Running Out Of Time

Jonah was in a serious bind. Taking Troy's place at work really was supposed to be a one-time deal yet he found himself being begged for the second time a few weeks after the first incident.

"Come on, you already did it once and it was flawless! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. This recording studio is never available but somebody canceled AND they're offering a major discount. Three weeks! That's all."

"You're insane! I can't work two jobs for that long!" Jonah protested. "If you need to record in that studio so badly, just quit and get yourself another job after."

"Are you kidding? I'm never going to find another job that's such easy money. It wouldn't even be every day; only the days I work part time. I can still go in on the full-time days since it's only twice a week. The guy in charge of the studio really wants me in there five days a week to take full advantage of the recording session," Troy wheedled.

"You can work any time of day you want as long as you get the full eight hours in, right? An extra five is nothing! You literally have to dance around in complete anonymity and give kids hugs and high fives the whole time and that's it.

"I swear I'll make it up to you somehow. You gotta help me out, man—this might be my only shot in the music world! Besides, it's usually pretty slow on weekday mornings, which are two of the three times you'd need to do this. You would primarily be hanging around with my coworkers."

Jonah sighed. He couldn't believe his cousin was actually wearing him down with such a crazy idea. Two days a week of working two jobs plus one day of working on a weekend when he was supposed to be relaxing. He shouldn't even be considering this!

But he had heard enough of Troy's monologues about the difficulties of getting recording time and the deal he was being offered was incredibly cheap. He wouldn't get a better chance than this to record an album with his band.

He also couldn't deny that the possibility of hanging out with Eden when things were slow was incredibly tempting. He hadn't been able to get her out of his head for weeks despite believing he would never see her again.

"It's only three weeks?" Jonah asked hesitantly.

Troy brightened immediately when he saw his cousin starting to cave in. "Yes! And I'll never, ever ask anything of you ever again. I'll owe you like ten favors for this. Maybe even fifteen."

He might seriously come to regret this but… "Fine."

"You're amazing and wonderful and I love you," Troy said fervently as he pounced on him to give a bear hug from behind that felt more like a chokehold.

"Yeah, yeah. Get off me."

And that was how Jonah found himself back inside that horrible dog suit. The one good thing about it was that Eden seemed very happy to see him when he approached her to say hi.

He had asked Troy if they had talked so he wouldn't be blindsided by anything she might expect him to know but he said all he did was wave the day he came back to work to acknowledge her help. Good. Keeping track of things someone else had said would be difficult.

He was worried that this would all blow up in their faces somehow if Eden got suspicious about talking to two different guys but Troy said not to worry about it. The only day he was there that she worked he purposely got Marty to keep their breaks at different times.

This was a highly delicate balancing act but Jonah was enjoying himself too much to let the stress win. Being able to be himself around someone other than his family without being stared at or pitied was actually pretty fun. Dog costume and all.

Some of the other coworkers were nice too but nobody beat Eden and the way she smiled at him. They had a surprising amount in common too, from hobbies to their taste in candy. He had never liked talking to anyone as much as he liked talking to her.

Being able to talk and laugh with her made the thirteen-hour days he was pulling on Mondays and Wednesdays worth it. But he was running out of time.

Jonah was on his second week out of three now. What was he supposed to do when things got back to normal? He didn't want to lose the minimal connection he had with her. He had to get her number by the end of this so he could keep talking to her.

That was how he ended up buying her a bunch of candy for Valentine's Day. He hoped that sort of friendly gesture would help soften her up so asking for her number later wouldn't be weird.

It wasn't the only reason though. He genuinely wanted to do something nice for her. He couldn't ask her out for Valentine's Day since that would obviously be a disaster but she was the first girl he had wanted to give a Valentine's present to since he was in elementary school and got cruelly rejected for being too scary.

Her reaction had not disappointed! Eden was the first girl to willingly hug him since the fire unless you counted his aunt. Which he didn't.

Jonah savored the hug that was far too short. He wished he could have experienced her warmth without the dog suit in the way but he would take what he could get. She liked him enough to hug him and that was enough.

He knew that this was only temporary. That they would never be friends for real because of how he looked. But that wouldn't stop him from enjoying the moment to the fullest for as long as he could.