#also employee discount on groceries which is nice

[kittykatinabag]

Bruh the "return-to-career-path-program" position I've been getting stringed along for like 2 months now through interviews and multi-week ghostings finally admitted that they can't find a good match for me in their program.

This is readily apparent to me by the second interview with the actual guy who would have been my boss when I asked him about what would happen if there hypothetically wouldn't be enough billable work and he did not have an answer for me.

And the recruiter lady had the gall to lie and say the interview I had went "very well" and that the guy I was talking to "very much enjoyed meeting me"

lol. lmao even.

Yeah, never applying for consulting jobs again.

[harmonictechnicality]

Grocery shopping with Steve Harrington should not be such an arousing task, but it is.

It so is.

Eddie swears on all of his calloused fingers that watching Steve strut down the cereal aisle with his little shopping cart is better than hand stuff.

Seriously. He always walks a few feet behind Steve, just to get the perfect view of that award winning ass (Eddie made him a trophy for it last Valentine’s Day - it’s on their mantle).

They’ve been together for what? Eight years? And it never gets any less sexy. Watching him reach for the granola bars on the top shelf, stretching his annoyingly tucked in shirt.

Eddie pretends to peer through imaginary opera binoculars as Steve reads over the nutrition label. Steve flips it over a couple of times because he always forgets which brand he likes better - the blue box or the red box. Eddie never reminds him that his favorite is the blue box because the whole charade is too adorable.

But once Steve figures it out, he tosses the blue box into the cart, and Eddie always lets out this rumbly throat sound at the sight.

Steve turns his neck to look at Eddie. “This again?”

“This always.” Eddie catches up to Steve’s side at the canned food section, slides his hand in Steve’s back pocket. “Never not this.”

Steve rolls his eyes and bends down to grab a few cans of chicken noodle soup. Which holy fuck, seeing his boyfriend at a 75° angle holding his favorite soup preference? Eddie might as well be packaged and placed on the shelf. Cause his mind is turning to liquid. He’s becoming a bowl of horny broth at the sight of Steve all domestic and bent over.

Eddie quickly flicks off his jacket because the entire store just warmed up exponentially. Global warming doesn’t have shit on Steve Harrington holding discounted canned goods.

Steve lightly smacks Eddie's arm. “Pull yourself together.”

“I’ll pull your self onto my self.”

“Really?” Steve snorts. “That was the best you could come up with?”

“Yeah well, the lower quadrant of my brain shut off the second I visualized your ass dimple in the middle of the bread aisle.” Eddie explains, untucking one edge of Steve’s shirt.

“Sorry for the inconvenience to your grocery-kink brain.”

“You should be.” Grocery kink. Steve with a shopping cart kink. Eddie has both, no doubt.

And it’s totally true. The bread aisle is usually where all hope is lost for him. Fluffy breads, kneading dough, squishy carbs all around them. Steve’s sides are just begging to be squeezed in that aisle (amongst other places). The deli employee outwardly gawks as Eddie pokes at Steve's waist, pinching any area of skin that he can get his hands on.

"Just making sure the products are nice and fresh!" Eddie shouts to the employee, hugging Steve firmly from behind. The poor meat-slicing guy laughs nervously before scurrying into the stock room. Honestly, Eddie should probably feel more sympathetic but it's so hard to focus on anything else when Steve kisses his cheek. Accepts his weird affections fully.

"These people don't get paid enough to put up with your shit." Steve is laughing as he says it though. Clearly not that bothered by all of the attention he's getting. That's part of the reason they work so well together. They're absolute attention whores, equally.

"Okay, cut it out." Steve wiggles out from Eddie's grasp. "You're gonna smush the sourdough."

Eddie freezes. Mulls over the consequences over the next thing he's about to say. "Is that an invitation?"

"Ew."

"You said it."

"You twisted it."

"How could I not?"

"You need help." Steve turns down the next aisle, still speaking as he stays on task. "Preferably the kind that involves a person with a legal pad and a couch that you can lie down on."

Eddie snickers, thoroughly loves it when Steve bites back. Makes the chase feel like it just started, even after all these years.

He keeps it together for roughly twelve more minutes, which is probably a record. Eddie also deserves a trophy on their mantle for that - he's gonna hint to Steve about investing in one whenever they get back home.

But the aisle where Eddie’s composure levels malfunction entirely, is the frozen food section. See, whenever Steve opens the door to get milk or eggs or whatever essential dairy item they need, a rush of frigid air blows out. Makes Steve’s already bitable skin all bumpy. His neck is covered in little chill bumps, all of his baby hairs stick up with his raised skin.

This is the only instance where Eddie mildly wishes he were a cannibal, just to give Steve a little chomp. A little nibble at his change in skin texture. Eddie's not even sure why the chill bumps send him over the edge but they do - every damn time.

“Baby, we’ve talked about this.” Steve says once Eddie gets him pinned up behind the corner freezer in the very back.

"There were no snoopy old ladies around this time." Eddie licks all the way up to Steve's ear, tugging gently around the edges. "I checked."

Steve huffs once before taking Eddie's face with both hands, kissing him deep. The rest of his body is cold from the surrounding freezers, but Steve's lips are warm. Hotter every time Eddie's mouth connects to his again. Steve still tastes like the nectarine samples they had back at the produce aisle. The taste drives Eddie to suck on Steve's bottom lip, drinking up any leftover flavor he can. Make Steve's natural pout even more plush than it normally is.

He untucks the rest of Steve's annoying polo - lets his hands slide all the way around, landing at the small of Steve's back. Eddie presses his fingers into Steve's skin, making him shiver. Causing more chill bumps to rise. Ones that he created this time.

They've kissed like this over a thousand times by now, but it always feels different. It’s a new kiss on a new day.

And Eddie couldn't give a single fuck if the deli employee or the snoopy old lady saw them making out next to the lactose-free cheese selection. He'd show off his stupidly gorgeous boyfriend everywhere, make a complete spectacle out of it every damn time.

Steve would let him do it too. Eddie bets that Steve would let him get away with a full anarchist uprising if he wanted. Which he does. Kinda. After they're done kissing, obviously.

They stop only because Steve lets his lips part and his fingers drag down Eddie's chest. And whenever Steve does that move, he's approximately thirty seconds away from moaning explicit words. Loudly too. Eddie knows all of Steve's physical indicators by heart now. It’s practically Eddie’s native language, he would speak only that one if he could.

Eddie takes the cue to stash all of his hormones away - goes back to dotting small pecks all over Steve's face. He needs to get Steve laughing instead of panting. It's safer that way. Eddie isn't trying to get arrested in a supermarket for christ's sake (although that would make one hell of a story for family reunions).

They're sort of blotchy, all pinks and reds, as they get to the checkout line. The cashier must think their complexion is permanently like this. Every time she’s seen them, they’re blushed-up like Vegas showgirls. Eddie is immune to the embarrassment of the situation. He's pretty sure Steve is too - he can tell by the way Steve is still leaning all over him while he fumbles to get his wallet open. All love-drunk and kittenish.

They head back to their car, and Eddie gets one last look at Steve's signature shopping cart strut. He sighs dramatically - crushed inside that he'll have to wait till their next grocery run to see it again.

"That's it." Steve says after Eddie sighs for the fifth time. "You're returning the cart."

"Why?"

"It's punishment for your ridiculous behavior."

"Rude."

"Necessary."

"Fine." Eddie snatches the handle and stomps all the way to the cart corral at the front of the store.

This is an outrage. Steve should know that his sexy cart-walking encore is the best part of Shopping Day. Seeing him walk further away before returning - always doing a little hair ruffle thing as he comes back. It's Eddie's own version of Baywatch and Steve is ruining it.

He slides into the passenger seat, slamming the car door to emphasize his anger.

"Steve Harrington, I'm so fucking mad at y-"

Eddie can't even finish his sentence before Steve's mouth is on his. It's a messier kiss this time, Steve is doing all the moving while Eddie tries to figure out what's going on. He pulls back, raising both eyebrows.

"I get it now." Steve answers Eddie's nonverbal 'what the fuck' question.

"Get what?"

"The shopping cart thing." Steve looks Eddie up and down. "I get it."

Holy shit. "Were you checking me out?"

Steve nods. Shrugs. Nods again.

"How much time do you think we have before the ice cream melts?" Steve motions to the backseat, tucking in his lips, hiding a smirk.

Oh. That. They're doing that.

"I'd say we have..." Eddie checks the nonexistent watch on his wrist. "More than enough time."

They haven't had desperate car sex like this since their first year of dating. It's so good that Eddie wonders why they stopped having desperate car sex.

For the rest of the car ride home, they're obnoxiously touchy-feely. Eddie's hand stays glued to Steve's overpriced jeans. The denim is much softer than any pair of jeans that Eddie owns. Maybe that's why they cost a fortune.

Steve takes one hand off the steering wheel whenever there's a straight shot - rubs his fingers over Eddie's knuckles. Bounces off his rings like stepping stones.

They're nauseating. If Eddie saw any other couple act like this, he'd throw tomatoes ate them. Taunt them mercilessly.

But Steve Harrington is the prototype that future scientists will use one day to build their genetically flawless human race. So Eddie is allowed to be as nauseating and revolting as he wants.

Their plan failed. The ice cream is completely melted by the time they get home. But who fucking cares? Eddie is dating someone with his same weird shopping cart kink and that's all he could ever ask for.

And besides, that just means that they’ll have to go grocery shopping again.

[metaldragoon]

60.8/2023 KM done for the year! My legs are a bit tired again so I told my self let’s do a short run today, and then as I started running I said lets go FAST so I did the first 2 KM at a 4:28 pace which is pretty good, especially on snow/ice, but my legs died as soon as I had to evade some lady with a tiny unleashed dog by going in to deep snow so the pace fell off quite a bit but still definitely my fastest run this year, but also a short one so it’s not a big deal.  Still nice to break the 5:00/KM barrier though.  All hot and sweaty, I gathered my wallet and keys and headed for the grocery store to buy some milk and wouldn’t you know it, they had six 2Ls expiring tomorrow for half off + on sale + my employee discount so now I have 12Ls of milk that by god I will kill myself drinking before I throw out.  At the grocery store some girl told me she was a fan of my hair which I didn’t expect to be a factual statement since it was just how I left it from my run and I haven’t shampoo or conditioned it in like four weeks because of my broken hand but I decided to take a selfie to share with the world while I have slight bit of confidence about it.  It goes well with the sweater I suppose.  Tomorrow I am getting more work done on a tattoo that I’ve been slowly getting done since like August and been dying to get finished so I can finally share it since I think it will be pretty well-received.

[stardustinmyhands]

8/30/24

I went to the food bank today. Got a lot of snacks, which saved a lot on my grocery bill. I had enough money for the grocery store to get everything on my list and a few extra items (only didn’t get butter sticks, cause it was on digital coupon and they were sold out of it). It was nice. Also my employee discount also helps a bunch. I also got 650 fuel points today, cause of membership I get for free being a Kroger employee. I got a huge block of cheese at the food too, which was a big help.

I bought this coffee cause they didn’t have the Nescafé blonde powder. This is pretty good, and the jar was filled to the very top. I may buy this a lot more now. Omg this stuff is really good, the more I drink. The whole jar costs as much as one latte from Starbucks.

Yesterday was IVIG. It went good but I had pain afterwards in my elbow.

Today I woke up with painful muscle tightness in my left lower back. My gf rubbed some nsaid cream on it. And I went and ran my errands. That majorly helped.

My lips are severely chapped and peeling. No matter what I put on them. It happened Sunday at work and it normally gets better in a day or two, but it’s been six days wtf?

My ears have been popping like crazy today. And I can feel fluid moving. My nose isn’t runny, but it feels stuffy.

Ok now I’m just gonna relax and finish my coffee.

[plant-shift]

I have a new job and I am loving it

As much as I do enjoy teaching, I don't do it over the summer. So, I needed to find a summer job. I think I might have found a second job period. It's at the Fresh Thyme that's about a five-minute walk from home (depending on traffic). Not only does it get me out of the house and away from all the snacky foods, but it is also really getting me off my butt!

I'm stocking the grocery part of the store. That means a lot of lifting and putting things away and moving. I am really liking making money while I'm getting exercise. One perk is getting an employee discount where I do most of my grocery shopping!

But that's also part of why I applied to work there. It's a great place to go shopping and it turns out it is an equally great place to work. It's so nice and calm and chill, and I know where a lot of things already are. And I'm learning more about where other things are and what all the store carries.

Also, they are happy to work with my teaching schedule when the school year starts up again. I am not mad at having more income. Especially since I can kind of zone out an hyperfocus on work, which gives my brain a rest. Yeah, I come home sore and stiff, but I'm not mentally drained. It's really nice.

All of that is to say that I'm hoping to post more expeditions into plant-based foods now that I'm surrounded by options during the week!

[bryce-schiff-macro-economics]

Ch. 12

The costs of inflation include shoe-leather costs, menu costs, increased variability of relative prices, unintended changes in tax liabilities, confusion and inconvenience, and arbitrary redistributions of wealth. I’m not sure one is more important than another, but I think that menu costs are probably the most important for us to be aware of. I think its super important to understand how much the cost of production will change for businesses. If they do not pay close attention to this, it could result in significant profit losses, and thus, cutting costs of capital like labor. 

Of course, it is nice to have inflation and deflation in the middle, relatively. In our present case, it would be nice for a little bit of deflation, but in some instances, it is not good. Deflation can cause some serious economic problems such as little to no growth, capital cuts, and employment issues. When there isn’t that much money circulating throughout the system, people have less money to spend and employers have less money to pay their employees. This causes massive wage cuts and lay-offs, which is not good for the economical well-being. At drastic measures, both inflation and deflation are not good. However, I think that extreme deflation is probably worse because it causes more capital costs than inflation. 

It does make me consider my economic choices, but not too much. I have been more conscious of saving money and being efficient with my gas and time. I’ve been trying to save up gas points by shopping at select grocery stores. This takes a good amount of money out of my nice gas bill. It’s also caused me to be more aware of discounts and sales at stores. I now look for sale items at the grocery store. Even if it saves me a few cents, this still adds up drastically. My parents always consider economic well-being. They are always studying how the U.S. economy is doing and what to prepare for. They specifically told me that money would be tighter this year than in previous years due to inflation.

[lovelylunarwriting]

Jaemin Soulmate!AU

Jaemin has a reputation as a “cool” kind of guy, which is why he wears bracelets to hide the words permanently etched on his left wrist

“Wait- if it’s not butter, then what is it?”

Jisung and Haechan are notorious for giving him shit for having a ‘weird’ soulmate, but Jaemin thinks it’s kind of funny, honestly

Like great question dude but,,, why are you asking me this

Jaemin’s apartment is around the corner from a little family-owned grocery store that he’s frequented since his high school days.

He’s very much a regular, to the point of the owner being like “Jaemin…. Please just work here. You already know where everything is”

To which Jaemin has to respectfully decline, because he wants to focus on his dancing and singing, and working too much would get in the way of practicing.

That, however, does not stop the old man from sending customers with questions to Jaemin whenever he comes in.

Because Jaemin is too polite to be like “uhh I don’t work here, good luck”, he always ends up helping them

But secretly, he doesn’t mind. He thinks that maybe one day, his soulmate will be the next one to ask him a question.

Even after repeated questions about “how much does this cost?”, “when do you guys open tomorrow?”, “when will the next shipment of bok choy be in?”, he still isn’t terribly bothered.

The other employees chastise the boss for sending customers to Jaemin, but the old man is always like “he knows this store better than you all do. That’s why he gets a discount higher than yours”

Employee discount: 15 percent off all merchandise

Na Jaemin discount: 20 percent off all merchandise

It’s an unspoken rule amongst employees that Na Jaemin gets a discount, but they are NEVER to mention it to him! He knows that business has been rough recently and wouldn’t accept the generosity, but the boss thinks Jaemin is too skinny and wants him to be able to afford to eat well.

Now lovely reader, this is where you come in. You recently got a job at this grocery store but you work in the back, so you have never seen the famous “Na Jaemin” that all your fellow employees chat about so frequently.

Coworker #1: “Ugh, he’s like SO dreamy”

Coworker #2: “I know right? He’ll have no trouble becoming an idol at this rate”

Meanwhile you’re like “lol what who? Also where is the printer for printing clearance labels”

You specifically applied for the back of house position because you did not want to talk to people.

It’s not that you’re antisocial by any means- honestly it’s the opposite. It’s just that you have the tendency to say whatever you’re thinking with absolutely no filter.

So in the past when more…. challenging… customers have talked down to you, you gave back the same energy without thinking.

Management was not happy,,, so you were like “mmmm maybe I should just keep to myself and everyone would be happier”

One day though, it seems that you’re shit out of luck.

Your work bestie calls you at 3 in the morning on your day off saying that her kid has a fever and she’s gotta stay home and take care of him.

You have no plans other than generally being a lazy lump at home, and she’s always had your back at work, so you’re like “girl don’t worry about it, I got your shift. I’ll make some chicken noodle soup for him too”

To which she’s like “bitch if I hadn’t found my soulmate already I would’ve snatched you up T-T”

You giggle and tell her to try and get some rest- both her and her kid.

And then sleep another blissful 4 hours before rolling in for the 8am shift.

When you get there, boss man is like “ayeee so you’re covering for her shift which is stocking shelves, are you gonna be okay doing that?”

You: “Ahaha yeah it’ll be fine~ just please don’t send customers to me oh my gosh”

Boss Man: “Don’t worry, I just saw Jaemin walk in. I’ll send them to him”

You: “... who is Jaemin”

Boss Man: “He’s my FAVORITE!! Remember that!”

You: “Oh, okay!! Yes sir!”

You’re like fifteen minutes into your shift and you’re already on edge because all you’ve done so far is dodge all the old ladies who are shopping this early.

No actual products have been put on the shelves yet, or at least not by your hands.

Settling down in the dairy section, you relax a bit and start putting cold products in the cold shelves fixed to the wall.

And of course- things are in the wrong place. Why would anyone put anything back where it belongs?

Picking up a product, you glance at the label out of sheer boredom more than anything.

“Wait- if it’s not butter, then what is it?”, you say to yourself.

Or so you think.

“Yeah, that is like the one question I don’t know how to answer”, you hear a masculine voice say from behind.

You spin around and look up into the man’s face.

And oh boy is that a nice looking face.

“Oh I’m sorry, I- WAIT”, you start, before you realize what he said.

Grabbing his left wrist, you push up the bracelets to reveal what you’d just said. Then you drop his hand out of sudden shyness, and because it’s not cool just to grab people.

“Do… do you mind if I look at your wrist as well?”, he asks quietly.

You roll up your sleeve and present him with your arm. He delicately wraps his fingers around your wrist and flips it over to read the words written”

He drops your wrist and sinks into a squat, flopping his arms over his head and looking at the ground.

“Oh my gosh why did I say something so lame…”

“Umm,,, to be fair,,, I did ask you about butter so by comparison yours isn’t that bad,,,,”, you try to comfort him, and he lifts his head up to meet your gaze.

“You mean that? It wasn’t like the lamest thing you’ve ever heard?”

“Oh I’ve heard much lamer things, don’t worry!”, you say with a cheery smile that contrasts your words entirely.

He stands up again and clasps your hands in his. With a look of determination he looks straight into your soul and asks:

“What time do you get off work?”

You tell him, but let him know that you’ll be busy after work making chicken noodle soup for your coworker and her son.

He’s like “oh you can cook?” and you’re like “lol no but I’m gonna die trying”

He writes his phone number on your arm (next to your soulmate tattoo) and is like “text me when you’re done with work and I’ll swing by and walk you home and maybe I can help you cook”

And quickly clarifies “ONLY IF YOU’RE COMFORTABLE WITH ME IN YOUR HOME, I UNDERSTAND IF BECAUSE WE JUST MET YOU-”

You’re like “dude,,,, it’s fine, we are literally destined to be together. Also if you try anything I’ll just beat you up so it’s chill”

Looking at his watch, he sprints makes a beeline for the checkout counter, going on about he’s gonna be so later and Haechan’s never gonna let it go if he’s late twice in a row, and something else but by that point he’s so far away from the dairy aisle you can only hear muffled sounds where words should be.

The next several hours could not go by ANY SLOWER.

Starting off today, you figured the day would go by quickly because you’d be preoccupied figuring out how to do something new, but now all you can think about is pretty soulmate boy.

And how he never mentioned his name, but to be fair, it was a rather quick exchange.

What feels like centuries later, your shift is coming to a close so you grab the ingredients you the internet tells you you need for the soup and head to your favorite cashier.

Somehow the front of the store is both quiet and abnormally loud for this time of night.

“Jaemin’s been waiting there for fifteen minutes? Do you think he’s waiting for someone?”

“Maybe he needs to talk to the boss? Usually he’d just ask one of us to grab him but he’s just standing outside”

“Ugh it’s so cold, should we tell him to come inside?”

You glance over to the crowd of coworkers towards the entrance and break out into a smile.

“Just keep ringing me up, I’ll be right back!”, you tell the cashier and fast walk past the small crowd.

Peeping your head out the door, you greet him.

“Are you cold? Come inside, I’m almost done”

“Oh okay, should I wait by the door though?”

“No, come with me. I wanna show you off~”, you instruct and he raises an eyebrow, but plays along.

Holding open the door for him, he scuffles his way in and shyly offers his hand.

Gladly, and with a pounding heart, you lock your fingers between his.

“Your hands are freezing, dude”

“Shhh it’s fine. I was trying to be cool, okay”, he jokes with you as you walk back to the register

Ringing up your items, the cashier is looking at you and him with raised eyebrows, and you’re just like “shut up jessica I’ll explain tomorrow”

The two of you walk back to your apartment and spend the rest of the night cooking and talking about everything and nothing.

The more you learn about Jaemin, the more confident you are that the universe got this one right.

Even when most things feel unclear, you know this person is someone you can always rely on.

(also when you bring your sick work bestie the soup, Jaemin insists on tagging along and she’s like “omg Y/N that’s JAEMIN” and you’re like “I KNOW” and he’s like “hi here’s some soup, also why do you know my name”

[slapshot-to-the-heart]

Breakable Heaven (pt. I) - p.l. dubois

As promised, here’s the first part of Breakable Heaven! I’m really excited for this one, there’s so many things I can’t wait for you all to read. This chapter is more setup and background, but I promise it’s all worth it! I’d love it if you reblogged (helps me know people like my work!) or pop into my inbox and let me know what you think! I read all the tags :)

part I part ii part iii part iv

June 4 (thurs)

Laurel clipped her pager back onto her scrubs, leaning over the counter of the nurses’ station. “You ready to go grab lunch?” She had just finished changing the bandages and administering pain medication for a little boy who was recovering from a heart surgery, and was looking forward to getting off her feet for a few minutes. The PICU floor was quiet, only about half of the rooms being filled, and there were no pressing matters that required her attention. If something drastic changed in the next half an hour, she always had her pager. 

Madeline looked up from her chair, where she was finishing up filling in a patient’s chart. “Sounds good,” she said, letting their charge nurse know that they were headed down. Madeline Peltier had been one of the first people to introduce themselves to Laurel when she started; having only been on the unit for two weeks herself, she was still getting a handle on the reins and was more than willing to show Laurel around. 

Madeline was also one of the few on the floor who was just as comfortable in English as she was in French. French had been Laurel’s foreign language through college, but she was made rudely aware upon her move to Montréal that the pronunciation and slang of Canadian French was very different from the Standard French of Madame Anderson’s rural Minnesota classroom. Her grasp of the language was good enough to take the Québec nursing licensure exam — which wasn’t even offered in English — but the spoken dialect was proving much more difficult to pick up. They walked down to the cafeteria, on the second floor, grabbing some sandwiches before swiping their ID badges for the employee discount. 

“I still think they should give us free food,” Madeline said moodily, unscrewing her water bottle and taking a sip. 

Laurel laughed. “When hell freezes over, maybe. Doctor’s lounge usually has some pretty nice stuff set out, or at least that’s what they say. Pity our cards don’t let us in, I’m not above identity theft.” Madeline snorted into her sandwich. 

“What are you doing this weekend?” Madeline asked a few minutes later, starting to peel an orange. 

“Uh, not much?” Laurel said. “Getting my papers together to resign my lease in a few weeks, grocery shopping, but nothing big. It’s been a long few shifts this week and I’m mostly just looking forward to taking it easy. Why?”

“If you’re up to it,” Madeline shrugged, “Patrice and I are going out for dinner Saturday night and we’d love for you to join us.” Patrice was Madeline’s long-time boyfriend, they started dating in university and had been together ever since. 

Laurel rolled her eyes. “Madeline, thank you for the offer, but I don’t want to keep being your third wheel.” 

Madeline let out a conspiratorial grin. Oh no, Laurel thought. This can’t be good. “As it would so happen,” she said, “you wouldn’t be third wheeling. One of Patrice’s friends is back in the city for a few months, and I think you two might hit it off,” she sing-songed. Madeline had been trying to set her up from practically the moment they met; whether it was someone from her gym, one of the critical care fellows, or apparently, her boyfriend’s childhood friend. They were always nice guys, but nothing had ever stuck for more than a date or two. 

---

Twelve hour shifts meant that, at least on work days, there was no way Laurel was going to have the emotional or physical capacity to make herself a real dinner. She’d order in occasionally, but it more common to just pull together something quick like a frozen pizza or grab whatever leftovers she could find in the fridge. Yesterday’s chicken and rice it was, then. Sticking it in the microwave, Laurel opened the door to her balcony, letting Piper out to use the bathroom. Piper was an eight-month-old chocolate lab, the love of her life who she had adopted just after the new year. Laurel had always grown up with dogs; back in Minnesota she had Jackson and Lucy, and she had been missing them more than a little bit since moving to Canada. Piper was incredible. Intelligent, loyal, and so friendly that even her neighbor’s notoriously picky five-year-old son had taken a shine to her. She wolfed down her food, grabbed Piper’s leash and her water bottle, and headed out the door. 

June 5 (fri)

The intricacies of language were hard. And, somehow, learning the intricacies of a language you already knew was even harder. Laurel was trying her damndest to pick up Québecois French as fast as humanly possible, but while she could conjugate l’imparfait in her sleep, the accent and vocabulary were what was really throwing her off. But she intended on making a life in Montréal, and staying as long as she could, so there really wasn’t any option but to hit the books. Immersion worked for some people, and thank God she knew the medical terminology to communicate with her patients and their families, but it wasn’t quite the same when she was struggling through telling the mechanic her car needed an oil change. In a perfect world she’d have someone to help her one-on-one, but she didn’t want to ask Madeline for that big of a favor. And while she made decent money at the hospital — she could afford her own apartment and had a little left over every month to put into savings — it was nowhere near enough to pay for a tutor. So Duolingo, and podcasts, and Youtube lessons it was. 

Letting out a groan, Laurel leaned her head into her hands, shutting her laptop. She wasn’t going to make any progress being this frustrated. She bent down to scratch Piper, whose favorite spot for naps was a blanket right beside Laurel’s desk, between the ears, pulling her leash and collar off of their book by her bedroom door. Piper’s ears perked up, and soon enough she was running around the apartment wagging her tail as fast as it could go, a slightly exasperated but nevertheless laughing Laurel following. She finally managed to clip on her leash; at fifty pounds, Piper still had a little bit of growing left to do, but she had already proven she was more than capable of bending the will of a full-grown and otherwise capable 23-year-old woman. 

She had discovered Parc Saint-François-d’Assise a few weeks after adopting Piper, and had thanked her lucky stars for finding a dog park so close to her apartment. Having a schedule like hers meant that she couldn’t always get her to a weekly training or obedience class — plus, the French that she did know certainly didn’t include ‘heel’ — so the time spent socializing was well-appreciated. It was only a fifteen minute walk, and Piper was good enough on a leash that she only stopped once to bark at a squirrel in one of the many birch trees that lined the street. The park was an acre or two, small enough that she could see all the way across and keep an eye on Piper as she let her off-leash, but big enough that there was more than enough room for all the animals. It wasn’t particularly crowded that Friday; Laurel was confused for a moment before she remembered that most people were busy at 11 AM on a weekday. There were a few families, with kids out for the summer from school, and a man playing in the far corner with his two small dogs, but not much else. 

Laurel leaned down, unclipping the leash from Piper’s collar, and gave the chocolate lab a scratch on the head. “Have fun, girl!” Piper never needed much encouragement, and took off running almost before Laurel had even wrapped up her leash. Rolling her eyes and laughing, she picked up her phone. A text from Allison, one of her only friends in the city aside from Madeline, inviting her out for her birthday next week. Madeline, giving her the address for the restaurant the next night. The Duolingo owl, threatening her with bodily harm if she didn’t log her language progress for the day. She was so engrossed in checking her email that she didn’t hear the shout for her to look out, or the two bulldogs barreling towards her at full speed, until they had knocked her off her feet and she landed straight on her ass. 

“Desolé. Vas-tu bien?” The man asked, holding out a hand and helping her up. Laurel nodded, brushing the dirt off her jeans. 

“Ouais, ouais. Pas de problème, pas de mal. Ils sont chiens, non?” 

He chuckled, patting the smaller of the two bulldogs, which had decided to take a break from accosting passers-by to get petted. “C’est vrai.” They talked for another minute or two before saying goodbye, but she could have sworn it was an hour. 

Walking Piper home half an hour later, Laurel was struck with two realizations. The mystery man — bulldog dad, as she had started calling him in her internal monologue — had very possibly the prettiest eyes she’d ever seen in her life, and she’d be cursing herself for the next week for not getting his number. 

June 6 (sat)

Saturday meant Laurel had a day off, but more importantly, Saturday meant she didn’t have to set her alarm for 5:30 and could actually wake up at a semi-normal hour. Her internal clock didn’t wake her up until half past seven; even then, it was Piper’s soft barks that finally got her up, throwing on a pait of shorts, and leading her out to the courtyard down the hallway to use the bathroom before coming back to her apartment and throwing open the fridge doors. No 7 AM shift meant that she mercifully had enough time to make a proper breakfast. On shift days, there never seemed to be enough time to actually sit down and eat, and Laurel usually ended up just having a quick bowl of cereal or some overnight oats and making a protein shake to drink on the drive over. Eggs, bread, yogurt, a peach she had picked up from the farmer’s market. 

After the bread was done toasting and her tea was finished steeping, she gingerly carried the food out to the balcony, placing it on the table as Piper trotted out behind her. Laurel crunched her toast with one hand as she flipped the pages of a book with the other, a Shirley Chisholm biography that Victoria, her best friend from high school, had recommended her. It was almost an hour later when she finally found a good place to stop. As much as she may have liked to just camp out on her balcony all day and blow through the rest of the book, her pantry was crying out for a grocery run and she was running desperately low on ice cream. 

---

The dinner reservation was at 7, and by 6:30 Laurel was almost ready to leave. Her blue skirt fanned out on the couch as she sat killing time on her phone, tapping the floor nervously with the same pair of block heels that she’d worn to her university graduation. The restaurant wasn’t far from her apartment building, so a few minutes later, she decided to go, leaving Piper with a pat on the head and plenty of food in her bowl. Laurel laughed to herself on the way over, her eyes flickering over the skyline as she walked alongside the St. Lawrence River. 

It’s like what she had told Madeline over and over again, every time she tried to set her up on a blind date with a friend of a friend. She wasn’t actively looking for a relationship but wouldn’t be opposed to it. Whatever happens, happens. Biting her lip, Laurel decided that even if she didn’t hit it off with whatever guy Madeline was trying to set her up, even if things go horribly wrong and he’s the exact opposite of what she’s looking for in a partner, she’ll get a free meal and, hopefully, a new friend.

Laurel hadn’t been told much about her blind date, or anything, really. She didn’t even know his name. From what she had been able to figure out, he was from the area but didn’t work in Canada most of the year — so maybe he was in business? All Madeline told her was that he was tall, attractive, and had a dog. Or was it two? She honestly couldn’t remember. She trusted her and Patrice’s judgement, so if he had gotten their stamp of approval, it was good enough for her. She grabbed her phone out of her bag as she neared the restaurant, letting Madeline know she was almost there and asking where to meet her. She told the hostess she was meeting some friends, and Madeline walked around the corner less than a minute later. “Hi, love!” she said, reaching out and wrapping Laurel in a warm hug. “We’re over this way.” Laurel followed her around the corner and past the bar to a four-seater against the wall. She slid into the seat closest to the wall, leaving a space empty. 

“He should be back in a minute, just ran to the bathroom,” Patrice said, nodding towards the vacant seat and referring to her mystery man. A minute passed, Laurel scanning the wine list, before Madeline threw her hand up in greeting. 

“Salut, PL!” When Laurel looked up, she almost dropped her menu.

 “Oh my God!” The stranger — PL’s — eyes widened in recognition. “You’re the bulldog dad!” 

He chuckled, rounding the table to greet her with a kiss on the cheek. Left, then right. It had taken Laurel a while to get used to; even going to university in Toronto, cheek kissing was practically obsolete, but that changed very quickly upon her move to Montréal. “I am. Pierre-Luc Dubois, good to meet you properly this time.” 

Madeline looked between the two, clearly confused. “You know each other?” 

Laurel shook her head. “Not really, no. His dogs ran into me at the park yesterday when I was there with Piper, we talked for a minute or two.” 

Pierre nodded in affirmation. “So, Piper. The chocolate lab’s yours then?” 

“My pride and joy.” 

June 13 (sun)

 Over the next week and a half, it became more and more common for Laurel to meet up with the group on the weekend, or one of her off days, or really whenever she had spare time. She had learned that Pierre-Luc was a hockey player, Patrice explaining that they had played atom league together growing up and the friendship had somehow stuck. Come to think of it, he had looked a little familiar. The University of Minnesota Duluth was less than an hour drive from her hometown, and besides being the college that the majority of the 50% of college-bound graduates of her high school went to, it also had one of the best hockey programs in the country. So she knew the sport, followed enough to be informed, and had even become a de facto Maple Leafs fan from her time in Toronto. 

Sometimes Madeline and Laurel would bring another friend from the hospital along, sometimes it was just the four of them. Once, a Sunday afternoon coffee meetup turned into just Laurel and Pierre-Luc; Patrice had come down with a bad cold and Madeline was staying behind to look after him. If she was being honest, it was far less awkward than she had anticipated. Pierre had insisted on buying her iced capp, and they had settled in a corner booth, sharing a box of Timbits. 

“Patrice mentioned you’re from the U.S., somewhere in the Midwest?” Pierre asked, sipping his coffee. 

She nodded. “Cloquet, Minnesota,” Laurel sighed, “where there is exactly one hotel, one high school, and life revolves around the mines.” 

Pierre sucked in. “That sounds...interesting,” he said diplomatically. 

Laurel laughed. “It’s okay, you don’t have to mince words. The people are nice, if you think like they do, and the scenery is gorgeous, but…” She gathered her thoughts. “It’s not the place you can really dream big, you know?” He nodded. “Neither of my parents went to college, my mom’s a receptionist at the elementary school and my dad works in the mines. I knew by the time I was in high school that I wanted something more. There was just nothing for me there, and I didn’t ever want to feel as trapped and beaten down as some people I know.” 

Pierre leaned back in his chair. “Do you go back often?” 

“Once a year, maybe twice?” Laurel said, shaking her head. “I’ve only got a few good friends back there, and trust me, they’re much more excited to come to big-city Canada than I would be to go back to a town of 12,000 people.” 

“Fair enough.” 

Conversation between them flowed easily, so easily that before she knew it, two hours had gone by and he had to leave for a skate. As she walked back to the metro, Laurel couldn’t help but shake the feeling that the two hours she had spent with Pierre had felt more like a date than any she’d been on since moving to Montréal a year ago. But it couldn’t have been a date, because it wasn’t supposed to be. Right?

 June 15 (tues)

 It was half past seven on Tuesday, and Laurel was just getting home from work. She loved her job, genuinely, but twelve hour shifts were no joke. Spinning her key ring around her finger, she stopped in the mailroom, unlocking her box and fishing out the stack of envelopes that had accumulated in the two days since she’d last checked. Walking over to the elevators, she held the bundle in one hand as the other punched in her button to the third floor. Laurel flipped through the envelopes as the doors opened. Water bill, bank statement, letter from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada. Hang on. Laurel stopped at the last envelope, running her finger under the flap as she turned her key in the lock, opening the door with her hip and letting it slam shut behind her. 

She had applied a little over a month ago for her permanent residency card, which she had been assured by everyone she asked would be a relatively easy and painless process. “You’re a nurse, and a good one. I could use ten of you,” her charge nurse had stated. “You went to school here, you have a Canadian degree and a Canadian license. There’s no reason they would cause you any trouble,” Madeline had said. And she had done her due diligence, double-checked every piece of information, checked off every document on the list. Done everything she was supposed to do. So when she unfolded the paper, the words shocked her. 

Denied. Laurel brought her hand shakily up to her mouth as her eyes raced down the letter. No explanation was given, all she was told was that her application had been rejected and she had until September 17, when her work visa expired, to leave the country. The first thing Laurel did was frantically grab her laptop, seeing if there was some way she could apply for a visa extension, but the deadline had passed; she’d have to go back to the consulate in Minneapolis and try to re-apply from there, but her chances weren’t good if she’d already been rejected. The second thing she did was collapse on the floor, Piper nosing herself under her arm, and cry. 

June 16 (wed)

When the group met up for lunch the next day, Madeline noticed something was off about Laurel almost immediately. Normally someone who was hyper-focused on the task at hand, she was stirring her straw around in her glass, nibbling at a piece of bread and answering questions shortly if at all. “What’s up?” she asked carefully, catching Laurel’s eye as she tried to busy herself with straightening her napkin. There wasn’t really a way she could get out of answering that one. 

“I, uh, I got a letter yesterday,” she said. Pierre and Patrice stopped their conversation. All eyes were on her. “From immigration services. They told me,” her eyes pricked with tears, “they told me my PR application was denied, and I only have until the middle of September before I have to leave.” 

“Like, leave the country?” Pierre asked. She nodded. “But can’t you renew your visa or something?” 

“No, I looked into everything.” Laurel said in frustration, shaking her head. “There’s not enough time for it to be processed, I’d have to go back and reapply in the States, and even then the chances aren’t great.” 

Madeline leaned over, wrapping Laurel up in a hug. “Oh, Laur. I’m so sorry,” she said. “You don’t deserve this.” 

“It’s just hard,” Laurel started, “knowing that there’s nothing there for me back home. That’s the whole reason why I came to Canada in the first place, to get away. To get out. I’d have to retake all my licensure exams and find a new job and I don’t want to have to start all over when that’s not at all what I planned for. I thought I’d stay. I thought this was going to be my home” 

“I can call my friend who’s a lawyer, see if he’s got any ideas?” Patrice offered. 

Laurel smiled weakly “Thanks, Patrice, but I really don’t think they’d be able to do much. I was on the website for hours, and there’s like two ways I wouldn’t be kicked out of the country. And I don’t think I’m going to be able to give birth by September 17,” she said, letting out a watery laugh. 

“You’d have to marry someone or something to stay,” Madeline said. 

“Yeah, that’s the only other way it was going to happen,” Laurel agreed. “But seeing as how I’m obscenely single, I don’t see that happening…” She trailed off. 

“I’d marry you,” Pierre said suddenly, shrugging. 

Laurel’s head whipped to her side. “You’d what?” 

“I’d marry you. We’re both single, by all accounts you’re an amazing nurse and deserve to stay. We get married, stay ‘together’ for a few years until you get your citizenship, and then tragically inform the citizenship and immigration people that while we tried, it just didn’t work out, and get a divorce. Easy peasy.” 

Laurel almost burst out laughing, the idea was so ridiculous. She almost couldn’t wrap her head around what he was offering to do. He couldn’t be serious. Right? 

---

Laurel slung her arm over her head, body tangled up in bedsheets. According to her phone, it was well past one. She couldn’t sleep. She had tried rain sounds, counting sheep, drinking a cup of chamomile tea, but nothing was working; she just wasn’t able to still her mind. Honestly, she couldn’t stop thinking about lunch earlier. More specifically, what Pierre had said. 

As much of a bad person as it may have made her sound, the more she thought about Pierre’s offer, the more it made sense. He was incredibly attractive, so it wouldn’t be hard to fake a marriage to him for a few years. She really didn’t keep in contact with anyone from back home in Cloquet aside from her family and a few friends from high school, so it’s not like there would really be anyone to blow her cover. And she really, really wanted to stay in Canada. It wasn’t just the scenery, or the general human decency of everyone, or even the universal healthcare that pushed her to stay. She had fallen in love with the people, the city, and didn’t want to go down without a fight. 

Rolling over, she grabbed her phone from her nightstand, pulling up Pierre’s contact. Hey, she texted. Laurel immediately cursed herself as the three dots popped up on his side. Hey? She was going to ask this man to marry her and the best she could come up with was hey? He wrote back immediately. Hey. You’re up late, what’s up? Laurel took a deep breath. How serious were you about offering to marry me? His second response was even faster than the first. As a heart attack.

[skzsauce01]

The Trials and Tribulations of Birthday Presents

Synopsis: Chan’s birthday is only three hours away, and you, his loving girlfriend, still don’t have a gift for him. Modern magic AU because it’s October.

Warning: one instance of calling and driving flying (please don’t do this!)

Word Count: 2.9k

Pairing: fem!reader x Bang Chan

What does one find in a magic shop?

Fat wax candles, decks of tarot cards, and antique spellbooks, just to name a few. If the shop is particularly well stocked, there may be rare potion ingredients like bottled lightning and threads of moonlight.

Despite all the fascinating things available, the very magic shop you work at has nothing for your particular dilemma: a suitable gift for your beloved. In other words, there are only three hours left before your boyfriend’s birthday, and you still have no idea what to get him.

“What do I do, what do I do?” you mutter to yourself.

The minute hand of giant clock face mounted to the oak paneling wall ticks, reminding you that time is of the essence and something you have naught of. If only you knew a time wizard; then you could allow yourself to panic and avoid the problem for a few hours longer.

The black cat perched at the register counter beside you flicks his tail, making the pages flutter. “We do have an aisle dedicated to gifts, you know.”

“There’s nothing good there!” you wail.

Glass candle holders and generic happiness potions don’t scream “I cherish you and the day of your birth greatly!” Though the specialty potions shop across town could probably make you one that literally screams that…

You bat the absurd idea and the cat’s tail away, making it hiss at you as a result. “Isn’t your shift over, Minho? It’s past nine.”

“Oh!” He shifts back into human form and cheerfully hops off the counter, making the floorboards creak. “Lucky me. Good night then.”

“No, wait! Help me! I’m sorry I was mean!” you pathetically call after him. “Minho!”

He turns around and starts heading back to the register. When he sees how relieved you look, he heads for the door again. “Good luck!”

You do your best impression of a banshee in an attempt to stop him, but he doesn’t flinch. “Give some advice at least! Please!”

“Be spontaneous,” he says as he opens the door. “Stop being so practical and get Chan something fun.”

The door swings shut, and Black Cat Minho waves a paw at you before darting down the street. The store goes quiet, and you stand by the counter with your head in your hands.

“But I don’t know how…”

One of your finer attributes is being practical. Plenty of people, namely all your friends who have received presents from you, even say that you are overly practical. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; it just means that they get new brewing stands and gift cards to the local plant nursery for birthdays rather than plushies and balloons.

But Chan’s has to be different and special, which means you have to be reckless and spontaneous and everything you are not.

While you pace around the store, looking for something you would never even consider buying, Changbin steps out of a nearby shadowy corner. He mumbles a hello and brushes his jacket sleeve, no doubt to rid himself of any pieces of darkness from his journey.

“Hey, Changbin,” you brightly greet, walking closer to him with your hands behind your back.

He gives you a strange look at your sudden chipperness and tries to get away. Unfortunately for him, he chose to arrive in a corner, and you easily trap him in.

“How was shadow travelling? Great? That’s great. Anyway, do you think Chan would like this?” You hold up a mesh bag full of stuffed mice, taxidermied ones and plushie ones included.

“What is he even going to do with those? Can I go now?”

You let him pass. “So, it’s perfect then!” Merrily, you take the bag with you to the register and start applying your employee discount code.

Changbin, who has not started working, hovers around. “Wait, is this what you’re getting him for his birthday?”

You stop pressing buttons and fearfully look at him. “Why are you saying it like that?”

You can always count on Changbin on being blunt with you, but it still stings when he answers. “He’ll like it because you gave it to him, but he doesn’t need dead mice. He works with summonings, and what demon likes already dead mice?“

“I’m trying a new approach,” you indignantly say. “No practical presents.”

“Okay, but he doesn’t want dead mice either.”

He makes a fair point. You cancel the purchase and leave the bag on the counter.

“What did you get him?” you ask. You mournfully scan the inventory pages, and the words feel like they’re taunting you. “Crystal ball? Gilded owl cage? Velvet-lined coffin?”

He laughs at your guesses and shows you a picture on his phone. An image of a koala plushie holding a vial of something shimmery stares back at you.

“Is that… dust bunny dust?” you say, pinching the screen to zoom in. “But you can literally find that under your bed.”

“When we were fifteen, he said— never mind, it’s an inside joke.” He tucks his phone back into his pocket and picks up the stuffed mice to put back on the shelf. “Why don’t you get him flowers and chocolate?”

“But that’s so… pedestrian. And more of an anniversary thing.” You sigh and wave him off. “I’ll let you get to work now.”

However, since the shop is quite empty in the late hours — who wants to go shopping when all the best things happen at night — Changbin soon returns by your side to help you solve your issue. You scroll through old text messages between you and Chan to find something noteworthy. You’re starting to reconsider Changbin’s earlier suggestion.

“What if I get him a birthday cake and flowers?” you try after finding a link to a boutique bakery from the town across the river. “But a really special cake and really special flowers.”

“Isn’t that too ‘pedestrian?’” he jokes. At your defeated expression, he pats your shoulder reassuringly. “I think he’ll like it. It’s a little bit practical as well.”

You suppose Changbin is still little miffed by the lint roller and darkness duster you gave him for his birthday.

“Is anything still open though?” You do a search for the local bakeries and flower shops, but as expected, most are already closed. On the bright side, you do know a florist who may not be too appalled if you knock on his door at this hour. “Do you think Jeongin will mind if I barge in for flowers?”

“Yes.”

As for the cake, a simple grocery store cake won’t do. The 24-hour grocery store, luckily, lives up to its name and is still open, which means you can make your own. “And do you think I can make a cake before midnight?”

“No.”

“I will switch those two answers around.” You grab your broomstick from the stand and are ready to leave when you remember that you are still supposed to be working. “Oh wait.”

Changbin shakes his head and nudges you to go ahead. “I can handle it.”

“I can’t just leave early! I’ll get fired!” You nervously drum your fingers on the countertop. You need a new plan, stat. “How about no cake? Agh! But just flowers is… agh!”

He laughs — how dare he! — at your panic. “Jihyo will understand. You’re also the only one who doesn’t fight when you get the witching hour shift.”

Your boss is quite nice and understanding, especially about things regarding relationships. After all, she was an apprentice for a witch specializing in love potions before she decided to open the shop. You hurriedly run for the door as the giant, looming clock ticks again.

“Thanks and good night!” you call over your shoulder to Changbin, who wishes you luck in return.

With some difficulty, you light the lantern dangling at the front of your broomstick. It’s dangerous of you, but you dial Jeongin’s phone number while flying to the grocery store and hope he picks up. If there were actual traffic laws for flying, you are certain you are breaking all of them. The dial tone is cut off, and Jeongin barely gets out a hello before you interrupt.

“I need flowers!” you shout over the rush of the wind. The neon sign of the store slowly blinks, and you nosedive down, scattering a cloud of vampire bats as you descend, almost dropping your phone in the process. “For Chan! So the best ones you have!”

“What kind of flowers?” You hear the sound of water from his end, so he must be tending to his night plants.

“Did you not hear me?” You grab a shopping cart, throw your broomstick in, and haphazardly snatch cake ingredients off the shelves. “The best ones you have! Also, can I borrow your kitchen?”

“That’s not what I— never mind. Sure, you can use my kitchen.”

“Thank you!” you chirp as you grab the last carton of milk. “See you soon.”

You hear Jeongin mumble a goodbye and hang up. Your cart is filled, and you’re certain that you have everything you need to make Chan the most magical birthday cake of his life. Self-checkout is fortunately devoid of customers, so you scan all the products as quickly as you can. Your broomstick is back-heavy as you head to Jeongin’s with your heavy bag of ingredients.

The giant upstairs window of his house is wide open, curtains pulled back, and you fly right through, landing on the kitchen floor with a heavy thump. Jeongin doesn’t even look away from his activity at the sink.

“Hello,” you say a little breathlessly. You take your bag and lean your mode of transport against the wall. “Sorry for coming on such short notice.”

“You couldn’t celebrate his birthday later in the day?” he asks. He’s snipping stems. “I’ve got plants to take care of and harvest.”

You find a large enough cauldron in one of his cabinets and start adding in butter and sugar. “I know, I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of anything to get him, so cake and flowers was a last-minute thing. I’ll buy gift cards here instead of the nursery for birthday presents next time.”

Jeongin seems happy with your response, and he breaks out the extra fancy ribbon he usually saves for expensive orders. With the exception of you mumbling cooking spells and him shuffling flowers around, it’s mostly quiet. After fifteen minutes, you slide the cake pan into the oven and pray the recipe you followed works. You anxiously stare at the clock, the incessant tick tock growing louder with each second. You’re not going to have enough time to frost the cake and make it look pretty at this rate.

While you make the buttercream frosting, you ask Jeongin, “What kind of flowers are you using?”

“The best ones I have,” he replies. You don’t need to see it to know he has a crescent moon smirk on his face. “The real answer is roses, lavender, and jasmine.”

Minho’s reminder of being spontaneous and not practical echoes in your ears. “Those are very practical choices,” you slowly say.

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“I’m trying a new approach. But it looks very pretty!” you add, admiring the colors. “He’ll need the lavender for stress anyway.”

He chuckles, and you sigh at your one-track mind.

When the clock strikes eleven, you’re officially in full panic mode. The bouquet is complete and resting in a glass jar of water. Jeongin, who for some reason trusts you to be alone in his home, leaves you while he attends to his plants. The cake — the stupid, still warm, ‘cannot be frosted unless you want the entire thing to look like an old wax candle’ cake — is sitting on the counter, and you whisper cooling spells that do not seem to be working.

It does smell lovely though, so at least the recipe worked.

After fifteen minutes of waiting and reciting cleaning spells, you start applying the first assembling the cake and icing it. You’re scraping the excess off when your phone rings. You mindlessly swipe across the screen with your knuckle, smearing a tiny bit of buttercream across the surface.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Hey, it’s Chan! Are you still coming over tonight? I just wanted to check since I know you’ve got work.”

You squeak and quickly push his almost-finished present aside, afraid he will discover the surprise even though he can’t see you. “Hey!” you say as nonchalantly as possible. He doesn’t know, you repeat to yourself. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

“Alright. I can’t wait.”

You hear him smiling, and a colony of bats flutter in your stomach out of anticipation and nervousness. “I’ve gotta get back. I’ll see you later. And happy early birthday.”

“Thanks, love. See you in a bit. Love you!”

“Love you too.”

He hangs up, and you quickly swing back into the thick of things, piping the birthday message in cursive across the top,and decorating the sides with the same sprinkles as inside the cake. It looks, let’s be honest here, terrible, and you decide to use magic to make it look better. It feels like cheating, but what’s the point of being a witch if you can’t use your powers for good?

Jeongin comes back inside and gives an appreciative “Ooh!” when he sees your creation. “That looks really nice.”

“Thanks, I used magic.”

He becomes less impressed. You make a face at him while you carefully put Chan’s cake into a cardboard box, which you stole from Jeongin’s supply cabinet. A cheerful alarm sounds, and your phone screen reads, “11:55 PM - Chan’s Birthday!”

Time is of the essence, and you possess none. You rush about, putting the box into the bag and letting it hang from the back of your broomstick like you did with the ingredients. There are still remnants of your decorating on the counter, so you hastily say a cleaning spell and hope it doesn’t go haywire.

Jeongin is a warlock; he can handle it.

The bouquet you hold with one hand, while your other one steers your broomstick. Your friendly but not useful friend watches you in amusement, and you bid him good night as you launch out of the window.

“Good night!” he yells, his voice ringing through the air. “Tell him ‘happy birthday’ for me!”

“Tell him yourself!” you shout back.

A few petals scatter into the wind, and you force yourself to slow down. You are flying, you should have adequate time, you cannot mess this up. Chan’s house isn’t too far away by broom, and you watch as the ETA on your GPS ticks down.

Destination in two minutes.

Destination in one minute.

Arrived at destination.

11:59 PM.

With a sigh of relief, you land and gather your gifts in your arms. Before you can even knock on the door with your foot, it opens. Chan, a grin on his face, stands on the other side of the threshold.

“Happy birthday!” you greet. You present him with his presents. “Happy birthday to the best person alive — you!”

He hugs you, gifts and all. “Thank you,” he says, his breath tickling your ear.

“Anything for you.”

Oh, how true that statement is.

After you nestle your broomstick in the rack outside, Chan leads you into the living room, and you place the box on the coffee table, which is surprisingly devoid of his usual clutter. The bouquet he takes from you and studies it.

“Lavender for stress, roses for… rosehip tea? And what are the white ones?” he asks.

“Jasmine, and I guess for tea as well. If one of your demons likes jasmine, you can use it in a summoning too.” You poke at his cheek, right where his dimple is. “Open the box.”

“Is it a cake? It smells sweet.”

He lifts the top of the box. He laughs, shuts it back close, and looks at you with lively eyes. “You made this, didn’t you? Your magic is all over it.”

“Do you like it?”

“Of course I do. It looks amazing!” He pulls you closer and rubs his nose against yours. “Was it hard to bake?”

A fifty times sped up video of the hours before play inside your head. “It was hard to decide what to get you,” you decide after a moment. “I wanted to do something different than what I usually do.”

“No basket of common summoning items this year?” he teases.

“You said it was useful last month!” A flash of worry passes through you. “Would you rather have received that instead? Oh my. By the moon and stars, I can’t believe that the one time—”

Your forthcoming rambling is cut off when he puts his lips on yours. It’s sweet, slow, gentle, and out of nowhere. “Hm?” you squeak out once you lean away, too shocked to actually say, “What was that for?”

“I love whatever you get me,” he assures.

“No.” Kiss on your left cheek.

“Matter.” Right cheek.

“What.” Left corner of your mouth.

“It.” Right corner.

“Is.” One sloppy smooch on your lips.

He peppers you with more kisses, and you giggle at his messy attempts. “Even taxidermied mice?”

“Yes,” he replies, seemingly serious. “Decent sacrifice material for small things and good for gag gifts.” He softly chuckles. “I would rather have cake and flowers though. Much more pleasant.”

You mimic his big smile from earlier. “Happy birthday, Chan.”

~ ad.gray

[jalapeno-princess]

Car Troubles

Mechanic Jaebum X Reader

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 6K

Summary: Your car has been acting up lately, but you’re too stubborn to do anything about it. However, your best friend BamBam suggests you take your car to a mechanic and gives you the contact of his friend JB. When you take your car in to JB’s shop, you find yourself immediately attracted to him. You thought that he was just going to fix your car and that would be the first and last time you’d end up seeing him, but oh were you wrong.

A/n: Hey guys! So this was requested a while back and if I’m being honest, I’m kind of iffy with how this turned out I can never do JB justice :( I hope you enjoy! (This was actually written based on my first experience with a flat tire. Luckily I live in Hawaii, a lot of the locals are some of the sweetest people and they won’t hesitate to help you if needed plus we have a bunch of auto repair shops almost anywhere you go so before I could freak out about having to do all this unnecessary shit, I literally drove less then two minutes down the road and BOOM I was good PLS CHECK YOUR TIRES)

“Damnit! This is the third time this week my car overheated. I don’t get it. I put coolant inside every single time, so what’s going on?” You and your best friend BamBam were currently on the way to the grocery store to buy some snacks for the movie night you both had planned from the beginning of that week. Unfortunately, as you were about to turn in to the shopping mall, your car gave you a warning that it was overheating. 

BamBam couldn’t help but let out a chuckle; he’s been telling you for months to save up some money and to sell the piece of junk that you call a car in order to buy another one but you always gave him the excuse that it gets you to and from your location just fine so there’s no point in spending thousands of dollars to get a new one. 

“You already know what I’m going to say so I don’t see a reason to waste my breath.” You rolled your eyes and scoffed as you pulled in to a parking stall. BamBam was right and you didn’t understand why you were so adamant on keeping your car, especially when the cost of maintaining it was more expensive than getting a new one. It’s just that you didn’t want to have to deal with another car payment and everything else that came with it on top of your college tuition and rent. 

“Have you ever actually taken it in to an auto repair shop to see if there might be something wrong with it? I’m sure there’s more you need to do to it rather than constantly putting in coolant. Who knows, you might even be making things worse by doing so. Hey, why don’t you let my friend JB take a look at it? He’s a mechanic and he owns his own shop. What? What is that look for?” You sent him a knowing glare as the two of you got out of your car and made your way towards the store. 

“The last time you introduced me to a friend of yours I almost broke my ankle.” BamBam giggled at the memory of his friend Yugyeom teaching you how to dance and you tripping over his extremely long legs. 

“Hey, it’s your fault you have two left feet. Yugyeom is an amazing dance teacher, you’re the one who can’t dance. Ow—okay I deserved that. But I’m serious about JB. He knows his stuff. He’s been fixing cars since we were in high school and I’m sure he’ll give you a discount since you’re friends with me. Just say the word and I’ll give him a call. You can even search him up and read his reviews if you don’t believe me.” 

You contemplated his offer for a few moments before releasing a frustrated sigh and nodding in agreement. There wasn’t any harm in having him take a look at what might be the problem with your car. You just didn’t want BamBam to continue bothering you about it like he did with Yugyeom’s dance lessons. 

Once the two of you finished your grocery shopping and headed back to your apartment, you decided to look up JB’s auto shop to look at the reviews before having BamBam reach out to him for you. You were surprised to say the least when you saw all the comments from customers raving about how good he was at his job. 

As you continued to read the reviews and saw the photos of people’s cars, you could tell that JB was very passionate about being a mechanic and he put a lot of time and detail in to his work. BamBam was quick to reach for his phone in order to call his older friend once you gave him the okay and you took this time to start mixing the brownie batter. 

“Hey man, it’s Bam. Yeah, I’m gonna need a favor. What do you mean I still owe you for—okay I know, but didn’t I get you that—I didn’t? Okay well that’s not the point here. The favor isn’t even for me it’s for my friend. Her car keeps overheating and I was wondering if you could take a look at it? Really? You’d do that? Thanks bro! That means a lot to me I owe you one—I get it—fine I owe you nine whatever. She’ll bring it in tomorrow. See you then.” The older boy placed his phone down on the coffee table and folded his arms behind his head cockily. “Am I the best or what? You’re welcome.” You scoffed before setting a timer on the oven and making your way in to your living room. 

“You didn’t do anything, you know that right? All you did was call to make an appointment with a mechanic. I could’ve done that by myself.”

“Fine, you can go by yourself tomorrow too if you’re going to act like that.” You gave him an adorable pout before wrapping your arms around his waist and placing your chin on his shoulder. 

“I’m kidding Bam. I’m very grateful for you. You’re my best friend.” He gave you a knowing look before dipping his finger in the brownie batter and licking it clean.

“Who are you kidding? I’m your only friend. But I’m the only one that you need anyway. By the way, I actually have to go with Yugyeom tomorrow to his doctor’s appointment; he promised me lunch so you’re on your own but you have nothing to worry about. JB‘s a really cool guy. He’s even nicer to girls. All you have to do is bring your car in and sit in his office while waiting. It’ll be a breeze. Let me know how it goes, if he needs to keep your car overnight, just give me a call and I’ll come pick you up. If you’re nice to me, I’ll talk Yugyeom in to buying you lunch too.” 

The next morning, you woke up earlier than usual and began to get ready to head over and drop your car off to JB’s shop. You couldn’t understand why you felt so nervous. Something about mechanics were so intimidating, probably because you were afraid of being reprimanded for neglecting your car. BamBam went in to detail about their friendship the night before and explained to you that JB was very dedicated to his job. He knew anything and everything that had to deal with cars. All you had to do was hand your car over to him and let him do his thing while you occupied yourself with your phone. 

After eating some breakfast and preparing your insurance forms, you made your way to his auto repair shop which was conveniently located less than ten minutes away from your apartment. The drive took longer than expected; it seemed that almost everyone was out on the road today and you couldn’t help the frustrated sigh that fell from your lips at the realization. Once you finally arrived to “Nora’s Auto Repair” you pulled up right in front of the garage and parked before looking around for who BamBam described to be JB. 

“He’ll probably be working on a car by the time you get there so there’s no use in wasting your time looking for him in his office. He’s a few inches taller than me with dark, brown hair up to his shoulders, brooding eyes and a sharp jaw. Try not to make him angry, that jaw has a mind of it’s own. But don’t be intimidated by his appearance, he’s a big softie.” 

You walked straight up to the garage and saw a pair of feet underneath a car. At first, you were afraid of interrupting him, with the music blasting in the background on top of the sounds of what you assumed to be a screwdriver, you knew he was very focused on the car he was currently working on; but at the same time, you didn’t want someone walking in on you standing there, doing nothing like a weirdo. 

“Um—excuse me?” It came off almost like a squeak of a mouse, you were sure he probably didn’t hear you, so you repeated yourself again. When he still had yet to acknowledge your presence, you decided to get his attention another way and gently tapped his ankle with the tip of your sandal. Unfortunately, he ended up getting startled and immediately sat up, hitting his head up against the radiator and released a frustrated grunt before getting up from underneath the car. You were about to open your mouth to release countless apologies for scaring him but that was before you got to take a good look at him. 

He was in more or less words extremely gorgeous. His long hair was slicked back, he was wearing overalls and a blank tank top that showed off his broad shoulders and toned biceps. BamBam was right about his brooding and piercing eyes, and you were quick to notice the two adorable moles right above his eyebrow. He also had some dirt and grease on his cheeks, but for some reason it made him look even more attractive than he already was. You didn’t think someone could look so good, as if he came right out of a magazine while working on a car. You’ve been friends with BamBam for years now, why did he have the audacity to keep this beautiful man standing in front of you a secret? 

“Are you alright? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you I just—BamBam told me to look for you and—“ When you first heard him groan in pain after hitting his head, you were sure you’d get an earful about interrupting someone while they were working on a car. However, your cheeks warmed up at the way he was looking at you with the most adorable smile you’ve ever seen on a grown man. 

“Don’t sweat it, it happens all the time. My employees constantly nag me about turning down my music so I can hear people approaching. You must be y/n. Nice to meet you. You’re friends with BamBam? You poor thing. It must be tiring being his right hand man—I mean woman. So, what seems to be the problem with your car?” He asked for you to lead him to your car and had you pop open the hood so that he could take a better look at what the problem might be. 

“It’s been overheating a lot these days. I’ve put in coolant three times this week and it’s still not cooling down. I have a fear that one day the battery will die if I don’t do something about it so that’s why I’m here.” He nodded in understanding before taking a look inside and making sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Your eyes began to wander all along his body and you felt weird for checking someone out just a couple of minutes after meeting him but who could blame you? He was practically a Greek God and honestly, even if the two of you just met, you would do anything he’d ask of you. 

JB took a few minutes going over multiple parts of your car, the exhaust system, suspension, brakes, air filter, spark plugs; anything he felt could be adding on to the failure of your car. While he continued examining the hood of your car, you decided to look away to prevent yourself from staring at him any longer. You texted BamBam to let him know that you made it over to JB’s place and you were about to admit that you were having a hard time paying attention to anything other than him. For someone who was drenched in sweat and car exhaust, he looked like he came straight out of a magazine. You were so deep in your thoughts that you failed to notice JB trying to get your attention. 

“I think the coolant you must’ve put in there kinda screwed it up but it’s nothing I won’t be able to fix. I also recommend you get an oil change since you’re here. It won’t take too long, you can go sit in my office and I’ll come let you know when I’m done.” You politely thanked him and he gave you a soft smile and you were sure your heart was about to jump out of your chest the longer you were around him. As you began heading towards his office, you heard him call out for you. 

“By the way y/n, call me Jaebum.” With the way warmth immediately rose on your cheeks, you had a feeling you were a blushing mess from hearing his words and you were quick to pick up on the cheeky intonation of his voice. You refused to turn around to face him and nodded softly to yourself, there was no way you’d give him the benefit of the doubt by making it aware that he was having an effect on you. You had just met the guy less than ten minutes ago and you’ve seen your fair share of good looking men before, so why were you going so crazy over JB? 

Once you took a seat in his office, you gave yourself a few seconds to breathe and get your thoughts straight. However, your mind wouldn’t stop going back to how attractive he looked with his hair all out of place while oil and dirt was stained on his overalls. The smile he sent was now glued in your mind. He was easy on the eyes, hardworking, and extremely personable. You secretly cursed BamBam for not introducing the two of you sooner under different circumstances but you had no idea why you were acting like this. It’s not like the two of you actually conversed with each other, nor were you anything more than just a clumsy customer who had no clue about anything car related. 

For almost two hours, you played a couple of games on your phone and even watched a few Netflix shows to make time go by faster, and to keep your mind off of the way Jaebum’s muscles flexed while working on your car as you checked up on him every now and then through the window. Luckily, multiple episodes of Parks and Recreations took up all your attention for almost the entirety of waiting. You were so deep in to an episode that you failed to notice Jaebum enter his office until you heard the door shut. 

“Hey, I’m done with your car. Sorry it took so long, I wanted to make sure everything is good before sending you off. I changed the oil, tightened a few pipes and fixed the overheating problem. You should be all good to go.” You smiled softly at him and thanked him profusely before taking out your wallet. 

“How much do I owe you?” He took a seat at his desk and began writing down a few numbers, estimating how much the work on your came out to on your car. 

“$100 flat.” You looked at him in shock, dumbfounded with his answer. Sure, you weren’t one to know much about cars, but you knew with the amount of work he did to your car that it was worth more than just one hundred dollars. It felt as if you were gypping him and taking advantage of his kindness. 

“Jaebum, you can’t be serious right? I’m sure it’s more than $100. I’m fine with paying full price! You did so much—“ he playfully shook his head before handing you your keys. 

“It’s totally fine y/n. If I’m being honest with you, I think you should actually put your money in to getting a new car. I took it for a drive around the block and it still runs just fine, but you don’t want to risk something bad happening to it again soon.” You nodded in understanding before writing out a check. An idea popped in your head and you could only hope that he’d want to go along with it and not think negative of you for asking. 

“How about I treat you to some lunch? You must be hungry after hours of work. Plus I want to pay you back for all that you did for my car. It means a lot, thanks again Jaebum.” The wide grin that he was now sporting made your heart flutter. You were soon regretting your decision of taking him to lunch because you knew you wouldn’t be able to sit in front of him without practically drooling over him. 

“That sounds cool. Let me just get cleaned up a bit and we can go.” After you paid him, he left his office to and in his words “look more presentable” leaving you all alone with your thoughts. Why were you so worried? He seemed like an extremely cool guy and he practically fixed your car for less than half of what is normally expected. If BamBam could trust him, you could too. It just didn’t help that he was extremely attractive. 

“Ready to go?” If you thought he looked good earlier, seeing him freshened up was a sight to behold. His face was free of dirt and oil, he changed in to a pair of jeans and a flannel and he threw his hair back in to a man bun. You were internally cursing yourself for putting yourself in such a situation. All you wanted to do was treat him to lunch, but now you had to suffer knowing that you were quickly developing a little crush on him. 

“Yeah. Shall we?” He hummed in agreement and like the gentleman he was, he held the door for you and led you to his car. When he walked up to his pick up truck, you couldn’t help but stifle a laugh. 

“Something wrong?” You shook your head in disagreement. 

“Your car matches you.” With the way he adorably tilted his head in confusion, you knew he didn’t understand what you meant. “Trucks can be intimidating and quite rugged. Like you.” 

“Ah. I get what you mean. Well, since we’re on the topic of it, your car doesn’t match you at all.” You were about to open your mouth but he was quick to continue. “You’re driving a 2003 Toyota Corolla. Quite a safe car, which is understandable—if you were an elderly woman. However, you seem quite stable unlike your car—ow! I fixed your car for cheap and I get a slap in return. I’ll make sure to rack up the bill at lunch to get back at you.” He winked at you, causing your heart rate to increase before opening your door and helping you inside. 

The car ride was filled with laughter and terrible singing, mainly from Jaebum, but you enjoyed every second of it. It’s been a while since your last relationship and you were only really close with BamBam, so you weren’t used to being around any other guy. You could get used to being around Jaebum. He had the heart of a child; he was so charismatic and optimistic. You also learned that he owned five cats, loved to read books in his free time and he was the biggest mama’s boy. So this is what BamBam meant when he said JB is a big softie. 

Your time together at lunch was much like it was in the car. You found yourself laughing almost the entire time over the countless stories he told you about his childhood, his friendship with BamBam and the rest of their group of friends and the horror stories that came with being a mechanic. Seeing his eyes light up as he described to you how in love he was with his job made butterflies erupt in your tummy. Too bad this was only a one time thing and you had a feeling you’d only ever get to see him if you needed your car fixed. When the two of you were finished with your meals, before you could reach for the check, he handed his card to the waiter in which you were quick to object multiple times, but he reached over and placed his finger on top of your mouth to prevent you from complaining any further. This man was going to be the death of you. 

“Jaebum, I was supposed to pay—“ he shook his head as he signed the receipt and motioned for you to get up. 

“You can get the check next time okay?” You gave him a pout, but on the inside you were over the moon. Next time? Did this mean he had plans on becoming friends with you? Or something beyond friendship? Whatever it was, the idea of having Jaebum in your life made you extremely happy. You could use such a positive and carefree person like him in your life to motivate you to become a better person. 

To your dismay, your day with Jaebum came to an end and before you knew it, he pulled up in front of your parking structure. “Thank you again Jaebum. For my car, for lunch, for everything. I had a really nice time tonight. Let me know when you’re free, you ass. I really wanted to treat you.” He flashed you his award winning smile before pinching your cheek. 

“Don’t worry y/n, I’m already planning on which expensive steakhouse I want you to bring me to. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need help with your car. Have a nice night!” When Jaebum told you to call him whenever something was wrong with your car, he didn’t expect you to call him every other week. The two of you texted each other back and forth every so often, but it was never more than a simple “how was your day?” Or “how is your car?” You had a feeling he wasn’t interested in you the way you wish he would be, but you decided to let it go. 

Unfortunately, only two weeks after he worked on your car the first time, your air conditioning broke which he was quick to offer in fixing. Then another two weeks later, your battery died. You were on your way to the grocery store when your car completely gave out and Jaebum did not hesitate to drive over to you and bring you another one. He even installed it on the side of the road where your car was. It was if you couldn’t catch a break, but you weren’t going to lie; you enjoyed having excuses to see Jaebum again. His presence was like a breath of fresh air and every time you had to leave him, you felt like your life was colorless and dull. 

He was always very kind and patient with you, he even tried his best to console you the minute your battery died because he could tell in your voice that you were freaking out. Even when he arrived to your location, he pulled you in to his embrace and cautiously rubbed your back in attempts to get you to calm down. His arms were so comforting and you missed the feeling of them practically swallowing your body entirely. With each and every time you needed his assistance, he would always give you a knowing smirk and remind you that maybe it was time to get yourself a new car. 

You didn’t fail to notice the way that Jaebum would steal glances from you every so often, and how he was quite gentle with you than he was with other clients. Even when he hugged you that day, there was something with the way he placed his chin on top of your head while running his fingers through your hair that made you feel as if he didn’t act this way towards just anybody. When you told your assumptions to your best friend, the older boy laughed in your face. 

“Jaebum? Like you? Hahahaha! Don’t make me laugh y/n—oh. You were being serious. Don’t take it the wrong way, you’re beautiful. Any guy would be lucky to have you as their girlfriend. It’s just—Jaebum doesn’t date. Or at least I’ve never seen him in a relationship before. That guy is married to his job—hell he’s married to the cars he fixes. Maybe he’s just being friendly since you’re my best friend. It’s been a month since I first sent you his way. Don’t you think he would’ve made a move on you by now?” 

Although his words sent a jab to your heart, he was right. If Jaebum reciprocated your feelings for him, he would’ve done something about it a long time ago. You knew BamBam didn’t mean any harm, but hearing him say things like that was a slap in the face by reality that you were nothing to Jaebum but a nuisance. Someone who was too stubborn to pay for a new car and had to keep wasting Jaebum’s time when he could be doing something more important. 

You did whatever you could to make sure you no longer needed his help, but life never seemed to be on your side. You were sitting in line at a drive through when the cutest little elderly man came up to you and pointed out to you that your back tire was looking pretty low. Once you got your food, you pulled to the side and contemplated your next move. As much as you didn’t want to bother Jaebum, you didn’t know what to do. 

“What’s up y/n, everything okay?” You released a frustrated sigh at the thought of why you were calling him in the first place. 

“Hey. Sorry to bother you again but car has a flat tire and I have no idea what to do.” You heard him giggle softly through the phone and the sound alone made you calm down. Something about Jaebum’s laugh made you want to laugh yourself. He had one of those contagious laughs that could even get a mime to crack a smile. It was the most beautiful sound in the world, you were sure of it. 

“That’s why you have me. Where are you? Are you in a safe location? Can you send me a picture of your tire? Are you okay? You’re not hurt are you?” Your heart warmed at all of his questions. The fact that he seemed genuinely worried about you made you blush like a schoolgirl. “I’m fine. I was at Jack in the box when someone told me my tire was flat. I’m currently in their parking lot just eating my soggy curly fries and cursing myself for not listening to either you or BamBam about finally getting a new car.”

“Hey, as much as I want to tell you I told you so, now is definitely not the time. I’ll be there in fifteen. Save some of those soggy fries for me.” After you hung up the phone, you decided to kill time by playing some games. You even ran inside and bought him something to eat as your way of thanking him for having to leave work again to come help you. When he arrived less than ten minutes later, you were quick to pick up on the car he was driving. It wasn’t his truck, was he maybe taking someone else’s car for a test run? 

“Hey, I’m glad to see that you’re all in one piece, I was worried. It’s a shame your cars not.” Every time he had to come help you out, he always made a joke about how shitty your car was and if it were anyone else, you’d probably fight them. But because it was Jaebum, you allowed him to constantly make fun of you and the fact that your car was a piece of junk. You handed him over the bag of food to which he thanked you and playfully wiggled his brows at you. 

“You know this doesn’t count right? I’m still expecting dinner at Kobe steakhouse.” You playfully rolled your eyes and it’s as if he knew your next move so he immediately moved away. The two of you were extremely playful with one another and you would always end up hitting him whenever he made a joke about you but it was all in good fun. He began snacking on a few French fries before taking a look at your tire. 

“Oh shit. Oh yeah that’s bad. You know something y/n?”

“What?”

“At first, I was sure your car was cursed. Sure, it’s 17 years old, so it’s expected to be a little run down. But I’ve had customers bring in cars from the 90’s and they drive perfectly fine. So I couldn’t help but think that maybe you purposely mess around with your car so that you have an excuse to come and see me.”

Although you loved every chance you got to see the handsome boy, you weren’t crazy enough to go to the lengths of practically killing your car. Did he really think you would waste hundreds of dollars by purposely breaking down your own car just so you could see him? He must’ve lost his mind. As you were about to open your mouth and fight back against what he said, he connected your lips with his. 

His lips were hot and rough against yours and his hands were quick to cup both your jaw and neck. He swiped his tongue along your bottom lip before bringing it in between his teeth, nonverbally asking for entrance. Once you felt his tongue against yours, you were quick to release a soft moan and gently tugged on his soft locks. To your dismay, he pulled away in order to catch his breath and took a good look at you before hiding his face in the juncture of your neck. 

“I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t flutter every time I saw your name pop up on my phone although, I hated the thought of you in an unfortunate situation and I would always get worried because you’re usually alone whenever something goes wrong with your car. I’ve liked you from the day we went to lunch the first time and you practically snorted on your soda at something I said. You’re extremely beautiful you know that? I have a hard time trying to keep myself from looking at you. And you’re so fun to be around. Albeit a little clumsy, stubborn and irresponsible, but it makes you unique and honestly I really like those things about you.” He picked one of your hands up and began leaving a few kisses on the back of it. 

“Wait, you kissed me before confessing or even trying to see how I felt. Were you planning on seeing how things would go? Or did you just so happen to catch me practically drooling over you every now and then?” He let out a snicker and shook his head. 

“A little birdie called me last night and told me that you were talking to him about me and whether or not I had feelings for you.”

“That asshole. He told me he had no clue and that you were only being friendly with me. I didn’t think you liked me back, you never really talk to me unless something’s wrong with my car.”

Jaebum couldn’t help the laugh that fell from his lips as he saw your brows furrow in frustration. “Nobody knows how I feel about you. Look how quick BamBam was to admit that you liked me! If I were to tell him anything for that matter, it would probably be on the news less than an hour later. He’s one of the biggest blabber mouths there is babe. And I’m actually shit when it comes to these things. Trust me, every time you would text me, it took a lot of willpower not to go deeper in to the conversation. I love talking to you. There were so many days where I had the urge to call you and just talk about nothing. You make me really happy y/n. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. Whenever you came in, I couldn’t help the stupid grin that would stay on my face for the entirety of the day. My employees wouldn’t stop looking at me funny. Is it wrong that I would sometimes hope something were to happen to your car just so you would come in?” 

You scoffed before stealing a kiss from the corner of his mouth. “And you call me crazy. You’re just as head over heels for me as I am for you punk ass.” He took a bite out of the sandwich you bought him and motioned for you to follow him. You noticed how he took out the keys from the car he drove in and handed them to you. It’s as if he knew you were about to ask him a question and beat you to it. 

“This is your new car. It’s not much, but it’s a lot better than the one you have now. Someone brought it in the other day because they had no use for it and so I decided to fix it up and planned on giving it to you. Take good care of it okay? As much as I love seeing you come in to my shop, I don’t want you having any more problems with your car.” 

Your jaw dropped in awe and a few tears fell from your cheeks. You couldn’t believe that he was giving you a new, well, used car but in way better condition than the one you had now. He could’ve sold it or donated it but yet he fixed it up with the intention of giving it to you. What did you do in your past life do deserve him? He wasn’t quite ready when you practically jumped on him, but his reflexes were quick as he wrapped your legs around his waist and held you by your thighs. You began leaving wet kisses all around his face before finally bringing your lips to his. When you felt him smile in to the kiss, you returned the same ministration. 

“Thank you so much Jaebum. Ugh you’re so amazing you know that? I really don’t know how I can pay you back for all that you’ve done to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He smiled against your neck and placed you back on the ground before intertwining your fingers together and leading you over to your old car to get your things. 

“You can repay me by going out with me on a date. Tonight, if you’re free.” You nodded in agreement while hiding his face in your chest. However, before you could get comfortable, you felt something wet against your cheek. 

“Ew babe did you just get finished working on the car? You’re sweaty!” He scoffed before playfully slapping your butt earning himself a surprised moan. 

“You want to give me another reason to get sweaty baby? Ow—there are other ways you can show me how thankful you are without having to hit me y/n. Unless you’re in to stuff like that I’m all for getting rough—hey—where are you going silly girl? Babe! Get back here y/n! And don’t eat my fries you bought those for me!”

[mylordshesacactus]

A Series Of Coincidences That Give Me An Unexpected Emotion

Because I want to provide the best possible care for my cat but also I am not made of fucking money, Penny gets a mix of dry and wet food--kibble in the mornings and wet food for dinner

(She likes fish best)

(Like, massive unironic shoutout to Penny for the fact that she’s not fussy about either food or litter, she’ll eat anything I put down for her, but she gets VERY EXCITED about fish over anything else)

When Julis went to use eir employee discount to buy me a case of wet food cans, the small one-serving cans were basically sold out, so instead got the bigger cans of the same flavor that are meant to provide a full serving of food for a whole day.

And also a plastic snap-on cap that keeps the remainder fresh until the next night, of course.

Because of this, I am now having to scoop half the can out and leave the rest, which I’d been trying to do with the can lid

This was messy and difficult, so I went “I need to do this with a spoon”.

I realize it’s a silly hangup, but I did not want to use like. A human spoon. To scoop out cat food.

I needed a Dedicated Feline Spoon That Would Not Get Mixed Up With The Spoons That People Eat Off even though obviously any spoons used by people would be cleaned.

I SAID I know it’s a silly hangup

I needed to go grocery shopping anyway so I went to the local Walmart because I also needed a small trashcan and a handful of other things and I might as well keep my visits to public places to a minimum.

My Walmart sells four styles of silverware--the cheap silver spoons that I use for me and thus are not an option, a rainbow treatment that I also use for me because I’m gay and I deserve nice things like gay forks, a shiny black, and a gold. 

They’re all the same price except for the plain ones, but as established, those are the spoons used for humans, so I needed one, singular spoon that could not possibly get mixed up with my dedicated human silverware. 

So I couldn’t use the rainbow either because tbh at some point I am probably gonna slowly replace all of my basic silver silverware with rainbow-treated stuff because I’m GAY and I DESERVE NICE THINGS

Anyway

The end result of this is

Nepenthe, the “moody” black street cat from a bad home situation, who nobody wanted, is LITERALLY eating off a golden spoon and she deserves every minute of it.

[tavi-hayes]

practice challenge ~ journey to the palace

((whoopwhoop, idk how i managed to write this (given it’s quite long and i usually never ever write stuff this long) also please excuse me again for any spelling/grammar errors i try. alsoooo thanks to these wonderful girls: Bethia @h-hart​, Kat @clara-choii​ and Pia @brookelynnsanders​!))

It was silent at work today. The only sounds were the flipping of pages and the ticking on keys of a computer, followed by a frustrated sigh occasionally.

“Maybe we should get some more flutes?” I said, “they’re not that expensive and they won’t take up a lot of space here.”

Lola, being distracted by her laptop, showed no sign that she had heard what I just said.

“Helllooo, Lo are you there?”

“Huh, what?” she ran her hands through her hair as she looked my way.

I lifted the catalogue to show her the flute page.

“No Tavi,” Lo leaned her head on the back of the chair, doing the accounts must have tired her. “We already have flutes, and no one is ever interested in them. They have been here for decades.”

I rolled my eyes, “maybe that is why no one is interested. They look grim.”

Lo refocused on her laptop, and I flipped another page of the catalogue.

Oeh, the bass guitars. My favourite part.

I ran my finger over the page, paying a lot of attention to each one.

There were electronic bass guitars, but also the semi-acoustic ones. Some were very modern-looking with the brightest of colours, while others go for more of a vintage look.

I don’t know if I would ever be able to part with my own baby. The bass guitar, that I now owned, had been eyeing me every day since it had arrived in the store. It had been love at first sight.

But it was such a big investment and I just didn’t have that kind of money.

A part of my earnings was needed for us to make a living, pay the rent and do the groceries for example. And the other part that wasn’t needed for that, entered our savings jar.

We had been saving money since the day my dad was put behind bars. For whatever reason those bars had been in St. George. Freaking St. George.

The province didn’t even have direct borders with Denbeigh, Ottaro was right in between.

That made a simple, but still long, car ride impossible. Not taken the problems that come with the snowy climate into account.

That same climate also caused issues for our only transportation option.

Denbeigh’s climate was hard to predict at times. It could be a beautiful day with sunshine and a clear sky, but then you wake up the next morning to a thick layer of snow.

And because those snowfalls could happen in at least 8 out of 12 months, a lot of planes got cancelled in those months. The only airport anywhere near Winnipeg was privately owned. So the owners could literally ask the prices they wanted for the plane tickets. And boy, they were only focussed on making a profit.

For a simple family of Fives, those prices were unpayable. Hence why we had been saving money for 6 years now, still nowhere near able to pay for tickets. My mom would need a ticket, Daniel and I would too, and we just can’t leave little Aria and Arlan. My dad should be allowed to see them as well. That’s means we already need the money for 5 tickets. But if we include Daniel’s family, with his wife and little Melody, then that would equal 7 tickets.

So yeah, I would never have been able to buy that bass guitar.

Until Lo had a brilliant idea. They would give it to me as my birthday present for the upcoming 10 years. At first, I couldn’t accept that kind of gift, knowing it would have been a huge investment for the Wood family as well. But they insisted, hinting that they would get an employee discount anyway since you know Mr Wood owns the place. So, the price dropped, and they ignored me, so I had to give in and accept. It was the best gift I had ever gotten.

The stores door busted open, “GIRLS!” Gina’s voice took me back to earth. “they’re about to do the draw!”

“What draw?” apparently Lo shared my confusion.

Gina rolled her eyes and grabbed Lo’s laptop from the table. “Wait, I was working! Save it, save it!”

The laptop was put right on top of the catalogue I had just been looking through. Lo ushered over as well.

“Let me just,” Gina had opened an internet page and started typing in the website address of Winnipeg’s number one news channel, WTV. Such an original name.

The news anchor, some middle-aged woman with very fake looking blond hair, appeared on screen. “What is she wearing?” Lo asked, disgust and confusion both showing on her face.

“A track suit, it’s part of her image,” Gina unmuted the laptop, the crow-like voice of the woman filling the room, “now shush, I wanna hear this.”

“… Cameron Porter has been selected for the Illéan national ice hockey team. The star of Winnipeg’s very own ice hockey team, the Winnipeg Belugas, will accompany the national team to the world cup, taking place later this year in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Last week’s draw concluded that Illéa will have to face the German Federation and New Asia in the group stage. The national team’s training will start next week.”

Lo and I shared a look, “this is what you wanted to see Gina?”

“Since when do you care about ice hockey?” I asked, this was something new.

“Urgh, you guys are intolerable,” she silenced us with her finger.

“… and now we will switch to the royal palace in Angeles, to watch the live draw for Prince Arin’s Selection.”

The draw, of course that was what had sparked Gina’s interest. For some unknown reason, the entire Selection had slipped from my mind.

Nevertheless, I felt a little flutter in my stomach. Nerves. Looking over to my friends, I noticed the tense looks on both of their faces. Lo’s hands were clasped together, while Gina’s had disappeared in the pockets of her cardigan.

“Welcome,” some weird voice-over called.

With that the camera focussed on the prince.

“Urgh,” I rolled my eyes.

Lo poked me in the side, laughing, “oh Tavi your distaste is showing.”

“I don’t understand how you can hate someone who is that good looking. I mean have you seen that jawline? Perfection.” Gina had had a crush on the prince for as long as I had known her.

I rolled my eyes again, “I don’t hate him.” The drawing began before I had time to explain myself further.

“From Allens … Idalia Moretti.”

“He doesn’t look very happy,” I couldn’t help but comment, “or comfortable.”

Gina sighed probably annoyed that she couldn’t listen to the show properly, “his engagement was called off not that long ago. That is a pretty hard thing to deal with.”

“Yeah, I see, it’s so hard that he’s having a Selection. Shouldn’t he like get over the other girl first?”

My friends ignored me.

“From Angeles … Emily Rose White.”

This thing was going to take forever. I just wanted to look at the catalogue again, not at that prince, “he’s making me feel uncomfortable, just by watching him.”

Again, no response from either of my friends.

I took that as a sign to remain silent, knowing very well my friends wouldn’t reply anyway now that their eyes were locked on the prince.

“From Dakota … Brooke Lynn Sanders.”

Gina let out a breath she was holding, “okay now is Denbeigh,” she took our hands in hers, “fingers crossed it’s one of us.”

Her hand palms were sweaty, she must really want this.

“From Denbeigh … Octavia Hayes.”

We were all silent for a minute. Then Lo started screaming, Gina joining her. “Oh my GOODNESS!”

“Tavi! You’re going to the palace! You’re going to meet the prince!”

“Yeah,” I was absolutely lost for words. Meeting the prince hadn’t been the first thing that came to my mind, hell it hadn’t even been the second or third thing.

The first thing I thought was: I’m one step closer to getting my dad out of prison. I will be in that freaking library day and night looking for the book that is going to help me. There must be something somewhere about a second opinion on a court order, or something else to annul the judge’s decision.

“Ohhh, I’m sooo jealous of you right now. You are going to meet the prince! And there’s a chance he will fall in love with you and you’ll have beautiful babies.” Gina pulled on one of my curls, it bounced up and down as she let go of it.

“Uhm, I think that particular chance can be redeemed to zero.” I bit my lip, not even in my biggest dreams had I imagined my name would be drawn.

“Tavi, listen. I know you only applied for those laws books, but you need to be friendly to the prince if you want to stay,” Lo insisted, “or else you will be eliminated.”

“And I have to interact with him?”

“There are girls who would kill for a chance of even being in one room with him,” Gina took over, she sounded very serious suddenly. “You’ll meet him that’s for sure, and if you actually try you might make it far enough to earn a date. Just at least try to be nice, okay?”

“Just don’t insult him,” Lo added, “or his family, or the country. Okay, don’t insult anyone.”

The way my best friends were looking at me brought me right back to the good old school days. That was exactly the way teachers had looked whenever I had done something naughty. Which had basically been at least once every day.

“Do you promise?” Lo asked when I didn’t respond.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll try not to insult anyone.” I sighed, this is going to be so much harder than I thought.

All of a sudden a lot robot-like voice yelled “BREAKING NEWS”.

It just scared the living shit out of me. We turned as one towards the laptop again.

On the screen was that fake blond woman in her tracksuit again.

“Prince Arin just completed the draw for his very own Selection. Some famous girls will be joining him at the palace. Our very own province will be represented by Octavia Hayes. You might have heard of her, given that she is some meekly Five. But her father’s name will ring a bell. Octavia’s father is Caspar H., a dangerous convict in prison for murdering Winnipeg’s beloved mayor Wilfred Wallis. He might have very well passed the criminal gene onto his daughter. Not only is she definitely not a good representative for Denbeigh, but the lives of the royal family might all be in danger.”

“Damn it!” Stupid news anchor. Why couldn’t they just stay out of my family’s business. Now the entire country will be aware of this. My dad’s arrest did make the headlines of some newspapers when all that had gone down. But that had been 6 years ago and I had hoped no one would remember that.

But now it was out in the open. Again.

It didn’t even matter that my dad was innocent. He had already been suffering for it by being locked up far away from our family.

“Tavi,” Lo put her arms around me, “that’s just bullshit, no such thing as a criminal gene exists.”

Gina joined our hug, “you can’t take anyone seriously who wears a tracksuit on live TV.”

*** Couple of days later ***

Dear dad,

My name got drawn for the Selection, I’m going to the palace and meet the prince. Some palace person is coming to pick me up anytime now so I can’t write a lot. Plus, if the mail has already arrived then you will have to wait another month before you get this anyway.

I asked Daniel if he could start writing a monthly letter as well, maybe he can even add a little picture of Melody so you can see her for the first time. He said he will take care of mom, Aria and Arlan as well. Molly will just cook dinner for more people, which she doesn’t really mind doing. At least that’s what she said.

Anyhow I will write to you from the palace.

Lots of love, 

Octavia

Zohl wzw, R’n hxzivw. Tlrmt gl gsv kzozxv, z dslov mvd vmerilmnvmg dsviv R wlm’g pmld zmblmv. Ovzermt nln, vhkvxrzoob mld gszg rg urmzoob hvvnh orpv hsv’h gibrmt gl orev ztzrm. Zmw dszg droo gsv xlfmgib gsrmp lu nv. Droo R gfim rmgl zm lfgxzhg? Zxxliwrmt gl DGE R’n tlrmt gl hozftsgvi veviblmv rm gsv kzozxv, yvxzfhv lu blfi ‘xirnrmzo tvmvh’. Yfg gsv kvlkov dsl olev blf droo zodzbh yvorvev blfi rmmlxvmxv, vevm ru gsv dslov xlfmgib hvvnh gl gsrmp lgsvidrhv. Qfhg pmld gszg dv nrhh blf wvziob. Zmw R droo gib vevibgsrmt R xzm gl tvg blf ivovzhvw. Qfhgrxv zodzbh kivezroh.

*** At the airport ***

The car journey all the way from Winnipeg to somewhere in Sota had lasted for ages. Even though I hadn’t really been aware of that, since I fell asleep as soon as they closed the doors behind me.  

A frustrated voice had woken me up, “can you please stop drooling all over the leather upholstery?”

My eyes flew open, saliva was indeed smeared on the seat. I quickly wiped it off my face, where it had been present as well. “Sorry,” I mumbled, I then realized we had arrived at the airport, I quickly opened the car door and jumped out.

What I immediately noticed was the rain puddle I had landed in. My shoes and socks were soaking wet. Great.

“Maybe you should try to act more lady-like?” the driver said with a very disapproving tone, looking me up and down. He had already taken my guitar case out of the car and was about to put it right onto the wet street. I quickly grabbed the case out of his hands, clutching it close to my body.

The driver sighed, “there’s the entrance to the airport. Inside it will be clear which directions to follow.”

I made my way towards the entrance he had pointed at when I heard him mumble to himself, “why did I had to drive a barbarian?”

As I turned around, the car’s engine had been running again. I wasn’t sure if he could see me, nor I did I really care. I showed my middle finger to the car anyway. Asshole.

Never had I seen an airport before. It was freaking massive, people walking in all possible directions. Some carrying luggage with them, others with balloons that read “we missed you” or “welcome home”.

One day, my fam and I will be waiting at the airport, carrying one of those dumb balloons around. Coming to pick up dad.

I snapped out of my daydream by someone tapping me on my shoulder. “Miss Hayes, please come with me.”

Nodding, I followed the person not really having another choice since I had no clue which way I had to go. Maybe this is some insane kidnapper.

My heartbeat increased; did I just make a stupid mistake?

“Only one girl has arrived so far. You are to wait for the others before you can board the plane.”

Okay, no insane kidnapper then.

Unless.

This is a complete setup created by his crazy brain.

Panic filled my body, damnit how will I get out of this situation.

Okay, if I just push the person onto the floor, that will give me a chance to run for my life.

One. 

Two.

Three.

I took a deep breath in, ready to make the push. But at the last minute the person side stepped which caused me to lose my balance. He looked at me in a very funny way, “please take a seat, the flight attendant will come get you in a few minutes.”

My cheeks turned very very warm, the redness might very well have equalled the red colour of a traffic light.

Trying to calm myself down, I slumped down into a chair. Yikes, only now became I aware of it again. My socks were still wet and cold. Sigh.

After taking a few deep breaths in and out, I noticed the other girl.

“Oh hey, you’re also a Selected?” I started, realizing it wouldn’t be a bad thing to talk to someone.

She turned towards me, “I am Brooke Lynn Sanders, but just call me Brooke please!”

Not knowing what else to do, I waved at her a little awkwardly. “hi Brooke, nice to meet you. My name is Octavia, but please call me Tavi.”

“Nice to meet you Octavia. Did you have a good journey?” I could already tell she did have the lady-like manners I had been lacking.

Oh god, I couldn’t possibly tell her about the drooling situation, so I decided to stick to a vague answer. “Yeah, it was alright thanks. What about your own journey? Which province are you from?”

“My send off from Dakota was a bit bumpy but I am here now. I wish they would have let me take the train though...”

Another girl arrived, also looking very much like someone the prince could end up with. Compared to these two, I was more of a rag doll.

Pushing my feelings behind that wall deep inside me, I waved her over, “oh yeah hi, please join us.”

We chatted some more for a bit, until Haven arrived.

The way she was walking, the only person I had seen walking like that was Long-Beard Logan, the homeless guy who could often be found near New Wave Records. He walked the same way, but he had one wooden leg.

Then Haven opened her mouth, a weird voice coming out, “hi.”

I noticed Brooke shared my confusion, “uhm hello?”

She took out her phone and typed something, it read ‘I’m Haven’.

My confusion hadn’t ebbed away, “are you alright?”

She typed some more, ‘yup:)) just got a bad cold! what are your names?’.

As a response to that we all introduced ourselves again. These girls didn’t seem to be that bad, hopefully the other Selected at the palace were the same. But the chance of that being true was small. Also, why did I care what the other girls were like? I wasn’t there to make friends, with them or with the prince. I had applied for the thing I needed most. Access to the royal library.

“Have you guys ever been on a plane before? This is all very new to me.” I admitted, trying to ease the nerves that had been building up inside me ever since my name had been picked in that draw.

Brooke had a very strong opinion on planes. Private planes more specifically.

Which came as a shock to me. The private plane part. I didn’t know what I was thinking but taking a private plane had never crossed my mind.

In the meantime, Brooke started talking about the CO2 emissions.

“How else would we get to the palace without having an endless journey? It’s not like there’s a teleportation device, right?” I said a little more vicious than I intended. The higher castes used planes all the time, if anyone had a cause in the destruction of our planet it was definitely them.

Brooke definitely had thought of it all, as she mentioned the outstanding quality of the Illéan train system. Clara chimed in to agree with her.

I decided to not mention my exact thoughts about the higher castes, given the fact that I had promised my friends back home not to insult anyone. So I just nodded my head, “yeah okay I understand your point.”

We were able to board the plane shortly after that. Brooke sat down in a window-seat and Clara nestled herself in the seat next to Brooke’s.

I took a chair on the opposite side of the plane, trying to create some sort of privacy for myself without being rude.

Haven sat down in the seat next to me and smiled at me.

The entry door closed; I could no longer contain my nerves. “Here we go I guess.” I tried to calm my breathing, but it didn’t really help. I tried to think of my family back home in Denbeigh, didn’t help either. I heard my dad’s voice in my head, it was like he was actually talking to me, “You are a strong girl, the flight will be over before you know it. Octavia, you can do this.”

A weird sound whisked my dad’s voice away, I looked over towards the source of the sound. It was Brooke choking on her drink. “Please don’t die,” I said. Her dying here would be a shitty start to this whole adventure. Besides, Brooke actually seemed like a nice person.

She coughed, “I am – I am trying.”

Haven mentioned her sibling, how they were close and stuff. She then asked if we had any siblings ourselves.

This provided me with the perfect distraction. I turned towards her, “yeah, I have three siblings. One older brother, a younger sister and a younger brother as well.”

Normally I would never share such personal information with someone I had just met but talking about them was the distraction I so desperately needed from this whole plane situation.

The others talked some more, but I just realized the one and only thing that would get me through this.

Music.

“If you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna listen to some music.” I said as I took my earphones out of my bag. “Haven would you like to join?” I asked her politely, given that she was sitting right next to me and it would have been quite rude otherwise.

She smiled at me and nodded, so I handed her one of the earphones. “I do have a very mixed taste in music so you’re in for a treat.” Maybe I could even make her listen to our own music, you know casually extending Five Whispers’ audience.

As a reply, Haven winked at me, “I love a girl with mixed music taste.”

Oh who would have thought, I had something in common with another Selected. I too liked people with a diverse music preference, since music says so much about a person. The quote ‘You are what you listen to’ was on one of the walls of New Wave Records music store. It was also my own personal life motto.

Clara and Brooke continued chatting, but I didn’t listen anymore. The music had taken a hold on me and it had only released me from its grip when the plane hit the ground in Angeles.

[lesbianettes]

How to Not Be a Shitty Customer

A guide by your not-so-local, not-so-friendly grocery store worker! I’m gonna split this into three sections for easier digestion, but basically, here’s how you can even slightly improve the lives of the minimum wage overworked clerks/grocers, especially with all the panic caused by COVID-19 right now.

Disclaimer: This is centered around the way my coworkers and I experience our jobs in a store owned by a large company in the U.S.

Inside the Store

Most grocery stores are split into three sections- grocery, produce, and pharmacy! Somebody may work in only one of these departments, and might not know the others well. Don’t get frustrated if somebody doesn’t know the answer to your question.

It’s okay if you spill something/knock something over. I guarantee it. None of us really care that you dropped a container of blueberries, or you weren’t feeling well and threw up, or you knocked over a display. It’s not a big deal, and it happens all the time. Just tell us!!! It’s a lot easier to handle sweeping up cereal before it gets stepped on, and there’s nothing worse than finding old vomit when you’re sweeping. Accidents happen. Just tell someone.

Big box stores require frequent sweeps. For example, the company that owns my store requires the entire store to be swept every half hour. It’s tiring and the sweeper, which can be anywhere from two to eight feet wide depending on the store/aisle size, is heavy. If you see someone sweeping, just step out of the way. We’re used to people being in the way of the sweep, and we don’t want to run into you. Don’t apologize. Just step to the side for a second while we pass, it’ll be less than two seconds of your time. 

No one knows stock off the top of their head. If you ask someone if we still have something in stock, especially if they’re sweeping and don’t work in grocery, there’s a 99% chance they won’t know. If you’re nice, we might check in the back for you! And if we know for a fact we don’t have something, don’t argue. You won’t win.

We do not set the prices/sales/limits. Corporate sets the prices and sales, not us, and certainly not the sixteen year old putting go-backs on the shelf. If something you want doesn’t qualify for a sale, or it’s too expensive, there’s nothing we can do about it. Right now specifically, we have a limit on how much water people can buy because of the panic over COVID. Corporate set the limits. Water suppliers are also limiting how much they sell us. We cannot just give you more water. But if there’s a sale if you buy a certain amount (over the limit) and you’re nice, some checkers will give you the discount anyway.

At the Checkstand

Keep your basket in front of you. The cart you unload should stay in front of you, otherwise you make it harder for us to help other customers, and if there’s a bagger, they can’t make more space because we aren’t allowed to put groceries on the floor under any circumstances. If you have large items like water cases or twelve packs, leave them in your cart and the checker can come scan them without anyone needing to lift it.

No one cares if you have reusable bags or need new ones. In my state, people also have to pay a ten cent fee for each plastic bag. People make excuses about how they forgot their bags or whatever (which is sometimes true) but we aren’t judging you. We aren’t paid enough to care. If you do bring reusable bags, it’s easier for whoever bags, whether it’s the checker or a bagger, if you either fold them or keep them in one bag. Don’t put bags inside bags inside bags.

Sometimes, you should bag your own groceries. If the checker (the person scanning the items) is bagging your groceries, offer to take over. It slows the checker and the line down if they have to bag your items. But if there is a bagger, let them do it! The bagger is trained to move quickly, fit items into few bags, and protect fragile items like eggs from breakage. Baggers will also happily adjust for you! If you prefer lighter bags, just let us know, and we’ll make them lighter. If you prefer less bags, we’ll pack them full. Just let us know and we’ll accommodate you.

Don’t haggle. We can’t give you discounts that don’t exist or your items don’t qualify for. The computer controls it, not the checker. If you’re nice, the checker will try to help you get your discount/get the right item, but if you’re rude, no one will go out of their way to help you. We don’t control the prices or sale. We can’t change the way an item rings up. 

In the Parking Lot

There’s rules with the electronic carts. It’s okay if you need a scooter to do your shopping- we won’t be annoyed and we won’t judge you. But you can’t take them into the parking lot! They’re very hard to bring back to the store and they require more energy. If you use one, please let us know that you’re leaving so we can plug the car in. Most grocery stores will also be happy to assist you to your car- carry your groceries, put them in, etc if you need to focus on a mobility aid or you were relying on the scooter to carry the weight. We want to help you!

Don’t just leave carts around. Ideally, when you’re done with a cart, the best thing to do is to bring it back to where the carts are at the front of the store (usually outside of it) because most grocery stores require clerks to hand push carts back to the store. Taking it back yourself saves a lot of time, energy, and potential injury. If you can’t bring it all the way back for any reason, put the cart in a cart return. Most grocery stores have a cart return in every aisle, at the beginning and midway down. Some large ones will have 2-4 returns per aisle. It’s not fun to track down carts. Never, under any circumstances, leave a cart in a handicap spot or the connected blue stripes. We cannot block these areas, and the store can incur fines and the employee in charge of carts at the time can get in trouble for any cart being there. 

We want to take carts. If you see someone bringing carts back to the store and you just finished yours, ask if we can take it back to the store for you! Chances are it makes everyone’s life easier, and unless we’re already at pushing limit, we’ll say yes. 

Give the right of way to cart returns. Most stores require us to return carts by hand. We have to go to the cart return and/or collect loose carts, and push them back to the store. They’re heavy and it’s repetitive in order to keep carts stocked. If you’re a pedestrian, please step out of our path or wait for us to go by. If you’re a car, and it’s safe to do so, STOP. We’re likely wearing a safety vest in addititon to all the carts, so we’re visible. But it’s easy for us to get hurt when we’re bearing all that weight and we’re faced with your huge truck. A couple seconds of you waiting for the clerk to push the carts out of the way could be the difference between that person doing their job, and them getting seriously injured or in trouble. If we or the carts get hit by a car, we may face disciplinary action. Especially if there is damage to the car.

Finally, the majority of major grocery stores in the U.S. are unionized. We are safer and more secure than those who work retail/service and aren’t union. Yes, this is a difficult job, especially in a panic like the current coronavirus one, but you should extend this respect and care to any employee because they face awful conditions as well but there is no one to stand up for them. Be respectful and use common sense. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask me!

[thenovelartist]

Homecoming Queen (I’ll Steal You Away), chapter 3

<Previous  Next>

Tohru walked up to the front counter with a full cart. The refrigerator was getting empty, and so was the pantry. One of the perks of working at the grocery store was not only the convenience of getting to shop after clocking out but also the employee discount on groceries.

“Ah, Tohru,” her coworker said as she watched Tohru come up to the cash register. “A big cart tonight as always.”

“I live with three guys who eat a lot,” she said with a smile, unloading the cart.

“Ah, growing boys,” her coworker said with a grin as she rung up the items.

Tohru nodded. “One’s a football player.”

“Oh, so is my son. He seems to empty my pantry faster than I can keep it stocked.”

Tohru giggled, thinking of how Kyo’s appetite had noticeably increased when he started up football. It had been a thing Shigure suggested, but Kyo had only joined the team after Yuki had commented how Kyo wouldn’t last a week before getting kicked off for his aggression.

And of course, wanting to prove Yuki wrong, Kyo kept at it.

Honestly, she’d been so proud of how hard Kyo worked to try to keep his aggression under control. Now, while he still had a temper, he didn’t resemble that angry teen she’d first met at all.

After she checked out and paid, her coworker waved her good bye, shooting her a “Have a nice night.”

“You, too,” Tohru returned before walking out the door, automatically looking for Kyo’s truck. Except, she saw Yuki standing by his car holding a bundle of flowers. When he caught sight of her, his resulting smile brightened the night.

She frowned in confusion. “Yuki? Wasn’t Kyo supposed to pick me up? Not that I’m not happy to see you,” she quickly tacked on.

“Well… yes,” he said. “But we… came to an agreement.”

She didn’t want to know what that ‘agreement’ looked like. Or if Shigure’s house would tell her. “O-oh?”

“Because, you see, I wanted to come pick you up,” he said, extending the flowers to her. “And ask you to be my date to homecoming.”

The world around her vanished for a moment as she stared at Yuki, who was looking at her with his sweetest, most genuine smile. That smile that he didn’t show often but that she loved.

You’re going to have to pick one of them, Arisa’s voice echoed in her head. And now, Yuki was here, asking her to go on a date with him.

And she found it shockingly overwhelming.

“Really?”

He chuckled. “Of course. Tohru, I would be honored if you would be my date for homecoming. So, would you?”

How could she really say anything other than, “yes. I’d be honored.”

…

From his vantage point on the roof, Kyo got to watch Yuki’s dinky little car pull up the driveway. He watched as Tohru stepped out of the car, a bundle of flowers in her hands.

And his heart sank.

He’d lost.

Kyo really hated losing, to Yuki in particular. But in the end, Kyo would be willing to lose every single fight to Yuki as long as the one thing, the only thing he got to win…

Was Tohru.

But now, here she was, smiling brightly as Yuki helped her carry in the groceries. He knew he should be happy that she was happy. He knew he should be happy for her that she got to go to a dance and have fun with her friends. He even knew that he could steal her away for one dance and Yuki could fight him later.

But really, selfishly, all he really wanted was for her to be happy with him.

…

“So, the Prince asked you?” Arisa asked, her brow quirked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Tohru answered with a grin and a flutter in her heart. “He was okay with paying for tickets and everything.”

“Of course, he would,” Saki said as though it was fact. “There was never a question about that. I’m surprised, though,” she continued. “I thought for sure that Kyo was going to be the one to ask you.”

“You know,” Arisa added, “I kinda thought so, too.”

“Huh?”

Both Arisa and Saki looked at Tohru. “Yeah,” Arisa said. “The way he’d been acting… it was like he was trying to work up the nerve or something.”

“His waves indicated turmoil,” Saki confirmed. “I believe he was.”

“Well, if he wanted to go with Tohru, he shoulda asked before the Prince. He had plenty of time.”

Tohru’s heart sank. Kyo was working up the courage to ask her? Really? And now he couldn’t because she said yes to Yuki?

She sighed, gaze falling to the floor. She knew this was going to happen. The other was going to get hurt and it was the last thing she wanted to do.

But with Kyo… the realization that she’d broken his heart was an extra hard pill to swallow.  

…

Since Kyo had won the morning battle to take her to school, she didn’t see him until she got home. And even then…

“Kyo?” Shigure said when she had asked where he was. “I haven’t seen him.”

“I didn’t see his truck,” Tohru said. “But I thought he might have ran out for something.”

“He still might have,” Shigure said. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

As much as she wanted to take that advice, she couldn’t.

“Something on your mind, Tohru?” he prodded knowingly.

She shook her head.

“Tohru,” he said, voice gently warning.

How all three of these men knew her so well was almost scary, though she had to admit, it made her feel loved. “I… Yuki asked me out to homecoming last night.”

“I do know this,” he said. “So why would that be bothering you?”

Tohru bit her lip. “Because my friends said Kyo wanted to ask me out, but he didn’t. And… and I think he tried once but never got the chance to actually ask.”

“And you feel guilty about that?”

She shrugged. Honestly, she didn’t know what to think. Saki’s words came back to her. Choose one and don’t feel guilty about not picking the other. “I shouldn’t.”

“Look at you!” Shigure cried, beaming smile on his face. “I didn’t think you had that in you. I’m so proud of you. My little Tohru is growing up.”

She blushed.

He chuckled but gave her a warm smile. “You’re right. You shouldn’t feel guilty about not going with Kyo. Because you’re going to go with Yuki and enjoy your time with him, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Shigure said. “Don’t worry about Kyo. He’ll get over it. If he wanted to ask you out, he should have done it before. So don’t feel guilty that you agreed to Yuki’s proposal instead of the one Kyo should have gotten out already. Okay?”

She knew his words were meant to make her feel better. But they didn’t. “Okay.”

“Good.”

…

Kyo hadn’t wanted to return home. He’d eaten out with some teammates and decided to avoid the house all together. Particularly Tohru and Yuki. Together.

But the teammates had come and gone and he was still lingering in the pizza joint a while longer.

“Damn it! There you are.”

He looked up to see an angry blonde marching over to him. “What do ya want, Yankee?”

“I want you to turn on your damn phone!”

“It’s not off!” he shouted.

“Then how come Tohru called me, frantic, telling me you wouldn’t answer?”

Just to make a point, he whipped out his phone

Only to see it was dead.

He growled.

“Dumbass,” she growled. “You know how worried sick she is over you right now?”

“I’m fine. She doesn’t have to worry about me.”

“Well, she does,” Arisa snapped. “Because you’re like family to her, and do you know what happened the last time a family member didn’t text or come home?”

It took far too long for Kyo to connect dots, but once he did, memories of Tohru trying her best not to cry while telling her about her mother surfaced. “Shit.”

“Yeah, ‘shit’s right, dumbass. If you cared for her, you wouldn’t be such a reckless idiot and be out sulking—”

“Sulking?!”

“Yeah, sulking. Don’t deny it. Else you’d be home and Tohru wouldn’t be worried off her ass about you.”

Kyo could feel every fiber of his being telling him to fight this bitch, but then came that little reminder in the back of his head that it would be better to just go home and see Tohru and calm her down.

Shooting her a growl, he turned and marched out of the building to his truck in the parking lot.

He got a couple seconds of silence before Arisa appeared at his side. “You better be begging on your knees for her forgiveness.”

Kyo grit his teeth. “Will you just text her and tell her I’m on my way home.”

With a huff, she whipped out her cell phone, but instead of making a text, she held it up to her ear. “Hey, Tohru. Found him.”

He could hear Tohru’s frantic reply on the other end of the line, and the way Arisa had to hold the phone away from her ear further attested to how loud she was.

Before Arisa could respond, Kyo ripped the phone straight from her hand. “Tohru.”

“Kyo?” she said, her voice warbly like she was on the verge of tears.

Crap. He made her cry.

“Hey,” he said, his anger dissipating. “I’m sorry if I worried you. I didn’t mean to.”

“I just didn’t know where you were and you weren’t answering my calls or—”

“My phone died,” he said. “Or else you know I would have.”

“I know,” she said. “Which was why I was worried.”

He grit his teeth, not liking the way his heart was ripping apart at the fear in her voice. “I’m sorry. I’m on my way home. I’ll be there in under ten minutes, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay,” he repeated. “I’ll see you soon. I promise.”

“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”

With that, he hung up and handed the phone back to Arisa.

“Well, you talked her off the cliff,” she said, no longer screaming at him. “I’ll give you credit for that.”

“You know I’d never purposefully hurt Tohru,” he said, eyes locked challengingly on Arisa.

She stared back before she sighed. “I know you wouldn’t,” she quietly conceded. “You still do when you’re an idiot, but I know you can’t help that.”

He growled, his hackles rising momentarily.

“Why were you even out anyway?” she asked.

He sighed, trying to stay calm. “I needed to clear my head.”

“Can’t you do that at home.”

“I needed to be out of the house.”

Arisa raised a brow. “Ayame staying over?”

“No. Thankfully,” he added with a growl.

“Then you and the Prince get into a fight? Well,” she corrected, “a worse one than usual.”

Kyo unlocked his truck door to avoid answering the question.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “Is this about him taking Tohru to the homecoming dance?”

He opened his truck door.

“Wait, are you sulking out here because you’re jealous?”

The sheer bite in her tone made him feel like he’d been doused with ice water, and his back went rigidly straight.

“It is,” she said. “You’re sulking because Yuki asked Tohru before you could get the nerve.”

“It’s not like that, okay!” he shouted.

“Really?” she challenged with a smirk. “Because I think that that’s exactly what it’s like.”

Kyo grit his teeth to hold back a snarl. “Lay off, will ya?”

Before he could yank the door shut, she grabbed it. “You know it’s only a dance, right?” she said. “It wasn’t like he asked her to be his girlfriend or anything.”

Those words took him off guard, partly because he was shocked at how much those words shocked him. She was right: Yuki wasn’t Tohru’s boyfriend. It was just a date.

For now.

He sighed. “I gotta get back to her before she starts freaking out again.”

Arisa let her grip on his door go. “Got my eye on you, Carrots. Don’t make me kick your ass.”

“Can’t promise that with you.”

She chuckled. “Guess you’re right about that.”

…

When Kyo walked through the front door, he didn’t even get out the words “I’m home” before Tohru tackled him in a hug.

Crap, he’d really freaked her out.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her hair.

“Just tell me next time,” she said, her voice warbly with tears. “Okay? Don’t stay out so late without a text or call.”

“I know,” he assured, squeezing her tighter and pressing his nose to her temple. “I’m so sorry, Tohru.”

She sniffed but didn’t say anything. Nor did she move or let him move.

So he stayed there, holding her, stroking her soft hair in reassurance while Arisa’s words played over and over in his head. It’s not like he asked her to be his girlfriend.

Meaning he still had a chance to be with this wonderful woman he didn’t deserve.

But for now, all he could think of was coaxing Tohru to bed to get some sleep. She deserved it after the heart attack he nearly gave her. But it was a challenge to convince her to let him go and get some sleep.

“I’ll be right here in the morning, okay?” he whispered to her, giving her hands he held a squeeze.

She sighed, then squeezed right back. “Okay.”

He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to hers. “Good night, Tohru.”

She didn’t move for a while, standing perfectly still before quietly returning. “Good night, Kyo.”

Finally, she let him go, slipping into her room and closing the door.

Honestly, he would have had no problem standing there all night. After all, better than going back downstairs to face the wrath of Shigure and Yuki for all the stress he put Tohru through.

…

“I know you both are busy after school today,” Tohru said, looking at the two boys at the breakfast table. Things had finally returned to normal after Kyo’s little disappearing incident, the boys being back on speaking terms now and Shigure’s house once again safe from fights. “So Saki is going to pick me up, but she wants to go dress shopping, so I don’t know if I’ll be home when you two get home.”

Yuki grinned at her. “Ah, I hope you find a dress you like.”

“Actually, I can’t buy it today. Not until the end of the week when I get my paycheck.”

Kyo’s brow furrowed. “Then why bother going shopping?”

“Because the dance is in two weeks, and I don’t have to work today, so it would be best not to waste my free time when I have it. We’re just going to go now and see what I can afford, and we’ll go pick it up when I can pay for it.”

“Sounds like a decent plan,” Shigure said. “I’m sure you’ll look positively lovely in whatever dress you choose.”

She smiled her thanks, unsure why the two boys were glaring at him and just pretending she didn’t notice.

…

Yuki was the first one to get home from school. The meeting had gone well and been very productive, leaving him feeling satisfied with a job well done as he drove home.

“Ah, Yuki,” Shigure said as Yuki walked into the main room. “Question.”

“As long as it’s not stupid.”

“It’s about Tohru.”

The serious tone of his voice got his attention. “What about her?”

Shigure folded his newspaper to look at Yuki. “Do you think that she’ll actually buy a dress that she likes or one she can afford?”

Yuki’s brow furrowed. “I hope she could find an affordable one she likes.”

Shigure sighed. “I suppose that’s true,” he said, opening up the paper again with a put-out expression. “But what if she can’t?”

Yuki didn’t quite understand what Shigure was getting at until he saw a glint in Shigure’s eye. “No.”

“Come on,” Shigure said, hastily shutting the paper. “You know—”

“I don’t care,” Yuki warned, anger burning in him like a fire. “I do not want him over—”

“Not even to make her the perfect dress.”

“I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Besides, do you really think he’ll have something cheaper than something she could find?”

“Well, I would buy it for her.”

Yuki quirked a brow. “You?”

Shigure hummed, a satisfied smile on his face.

Yuki crossed his arms as he stared at his older, perverted cousin. “What are you planning?”

“Can’t I just be nice for once.”

“No.”

“Oh! So cruel!”

Yuki narrowed his eyes at Shigure.

“So, you’re just going to make your date pay for her own dress?”

His words caught Yuki off guard. Of course, he’d like to get Tohru a dress. Particularly one she wouldn’t get herself. But Shigure…

He was scheming something.

“It certainly would be gentlemanly to get her a dress,” Shigure continued.

“You could get her all the dresses in the world and still not quality for the term.”

“Oh, Yuki, you’re so cruel.” To add to his theatrics, he pressed the back of his hand to his forehead.

Yuki sighed. “I’ll allow it. But I know you’re scheming something.”

Shigure shot him a smile. “Now, Yuki, whatever would make you think that?”

“Call it a hunch,” he deadpanned.

With a winner’s grin, Shigure opened back up his paper. “I’ll give Ayame a call a little later. Don’t you worry about a thing.”

“And when you say things like that, it’s an automatic tell to start worrying.”

“Then would you like to call your brother and ask if he’d come over to design a dress for Tohru?”

Yuki cringed. On one hand, no, he did not want to make that call. But if he didn’t, then Shigure would and heaven only knows what that conversation would entail. “I’ll call. Knowing you, you’d invite him over.”

“Well, he’d have to come over anyway to get Tohru’s measurements.”

Yuki frowned. “Doesn’t he just need her dress size?”

“Your brother would be offended if he heard that,” Shigure quipped. “For a custom dress, a girl should get it custom fitted.”

Yuki sighed. “Fine, but he comes over only when Kyo and I are both here to monitor the two of you with Tohru.”

Shigure put a hand to his chest in mock offence. “Yuki, don’t you trust your brother and me?”

“No.”

“Ouch.”

…

Yuki was right: it had been a bad decision to let Shigure make that call. Halfway through the conversation, he had to rip the phone from Shigure’s hand and finish it up.

“That was rude,” Shigure had pouted after Yuki had hung up on his brother. “You were the one who wanted me to call.”

“And I will regret that decision until my dying breath.”

…

Tohru was overwhelmed. At the moment, she was trying not to cry.

A box of tissues appeared in front of her, and she looked over to see a smiling Shigure.

She took one and blew her nose.

“Poor thing,” he commented. “So overwhelmed.”

“You don’t have to buy me a custom dress,” she cried. “I found one I liked—”

“Nonsense!” Ayame cried, the fabric tape measure in his hand flying in the air as he flung it over his neck. “If anyone deserves perfection, it’s you, my dear Tohru. And the only way to ensure perfection is to have a man with a perfect eye make it especially for you.”

“And don’t worry about the cost,” Shigure said. “My gift to you for taking care of us all these years.”

“But—”

“Ah ah ah!” Ayame warned, pressing a finger to Tohru’s mouth. “No buts, darling. This will be one of my most fantastic masterpieces.”

Upon feeling the tears welling in her eyes again, she reached over to grab another tissue. “You are so kind to me. Thank you. Thank you so so so much!”

Shigure rested a hand on top her head. “You’re very welcome, Tohru. Now, calm down. It’s nothing to get worked up over.”

“But a high school dance is a big deal!” Ayame cried. “She must look nothing but her absolute best. Particularly if she’s to attend as my precious little brother’s date.” He sighed dramatically. “I’m so proud of him. I knew he was handsome enough to catch many a girl, but nothing could make me happier than my sweet, precious Yuki having the fairest maiden of all to take to the ball.”

Tohru felt herself blush bright red, feeling particularly embarrassed since both Yuki and Kyo were there at the moment. They had told her that they weren’t leaving her side, as they tended to do whenever Ayame was over. Why, she didn’t know. And she, frankly, was too afraid to ask.

“Even though you put it so dramatically,” Yuki sighed, looking a little red himself. “You are right about finding the fairest maiden. I’m very lucky in that respect.”

Tohru felt her face and neck and chest catch fire. “You’re so sweet, Yuki.”

Yuki shot her a smile that could make her melt into a puddle on the floor.

Too bad she couldn’t fully enjoy it as her heart broke at the sight of a pouting Kyo refusing to look her way.

[fuck-customers]

Hey big corporation, SOME PLANNING BEFORE YOU CHANGE THINGS WOULD BE NICE

Ok so this isn't as much of a "fuck customers" as it is a "fuck idiot corporations" and please excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes. My brain is fried. Anyways, I work for a call center that services the cards for Groker and all of its grocery store chains and y'all... I and every single employee, supervisor, manager, general manager, etc are so done with their shit.

First off they decided to cut ties with an association and by doing that, they then made us do a complete mandatory change of EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER'S CREDIT CARD which started rolling out in Spring. This of course unleashed a fucking MONSOON of problems for us. We suddenly had thousands of calls pouring in from customers freaking out wondering why they had a new card and had to explain the switch to them. Typically this would be fine but at least 98% of this company's customers are elderly (No, seriously THAT'S ALL WE EVER GET) so attempting to explain an entire card conversion to them as simply & thoroughly as possible was like talking to a very scared brick wall and many people wound up closing their accounts all together because they couldn't handle the change or thought it was a scam. That's fair, despite being frustrating.

Now enter Wave 2. Our next round of calls were from a load of more elderly people saying they never got their new card and because the 90 day period to use their current one (as noted in the letters which they ALSO never got) had passed, the cards were automatically turned off because they didn't know about the switch and thus didn't call in. They were also being transferred to us by a super shitty, cheap, outbound call center that was hired without our knowledge and essentially made the customers think we were a bunch of scammers and scream at us to lose their phone numbers. So, for those who actually let us talk to them, we had to apologize like crazy and rush out the new cards to them asap.

Just when you thought it couldn't get more obnoxious, we got Wave 3. People were receiving their cards and we all thought hell was finally over but oh, oh no. That would be too fucking convenient. They were promised an extra discount on their gas purchases for the switchover that... YOU GUESSED IT. BARELY. ANYONE. WAS. RECEIVING. And when they complained to the employees at the stores, they were told to call the number on the back of their card (us) because the employees weren't given any other direction letting them know that we couldn't handle anything relating to their fuel points and apparently have not been given the actual customer service line number by management (correct me if I'm wrong please)?? So for months now I and everyone else in our call centers have been having to apologize and tell them we can't help them and transfer them to the right customer service line (which occasionally sent them right back to us but that's another story and I'm already gonna have to put a tl;dr on this) to figure out why the hell they're not getting fuel discounts they were promised.

And lastly for the final wave, there's been an alarming number of elderly people who called in asking why they have two of the new cards, only for me to find out that some representatives in-store had lied and said they HAD to apply for a brand new card instead of letting them know that we were already sending a replacement. They also lied and said they'd get an extra EXTRA discount and could move their rewards over and basically a bunch of other bullshit just to get a card app. Now I don't know if this was something employees were forced to do by management to meet quotas or if there were just some people hired on to walk around with a clipboard and lie to people and get card apps but either way that was a complete asshole thing to do and has been making our lives hell. It got to the point where we sent corporate STACKS (I mean like cartoon-esque stacks) of complaints filed to get them to fix their shit but I honestly don't know if anything has really happened yet short of slightly fewer calls relating to it.

Either way this whole entire thing was a complete disaster with little to no pre-planning and not a single fuck given as to the impact it would have on employees and customers, alike and I'm ready to strangle someone. 

tl;dr: Big corporation decides to break up with card association and forces a mandatory change/reissue millions of customers cards and it opened a metric FUCKTON size can of worms involving confused elderly people and everyone all the way up to the highest management in all of my call centers is completely done. I'm dying, Squirtle.

[hansmarx-blog1]

Few Clouds, 5°C

Bommerholzer Str. 9, 58452 Witten, Deutschland

A place you should avoid

Wir sind jetzt dabei, den zweiten Teil unserer Reise durch die USA vorzubereiten. Die Flüge sind gebucht , Harpo hat auch ein Platz im Frachtraum ergattert, es kann losgehen. Am 27. März fliegen wir nach San Francisco, nehmen ein Mietwagen Richtung Sacramento und fahren am nächsten Tag nach Salt Lake City, um zunächst einmal Michelle Simpson zu besuchen, unsere alte Freundin aus Park City. Wir hätten also gerne ein Motel in der Nähe von Sacramento, wo wir auch mit Harpo unterkommen können. Das ist nicht ganz so einfach in den USA. Viele Hotels nehmen keine Hunde, andere werben damit, dass sie Pet friendly seien. Das ist schon mal gut, nicht so gut ist, dass sie sich ihre Freundlichkeit zum Teil fürstlich bezahlen lassen. 50 und mehr Dollar dafür, dass die Töle mit ins Zimmer darf sind da gar nichts. Zum Glück ist das nicht überall so, aber man muss aufpassen.

Das Haus einer bekannten Kette, bei der wir ganz gerne übernachten, machte auf den Bildern einen guten Eindruck Komma aber die Bewertungen auf TripAdvisor hatten es doch in sich. Man wundert sich fast, dass es Hotels auf solche Bewertungen einfach ankommen lassen und sich schon mal gar nicht dafür interessieren. Overall Rating

(13 Reviews) Horror show

March 13, 2019 I'd give no stars if possible and more photos are to come too. My worst experience in a hotel in my entire 58 years on this earth. They disrespected my service to my country as a Veteran. The lady at front desk had no idea of what she was doing or talking about. They have rooms that are so nasty they should be condemned "but as long as the money rolls in who cares" appears to be their moto. Gave us the wrong room and I hobbled to room with my caregiver and the room was already taken and it was OMG like a dumpster and on the one bed was 3 YES 3 little babies I mean like 15 months oldest maybe and for the 3 seconds we stood there it almost made me sick the stink coming out of that room. The weed smell through the whole hotel is like nothing I've smelled before. As I said this is the worst experience I've ever had. I called corporate office and got disrespected again by a "supervisor" and I use that term loosely as possible. The only bright moment in this whole ride through hood trap was speaking to a Jennifer the boss of the incompetent "supervisor who disrespected me. If your a drug addict, gang member or just plain trash do stay here, you'll fit right in and be right at home. I have filed complaints with CPS, The Health Department etc. I've sent all the photos along with a email to every local news station also. This type of behavior cannot be allowed to exist. It's a breeding ground for everything not good for our City and neighbors

Disagree with other reviews here

December 30, 2018 Super friendly staff. Those others must have been fired or something. The parking area and vicinity is patrolled at night and parking was no problem at all there was extra parking unlike other Red Roof locations here in Sac. There is like 10 fast food places within walking distance. (that's me though. For sure, Wendy's across the street. I went to Del Taco like less than a minute drive away. Patricia told me she has been here six months and was very nice letting me know about the veteran's discount. Thanks.

Want Some Heroin with That?!

December 15, 2018 One star only because zero stars aren't an option. I wish I'd checked yelp before booking this piece of sh*t hotel. The lobby appeared clean and contemporary so I figured it was a decent enough place. We came to Sac to see the Nutcracker ballet and when we arrived back at the hotel we were quickly accosted by a turd selling heroin and crack. He even had the nerve to shove a bag of his drugs in my 12 year old daughter's face! To make matters worse, he came out of the office and when I called down there to report him the clerk refused to answer the phone. It appears that the staff is in on the drug selling shenanigans. I called the sherrif's office and reported it. After this I'm posting on Hotels.com, Traveladvisor.com, and contacting the better business bureau and Red Roof Inn's corporate office.

Roaches

November 23, 2018 Reserved a non smoking room but the room smelled badly of smoke. Could have delt with that but the room was filled with cockroaches. Went back to lobby and requested refund. Clerk was polite and processed refund with no issues. So no complaints of the employers. But can't stay in a place with so many roaches. Neighborhood is pretty sketchy too. Did not feel safe parking and staying there.

Very insulting staff and unprofessional lazy manager r December 19, 2017 I just want to start by saying I never write reviews but after the treatment my family received I had to make sure I start good or bad for all deserving businesses. We checked in and was a little surprised how unfriendly and very short (morning) front desk staff was. Tatiana I believe was knowledgeable of her job but short and not friendly. So checking into the room it was clear management didn't check rooms after staff or give *need to fix list for maintenance. There was black hair on bedsheet. Quilt had food stains and other stains I don't wanna know what they were on them. We also noticed black hair in shower. Tub was not clean at all. we called front desk not asking for anything but just telling them for their knowledge. Also, one bulb in living room out and needed few other maintenance things done. Painting, toilet kept stopping up and broken window lock. So my husband had went to grocery store second morning and called front desk to say no service and please don't knock on door because our 11 yr old 12 next week son was there and we told him not open door unless we called to tell him. She said ok, no problems. Third morning we left hotel from bank which is five minutes down the street and it was 1130. We lost track of time but only 30 minutes and told her we were staying. She gave me attitude and said ok but we needed to be there by noon to pay or we would be charged a late fee. Umm ok but we got there by noon. When we got back our son informed us manager had called room and asked him why he was alone and it was against the law. Shocked we went downstairs to find out the problem and asked why they didn't question us when we paid before going up to room. There were two girls who immediatly started scolding us and saying it was against the law and treating us like bad parents. We told them to check state laws because it's at parents discretion after a certain age. And a almost 12yr old was ok alone for 30 minutes to a hour. They then acted shocked and said well they wouldn't do it. So we went back to room and as time passed I couldn't stop thinking about it and spoke to my husband who said it's just those girls and the night shift employee was really nice (a young guy) and security team was also nice and professional we decided to see if anything else would happen as we had one more day on reservation. That night there were sketchy young people outside obviously high and loud. I called front desk and I guess when security is off two days it's party time. Also that night my son had his hand under mattress and pulled out some old candy wrappers. The next morning at breakfast we told Tatiana and she was rude and said maintenance checks all rooms and basically implied we had done it. We even said we didn't expect anything just wanted the management to know they need to walk thru rooms to check on employees. The rest of day went on without incident and we were supposed to check out next morning. So my husband had lost car key and we couldn't find it. We looked all over property and couldn't find it. We made another reservation on line and called front desk (Tatiana again) and told her we made a reservation on line and needed another day. I explained my husband lost keys and she said ok. Our insurance (Geico, and they are awesome) sent a tow truck to us and opened our car. They waited ten minutes for us to search car and leave with them to go and have another very expensive key made. We were at dealership having a key maid when Tatiana called and said they found a car key and it was to a Ford. I was happy but it was to late (not her fault) However, we got back at 12:49pm and went to office to get key. Tatiana said we didn't sign papers by noon and manager charging us $25 late fee. We said we had called before noon to inform them we needed another night and why. She said nope we were supposed to sign by noon and computer started flagging us and charging us late fee. She could've checked us out and had paper there for us to sign and checked us in after we got back. Again, not their problem and manager wasn't there but we could have her voicemail. We were upset and told them we were leaving and we would return to checkout. She said we had 30 minutes or she was keeping our whole deposit. We ran upstairs and five minutes Tatiana calls and says her manager had called Sheriff because we didn't checkout on time. I got really angry and felt like I was being treated extremely poorly by staff. She didn't care and we now only had $10 of our $60 deposit left. I asked why she said 30:and she yelled no, and hurry up. We been informed already of hotel policy's which I thought when I called at noon to tell her we were staying we covered that. She didn't say otherwise. I hung up on her and still hurried out thinking no way a chain like this would let their employees act like this. Then a knock at door and rude maintenance man and two housekeepers stood their until we left, never getting a deposit at all. We waited and manager never came. it was working hours. I know this was long but I will write this review everywhere, every week until refunded deposit and a apology I will stand on Watt Ave and stop business. People gotta know. and as we waited in parking lot a man came out yelling cause he was charged $20 for one dirty towel. Horrible service.

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