Page 51 of Grumpy Sunshine

“That was really sweet,” she said.“Not that you wanted that acknowledgment or anything.”

I flashed her a grimace.

She snickered.“You don’t like being known as sweet?”

“I don’t like people expecting sweet when I’m not,” I admitted.

“Anyway, you’ve never acted like that at all toward the techs.But honestly, I think it’s just your personality.You don’t act very welcoming to anyone.”She shrugged.

I sighed.“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she assured.“You don’t have to be welcoming.It’s your right as a person to be who you want to be.At least you’re not setting a double standard.I would rather be ignored and neglected by someone that ignores and neglects everyone rather than having it shoved in my face that they’re willing to go above and beyond for someone else, someone with a better degree than I have, than me.”

When she put it that way, it did sound pretty bad.

“I’d offer to talk to the floor about it, but that would be me actually putting forth effort into socializing, and I’m deathly allergic to that,” I admitted.

She snickered.“I just ate some cake.”

“The cake that I gave you?”I asked.

“Yes,” she divulged.“Did you know that that particular chocolate cake is by far my most favorite in the world?I know that sounds super weird to say that cafeteria cake is my favorite, but there’s just something about the cake.”

“I agree.”I paused and winced, hoping that she didn’t pick up on that.

“What?”she asked, letting me know that she had.“I thought you didn’t like the cake there?”

“Well,” I confessed.“I kind of do.A lot.But you looked like you’d enjoy it a whole lot more than I would.”

She smiled.“I could eat a whole pizza on my own.”

I stood up and lifted the lids of the three boxes.“I had no clue what you’d like, so I got pepperoni, cheese, and a supreme.”

“I like them all,” she admitted as she came over.“You have to learn to like all kinds of things when you’re only given food that someone else gives you out of the goodness of their heart.Except mustard.I can’t stand the stuff.That was on my burger today and I wiped it off.”

“Why didn’t you send it back and ask for no mustard?”I asked, reaching for a slice of supreme while she took a slice of cheese.

“Well.”She looked hesitant, as if she didn’t want to tell me why, but then decided to do it anyway.“Money’s tight.I’m about to be in my final semester of school.Which, thank God, got paid for by a scholarship.But I still have to do so many clinical hours, as well as try to get a full-time schedule in that usually only ends up being part-time.Anyway, long story short, I don’t have the kind of money to be complaining about food that people give me.Manuella saved me that burger today because someone asked for mustard and didn’t want the mustard after she got it.”

“Manuella saves you food?”I asked.

“Sometimes.”She shrugged.“Manuella can’t just give me stuff for free.But if there’s a complaint, and she’s on shift, she’ll usually save it for me.”

“Gotcha,” I said as I contemplated ways to pay for Aella’s stuff without her finding out.“Hopefully this’ll give you a couple of days to feed yourself on.”

I’d eat two pieces and say that I was full.

That’d give her a few extra days’ worth of lunch while I came up with a solution.

I could probably put a pizza and a half away, but I could grab something to eat on the way home.

“Did you get the money to the charity yet?”she asked.

“Yes,” I said.“That’s what I was doing before I came here.Making sure that it got there all right.You have any idea how much your mom had?”

She shrugged.“I have no clue.That much money was a bit overwhelming to me, and let’s be completely honest here.I’ve never seen that much money in my life.It’s a little shocking to even consider.”

“Five hundred and fifteen thousand,” I said.

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