“Do we have a laser printer?” He nods, and I smile. “Great, okay. We need to go to Staples and get, well, a ton of labels, print them off at the office and go to the warehouse and replace them.”
“Jessa, it’s nearly five.”
“We can’t give kids a baseball bat with a dick sticker with our name on it.” He groans and scrubs his face.
“This is going to take all night.”
“I’m ready to prove you made the right decision hiring me. Can you run to staples? I’ll design something right now.”
“I’ll call the warehouse and let them know we’re coming. Are you sure?”
“I’m positive,” I say, smiling at him. I pull up Staples’ website and find the product we need, I screenshot it and send him a text. “Tell the employee this is what we need, and we need enough to do 5,000 labels.
“We could just take the labels off. It’s a loss in marketing, but we can just take them off,” he says pragmatically.
“I’m happy to do that with you too. But I think we can fix this. We can try. And we have part of the day tomorrow before you need to drop off, right? We can see how many we can fix tonight and then it can be all hands on deck at Kemper’s tomorrow.”
Aiden looks at me like I’m the smartest person he’s ever met, and he nods his head. “I’ll be right back. I’ll pick up food on the way. Any requests?” My stomach grumbles then from skipping lunch, and I shrug.
“I like just about anything.”
“I’m so happy you caught this. Seriously, amazing job.” My cheeks heat, and I give him a small smile that he returns. Aiden grabs his keys, and I head back to my desk. He makes sure to lock the door behind him, which I appreciate since I’ll be alone in the office as he heads to the supply store and I work on a new design.
It’s probably stupid, but I feel proud of myself too. I feel valuable in a way I haven’t felt in so long. I match the specs from the sheet I found online, and I’m finished when Aiden comes back to the office. He fills the printer with the labels and I set off printing the exceedingly large number of stickers. The machine whirls and prints them out.
“Everyone left from the warehouse, but Kenny told me where everything is.” I nod as I watch the labels print one by one. “I can’t believe I approved that sticker. It’s when Collin was fading out and I was on auto-pilot. What a stupid fucking mistake.”
I can’t help it as I touch his forearm. For a man so confident, he seems really hard on himself. “It’s okay. We caught it in time. Shit happens.” He smiles and doesn’t shrink away from my touch, but picks up a sheet of my labels.
“Your design is a million times better.”
I shrug my shoulders but can’t help but smile. “Maybe once this crisis is averted I can show you all my ideas. Right now Kemper’s branding is all over the place. I’ve broken it down by company branding and each sport. It’s still a huge work in progress, but it’s just an idea.”
“Yeah, I’m excited to see what else you’ve come up with.”
He fills the machine with more labels. Once they’re finished, I grab my purse and Aiden grabs the labels and our food as we get into his car and head to the warehouse.
Aiden insists we eat before we get started, and I’m thankful as I devour the chicken over rice he got me from the Halal truck. I open the peach Snapple and nearly down it in a few goes. The warehouse is pretty fucking hot, and I take off my cardigan, my arms on full display. Aiden briefly looks up at me before shaking his head and then glares at the mass of boxes we have to work on.
“How should we do this?” he says.
“Maybe we can work on taking stickers off first?” He puts an empty box between our chairs and opening a box on the table. He grabs his phone and puts on some music, which makes me smile. We work in silence for a good twenty minutes, just the sound of the music on his phone and the clanking of small bats hitting the box every few seconds.
“So,” he breaks the silence.
“So.”
He laughs and just grabs another bat, taking the sticker off and sticking it on the table. “Are you liking Florida?”
“Besides the humidity, yeah. People are definitely a little different here, but I think I like it.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “I’ve always lived here, so I don’t really know any different. Where were you living before?”
“Virginia. Seems traffic is just as bad anywhere you go.” He makes a noise in the back of his throat.
“Do you miss it?” he asks.
“No, it was just a place for me. I think I’m still trying to find somewhere to call home.” We keep de-stickering bats quietly for a few moments. “Can I ask you about Collin?” He nods and I take a deep breath. “What was he like? I mean, I met him twice, but I didn’t know him.”
