Page 21 of Check Me Out

“Pips, are you serious?”

He sighed. “Okay, so, no. I only worked in the office and I have to say the eye candy was great. Even if they were all as straight as Tamara’s smile. I’m just… not a stayer, it seems.” There was a brighter light in his eyes, but he still looked shattered.

“That’s total shit,” I said.

“What the hell?”

It had been fun to shock him, but I was serious. “You just need to find your niche, and then stick to it. You’re a hard worker and you brighten up any place. Okay, so the Demos haven’t gone so well. But no one’s had a bad word to say about you at YBB. You help out in the stockroom when needed. You train the cashiers, so Lina told me. And Mrs G mentioned how good you are at checking stock for the customers who can’t find things.”

“Only because Mr G’s been there first,” Pips grumbled. But the colour was coming back to his cheeks.

I crouched down in front of his chair. “Everyone likes you, Pips. You put your heart into everything. You just have to believein yourself. As far as I can see, you have tons of confidence. You’re bold.”

“Yeah? Plenty of other people are too.”

“I’m not,” I said.

He tilted his head, puzzled. “What do you mean? You’re at Head Office, Marcus. You have a fancy job, people paying attention to you, probably a huge salary so you don’t have to do extra bloody shifts every week, your career is golden—”

“It’s not much of a career when you’ve only ever had one job,” I blurted.

“What?”

“I haven’t done much at all since leaving university. Couldn’t decide what I wanted to do, did some travelling, ran a business with some Uni friends.”

Pips frowned. “That’s bold, right?”

“More like stupid, when none of us knew anything about finance or management, and the bloody company crashed within the year. So, I went back to live with my parents, and started looking…”

“For a proper job?”

“Yes.” It was a painful reminder of what Pips had said about YBB’s management living in an unrealistic bubble, but I seemed to be a prime example. “I know you think you’re disadvantaged by having had a lot of jobs. But it’s not much better if you haven’t hadany! It’s a bitter struggle, sending off applications, going to interviews, searching and searching to get an opening. No one wants someone fresh from education, with no commercial experience to offer an employer. The family looks pitying everytime I come back from an interview, suggesting, pushing, nagging—”

I stopped; I’d said too much.

Pips put his hand on mine. “Whereas I can say I’ve hadloadsof experience. Maybe we could average it out?”

I had to smile. Hemademe; it was his kind of magic. “I get that you’re not exactly thrilled about Head Office Marketing, but I’m enjoying it. I’ve been sent here on a kind of probation, but I already have so many ideas! It’s the first thing that’s inspired me in a long time. And I want to make it a win-win. I want to make a difference for YBB, but in the best way.”

He was peering at me as I spoke, as if checking my sincerity. Did he see it etched on my face? I wished he could.

“Hm. I guess it’s not all bad,” he said slowly.

I snorted. “Wow, high praise indeed. Sorry I went all pompous on you there.”

He grinned. “No problem. I admire your determination. Your passion.”

My pulse sped up. There was something between us, in the glance we gave each other. A twinkle. A spark.

He sighed and got to his feet, as if ready to leave. But he kept hold of my hand, and his grip was warm and sure. “Come for coffee,” he said. “It’d better be at mine. I need to change!”

9

Pips

I was still horribly sticky and sweaty. But I’d give Marcus his due: he didn’t complain that I was leaving damp butt shapes all over his car seat as he gave me a lift home.

It was only as we were walking in that I thought about how my place would look to Marcus. Don’t get me wrong, I keep things neat and clean. I have to, when the place is barely enough for a cat to do a full body stretch, let alone be swung around. But I assumed he’d have a posh address and my bijou little cubbyhole would be a hell of a comedown. However, he came in smiling, making himself at home.

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