4 You Could Use Nice

Eden took a long hot shower when she got home to get the rest of the soda off of her and threw her uniform in the wash before settling on the couch with her Ben and Jerry's. She shot Aubrey a text about what had happened as she turned on one of her favorite chick flicks.

They might be torture for her single heart but they were simultaneously soothing. She needed the cuteness in her life. It was nice to dream.

'What I thought was the worst day at Freddie's yet ended on an interesting note'

'Oh? Do tell' Aubrey replied immediately.

Eden smiled. That girl always had her phone on her ready for the latest news. 'Today already sucked because I got rejected by another lab but then this kid comes and dumps a whole tray of sodas on me. Then the mascot fell on top of me and the soda.

'He obviously didn't know what he was doing and felt bad enough to help me try and clean it up despite making things worse for himself by getting the costume dirtier. So when our boss went to go chew us out I took the rap for him and we both got off easy.

'He said he wanted to make things up to me and asked me if I liked smoothies. I thought he was hitting on me but he ended up giving me a $25 gift card to Smoothie Shack. Who even does that?!'

Aubrey was impressed. 'Girl, that totally seems like hitting on you to me! In a roundabout way. What's his name? Is he cute? Did you get his number?'

Eden shook her head indulgently. Ever since her best friend had gotten engaged, her matchmaking attempts had gotten fifty times worse. She understood that Aubrey wanted her to be as happy as she was but that wasn't her priority right now. She needed a proper job before she could date anyone.

Troy might be nice but she couldn't imagine a future with a guy that wore a Freddie Funnington costume for a living. Her mother would kill her.

Putting that aside, it was impractical. California was an expensive place to live. Having a partner that brought in a decent amount of income to contribute to household expenses was a must around here.

She might love chick flicks but she was a sensible girl at heart. Dating someone going nowhere fast wouldn't do anything for her future. It was stupid to even think about this because she really didn't think he had been hitting on her.

'His name is Troy, he was wearing the mascot costume the whole time so I have no idea what he looks like, and no I didn't get his number. I think he was grateful I saved his butt and nothing else' Eden sent back.

'Bummer. He seems nice. You could use nice' Aubrey replied with a string of dramatic emojis.

She could use nice but that was beside the point. She didn't know if 'nice' was even in the cards for her after how much of a jerk every other guy she had tried to date ended up being. At this point, she had resigned herself to singledom for a good long while.

She did smile at the thought of her brief conversation with Troy though. Maybe having a work friend wouldn't be such a drag after all. Talking to him had been kind of fun.

Ugh, she really needed to get out more if less than five minutes of talking to a human being other than Aubrey affected her this much. But it was embarrassing trying to get together with friends from college when they all had jobs in their fields or were going to grad school and she worked at Freddie's.

Somehow reinvigorated by this depressing thought, Eden was able to get back to job hunting as soon as the movie was over. She needed out of that horrible place fast.

===

Eden tried to say hi to Troy the next day when she saw him on her way to the breakroom but Freddie shook his head. "I'm not Troy; we switch off so there's always a Freddie available. My name's Mike. What's yours?"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know. I'm Eden," she said in embarrassment.

"No worries. Later."

After that, she didn't bother approaching the guy in the Freddie suit again. She figured if Troy wanted to talk that he would come to her. Having a friend here wasn't necessary anyway since she was trying so hard to leave.

The next day, Freddie waved to her from across the room though. She was fairly certain that was Troy because she didn't think Mike would do that. She waved back with a slight smile on her face.

He didn't approach Eden for another few weeks and, by that point, she had genuinely believed he wasn't ever going to. It was sad how excited she was about being approached first. Her social life had become truly pathetic.

"Have you used that gift card at all yet?" Troy asked after greeting her.

She smiled. "Actually, I have. Twice. Even though I should probably be saving it for summertime. The temptation of smoothies was too much to resist. Thanks again for that."

"No problem. I'm glad someone is getting good use out of it. My uncle doesn't seem to realize that my cousin and I don't like all of the same things. He gave us both Smoothie Shack gift cards for Christmas."

Eden couldn't help but laugh at that. If they were around the same age, the uncle might have guessed that all kids like that sort of thing. She didn't even know how old Troy was but she had never seen anyone over the age of thirty-five working here.

It wasn't as if she could ask either. At least not directly. But she could be subtle about it.

"Well, Smoothie Shack is pretty popular. They had a location on campus when I was in college and the line was always ridiculously long. Definitely not something to grab in between classes if you were in a hurry."