto smirked.

“Yeah, that was a lie,” I sighed.

“Alright. Let’s go. First day of the season. First day of the season!” Toto cheered.

Tag list: @daddyslittlevillain, @littleheaven

[impossibleclair]

so what is Lockwood about? asking you because you seem very excited about it and I love to hear explanations from people who are passionate about things

Oh my gosh anon you made my day with this! Thank you for asking!!

SO! Lockwood&Co. is a five-book series of YA novels written by Jonathan Stroud. They follow Lucy Carlyle and her friends Anthony Lockwood and George Cubbins (plus extended cast) as they run their independent ghost-hunting agency.

In this world, Britain has been beset by an epidemic of ghosts for the last 50 years. Called 'The Problem,' this epidemic has led to the government creating a branch to manage ghost-hunting activities (Department of Psychical Research and Control, or DEPRAC). DEPRAC, in turn, controls the various companies (agencies) who have made it their business to deal with hauntings throughout the country.

Agencies are run by adults, but are primarily made up of child and teenage operatives, as the ability to sense ghosts (psychic ability, called Talent) is only found in young people. Ex-agents, if they survive, usually become supervisors and manage teams of agents in the field.

A note: dealing with ghosts requires the use of iron, silver and salt, so agents carry rapiers to defend themselves, as well as iron chains, salt bombs, and magnesium flares (explosive, effective, and very good at setting things on fire).

The agency of Lockwood&Co, made up of the aforementioned protagonists, has no supervisors or adult employees. Anthony Lockwood runs the agency from the house inherited from his late parents.

The main trio get themselves into all kinds of trouble, have run-ins with ghosts, mercenaries, and the establishment, and generally have a wild time trying to make a name for themselves and keep their heads above water.

The characters are distinct and engaging and the world building is subtle but so detailed. Lucy is a strong-willed and exceptionally talented young woman, who matches wits with George in terms of snarkiness and is slightly more sensible than Lockwood when it comes to running headlong into danger. Lockwood is charisma itself but borders on self-destructive with his drive to prove himself. And George, smarter than both of them, not only entertains with his sharp wit but also keeps the other two grounded, especially in a crisis.

The ghosts are genuinely terrifying, even on the page, and each haunting has a distinct story and feel behind it. Every book features one BIG haunting that is guaranteed to scare you witless, and watching the characters face it is an absolute thrill.

The overarching story through the books follows a slow discovery of the nature of the Problem, as well as that of the mysterious ghost in the skull jar. It's a gripping mystery that starts slow and builds to a mind blowing climax.

In short, unruly teens hunt ghosts and flip off the establishment in the process. Swords are involved. Please read the books and watch the show when it comes out, it's a super fun time!

[syntia13treeman]

Case files 07.01

what I think happened in:

Case 07.01, the case of "Hilltop Hell 2.0" or "Charity Chill Shop of Horrors"

Things that are as clear as they can be: In A.D. 2012 Dianne Margolis started working as volunteer at Hilltop Centre branch of the Oxford People’s Trust (charity shop, I assume?). After the Centre's manager, Mr. Derek Chambers, died in 2015, one Mr. C. Clayton appointed Dianne a new manager and promptly left her to her own devices.

Left on her own, Dianne tried to find new volunteers to work in the Centre, and had bad luck of finding one. A young man of uncertain name, unknown origin and underwhelming qualifications showed up, claiming to know the Hilltop Centre better than anyone. For lack of better option, Dianne hired him. (Is it 'hiring', if it's volunteering? I don't know how this works).

At this point (mid November 2015) Dianne received what would be her last message from her direct supervisor, Mr. Clayton, before he apparently departed for a fully paid “personal development sabbatical” in the Seychelles.* The message read: "Chill, it's all good". :)

Volunteer Nr 1 brought to the table: positive attitude, good work ethics, complete lack of skills and a disturbing looking flower pot as a donation for the shop – you know, for a good cause! :)

He also brought a friend, Volunteer Nr 2.

Volunteer Nr 2 brought to the table: everything Nr 1 did, with a bearskin rug instead of a pot, and two (2!) new Volunteers.

Nr 3 and Nr 4 brought enthusiasm, cheer, and some unusual 'donations' of their own. And did I mention four (4!) new Volunteers? With four new uncanny object to donate, all for a good cause? Well, now I did.

This was getting out of hand! Now there were 8 of them!

And they would not heed any instruction Dianne issued, such as:

remove your creepy 'gifts' from the shop,

do NOT accept any additional questionable donations from unknown sources,

stop laughing at all hours,

stop repeating “It's all for a good cause!” like a mantra,

do not open the shop on your own, how did you even get the keys?

and for the love of god please stop multiplying!

The last one in particular was rejected with prejudice. While earlier influx of Volunteers was spaced out a bit, now it seemed that they started doubling in number every hour/minute/second, and very quickly poor Dianne found herself effectively buried under pressure of unnumbered Volunteers and Foreboding Items. Just when our unfortunate protagonist started choking on spilled pennies and all hope seemed lost, the gunshots started.

Hurray, the cavalry arrived!

Volunteers continued to laugh and assure the world of their good intentions while getting shot and set on fire, but they shifted just enough for Dianne to make her escape.

After escaping the building she was held at gunpoint by one of the assailants, whilst she proved her humanity by having a well deserved nervous breakdown.

Then the gun-wielding heavyset Man in Black carried her away from the blazing building, tossed casually over his shoulder. She'd been kept and interrogated briefed for the next two months.

After being released she sent her resignation note, in which she wished all the worst on Mr. C. Clayton, and curtly cut all contact with Oxford People’s Trust.

All interested parties were instructed to treat the fire at the Hilltop Centre as a simple accident and not to mention involvement of [redacted]** security force.

Some less clear points of interest:

* I do not, for one second, believe that Mr. C.Clayton is spending some personal time in the Seychelles, sending very unprofessional letters to his employees. I do believe he's currently unable to access his email and phone, on account of being quite dead. It's too convenient that he just randomly buggered off right when a newly-appointed, not-quite-qualified-for-the-job head of department is about to be besieged by the spookies(TM) (as TMA listener, I'm getting some minor flashbacks here). If one were inclined to be optimistic, one could argue that Mr. Clayton might have been paid off, with instruction to make himself scarce for half a year, but why go to the trouble when you can just disappear him and use his email to send some chill messages to his co-workers? (impostor message count in the podcast so far: 3).

** I'm quite certain that the mysterious Men In Black that may not be named are Starkwall security service, of the “The San Pedro Square Massacre” fame. Which makes me think that said 'massacre' also involved an event similar to this one, just with more witnesses who didn't understand what they were looking at. I think it was mentioned in ARG that they used to work with OIAR, but that stopped around the time Magnus Institute burned down. I'm gonna to tentatively connect the dots and say that Starkwall is dedicated to containing large-scale supernatural outbreaks and has very strict burn-it-to-the ground policy. (Spooky outbreak at Magnus Institute seems like a safe bet). I think OIAR used to supply them with data about potential paranormal events, but is not doing it any more, or is not doing it officially. I'm gonna wait for more data before speculating further on this.

So let's address the elephants in the showroom. Who were the volunteers? They were not human, even if they did passable job of imitating them. They had no names that could be remembered, or paper-trail that could be found, they had access to excessive number of cursed objects (cursed in figurative and probably literal sense), they loved to laugh a lot and had some curious relationship with math. (something something, twice the number of volunteers at half the intervals, something something geometric progression something something.) I know what TMA wants me to think, but this is OIAR, damn it. I'm gonna play with concept of changelings, malicious spirits and magic constructs until definitively proven wrong. No solid theory for now, just… rotating the pieces in my brain, hoping they'll click.

What was the point of this event? We have a great number of (presumably) magical creatures gaining access to a place they claim to be very familiar with (which place might or might not be significant for reasons). We have them filling it to the brim with (presumably) magical items. We have them acting very enthusiastic and happy, like they were celebrating something. What was it all for? I'm gonna posit that the end goal was to cram so much 'magic' in one place that it would reach critical mass and set of… some kind of reaction. Maybe to create something. Or maybe to let something through. Maybe warp reality in some way. Maybe tear a hole in the fabric of it. Or widen a pre-existing hole. Either way it would almost certainly be Not Good for the world and we should be glad that MiB was on the scene to prevent it. Almost certainly. (:

[henryloverman]

Some info about The 90's Parable Au:

Stanley's favorite food is nuts, he has a bag of roasted nuts under his desk, so that none of his co-workers could steal it, his obsession of nuts grow when he was a child, when his mother gave him her leftover nuts, that was the day he fell in love with nuts.

Mariella, Stanley's co-worker, will always try to steal his nuts, no matter where Stanley hides his nuts, Mariella will somehow find it, that's practically how they became friends, Mariella is a smart ass while Stanley is a dumb ass, the perfect friendship.

There is also another person part of their friend group, Jim, or Employee 432, who always seems paranoid about... something, Stanley once asked him about it, but Jim declined and said it was nothing, Stanley disagrees but had stopped asking about it.

Everyone in the office got along petty well, although that isn't always the case, some of the employees hate other, some cheated on their partner, and some of them are friends. I think everyone would have been a lot closer if it weren't the long and unruly shifts, their supervisors were very strict about their work behavior, oftentimes will go as far just to fire an employee.

Stanley is quite popular with his peers, due to the fact that he can easily start a conversation with his co-workers, but his sense of humor is quite... obnoxious, half of the time his co-workers are forced to laugh at his corny jokes.

Stanley has a cat named button, a fluffy calico cat who likes to sleep all day, button is currently staying with Stanley's mothers, because Stanley is busy with his job, but that doesn't stop Stanley from spending quality time with button.

One of the skills Stanley has is cooking, he would cook for his friends during the weekends, and also host a BBQ party every last day of the month, sometimes him and his friends would go the bar and bet, most of the time he would lose the bet and get drunk because of it, his parents told him to stop drinking so much, but it's a hard habit to break.

Stanley can't handle spicy stuff, that includes salt... Because he's white american, U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!!!!

When Stanley was a kid, he would often try to break the rules, which is why he keeps getting detention, that includes fighting with other children, he's lucky he has good grades otherwise he would have been expelled or suspended, but that did not Stanley, because his stubbornness and ego got the best of him.

Stanley and the Narrator doesn't know each other...or do they?

Editor's note: Might do more post about this kind of content, do you guys ever wonder what Stanley would sound like if he had a voice? I think he would sound like Jacksepticeye, Stanley has an Irish voice, i honestly 100% believe in this. Thank you for reading and I wish you a nice day ^^

Gay

⬇️

[angiethewitch]

God, that's absolutely awful about the shop. If the higher ups aren't going to be any help, is union interference an option?

I am part of the union but unfortunately they've decided we're doing what is in our job description and therefore they won't do anything to help. honestly they seem pretty good in some regards, like one of my fellow supervisors is severely disabled and the cold makes her disability flare up and management refused to fix the heating, so she went to the union and they got the heating fixed within a week so she could work more comfortably, but in most other ways they are the biggest waste of £10 a month ive spent in a while.

I think the only way I could light a fire under their arses is by disclosing the exact nature of my illness, and how the work environment affects me, but that would mean telling management im schizophrenic which im not comfortable with doing. ive heard many stories from a little online community im part of where people disclosed their illnesses and were fired a week or two later. one of them was a star employee and after 2 years he told his management that he was bipolar with severe psychotic episodes and he needed to reduce his hours slightly because he wasn't coping. 5 days later he was fired due to "cutting costs", but he's not stupid, he knows why he was sacked.

only one person on the management team knows im schizophrenic, my trainee assistant manager, but she's one of my closest friends outside of work so I trust her, and she doesn't have much sway in the company as a 21 year old woman trying to stand up to middle aged men. disclosing illnesses like schizophrenia has gotten people like me fired from jobs just because we're seen as, at best, unreliable, and at worst, a danger. I was basically forced out of my old job after I got diagnosed, my boss was an awful abusive woman and she got worse after she found out about my diagnosis, I eventually went mad from the stress and barrelled full force into a psychotic episode and quit and had to go on sick leave for 5 years.

tldr Union interference is an option but it would require me taking the risky decision to disclose my illness and im not prepared to take the consequences of that without an exit plan which I don't have right now. im just gonna keep my feelers out for a new job I think

[holdmeclosertinytaron]

Escape to the Cotswolds. Chapter One

A/N: I can't believe that the time has finally come to share the first chapter of ETTC with you!! I first wrote this back in 2019 and randomly last week I decided to edit it and post it this festive season. I haven't told anybody anything about it, not even @tttttttaron and @brayndilyn who I tell everything about the fics I'm writing. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I've loved revisiting it. Let me know what you think!

Warnings: Explicit language, consumption of alcohol

ETTC chats. / FAQs

‘Amelia Bray?’ Spencer all but screeched from the dining room. 

The group in the foyer weren’t quite sure how he’d heard their hushed whispers, though they couldn’t be too surprised. They couldn’t remember how many times Spencer had mentioned Amelia and how much he fancied her. She was, in his own words, ‘well fit’, and he wasn’t afraid to let people know. 

He dropped the bottle of multipurpose cleaner and the washcloth he had been using onto the table in front of him before hurtling himself into the foyer, narrowly missing the low beam in the doorway. 

Autumn, the shift supervisor, stood with her back to him while Sada and Connor stood in front of her. Spencer hurried to join the circle of his friends, wiping his damp hands down his black jeans to remove the residue left from the cleaning products he’d been using all morning. 

‘She’s coming here?’ He breathed out, still trying to catch his breath from running. It didn’t matter that he’d played football for most of his life, Spencer still couldn’t run very far without being out of breath. ‘Like, to this bed and breakfast? To Rivercliffe? You’re not shitting me or anything?’ 

‘Spencer, for crying out loud, how many times do we have to tell you about swearing while you’re at work?’ Sada questioned. Her eyebrows were raised and she’d rested her hands on her hops. ‘But no, we aren’t ‘shitting’ you. She’s coming later today and you had better be on your best behaviour!’

She podded her index finger into his chest and watched as he put his hands up by his head in defeat. Out of all of the employees, Sada was always the most serious. Not in a way that made her mean and impossible to work with. Just in a way that she wanted everything to be done by the books and she wasn’t afraid to put somebody in their place if they were breaking the rules. Everyone loved her little stressy head and would often joke and tell her to take a chill pill, to which they would get slyly rodded by her middle finger. 

‘You’re trying to tell me,’ Spencer started again, ignoring the groans from those around him, ‘that I’m finally going to get to meet the Amelia Bray? And you’re picking up on my swearing at work? Fuck the fucking rules right now! Pretty Baby Bray is coming here, where we work, to stay. You know she was in the new Star Wars film? Went all the way to bloody Cheltenham to see it in the cinema and she did not disappoint! Her boobs looked good enough to-’ 

‘Spencer, I swear to the good Lord above that if you so much as begin to objectify her one more time I will fire you on the spot,’ Connor piped up somewhat harshly. He had spent far too many years listening to Spencer drone on about- and objectify- the girl in the films and he was way past the point of ignoring it.

‘You can’t fire me, Connor boy,’ Spencer jested as he reached forward and ruffled his friend’s hair. One of his favourite things to do was to try and get a rise out of Connor, loving to see the slightly older boy so frustrated that he started to shout.

‘I think you’ll find that my parents owning this place means that I can fire you if I so desire,’ Connor replied quickly while shoving Spencer’s hand away and cleaning his hair up again. ‘Now get your backside back into the dining room and clean like you’re getting paid to do.’ 

Spencer turned on his heel with a small whine and huff, letting his childish side appear. He tried to flutter his eyelashes at Autumn on his way past her in hopes that she would cave and give him all of the gossip that revolved around their apparent visitor. She didn’t budge though. All she did was life her eyebrows at him before he was sulking back into the dining room to finish his job. 

The groups separated quickly when one of the guests walked down the stairs with his wife and their bags ready to check out. Autumn rushed to get behind the desk while Sada ran upstairs to start cleaning their room. Connor walked into the back office to make sure that everything was sorted for the rest of the day. 

‘Mr and Mrs Jackson, how did you find your stay here with us?’ Autumn asked as she attempted to use the ridiculously old computer at the front desk. 

The computer had needed to be updated for years but Connor’s parents refused to do it because it would cost them money and the one that they had worked enough for jobs to get done reasonably. Even Connor had tried to reason with them into getting a new one but they wouldn’t do anything about it. In the end, everyone had simply resorted to smacking it when they needed to use it, hoping it would start quickly. 

‘It was just marvellous, thank you,’ Mrs Jackson said peacefully. ‘Is the fine gentlemen here this morning? The one with the soft smile and beautiful eyes?’ 

‘Oh, Taron?’ Autumn asked. 

She knew exactly who the older woman was talking about. He was a sight to look at and everybody knew it. He was charming too, always smiling and helping out wherever he could. Mrs Jackson nodded at Autumn with an expectant smile. 

‘He isn’t in just yet, I’m afraid,’ she said quietly. ‘His shift starts in a couple of hours so he won’t be anywhere near the place yet.’ 

The woman’s shoulders dropped in disappointment and Autumn couldn’t help but smile at herself. ‘That’s such a shame. He made the most delectable hot chocolate last night and I was hoping that he would tell me his secret,’ she chuckled quietly. 

Autumn was well aware of the hot chocolate Mrs Jackson was referring to as it had become a staple at the bed and breakfast on winter evenings. Though when he was making it, Taron wouldn’t let anybody in the kitchen because he didn’t want anybody to figure out his secret. Everyone had tried to sneak in at some point but he always caught them, shooing them off with an eye roll. 

‘Taron has been my friend since before I could talk and yet he still won’t let me in on his secret. He’s going to take it to the grave. However,’ she added, ‘I’m sure that if you saw him walking around the village on your way home you could easily butter him up to tell you.’ 

‘I’ll do just that.’ Mrs Jackson looked pleased with herself but Autumn didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was joking and Taron would never, ever, give out his hot chocolate recipe. No matter how amazingly charming they were. ‘I told Jimmy here that we’re going to have to come back in the summer months when we’re not bundled up in so many layers.’ 

Autumn nodded. It had been ridiculously cold that weekend and she’d had to wear a tank top underneath her t-shirt, as well as her favourite thick, woolly jumper. It didn’t help that the front door of the bed and breakfast opened continuously throughout the day, the cold air from outside making its way inside and wrapping itself around anybody in its way. The chance of snowfall was high and nobody in Rivercliffe was excited by that. 

The village pretty much went into lockdown when it snowed. The roads would be dangerous to drive on but the nearest supermarket was a 40-minute drive on a good day, and the shops in the village itself closed because they couldn’t get their shipments in. The only places that would still be open would be the bed and breakfast and the pub. Everyone would congregate in one of the small buildings in an attempt to stay warm with a group of other people. 

‘Oh yes, I highly recommend the end of May!’ Autumn offered when the screen she had been waiting to load finally did. ‘There are so many flowers blooming in the meadows and it gets warm enough that you don’t need to wear a coat when you go out. There’s just something so magical about it.’ 

‘We’ll definitely be coming back, then,’ Jimmy said through a smile. ‘Make sure you save us a room.’ 

‘Only for our best guests,’ Autumn laughed. When she finally managed to print the couple’s check out sheet, she got them to sign it before putting it to the side ready to file as she bid them farewell. 

As soon as the front door closed behind them, she took a deep breath and walked through the dining room towards the kitchen so she could get herself a warm drink. Spencer was leaning against the island with a steaming mug of coffee in his hands and a tea towel pushed into his pocket. It was typical Spencer behaviour, finishing his jobs as quickly as he could so that he had more time to do nothing with a cuppa. 

‘Her boobs looked good enough to what?’ Autumn challenged as she poured herself a mug of liquid hug, bringing it up to her lips and sighing contentedly at it. 

‘What now?’ Spencer asked as he turned to face his girlfriend. 

‘Amelia’s boobs. They looked good enough to what?’ 

‘Good enough to fuck,’ he replied nonchalantly. 

Autumn stared at him with a dagger of a stare, her bottom lip gently pulled between her teeth and her head tilted to the side. ‘You know, I get that she’s fit and all,’ she started, ‘but don’t forget that you’re mind. We’ve been together for years and you’ve known about her for less than one. That being said, if she came onto me, I wouldn’t say no.’ 

Spencer’s jaw dropped as Autumn winked at him cheekily, turning her attention to the pile of dishes that had been left unwashed in the sink. She groaned loudly before walking over to them and turning the taps on so that she could wash them herself, even though it wasn’t her job. 

‘I can’t lie to you, baby, I’ve never loved you as much as I love you right now.’ He bit his bottom lip into his mouth, watching the curve of Autumn’s butt as she stepped to her right to grab something from one of the shelves. Though when she turned around and the stare she gave him was blank, he knew he’d made a mistake with his word choice. 

‘Because of her? You love me more than you ever have, because of her?’ 

‘I meant like-’ 

‘That my appreciation for your celebrity crush made you love me even more?’ She cut him off, turning back to the sink. 

‘Baby, I’ve just told you that I love you more than I ever have before.’ Spencer tried to argue, walking up behind her and snaking his arms around her waist so that he could pull her into his front. ‘You’re telling me that if I told you I wouldn’t say no to, I don’t know, Harry Styles, you wouldn’t love me that tiniest bit more?’ 

‘Nope.’ 

‘Oh come on, are you actually mad at me? It was a joke.’ Spencer’s lips ghosted over Autumn’s neck, grazing her skin gently before planting a kiss. 

‘Am I hell,’ she chuckled. ‘I just love making you all needy and pouty when you’ve made me mad. Now can you stop cuddling me before we get sanctioned a-bloody-gain?’ 

****** 

It was obvious when Amelia had arrived at the bed and breakfast because Spencer stood behind the front desk with his best smile on his face. Autumn stood next to him with a similar smile on her face. They were ready to greet their guest and get her checked in. The check-in page of the computer was pre-loaded so that it didn’t take too long to get things sorted, and they had restocked the bowl of complementary truffles in case she wanted to take one, or the whole bowl. They didn’t mind either way. 

Amelia walked in with a bodyguard who carried her large suitcase with ease. Autumn tried not to make any noticeable facial expressions when she saw how inappropriately dressed for winter in the middle of the countryside Amelia was. The black jeans that adorned her legs appeared to be made from the thinnest denim ever and she wore a denim jacket with nothing but a simple, striped t-shirt underneath it. Out of everything she wore, including the pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head, it was the Vans on her feet that made Autumn question if she was equipped for weather in the Cotswolds during November. 

Alas, nobody said a word. Both out of fear and due to the fact that they were around a real-life celebrity. It was embarrassing, really, their inability to simply function in the presence of someone so well known by the rest of the world. They all knew that she was just a regular person like them, but there was something else there. Something so subtle that nobody would quite put their finger on it. 

‘Amelia, it’s lovely to have you staying here with us,’ Autumn offered happily when Amelia reached the desk. ‘I’m Autumn, this is Spencer, and we’ll be getting you checked in today.’ 

‘Thank you,’ Amelia whispered as she reached the desk, resting her forearm against it and taking the weight from her feet so that she could stretch her legs. Her stomach flipped with unease as the two people behind the desk stared at her with huge grins. They were clearly fans and she didn’t know if that made her feel good or not. 

‘We do apologise, but your room isn’t quite ready as of yet. It is just getting the last few bits cleaned but you’ll be able to head up in about fifteen minutes if that’s okay?’ Amelia nodded with a soft smile. ‘You can take a seat on the sofas if you’d like and then we’ll get someone to take you up when it’s ready. Again, I’m really sorry that it isn’t ready for you right now. 

‘It’s fine, thank you,’ Amelia uttered again before she turned to her bodyguard with slightly raised eyebrows. ‘Will, you get yourself off home already! I don’t want you hitting rush hour traffic getting back into Oxford.’ 

‘I can wait with you, Amelia. It’s really no big deal.’ 

Will spoke with a strong Scottish accent and Autumn couldn’t help but admire his beauty. He stood half a foot or so taller than Amelia and his chocolatey brown hair was quiffed at the top of his head messily. His eyes were an icy blue and they were captivating to look at. Even with his stern, straight face, he somehow managed to look perfectly lovely and approachable. 

It could have been the way that Amelia smiled at him or the way that he wore a simple white t-shirt with a black-denim shirt over the top, and a caramel coloured trench coat. Maybe it was the way that he spoke so gently even with his thick accent, or the way that he made sure to smile and nod his head at everyone else in the foyer when he entered. Whatever it was, it worked. 

‘Honestly, there’s no point in it taking you hours to get home. You might as well leave now and get back home in time for the boys’ football practice. I’ll be on my own for the next couple of weeks so what’s an extra fifteen minutes?’ 

‘I can’t really argue with you on that,’ Will chuckled, wheeling her suitcase to sit next to the sofa near the door. ‘I could even grab a pizza to take home as a surprise for them too. Though I should probably tell Sarah that I’m taking one so she doesn’t cook.’ 

Amelia nodded enthusiastically at him and watched as he stepped away from the suitcase that now sat under the window overlooking the front garden. 

‘That’s probably a good idea. Tell her I say hi, please. I must come and see you both in the new year. It’s been a while, and she always has the best gossip to share with me.’ 

Will breathed a nod. ‘She does indeed. I’m sure she’d love to see you. You know where I am if you need anything while you’re out here. Please, please, please, don’t feel scared to call me, whatever time it is, okay? I just want you to be okay.’ 

‘Thank you, Will. I’ll call you if I need you, I promise. Now get home to those boys before I boot you out of the door myself,’ she chuckled as Will threw his arms around her in a tight embrace which she happily allowed. 

‘See you in a few weeks, Bray.’ 

‘See you in a few weeks, Southend.’ 

Amelia watched him leave the door before she moved to look out of the window, watching as he climbed into his car and turned back to the bed and breakfast. She waved at him and watched him set off before she sat on the small sofa in the foyer and looked around the place properly. 

The ceiling was a light cream colour and was a lot lower than she had first thought. The beams that ran across it were dark brown and chipped in places, and they ran down the entire length of the building. All of the floor that she could see, minus the stairs, was dark wood. There was a long rug with a messy fringe in the foyer by the sofa. 

There was a single, low hanging chandelier in the centre of the foyer, something that Amelia deemed a little silly considering how low the ceilings were. It was warm and cosy and instantly made her feel like she had walked into a home. That was all she could ask for. She would be in Rivercliffe for six whole weeks before heading home to spend Christmas with her family. 

Everyone’s attention turned to the door when it flew open and a gust of wind circled around them. Though it wasn’t the door opening that caught Amelia’s full attention. It was the gorgeous man that walked through it. 

‘Jesus fucking Christ, anyone would think it was Antarctica with how cold it is out there,’ Taron muttered as he slammed the door shut again, peeling his gloves from his hands and stuffing them into one of his coat pockets. He lifted the black hat from his head and stuffed it into the other pocket before he tousled his hair back into place. 

He turned towards the foyer where all eyes were on him. Then he saw Amelia and his eyes grew big and his cheeks grew a shade darker. 

‘I’m-fuck- oh wow, okay ummmm…I’m sorry for swearing,’ he stuttered. ‘I’m…Taron. I’m Taron.’ 

He went to lift his arm so that he could shake Amelia’s hand but he could barely lift it with his thick jumper being under his already thick coat. It was a wonder he’d been able to take his hat off. Amelia chuckled lightly at the sight before her while Autumn and Spencer rolled around in fits of laughter behind the desk. 

‘Trust Taron to make an absolute fool of himself in front of a celebrity,’ Spencer choked out. 

Amelia and Taron turned to the couple, Taron with a ‘are you serious?’ look on his face and Amelia with her lips rolled into her mouth and an uncomfortable smile on her face all at the same time. Autumn put her hands on Spencer’s shoulders and shoved him into the dining room in hopes that he wouldn’t continue to make a fool out of himself in front of their new guest. 

‘I’m sorry about those two,’ Taron said as he finally managed to peel his coat from his body and hang it up on the coat rack that sat next to Amelia. She could feel how cold it was from where she sat. He smoothed the material down so that it wouldn’t get in her way before he pulled the bottom of his jumper down properly, re-offering his hand. 

‘I’m Taron, it’s nice to meet you.’ 

‘Amelia.’ She returned the gesture with a smile.

Taron was beautiful, and she couldn’t help but watch him. The way his lips moved so slowly as he was talking, his words rolling off his tongue at the same pace. The way his eyelids had an ever so slight sheen to them when he blinked, and the way that there was a little bit of stubble growing along his jawline. 

‘I was just going to make myself a cup of coffee before my shift starts but I don’t want to leave you out here on your own. Not that you aren’t capable of sitting on your own…that’s not what I’m trying to say. It’s just, um, for God’s sake…would you like a coffee?’ 

‘I wouldn’t mind a tea if you have any?’ Amelia asked. ‘Haven’t had a decent cuppa in what feels like months.’ 

‘We have some Yorkshire tea in the kitchen if that’s alright for you?’ He didn’t miss the way her eyes lit up as she smiled widely. 

‘That’s bloody perfect. Thank you, Taron.’ 

The way that his name rolled off her tongue so effortlessly left Taron swallowing thickly through his own smile. 

‘Milk and sugar?’ 

‘Two sugars and just a splash of milk, please. And I like it quite strong, if that’s okay?’ 

‘No problem,’ he nodded. ‘I’ll be right back.’ 

He scurried off to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee and a cup of tea for Amelia. When he pushed the door open, a little more forcefully than he had intended, Autumn and Spencer flung themselves away from one another and wiped at their mouths. 

‘You two are really disgusting,’ Taron commented around an eyeroll. ‘I need tea, and I need it now!’ 

‘Taron, dude, what the hell was that out there?’ Spencer guffawed as he walked up to Taron and patted him on the back. ‘You came in and just like…froze?’ 

All he got in response was a mere shrug. ‘I dunno. Who’s going to take this tea out to her because I sure as hell am not after whatever the hell that-’ he swung his arm to the left and gestured to the foyer ‘-was out there.’ 

Autumn shook her head with an eye roll but grabbed the hot mug of tea from Taron’s hands and walked it through to where Amelia was scrolling on her phone. She looked up, hopeful to see Taron again, and smiled despite the disappointment of not seeing him. 

‘Thank you,’ you spoke softly as she took the mug and lifted it to her lips so that she could take a long sip. It was hot but so desperately needed. ‘Do you know when my room will be ready at all? I didn’t think about the weather and my feet are bloody freezing but my socks are at the bottom of my case which is typical honestly.’ 

‘One second and I’ll find out for you.’ Amelia walked to the desk and grabbed her walkie talkie to buzz up to Sada who was cleaning the room. ‘Any idea when we’re going to have Amelia’s room ready, Sada?’ 

‘I’ve just finished it. Send Taron up with her for me? I need to move this wardrobe but I can’t do it myself.’ Sada’s voice was very static-y and loud through the speaker. Amelia hardly understood a word, but Autumn was already responding, telling Sada that she’d send Taron up. 

‘I’ll just go and grab Taron quickly and then you’ll be able to head up to your room. I really am sorry that it wasn’t ready when you got here.’ 

‘It’s honestly fine,’ Amelia smiled. ‘It’s been nice sitting here, to be honest.’ 

When Amelia was left on her own again, she turned to her left and was met with Taron’s coat. She had one very similar to it up north in her family home. A khaki green parka with a fluffy hood and tighter sleeves. Though she knew hers wouldn’t smell as good as Taron’s did. Even with a little distance between her and the coat, she could smell Taron’s cologne all over it. 

‘Taron, Sada needs you upstairs for a minute to help move a wardrobe or something,’ Autumn said as she walked into the kitchen. Taron nodded. ‘Oh, and you also need to take Amelia upstairs to her room for me on your way. She’s in room five. You know where the key is. Thanks, mate!’ 

‘You little…’

He let his words trail off as he forcefully pushed the kitchen door open enough for him to squeeze through. When he got close to the foyer where he knew Amelia would be waiting for him, he shook his shoulders and took a deep breath. He had already made an enormous fool out of himself and he didn’t want to further what he could only imagine to be a negative impression of himself. 

‘Amelia, if you’d like to follow me up to your room.’ 

She stood up quickly, pulling the handle of her suitcase up and walking towards Taron with it towing behind her. She stopped just behind him but regretted it as soon as he turned on his heel and almost knocked her backwards. Luckily she was able to grip the desk to stop herself from tumbling. Taron’s hands reached out to grab her to steady her and she caught a hint of his scent. He smelt heavenly. Kind of musky with a hint of sweet and freshness. 

‘I’m sorry,’ he said quickly when he knew that she was safely on her feet. ‘I should have made sure that you weren’t-’ 

‘Taron, it’s okay. Happens to the best of us.’ She smiled at him, wanting him to know that it really was okay. 

‘Well, I’m still sorry. Here, let me take your suitcase for you. You have the attic room so there’s a lot of stairs to get up.’ 

Amelia didn’t argue with him. Instead she pushed her suitcase towards him with her foot and watched as he pushed the handle down fully so that he could grab it by the handle at the side. He lifted it with ease and Amelia could just about make out the soft bulge of his bicep through the material of his brown jumper. But it was still baggy enough that she didn’t know just how prominent it was. 

Taron walked up the stairs two at a time and almost made it to the top of the first flight without tripping over his own feet. Almost. A mere three steps from the top his shoelace came undone and he tripped over it. He moved the suitcase as softly as he could onto the landing before his knees hit the step above him. He cried out in pain while Amelia stood still behind him. She didn’t know how to react, but she couldn’t stop the little snort of a chuckle no matter how hard she tried. 

‘I’m sorry,’ she laughed, ‘I know I shouldn’t find it funny and that I should be asking if you are okay…but that was kind of funny.’ 

‘Yeah, yeah. I’ll remember that for when you fall up these bloody things. It’ll happen, trust me. He knelt down slowly to fasten his shoes again before he moved so that there was enough room for Amelia to stand next to him. ‘Can we pretend this never happened?’ 

Amelia nodded through a smile as he stood himself back up and continued to walk to the next flight of stairs that he would have to walk up. Though instead of being too big for hit boots and trying to walk up them two at a time again, he walked up them one at a time. He didn’t miss Amelia giggling at him and he had to let himself admit that it was the cutest thing he had heard in a long time. 

‘Okay so this is you,’ he spoke as he stopped dead in front of the door that led to her room. He pulled out a metal key that was attached to a red plastic keyring. ‘This is your key. There’s tea and coffee in your room but if you need any extras let me know and I’ll bring you more.’ 

‘Thank you, Taron. Before you go to help Sada,’ Amelia started, lifting the handle of her suitcase again, ‘where do you suggest heading for tea tonight? I’m starving and could do with a proper good meal.’ 

Taron thought for a little while, going over all of the food places that would still be open before deciding on a couple of different options. ‘Okay so there is a small café that is open for tea and they serve fish and chips or small bits like sandwiches and quiche. But if you’re wanting a proper meal that’s warm and filling, I recommend the pub on Farm Lane. Their food is amazing.’ 

‘Pub tea!’ Amelia exclaimed happily. ‘I haven’t had that in so long so I think I’ll head there. Thank you, again. I really appreciate it.’ 

‘It’s no problem. I’ll see you later, Amelia.’ 

****** 

Taron was refreshing. He didn’t talk to Amelia like she was a celebrity. He talked to her as Amelia and it was a nice difference to what she was used to. Though what she stupidly didn’t think about was how everyone else in the village wasn’t Raron and to them she was just Pretty Baby Bray, as the media had nicknamed her. 

Walking through the village itself wasn’t the worst experience of her life. A few people stared at her as she walked past, and a few ran off to tell others, but it was a pleasant walk for the most part. Until she actually arrived at the pub. 

Rivercliffe Arms sat in the centre of the village and was the go-to place for socialising. Everyone over the age of 18 would go to the pub at least once a week, with the older men going more regularly to watch the football together on a couple of the TVs that were scattered around. It was loud and stunk of stale beer. The perfect recipe for a local pub, really. 

The outside of the pub was covered in green ivy with only small parts of the brown brick showing through. There were a couple of wooden picnic benches sitting outside the pub but due to the lack of warmth from the sun, they weren’t being occupied by anybody. Inside smelt like old cigarette smoke and normally Amelia would be disgusted by the scent and would turn away but there was something drawing her in. 

It wasn’t too full that evening. A few people leaned against the var while some of the larger tables were surrounded by families and groups of friends. There was chatter everywhere that Amelia turned and it reminded her of being home when she was a young girl. Some of her fondest memories were when she would go to the pub with her Grandad on a Sunday afternoon where he would buy her a glass of Diet Coke and a bag of crisps. They would sit and chat for hours before they headed home for bed. 

Her little adventure out of London was very much needed. After months of filming a new movie while also promoting her last movie, she’d started to burn out and was in dire need of a getaway. 

When Will first suggested that she take a break for a couple of months somewhere idyllic before heading straight back up to Manchester for Christmas, she thought he was being a complete idiot. But then she sat and really thought about it. She was unable to remember the last time she took a break and truly let herself relax. 

Whenever she finished shooting a movie, and before she set off on press, she would take herself away somewhere to relax but always wound up being stuck in a hotel room the entire trip so that people wouldn’t see where she was. 

Being in the Cotswolds was different, and she was beyond thankful to Will for suggesting somewhere so beautiful. So much so that she had sent him way too many thank you texts, including lots of GIFs and white heart emojis. Will told her that she really didn’t need to thank him. She just needed to enjoy herself and finally take the break that she deserved. 

‘You’re Amelia Bray, aren’t you?’ Amelia turned to her left to find an old lady with bright white hair staring back at her in awe. ‘It is you! My grandson just loves your films. I can’t wait to get home and tell him that I saw you.’ 

‘I’m so glad that he likes them,’ Amelia replied with a semi forced smile. All she wanted to do was sit in the corner out of the way and order herself toad in the hole, preferably with sprouts and plenty of gravy. ‘I should probably order myself some food but it was lovely meeting you.’ 

‘The pleasure is all mine.’ 

Amelia walked away and let out a huge breath, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone else in the pub. As much as she adored her fans, and as much as she knew that it was inevitable that she would meet some, that night she just wanted to eat a good meal and then get into bed and sleep. 

She let her hands rest on top of the bar as she leaned into it quickly to stretch her back but regretted her decision as soon as she felt the sticky substance of old spilled alcohol cover them. She pulled them away with a disgusted look, missing the way the boy behind the bar looked at her with a gentle smile. 

When she looked at him, he was holding a damp cloth in her direction so that she could wipe her hands and clean them. She took it gladly. 

‘Thank you. I’m Amelia.’ She held out her hand once she’d cleaned it for the handsome man to shake, her signature smile plastered on her face. 

‘I’m Kaine.’ He offered her a smile before taking the cloth back and moving to the tablet in front of him. ‘Can I get you anything to eat or drink tonight?’ 

‘I have a hankering for a toad in the hole. Hopefully with a side of sprouts and plenty of gravy?’ 

Kaine stayed quiet as he pressed a few buttons. When he looked back up, Amelia was already looking at him with hopeful eyes. ‘That’s perfectly fine. Can I get you a drink with that?’

‘A good ol’ Pinot Noir, please.’ 

‘Do you have any ID on you?’ Amelia looked at Kaine as if he had three heads. Surely he was fucking with her and didn’t actually want her ID, no matter how flattered she felt at the same time. She was nearing 30 and it was public knowledge that she was over the legal drinking age. ‘Sorry, it’s just protocol.; 

She nodded as she shook her head slightly, and pulled her driving licence out of her purse to hand to Kaine. Just like the majority of the population, her driving licence photo wasn’t the best. It had been taken when she was still 16 so she looked a hell of a lot younger than she was and she hated it. Kaine let himself chuckle as she checked her date of birth before handing it back over with a nod of his head. 

‘That’ll be £11.58 altogether, please.’ 

Amelia nodded and pulled her bank card out of her purse once she’d put her licence back, tapping it on the card machine with a satisfied smile. As she put her purse back into her bag and zipped it up, Kaine poured her a glass of wine. It was bigger than it should have been for the price she paid but she was somewhat used to getting more than she paid for. 

‘Take this and sit wherever, I’ll bring your food over when it’s ready.’ 

‘Thank you.’ 

******

A delicious plate of food, two bottles of wine and three fan encounters later, Amelia sat at the bar chatting to Kaine about everything Rivercliffe. She made sure to ask about the nearest supermarket and how long it would take her to walk there should she be brave enough. She asked about the best places to go for food other than the pub, and if there were any nice coffee shops around. And she asked about any winter and Christmas traditions the village had. 

Kaine had been more than accommodation to her constant, drunk chatter, telling her about the Tesco which was a 40-minute drive away so well over an hour walk, the café on Cart Lane and the coffee shop on Tilbridge Street. He also informed her of the traditions that the village had, such as the Christmas light switch on where everyone gathered near the bed and breakfast for free hot chocolate, carols and the lights. 

‘When do the lights get turned on?’ Amelia asked as she tilted her wine glass back to drink more of the red. Her lips were stained maroon by that point. 

‘The 1st of December. It’ll be packed in here by 4pm and we’ll sell more jacket potatoes than you would think possible. And then everyone will head down to the B&B for six.’ Kaine wiped down the bar before moving Amelia’s then empty wine glass so that it could be washed. ‘It’s always so special and there’s just this incredibly magical feeling that surrounds us all as we stand together.’ 

‘I can’t wait.’ 

‘You’ll be here for it?’ Kaine asked in surprise. Amelia nodded with a big smile. ‘That’s amazing. Make sure you wrap up warm, it’ll be bloody freezing.’ 

Amelia chuckled and pulled the sleeves of her jacket over her hands and bounced her leg a few times. She had some idea of how cold it would be before she set off on her little holiday, but she hadn’t realised just how cold it would be. Her denim jacket was nowhere near thick enough to keep her warm in the bitter chill outside. When she had the effort she would have to walk to Tesco to buy herself a winter coat. 

‘It already is bloody freezing,’ she mumbled in defeat. 

‘It’ll only get colder,’ Kaine continued, putting the final glasses away before sighing happily. ‘Longest shift of my life.’ 

‘Oh, I’m sorry. If I’d have known I wouldn’t have kept you chatting for so long. I feel so silly,’ Amelia rushed out. The alcohol had well and truly started to take effect and she could feel her head starting to spin. 

‘Don’t be silly, it’s okay! It was nice to have the company while cleaning up, in all honesty.’ Kaine grabbed his coat from the rack that just sat behind the bar before turning back to Amelia with a genuine smile. ‘Would you like me to walk you back to wherever you’re staying?’ 

‘I’m staying at the B&B but it’s okay. I can walk on my own,’ Amelia said softly as she stood up from the stool. She almost toppled over from the alcohol that was surging through her bloodstream but caught herself on the bar. 

‘That’s on my way back. And I am not letting you walk on your own when you can hardly stand up straight. Come on, it’s no big deal.’ 

Kaine stood next to her and let her link her arms around his so that she could stay upright. ‘Thank you.’ 

****** 

As Amelia and Kaine walked up to the B&B, Taron had walked out of the front door wrapped in his coat and a scarf that he hadn’t been wearing earlier in the day. He saw the pair walking towards him and his stomach dropped instantly. Amelia had her arms wrapped around Kaine’s arm and she was laughing at something he had said. KAine had his hands in his pocket and kept turning to look at Amelia with a large smile. 

Taron should have known, really, that he would never get a look in with Amelia. He never got a look in with anybody. 

‘Taron!’ Amelia shouted from the bottom of the path, letting go of Kaine and staggering towards him. ‘Can you take me to bed? Let me fall up the stairs like you did earlier. That was funny.’ 

She threw her arms around Taron’s body and rested her chin on his chest as she looked up at him. He was gorgeous, his greeny blue eyes dazzling and his lips the perfect shade. If she were to tell the truth, she’d never seen a man just as beautiful as Taron. He was broad, too, her arms barely fit around his body with his coat on, and she wondered what it would be like to have his arms wrapped around her. 

‘I can’t take you to be, love, but I can take you to your room?’ Taron spoke down to her gently, watching the way that her eyelashes fluttered against the tops of her eyelids delicately. 

‘Love?’ Amelia asked quietly, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth and smiling to herself. ‘I love it. Love. Taron called me love.’ 

Taron turned to Kaine and nodded a greeting. ‘Thanks for bringing her back, man.’ 

‘No problem. See you around, Amelia.’ 

‘Bye Kainey boy. Thank you for the wiiiiiiine!’ Her words were slurred but she continued to talk. ‘To the bedroom.’ she shouted as she pointed to the bed and breakfast, charging forward to the front door where she yanked it open and made her way through the foyer towards the first flight of stairs. 

Taron followed her the entire way up, trying not to look straight forward where he would get an eyeful of her butt. She fell twice, and both times she turned to Taron with a giggle, to which he shook his head at her with a smile. 

‘Oooh there’s something at the door!’ Amelia whispered as she bent down to pick up the green box that had been left with a note. 

Taron’s stomach dropped as he watched her unfold the note. He watched her eyes travel over the paper a few times, her eyes closing every few seconds as she tried to refocus them. Pure dread washed over him as she finally looked back at him and blinked slowly. 

‘Thank you, Taron,’ she whispered with a smile, eyeing the box of Yorkshire tea once more with a large grin. ‘Hey, what do you say about coming in and having a bit of fun? Let me thank you properly for the tea.’ 

Taron could feel himself resisting the urge to take a single step forward to pull her into him, moulding their lips together in what he could only imagine would be the best kiss of his entire life. But he would feel himself pushing himself backwards. Amelia wasn’t sober. She didn’t know what she was saying and he would not take advantage of her. 

‘Another time?’

‘Promise?’ Amelia asked sweetly, only slightly disheartened that Taron didn’t want to go back to her room with her. Even though she was wildly intoxicated, she knew what she wanted. 

‘Promise,’ he replied before kissing her cheek gently and walking down the stairs and out of the building. 

He had to give himself a few minute before setting back off home, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. The more he looked at Amelia, the more he came to appreciate her true beauty. Everything about her drew him in. Her eyes that he could get lost in; her smile that left him weak at the knees; her voice that made him dizzy. Everything. She was perfect, but she would never be his. 

With one last deep breath, Taron pushed himself off of the front door and down the path towards the village. He shoved his hands in his pockets and absentmindedly kicked at a rock on the ground, following it where it travelled before kicking it again. When the rock rolled into the middle of the road, he left it and walked the final few metres to his house.

Taglist:

[thoughtsbeewild]

BEST NEWS EVER: UPDATE LEAVE OF ABSENCE SELFIE MOM DIRECTOR IS FIRED! JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED YESSS! NOW FIRE HER FRIEND THE SUPERVISOR...

KARMA DOES WORK IN WAYS WE DONT EXPECT.

TIME AND PATIENCE , KARMA WILL FLY THERE WAY..

THIRSTY DIRECTOR MOM POSTING SHAMELESS SELFIES GETS WHAT SHE DESERVES.

NOW THE QUEEN EVIL BITCH HAS BEEN KNOCKED OUT OF CHESS. YOU KNOW LIKE HOUSE OF CARDS.

I HOPE MY FORMER COMPANY CONTINUES TO MOVE IN DIRECTION TO FIRE HER FUCKING FRIEND THE SUPERVISOR. SHE IS A REAL TWO FACE BITCH. I WOULD LOVE TO SPILL THE TEA ON HER NAME, NOT GOING GO THERE. BECAUSE KARMA WILL CONTINUE FUCK THAT BITCH UP , LIKE HOW SHE TRIES TO RUIN ALOT LEADERS AND EMPLOYEES EMPLOYMENT CAREER.

NOW FIRE THE SUPERVISOR AND HER FUCKING EMPLOYEES SHE PROTECTED IN HER EVIL WAYS. THESE SUPERVISOR AND EMPLOYEES GOT AWAY WITH MURDER, LIKE THEY WERE ABLE GET DOCTORS NOTES. COME IN AT 4AM TO WHEN THEY PLEASE, THEY GOT TO BULLSHIT AT 7AM TO PULL THE FUCKING WEEDS, GO ON PLAY DATES WITH THERE DAUGHTER WHILES OTHER EMPLOYEES WERE FORBIDDEN TO DO THAT SHIT. WE COULDNT COME IN EARLY, WE HAD HELP CLEAN UP THIER FUCKING WORK AND JOB, WHILE THEY TOOK THE MOTHERFUCKING CREDIT .

I WAS TELLING A OLD COWORKER OF MINE TODAY, THESE ARE EVIL PIECE OF SHIT PEOPLE. THEY ACT LIKE A SWEET INNOCENT BULLSHIT BABY TO YOU ON OUTSIDE TO YOUR FACE, BUT ON INSIDE WOW THEY GET AWAY WITH ALOT OF SHIT. WHEN I SPOKE UP TO DIRECTOR AND SUPERVISOR ABOUT IT, THEY PROTECTED THESE FUCKING BITCHES AS IF THEY WERE WORTH KEEPING IN THE COMPANY. KARMA IS GOING COME FOR TWO J, J, S, S.

[giftedpoison]

So I don't know what to do with this information so buckle up I guess.

Hi, my name is Eve and in my real life I used to work at a grocery store (it's a chain but not necessarily a national one so i won't be saying their name for purposes of anonymity).

I worked there from the age of 16 (was hired December 18th 2016). Eventually started working in their shopping department for curbside pickup in 2019, when the department opened. Became a supervisor in the department in November of 2021 (after doing the job for a few years being paid as a part time shopper rather than supervisor) then i was promoted to Lead of the department in Feb. of 2022 (which essentially meant I ordered supplies, dealt with managing a group of 13 individuals and sat in on corporate meetings and the like).

That's my history. I quit in September of 2023. Because the job was trying to kill us all and I hit my breaking point. (My breaking point was when 5 of my employees including myself nearly passed out from over exertion. I say nearly because I forced them to stop and eat and hydrate when it got too bad, i was fighting for management to give me help so we could get breaks out but they wouldn't listen and I ended up absolutely word vomiting my building frustrations with their management style that I had been actively fighting against for well over a year at that point.)

I know I'm a good leader, but management increasingly thought of me as naive and too soft as a leader because I refused to step back and allow abuse of my workers for corporate profit. Despite the fact I would show them statistics and give them nuanced balanced perspectives they let their own biases get in the way.

Three of my shoppers were their main targets. Two of which were neurodivergent and came from a not so great background. The third one wasn't neurodivergent but she came from a broken background that involved drugs and alcohol as a minor she was 19.

I think about the third girl so often. Because I remember she wasn't shopping at the speed they wanted her too (aka the goal for the whole department) which was a valid critique and the manager basically played bad cop which was fine. And I remember after this I was working with this girl and we were running behind that day, to no fault of hers, and i had to come help her finish her shop so we could prepare for the customers to arrive.

And she was panicked. Saying she's really trying and she's afraid she's going to get fired and a bunch of other things as i'm helping her. And I looked at her and tell her. "Listen I've seen you're numbers recently, they aren't where they need to be but i can see you steadily increasing if you keep increasing no matter what the number is by the time management says something again. I will back you. It is okay and me helping you right now is not your fault." I found out recently she no longer shows up to work. And she basically quit. Which was probably in part due to personal issues like the fact her best friend was in coma at one point. And such. And she also got jumped in the parking lot by some girls and the police had to be called. But I can't help but to wonder if I had still been there, if she would have felt safe to keep coming back knowing that there was at least one person in charge in her corner. (now, I know for a fact there is none because I was a one man defense line)

I can't help but to think about my one coworker, one of the neurodivergent ones, who is still routinely get shit about his out of stock list despite back when I was still working there I literally showed them that his numbers averaged out to be about the same as everyone else.

I'm not going to say any of the three were perfect, they didn't always do their best and were sometimes unreliable. But did they deserve to get emotionally abused by one of the supervisors (who i reported over five times, and who also once threatened me but management refused to deal with)? No. Did they deserve to be treated like less than assets when two of them used to come in all the time on their day off to help until they got fed up with being treated like they were lesser?

I think about the time I fought against a capacity increase (literally one of the hours we could have 13 orders drop for one hour with only 2 hours to do it, and maybe 2-3 shoppers to execute it, and that's assuming we had the previous hour completed and actually had a full 2 hours). And then when it went into effect anyway despite me shoving numbers at every higher up I could about how it didn't work for what we had to work with. My one manager told me that's just how you build a business, increasing volume. So I told him it's also how you burn one down. He didn't have a reply.

I asked politely from the store manager that if we called for help, if there was no other employee who could, a manager should help us. And he returned with hedging and saying that "well if there's only one manager on duty that's not really feasible". Even when there were three managers on duty and two of them were standing around talking they did nothing. But don't worry if it was register front end drowning two managers plus a stocker would come to the rescue.

And prior to all this, prior to my Lead position, I didn't know I could be an effective and intelligent leader. Now I know I can, but absolutely no one will listen to me and will routinely talk down on me when they were so interested in me, that they fought corporate when corporate didn't want to give me the promotion and gave me a bigger raise than was protocol because they believed in me. And that belief went down the drain immediately when they realized I would not blindly fall in line.

I feel so bad that I'm no longer on the front lines defending them, and that I failed to give management one last piece of my mind like I was going to, but I know if I stayed there it would have eaten me alive and that it was slowly killing me.

I don't know where to go from here. How to live knowing I have enough intelligence to lead and be fair and nuanced, but having no where to put that to use. I don't know what to do anymore but this one haunts me.

And like I'm not gonna say I was perfect and I definitely didn't know the answers to everything. And I did have my issues. (I was angry but refused to take it out on anyone, I sometimes got so overwhelmed I had to ask someone to take over while I laid on the floor for a second to regain perspective, and I would often have to sit down because I would become light headed and dizzy from the heat outside). But at the very least I fought for them ya know?

[obscureobsidiandraws]

MY OWN BOY MEETS WORLD REBOOT - WHO'S WHO (II)

JOHN ADAMS HIGH'S FACULTY AND STAFF

After the first post I made for the characters in my hypothetical Boy Meets World reboot, in which I focused on Cory’s family and friends. It’s time to talk about the teachers and the rest of the employees at the school Cory and his friends attend. Which you know what that means. It’s time for Mr. Feeny and Mr. Tuner.

George Feeny. John Adams High’s history teacher, and Cory and Eric’s next door neighbor. In the latter seasons he becomes John Adams High’s principal. Cory and Eric initially see him as the grumpy teacher who hates his students, although as they grow up they see that people, including him, are more complex than that.

Jonathan Turner. The most recently hired teacher at John Adams High by the time Cory and Shawn start seventh grade. He ends up becoming a father figure for Shawn, and eventually in later seasons officially adopts him. Feeny is initially quite hostile towards him because of his methods, which he seems as opposite to his and inefficient; the fact that he sees Mr. Turner as someone inexpert and naive with too much confidence; and because he was hired by Principal Gómez Arguello without his approval, something that, by Feeny’s experience, doesn’t have a good track record, with most teachers hired by the principal being so because of their looks instead of their actual credentials. But they eventually warm up to each other, especially when they realize they’re actually quite similar, with both of them coming from wealthy family backgrounds who decide to work teaching in the public school system, and even being alumni of the same private school, Rutledge Academy.

Eli Williams. Jonathan’s best friend since they met in college, he’s later hired to teach at John Adams High too.

Audrey Andrews. (@oceangirl24’s OC, used with her permission) John Adams High’s school counselor, Jon and her knew each other back in high school, with Audrey being able to attend it thanks to a scholarship. She’s Tuner’s main love interest, and eventual wife as well as Shawn’s adoptive mother. Everytime Turner and Feeny disagree on something, she tends to be the one who manages to make them, if not agree, at least swallow their pride and find a middle ground.

Ryan Gómez Arguello. John Adams High principal during the first seasons. An incompetent buffoon who got the job over Feeny, he loses it thanks to a combination of his own incompetence finally catching up to him and Coach Sylvester’s scheming, this last one pretty ironic taking into account he was the last remaining person working at the school who liked her. After this Feeny becomes the new principal.

Ava Allemand. The school’s new academic coordinator, of whom Feeny isn’t exactly fond of initially, because of her evident lack of credentials for the job and overall unfamiliarity with what a school curricula even is in the first place. Feeny finds out later that the reason she got the job was because she blackmailed the superintendent, but because by that point Ava has shown a willingness to improve in both her job and as a person, Feeny helps her to keep the job when she can’t no longer blackmail the superintendent. After Sally Sylvester gets fired, she becomes the new cheerleading coach. She also calls herself the school’s PR assistant, despite the fact that anyone tells her such a thing doesn’t exist.

Stuart Schuester. John Adams High’s theater club’s supervisor during the first seasons, until he gets fired by Feeny when he finds out he planted firecrackers and a lighter on Shawn’s locker to blackmail him into joining. During his time as supervisor it is made evident that he’s doing it mostly to relive his high school days, showing unfair favoritism towards certain members, while he blatantly ignores others. He’s unhappily married to the girlfriend he had back in high school, and he has a crush on Audrey, despite the fact that she has no interest in him whatsoever. After losing his teaching job he leaves his wife, moves to Los Angeles and sells a script with a very twisted and caricatured version of his story, in which he paints himself as a hero. 

Eric Sikowitz. An old friend of Feeny from college, he’s hired to be the new art teacher as well as supervise the audiovisuals + theater club’s activities after Mr. Schuester gets fired, mostly because of his experience as a professional actor and a stage director, and because, as manager of his own theater company, Feeny hopes the club would have access to better materials. He also moves in next door to Emilia, and despite his odd and eccentric personality, he becomes a mentor figure for her in a similar way to how Feeny is for Cory and Eric, being able to give her pretty good life advice.

Sally Sylvester. The cheerleaders coach, disliked by almost all of the faculty and staff, Feeny and Turner included, except a few, Principal Gómez Arguello among them, not only because of her tendency to act mean and haughty towards her coworkers as if she was still in high school, but also because she enables and encourages bullying and toxic behavior among the student body, even bullying some of the students herself. She’s also Cassie’s aunt. She gets fired after Feeny, with Emilia’s help, proves she planted evidence on his office so he’d get fired and she could become the principal. After this she gets hired at Sherman Edwards High as the new cheerleading coach.

Barbara Bouvier. Alongside Melissa, one of the oldest teachers at John Adams High after Feeny, who she actually met back in college. Outside the school she’s good friends with Robbie’s grandmother, being the one who convinced her to send her grandson there instead. Like Ethan, she also comes from Missouri.

Melissa Fontana. Alongside Barbara, one of the oldest teachers at John Adams High after Feeny. She’s also the school librarian, and because of the school’s scarce budget in regards to books, she has to be very picky with which books make it into the library. Because of this, she never purchases a book until she has read it and judged it to be good enough for the students to read. As a way to let her opinions and recommendations about books out, she decides to open a blog to post reviews, which has led her to deal with rabid fan bases whenever she posts a negative or unfavorable review to a popular book. To earn some extra money to purchase those books that the school can’t afford with the school budget alone, she moonlights as a translator of foreign children’s literature. She has also had to deal with the PTA regularly every time they try to ban a book from the school library.

Duncan Sorrell. A Chemistry teacher, who has been working on John Adams High for almost as long as Mrs. Bouvier and Ms. Fontana, but unlike them, he has lost all passion, faith or hope on his job, acting extremely apathetic towards both the school and his students, ‘til the point that him not caring about his job at all to extreme levels is a recurring gag. The other teachers treat him as a cautionary tale of what can happen if a teacher burns out.

Lizzie Norbury. Math teacher. She’s very self-conscious about how unpopular her subject is among students, so she always tries to find ways to make her students not only pass their tests, but also appreaciate math. Mrs. Griffith and her started working at John Adams High around the same time, so they are very close to each other.

Patty Griffith. Biology teacher. Mrs. Norbury and her started working at John Adams High around the same time, so they are very close to each other. She tends to clash with the PTA for wanting to teach about evolution, environmentalism or quality sex education.

Janelle Brand. One of the youngest teachers working at John Adams High, she teaches English and Spanish. She has a very idealistic view on life, which tends to end up involving her in numerous shenanigans. In later seasons she becomes romantically involved with Audrey's friend Charlie.

Jake McFadden. Like Janelle, one of the youngest teachers working at John Adams High, he teaches both American and World History. With similar views on life, he tends to go on board with whatever plan Janelle comes up with. Being gay himself and noticing many parallels to how it was for him when he was in high school, he takes something of a mentor role for Kurt. He also supervises the chess club and the academic decathlon team.

Alice Yung. Alongside Jake and Janelle, one of the youngest teachers currently working at John Adams High, she teaches Philosophy and Social Studies. She tends to play the straight woman role whenever Janelle or Jake come up with new plans to improve the school, having a more skeptical and pessimistic outlook on life. Unlike them, when she was in high school she basically joined a clique of mean girls because she didn’t want to get bullied.

Kat Tompkins. A female teacher that Jonathan dates for a while in the early seasons. Things initially seem cool between the two of them, but once Shawn is allowed to stay at Mr. Turner’s apartment after Chet left, she’s less than pleased with having Shawn around, even acting hostile towards him, with her breaking up with Jon soon after, although she makes several attempts to take him back after Shawn goes back to live with Chet. She’s also extremely apathetic towards her job, serving as kind of Janelle’s antithesis.

Val Ruiz. The new school nurse who comes to work at John Adams High, after the previous retired. She attended the same high school as Alice, but their respective cliques acted as if they disliked each other. Having Val now as a co-worker is one of the events that force Alice to reexamine her life choices when she was a teen.

Jeffrey Johnston. The school janitor. A man almost as old as Feeny, he has worked a wide variety of different jobs before being John Adams High’s janitor, which means that he has a lot of unexpected skills that come very handy to save the day several times.

Víktor Olesha. The coach of the school’s water polo team, whose members include Brandon. After Emilia’s adoptive father Patrick divorces his husband Jeremy, he’s one of the many boy toys who he takes to live with him. Initially Emilia tries to not get invested in him, knowing from experience that she won’t see him again once her father gets tired of him, but surprisingly he turns out to last longer than the rest, and he even turns out to be an actually more caring and healthier father figure than either Patrick or Jeremy ever were. Unfortunately, after Patrick leaves, he’s kicked out of the house by Jeremy. He tries to become Emilia’s legal guardian so she won’t end up on the street, but finds out that Patrick’s parents have already done that. In later seasons he dates Jim Yoshida, a teacher from another school.

Charlie Ndiaye. Audrey’s friend she met in college, at the start of the show they live together, which made Turner initially think they were a couple, but they’re actually just friends. He becomes John Adams High’s school counselor while his friend is on maternity leave. During his time there he develops romantic feelings for Janelle.

[catspinach]

ive been meaning to vent on here about work for a long time now so here

i was hired in as a shift supervisor at a brand new starbucks with all brand new employees aside from another supervisor, Mylah, who is a 4yr partner(remember her), and maybe 2 others or so. none of us knew what we were doing. i was barista trained separately from the rest, followed by supervisor training, and then a week off. I came back and had no idea what the hell i was doing, and everyone was mad that i didnt know what to do??

Mylah trained me, and it was brutal. She would critique everything i did, and I always defended myself, saying "why do i need to do it that way if this way gets the same results?" and she did Not like that lmao and the entire training was incredibly tense.

Months pass, and she is worse than ever. she's had several lectures about her behavior but not a single writeup. Nothing has changed. She trained a new supervisor a few weeks ago, and she treated her the same way as she did with me. At some point she slammed a freezer and started shouting, making her cry, and Everyone in lobby turned their heads. i felt awful and wanted to say smth, but I'm genuinely scared of her. Everyone is. Several people have admitted to me that they call off when they see Mylah on the schedule.

The other day, the lobby was empty, and we were free to talk about all the harassment we've faced with her. I cant even remember all of it there's so much but uh here's a list of stuff i remember:

My manager gave Jenn some extra hours, and when they came in, Mylah cornered them, asking why they stole all her hours?? Jenn was comfused because they were literally just added to the schedule so that they would have enough bodies on the floor. Apparently Mylah was pissy at them for the entire rest of their shift, which sucks bc they were already working 12hrs that day:'(

I became friends with a barista named Diana, who is hispanic, and Mylah (white) would always say rude things that made her uncomfortable, saying its okay because her bf is mexican ._. It became a problem and eventually Mylah started looking through all her stuff to get her fired, and succeeded. Diana told me that Mylah would joke with the other baristas about how im stupid and bad at my job, and she said she always stood up for me which definitely did not help her with this whole situation but I greatly appreciate her for it, and we still talk!

Anna said Mylah was talking to her about me and how i do my job wrong. she said i don't face the bills the same way in the deposit bag, and that I dont fill in the money order right so I'm the reason we have so many goddamn nickles, and she said I don't double count the drawers and that's why there's so many mistakes with the deposit. the funny thing is, i DO face the bills the same way, I have never even DONE a money order because that's morning's job, I TRIPLE count the drawers bc i have anxiety, and nobody has EVER said anything to me about the deposit being off.

At some point someone said ret*rded, and Mylah is autistic and was rightfully mad, and brought her to the back to yell at her. not sure what she said but when she came back she went up to me, and only me, and apologized. so like that really hurted but okay whatever ill just go kill myself ig

Mylah was opening one day and told Morgan that since I was closing that it would probably take longer than usual to close? I asked Morgan how Mylah was with closing, and she said that nothing gets done until the absolute last minute, and it takes at least half an hour to finish closing. My record is 2 minutes past close.

Jenn and Taylor told me that I'm their favorite out of all of the shifts, because I make sure to get everything done, I am fast, efficient, and if they have a question I will do my best to figure out a solution for them. Apparently, when they ask Mylah a question, she answers with, "I dont know man, I just work here" and walks away. which like. mood. but she's getting paid 20/hr compared to the baristas at 15/hr, and there is absolutely no reason that the baristas should have to pick up her slack.

Anna used to be friends with Mylah, and they went to get piercings together, and Mylah thought it would be super funny to snapchat Anna having a panic attack about the needle! outside of work, but still fucked up

theres more idk

Mylah got it in my head that I'm the worst of all of the supervisors, and when I found out I was almost all the baristas' favorite, I started visibly shaking with relief! Ive been trying so so hard to make up for how "bad" i am at my job in fear that everyone will hate me otherwise, and now I gind this out and I don't know how to handle this information jdgdheb

I asked them if they would like to talk to the manager as a group, hoping that will show her just how serious the situation is. I don't usually pray for someone to get fired, but I want her ass permanently out of my sight asap

[firstluvlatespring]

anyway so my anxiety is already at it's peak and I didn't have a good time at work at all and I came home and there's 3 cop cars in front of my house and I'm like what did my roommates do... apparently something happened downstairs idk and then I go to my friend's to have dinner but she's having trouble with her roommates so I'm worried about that and then we're all talking about how people of color get treated in the office and tokenism and how my friend's girlfriend's work was 'stolen' cause she was not a full time permanent employee so the place just took her work -.- and my friend was going off about her boss and how he doesn't know how to write an email and she's showing me the email when her prev supervisor calls and all I hear is "you need to be serious about finding a new job" and I'm like 🤠❌🛑💀 actually seeing red I though the company fired her and he's calling her to inform that at 9 pm but turns out he got locked out and fired today and my heart is out of my body at this point. amidst this we smell wood burning and I'm like is this house going to burn down or ? anyway I'm sooo anxious @god I know I'm not your favorite i know I'm not your bravest soldier just stop . stop fr anyway interview at 9 AM tomorrow...hmm wonder why I'm shaking 🤠

[iknewiwouldregretthis]

i have not yet gotten a therapist like my doctor told me to do in february but i have a lot on my mind which means it’s time to make a long post so i can put those thoughts somewhere else

i like my job. it isn’t very fulfilling but i like the people i work with and i like that they let me work from home once a week so i can schedule all my appointments on that day and i like that as a company they want to support their employees and all that. but. it’s a very weird place and there’s also a lot of bad things. like the fact that i’ve had almost no work for six months and every time i ask for more work or suggest things i can do, there’s some reason it won’t work. “we’re not ready to pass that to you” or “that won’t be compatible with our new systems” or “the time it would take to build that system isn’t worth the small amount it would get used” and that’s fine! all of those are valid reasons for me not to do something! but every month i have like 35 total hours that i do work! and the rest of the time i’m just sitting there and i know it’s nice to have a salaried job where i get paid to do nothing but it’s miserable. i mentioned to my dad that i was thinking of getting a second job like some sort of low maintenance online data entry so i could do it on the down time of my first job and he was like “you should work on professional development instead. take classes. maybe see if you can get an MBA online. train skills that you’ll use in your next job. you don’t want to have one job forever, right?” which i hadn’t thought about. i’ve never had career goals and when i got this job all i was looking for was something officey that was pretty consistent. and i’ve been here almost 3 years which is the longest i’ve ever had a job (not including the three years i was an RA in college but that didn’t include summers so)

thinking about leaving is weird, but also being at the job has gotten weird and not just because i sit in my cube all day and do nothing. my best friend at work was having issues for months because she got a new supervisor who kept trying to micromanage her and thought she wasn’t doing work because my friend wasn’t doing the work in a visible way like the supervisor thought she should. my friend asked for a sabbatical or short term leave so she could take some time and get her shit together a bit and instead they fired her, citing that she was already on probation (which was a whole other bullshit thing. they wouldn’t let her transfer departments and wouldn’t tell her why but scheduled a meeting with HR that got pushed back 5 times over 2 months and when they eventually had the meeting they told her she was on probation because she was doing the work the same as she always had which worked for the old supervisor but not the new one. she got in trouble when i stopped by her desk to chat with her so we started doing weekly walks and all she could ever talk about was how she had another meeting with her supervisor where she asked for clear guidance and direction and got none). it’s been really weird at work without her and now one of my other best work friends is retiring. i still like my department except one, but i feel like all the people i like at work are slowly leaving. and if it’s just a job where i don’t like anyone and i don’t do anything then there’s no point in staying right? but also things might look up.

it’s still better than looking for a job but i’m not sure how long that’ll hold.

the other problem is that i’m bad at looking for jobs because i don’t have good quantifiable skills. i’m good at working with people and solving problems and doing a bunch of other things that don’t show up well on a resume. my friends make jokes about not knowing how i got this job but to be honest i’m not really sure how it happened either. they saw some sort of potential and i’m grateful for it because i sure do love acquiring money to live. and also a lot of the people. theoretically i could keep in touch with them but they all live in the next city or two over from me. and i have no idea how that’d go. when i lived with my sister i never did anything or went anywhere because i was always exhausted. maybe once i move into my new house i’ll have the energy to have friends at a slight distance. i hope so.

i also feel like maybe this isn’t really real problems. maybe i’ve been living in “get out of a bad situation” mode in my home life that once i finally got out of the bad situation, my brain didn’t know what to do and started looking for a new bad situation to worry about getting out of. maybe i’m overthinking it all because i’ve been living with my dad for almost seven weeks with another week and a half to go. even though it’s better than living with my sister by several orders of magnitude it’s still tiring being a long term guest in someone else’s house. i’m so ready to go home and move and finally live somewhere where comfort and contentment are on the table and readily available and then look at my life from there and see how i’m doing. and also then get a therapist because i will finally be able to look up therapists in the privacy of my own home with no one around (an inexplicable sticking point for my brain)

i can’t stop thinking about the “when it’s all okay i’m going to make a cherry pie post” because 1 cherry pie is my favorite and 2 it will all be okay when i move to the new house and it’ll be a little while before i can make a cherry pie from scratch but absolutely day 1 i am going to the grocery store to get a frozen one to cook so when i’m unpacking in my brand new house and putting my furniture together and may or may not have internet yet i will make the house smell like cherry pie and then i am going to eat it for dinner and probably breakfast the next day.

11 days.