“Hey,” Janine greeted her when Larissa pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car.
“Hi. What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Picking up my last check. She forgot to put a couple of days on it accidentally, so I had to stop by because she’dalready disconnected the direct deposit.” Janine held up a white envelope. “She couldn’t wait one day to do that, huh?”
“Sorry, Janine,” she replied. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll probably have to get another job myself; either in addition to this one or just a new one altogether because she cut our hours.”
“Why would that make me feelbetter?” Janine asked with a little laugh. “I don’t want you to be out of a job, too. Besides, you should be fine. I told her to try to give you as many hours as she could and reduce the phone scrollers’ hours instead.Youactually work.Theytake advantage. She said she’d talk to you today.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Larissa said, grateful that she had.
“I know. But I want this place to be successful. I’m not mad that she had to let me go. People don’t buy books in a store as much as they used to. It’s sad that she might end up having to sell. She might not want you to know, but she’s got maybe a year left if the place doesn’t turn around, and that’s with firing me and reducing the rest of the hours. Of the two phone scrollers, I can see her letting go of one soon to help more, but then the other would go right behind her. I told her you should be the last one to go, but, yeah, if I were you, I’d start looking now, just in case. She might make it a year and a half if she lets go of the two, but then, she might need you to go full-time, and she can’t afford to have a full-timer. She’d have to pay your benefits.”
“I have those already. I’m good,” she replied. “I’ll talk to her and tell her not to worry about that.”
“Just give her some time first, okay? She cried when she let me go,” Janine shared.
“Yeah, of course.”
“So, are we on for the weekend still? Drinks?”
“Oh. Sure, yeah.”
“You forgot, didn’t you?”
“No, I didn’t forget,” Larissa replied. “I just might have to postpone. I don’t know yet, though.”
“Something up?”
“Harlow is moving into her own place. She just found out that she got this really nice apartment. I don’t know when she’s moving yet, but she told me she had to pick a date, and my guess is that she would pick a weekend one, considering we both work, and I’ll be helping her move.”
“You talk a lot about her, you know?”
“Harlow? She’s my best friend, and we’ve known each other forever.”
“No, I mean, you talk about hera lot. I said it that day I asked you out on a date, but I don’t think you caught what I meant. Then again, youdidimmediately tell me you don’t sleep with her, so maybe youdidget it.”
“Not you, too,” Larissa said.
“Not me toowhat?” Janine laughed.
“I’m figuring some things out. I’ve been told recently that I am only smart when it comes to science, not so much when it comes to other things.”
“Like friends?”
“Like maybe being in love with her and not knowing it forever.”
“Ah… So I was right? What I picked up on was correct?”
“If you picked up on the fact that I’ve, apparently, been in love with Harlow without realizing it for a very long time, then, yes.”
“And how are you doing with all of that?”
“Not great so far. I slept on my sister’s couch last night after I tried to talk to Harlow, and she decided to go bowling with her ex-girlfriend instead. I didn’t want to see her when she got home.”
“You told her you wanted to talk about how you felt, and she ditched you?” Janine asked, furrowing her brow.
“Not exactly. I told her I wanted to talk to her about something, but I didn’t specifically tell her that I wanted to talk about how I felt. I’m still trying to figure that out.”
