6 Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Eden and her roommate worked opposite shifts—Kayla was a pharmacy tech that worked from 6:30 AM-3 PM—so they hardly interacted. She wouldn't have even known it was Valentine's Day if not for the flowers that overwhelmed the kitchen with their scent when she got home. Kayla's boyfriend hadn't skimped.

She wasn't in a very good mood anyway because it had been the one day a week that she and Troy's shifts didn't match up. She had no one to talk to on her break and she had sort of come to rely on it.

She should really go to bed. And avoid all social media for the next few days so she didn't have to see everyone's mushy love posts.

That was exactly what Eden did but sleeping it off didn't help much. She still wasn't in the best mood when she went back to work the following day. At least on weekdays it usually wasn't too busy before school got out because the only people that came were parents with toddlers.

Both of the Freddies only worked part time but their schedules were a bit weird. Troy usually worked from 11 AM-4 PM and Mike took over from 4-9 but the other person had to work all day  on their days off.

Troy was off Sunday and Tuesday. Eden was off Tuesday and Thursday so she didn't see him on Sundays.

Because he only worked part time most days, he got one fifteen-minute break instead of a lunch. That break lined up with Eden's first break of the day, which was when they had the chance to hang around and talk in the break room.

He worked all day on Thursdays and Fridays but their break schedules didn't match up on Fridays so they barely got to say hi to each other, which was a bummer. She far preferred the days where they shared their breaks.

Despite how dead this place was, Eden was still tired. When no one was around that meant cleaning everything from the arcade games to the ball pit.

No one liked cleaning the ball pit. Who knew what disgusting things were in its depths? Unfortunately for her, that was what she ended up doing in the hour before her first break. She slumped down in her usual chair in the break room as her soul left her.

"Rough day?" Troy asked sympathetically. "I saw you in the ball pit."

"So you know about the ball pit then."

"Jeff told me while we were wiping down arcade games. How are those things even legal? They seem like a major health code violation to me."

Eden didn't know whether she should laugh or cry. She thought the exact same way about ball pits. "I often wonder. Kids are so gross. That would be a major problem for them if they weren't cute."

Troy chuckled. "I guess it's a survival mechanism. Oh, before I forget…I have something that might cheer you up."

She raised an eyebrow. Another present? The gift card thanking her for her help last month hadn't been completely used up yet. And he had nothing to thank her for now so why would he bother?

He pulled out a plastic grocery bag that she hadn't noticed before because she was too dead from the dreaded ball pit duty and plunked it down on the table in front of her. "Here. Happy Belated Valentine's Day."

Eden opened the bag curiously and saw a wide variety of fruity and sour candy, including a large bag of Jolly Ranchers. All of this stuff must have cost more than twenty bucks! She hadn't seen this much candy at once since the last time she went trick-or-treating as a kid.

She wasn't sure which was more surprising, the fact that he bought all of this for her at all or that he had included every single candy they talked about the other day and then some. And as a Valentine's present?! Was he actually hitting on her or what?

"Why would you—" she began but Troy cut her off with a shrug.

"I think you're really cool, Eden. I couldn't see you on actual Valentine's Day but take this as a token of appreciation for all of our talks. You make this job much more bearable. Sorry if it was too presumptuous of me. I don't know if you have a boyfriend or…"

"I don't…but no one has ever done anything like this for me," Eden said honestly.

Her past boyfriends never would have been this considerate. And she wasn't even dating this guy! He was seriously attentive for a work friend only.

Troy turned to look at her in what was probably disbelief. She couldn't tell with the mascot head on. "Really? I find that hard to believe."

"It's the truth. Thank you, Troy. Yesterday actually kind of sucked so your timing couldn't have been any better. Do you want to share any of this? I know you said you liked sour punch straws."

He shook his head. "Nah, I got all that for you. Thanks for offering though. Do you feel any better now after ball pit duty?"

Eden grinned at him. "Ball pit duty has been all but forgotten."

They chatted about the horrors of the job (being sure that Marty wasn't around to overhear) until the end of Troy's break. When he got up, she did too even though her break wasn't quite over yet. She rather impulsively hugged him, which felt a bit strange around the mascot suit.

He was so surprised that it took him a few seconds to be able to hug her back. "What's this for?"

"Seeing you makes this job more bearable for me too. Thank you for today. Really," Eden said sincerely. And to lighten the mood she added, "Your suit does smell horrible though. Should I get you an air freshener or something?"

Troy laughed. "I'd probably suffocate from that instead but thanks for thinking of me. See you later."

"Yeah. See you."

Once he left, she happily sucked on a blue raspberry Jolly Rancher—the best kind—with an overwhelming feeling of fondness for the mysterious guy in the Freddie Funnington suit. He was far sweeter than any candy.