Page 17 of Anyone But Me

By Monday morning, some of the confidence I had been feeling while on vacation had worn off, but it wasn’t gone completely.

My job was a twenty-minute walk from my apartment, and I planned to walk whenever the weather allowed, but today, I elected to get a ride.

I didn’t want to risk being smelly or my hair being windswept, or even worse, arriving late because I took a wrong turn.

I wasn’t late at all. In fact, I had arrived almost twenty minutes early. I took a deep breath before walking inside the massive office building.

“May I help you, ma’am?” a security guard asked as soon as I walked through the doors.

I swallowed the large lump in my throat. “Yes. I… um… I work here. It’s my first day.”

He nodded, his face serious and not a hint of a smile. “Name, please.”

“Carter Miller-Cooper.” I choked on my own name, making it appear like I didn’t belong there at all.

The security guard typed into the iPad he was holding, and when he looked up from it, he gave me a tight-lipped smile.

“Ah yes, Miss Miller-Cooper. Someone will be down to escort you upstairs in just a few minutes, but first I must ask you to give me your bag, make sure your pockets are empty, and go through the metal detector.”

Wow. This was much more intense than I expected it to be. Was this what it was like to work in New York City? I followed his directions and made it through with no issues. As promised, a few minutes later, a young woman, who appeared to be only a few years older than me, came to take me upstairs.

She was short but had a confidence about her that made her appear much taller.

Her red curly hair was pulled into a ponytail, but more than a few pieces had already fallen out of it.

She was wearing a black suit with a skirt and a white button-up underneath.

A wide smile spread across her face as she held her hand out toward me.

“I’m Annika. I’m part of the HR team and will be helping you with all of your onboarding procedures today and tomorrow.

It’s going to be a lot, so I hope you’re ready.

We try to get the onboarding completed as quickly as possible so we can get you started on your actual job. ”

She wasn’t lying. As soon as we got upstairs, I was taken into a room filled with rows of computers, similar to our computer lab in high school.

I had to read page after page of company policies, then intermittently take quizzes to make sure I was paying attention.

By the time I finished all of those, it was already past one o’clock.

Annika was sitting up front waiting for me to finish and offered to get lunch with me once I told her I was done.

We took an elevator down two floors, and it was like entering a whole other world. There were rooms with TVs and couches, rooms with bean bag chairs and tables stacked with laptops, all leading to the end of the hall where there was a massive cafeteria.

“This is technically the break floor, but a lot of people come down here to do work when their office gets too stuffy. This is pretty much where you’ll always find me when I’m not onboarding a new employee or in a meeting. My office is essentially just storage space at this point.”

I nodded in response, but I didn’t think I would ever actually come down to this area when I was on the clock. When I worked, I wanted my complete focus to be on my job and nothing else. This floor was much too busy and distracting.

When we reached the cafeteria, so many smells hit me at once. My nostrils were able to detect pizza, burgers, and coffee, but there were many other smells that had my stomach growling as well. “So, we can come down here whenever and buy food?” I asked Annika.

Annika gave me a lopsided grin. “Whenever? Yes. Buy? No.” She moved her arm around in a circle. “All of this is included in your benefits.”

I figured I must have heard that wrong. “You mean…”

Annika nodded excitedly. “You can have whatever you want.”

Wow. I knew I was lucky to have gotten this job, but it turns out, I didn’t realize just how lucky I was.

“Don’t get too excited,” Annika said with a laugh. “We get so many perks because they work us to the bone. They expect a lot, but unlike many other places of employment, they give a lot back to us as well.”

There was so much food, I had no idea what I wanted, but I settled on a cheeseburger, French Fries, and ice cream. I couldn’t eat like this every day if I was going to keep fitting in my nice pants, but I could splurge every once in a while, and today felt like a good day to splurge.

Annika led me to a small table tucked away in a corner of the cafeteria. “It gets a little loud in here,” she said with a wink. “I’ve learned this is the best place to sit if you actually want to hear the person you’re eating with.”

Throughout lunch, I found out Annika was thirty-three years old, had been married for two years, and was currently trying to get pregnant with her first (and only) child. She was easy to talk to, and I found myself getting lost in our conversation.

When we were nearing the end of our meal, Annika pointed her fork at me. “I like you, Carter. If you don’t completely hate me after everything I make you do these next two days, I think we’ll be good friends.”

“That’s great, because I could use some friends in the city.” Or in general.

By the end of the day, my eyes hurt from staring at a computer screen all day and I was pretty sure I had never signed my name so much in my entire life, but I definitely didn’t like Annika any less.

When I was done with everything that needed to be completed on day one, she walked me down to the lobby and gave me her number, so I could give her a head’s up when I was arriving the next day.

“I promise you’ll have your badge by the end of the day tomorrow, and then you’ll have free rein of this place without needing me to escort you everywhere.”

“Sounds great. Thank you so much. I appreciate all of your help.”

I gave Annika one final wave, before leaving the building and heading in the direction of my apartment. Even though I was exhausted, I was also excited, which gave me the energy I needed to walk back.

By the time I got back to the apartment, all I wanted to do was get changed and lay in my bed. I hadn’t heard from Jax all day, so I didn’t know if she was home, but if she was, I hoped she didn’t mind if I wasn’t very talkative.

When I opened the door to my apartment, I found streamers hanging from the top of the door frame.

On the floor were papers printed with arrows that led me to the kitchen bar, where there were balloons and a cake.

I walked over to get a closer look and noticed that the balloons said Congratulations, the cake had a picture of a computer on it, and there was one candle in it.

I was about to yell for Jax to ask her what was going on when she walked out of her room holding a lighter and started singing to the tune of Happy Birthday. “Happy first day to you. Happy first day to you. Happy first day, dear Carter. Happy first day to you.”

Before I could say anything, Jax lit the candle on the cake and wiggled her eyebrows at me. “Congrats on finishing your first day. Make a work wish, then tell me how it was.”

I took a few steps, but I was still having trouble forming words. After blowing out the candle with a shaky breath, I turned toward Jax. “You did this all for me?”

I didn’t know if I was emotional from being tired or because this might have been the nicest thing anyone ever did for me, but I had to fight back tears.

Jax shrugged as if it was no big deal. “You deserve it. Plus, random acts of kindness are on my list, and no one deserves that more than you.”

It made more sense that she did all of this to check that off of her list, but that still didn’t take away from how sweet it was or the fact that she wanted to do the random act of kindness for me .

I just wished it didn’t mean so much to me when I was trying my best to ignore certain feelings that kept threatening to creep up on me.

There was a knock on the door, and Jax pointed toward it before walking in that direction. “I also ordered pizza, because I figured you wouldn’t feel like cooking after your first day.”

My stomach growled. Pizza sounded wonderful. Having no responsibilities sounded even more wonderful.

After Jax set the pizza on the kitchen counter, I pulled her into my arms. I normally wasn’t this affectionate with someone who wasn’t family or my significant other, but I wanted her to know how appreciative I was. “Thank you. This means so much to me. You really didn’t have to do all of this.”

Jax pulled away from the hug, but kept a hold of my arms. “I know I didn’t have to. I wanted to.”

After stuffing ourselves with pizza and cake, Jax asked if I wanted to watch TV with her. What I really wanted to do was go to bed, but after everything Jax had done for me, I felt bad telling her that, so I agreed.

I had no idea what the show that she put on was about, because within a few minutes of sitting down on the couch, I passed out.

As I was falling asleep, I heard Jax say something to me, but I was too drowsy to make it out.

She stood from the couch, and I figured that meant she was probably going to bed, which was what I should do if I could get myself up.

A minute or two later, something warm was draped over me and I realized Jax had given me a blanket.

She sat back down, and soon I felt fingers running through my hair.

I thought about asking her to stop, but not because I wasn’t enjoying it.

The problem was, I liked the feeling way too much.

I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to stop, because I really didn’t want her to.

I let the feeling of safety and warmth overtake me and drifted fully to sleep.

When I opened my eyes again, the room was pitch black, and I was still covered with a blanket. The only difference was, it felt like there was now a pillow, or at least something , underneath my head. After a few seconds, I realized it wasn’t something, but rather someone .

I lifted my head to find Jax with her own head resting against the back of the couch and eyes closed.

Soft little snores were coming from her nose, telling me that she was asleep.

I knew I should wake her up, so we could both go to our beds.

I was sure it wouldn’t feel good to sleep on the couch all night, especially in Jax’s position, but she looked so content, I couldn’t bring myself to wake her up.

I set my alarm and let myself drift back to sleep.

I didn’t wake back up until my alarm startled me awake. I jumped from the couch and looked for Jax, but she was no longer there.

A laugh from across the room caught my attention and I looked over to find Jax standing behind the kitchen bar drinking her morning coffee.

“Sorry to startle you. I didn’t mean to let you sleep on the couch all night, but I actually fell asleep too.

I didn’t wake up until about an hour ago.

I went to my room and tried to fall back asleep, but it didn’t work so I decided to start my day. ”

“All good,” I answered as I tried to regain my bearings.

“I’m off today, because I work both days this weekend. Do you want me to pick something up for dinner again so you don’t have to cook?”

I shook my head. We were already paying a lot for our meal delivery service. I didn’t want to waste money on eating out a bunch of times. “I can do it. Don’t worry.”

Jax tilted her head as if she was studying my face. “Are you sure? You were exhausted last night. I don’t even think you made it past the show's opening credits.”

“I’m positive. I can handle it.”

It turned out, handling work and dinner wasn’t the easiest task.

If I thought the first two days were exhausting, it only got worse when I actually started my job.

Work was intense and they had a lot of expectations of me.

My job was all about managing and researching trends to make sure the company made the right decisions to flourish.

It was a ton of pressure, but I loved it.

It was intense and confusing, and honestly, everything I hoped it would be. But, damn, it was tiring.

By Friday night, I could barely function. Jax had a later start at the cafe that day, so I made it home before her and forced myself to make dinner. I finished about a half hour before she was due home, so I kept the food over low heat and sat down on the couch.

I closed my eyes, and what felt like a second later, there was a tap on my shoulder. I blinked open my eyes to find Jax smiling down at me.

“Little tired?” she asked with a tilt of her head.

“No. I’m good.” The yawn that escaped my mouth a second later immediately gave away my lie.

“You don’t have to make dinner when you’re this tired, you know. I could have figured something out for myself.”

I shook my head. “It’s fine. Seriously. I have all weekend to recover.”

Jax stared at me with squinted eyes as if she was searching my face for an answer. “I realize that, but I’m still worried you’re overdoing it during the week.”

“I’m good.” Another yawn. “I just didn’t plan well for this past week.

On Sunday, I’ll prepare all of our meals for the week, so all I have to do after work is reheat them.

” I lifted an eyebrow at Jax, who was still staring at me so intensely, it was causing goosebumps to pop up all of my arms. “Does that answer satisfy you?”

Jax’s eyes went wide, and as they did, they shined almost as brightly as her smile, which was now growing in size. “As long as you wait until three to start prepping. I’ll be home from work at that point, so you can give me my first cooking lesson. That way, we can start splitting the meal prep.”

The thought of splitting the meal prep was enough for me to agree with Jax’s plan, but even without that, I wouldn’t have been able to deny her.

She looked so excited for her cooking lesson, there was no way I could say no.

“That sounds great. It’s a…” Date. Why the hell was that the word my mind settled on? “Plan. It sounds like a plan .”

Jax’s eyes sparkled even more now. “It sure does.”