~*~

Six weeks later

It was six weeks later that I got an excited text from Chandler that Jimmy and Maddy had broken up.

Jimmy had broken up with her because he felt that "it just wasn't working out". I knew there had to be more to the story, but that was all that Chandler knew, and I figured I'd probably find out what happened as time went on.

Everyone seemed to think of them as some kind of perfect couple and acted like she was "the one" for him, but they only ended up dating a whopping two months.

Neither Jimmy nor Maddy posted anything about the breakup on Twitter or Instagram, so I'm glad Chandler told me about it.

In the same conversation, Chandler also texted me to say that the free store was finally happening this weekend (after a bit of a delay) and that they'd bribe me with a free laptop if I helped out. I agreed.

The upcoming week was busy. I had two big exams in my most difficult classes, so even though I was looking forward to seeing the guys (and anxious about seeing Jimmy since he had split up with Maddy), I was able to get my mind off of it in the oh-so-exciting world of chemistry.

I really needed to do well on these exams, so most of my time was spent studying.

By the time I took my second exam Friday morning, I was exhausted. I treated myself to a well-deserved lunch at my favorite restaurant on campus and then headed back to my apartment to take a nap.

~*~

The next day was when the free store was happening. As I was getting dressed, I debated whether or not I should wear the Beast hoodie that Jimmy had loaned to me (that I stole?), but I decided against it.

I'm sure he knew I still had his hoodie, but he didn't need to see me wearing it. I needed to look like I had moved on, even if I hadn't.

I wore a comfy blue sweater instead, along with a pair of skinny jeans and some pink Adidas sneakers. Cute, yet also comfy and casual.

Everyone was busy preparing for the store, so I didn't even want to ask for a ride... I just took an Uber to where they were setting up so that I could help out.

They all insisted that I needed to be wearing merch, so Chandler grabbed one of the hoodies off the rack--yes, one that we were supposed to be "selling"--and made me put it on.

There were tons of expensive items like flat screen TVs and PS4s, but there were also some silly, less desirable ones, like a toaster and an egg cooker.

"Alright," Jimmy started. "Almost time to open. Everything in this store needs to go. EVERYTHING."

Chris laughed. "Does that mean we can finally get rid of Chandler?"

"Maybe we could sell my poop," Chandler suggested jokingly.

"Gross," I blurted out.

Jimmy laughed. "No poop selling!"

The guys were all so sweet individually, but together as a group, they were typical, immature, young guys.

I still loved hanging out with them, though; they were so funny.

The line for the store was crazy, so they were only letting people in a few at a time, and the customers could only pick out one item.

Throughout the day, we swapped jobs; at one point, a group of us were working the floor while Chandler was on the cash register (giving people their receipts and also just handing them money out of the register), but then an hour or so later, I started working on the register.

Jimmy was upset that we weren't selling enough Crock-Pots. He announced, "Whoever sells the next Crock-Pot gets $1,000."

I abandoned my post at the cash register and jokingly pushed Chandler over towards the register. "You're not going to win this anyway, so just do register."

The group of guys started laughing.

Chandler made a face. "Fine, but if you win, I get $100."

"Deal."

When the next group of people came in, the guys were on them like hawks, trying to sell them Crock-Pots.

I got really lucky because a girl walked past me and I asked her if she wanted to take a Crock-Pot, and she said she actually needed one, so she took it up to the register. The guys all looked shocked.

Jimmy laughed. "Alright, here you go, $1,000," Jimmy said as he handed me a small stack of hundreds. He had an adorable smile on his face.

Jesus Christ. I couldn't believe I just won that much money.

Chandler cleared his throat and smiled at me, holding out his hand.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, laughing, as I handed him $100.

~*~

The rest of the day with the free store was busy, but it was a lot of fun.

Jimmy seemed a bit awkward around me during the day. I noticed he kept looking at me a lot, but not really saying too much to me. Every time someone said something--or every time he said something--I saw that he kept looking over at me to see my reaction, even when it was the whole group of us.

Again, I wasn't going to be a rebound; like Chandler had said before, now's my time to play hard to get with Jimmy... well, if he's even interested in me. Maybe I'd just be playing hard to get with myself.

After we "sold" the last few free items and calculated our overall "earnings" for the day (which was obviously way in the negatives), everyone started to leave.

Jimmy walked over to me and I could feel myself starting to get a bit weak in the knees. Why did he make me feel like this?

"Thanks for helping out. Ready to go pick out that laptop?" Jimmy asked me.

"Um, what? Now?" I'm sure I looked very confused.

He chuckled and looked at me in what could only be described as awe. "Of course. I can't leave my employees unpaid."

"I'm your employee?"

"Today, you were. Now, how do you feel about Best Buy? Rule: the laptop has to be a minimum of $1,000," he said.

"What the fuck?" I exclaimed. "You're crazy."

"True... now let's go. Best Buy's open for another three hours, so that should give us enough time to find something good."

"You're crazy," I repeated as I got into his car and we started heading towards Best Buy.

The car ride was kind of awkward, to say the least. When we first met, we had instantly connected... but then he started dating Maddy without telling me and pretty much stopped talking to me and stopped inviting me to things.

We hadn't really seen each other much at all in the past two months; he had definitely been ignoring me while he was dating her.

Jimmy was gripping the steering wheel a little harder than normal. "How have you been?" he asked.

"Okay," I replied. "How about you? I heard about you and Maddy."

"Yeah," he said slowly, dragging out the word a bit. "It just wasn't working out."

"Oh, yeah?" Yes, I was trying to pry.

"Yeah."

Well, clearly this wasn't a topic he wanted to expand on yet.

"Okay," I said slowly.

He paused for a moment, thinking deeply before he spoke his next words. "I'm sorry."

I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say, but I wanted to hear him say it. I deserved it. "For what?"

He sounded serious for once, his tone of voice raw and genuine. "For not telling you about Maddy before I posted on Instagram... and being a shitty friend and ruining the friendship we were starting to have."

I was blunt. "Yeah, it was pretty shitty," I said, with a smile. He had hurt me--I wasn't going to say how much he had hurt me since we were "just friends", even if I did like him more than that.

He gave me a look that said well, thanks, but he was smiling. "I know, I know... Forgive me?"

I smiled. "Hmm... maybe," I began, pretending to be thinking hard about it. "That was a pretty good apology. It would have been more convincing with tears. I'll rate it a 7 out of 10."

He laughed. "Alright, PewDiePie. You're too much."

After the apology, it felt like the tension and discomfort between us had dissipated and we were mostly back to how we were two months ago... before he started dating Maddy.

We got to Best Buy and started browsing the different laptops. He kept suggesting some very nice laptops, and I kept suggesting some more modest ones.

"Okay, fine. How about this one?" he asked with a big smile.

It was a very nice, HP touchscreen laptop for $1,199. It looked really awesome, and it was a lot cheaper than the other ones he kept on suggesting. I wasn't about to take advantage of his kindness by getting something crazy expensive, even if this one was crazy expensive.

This laptop was more than I made in a month, but for him, it was basically nothing.

"Oh my God... I love it," I said. I couldn't stop myself from smiling like a kid at a toy store. When I looked up at Jimmy, he had the sweetest, most sincere and vulnerable expression on his face. He was so cute.

"You're beautiful," he blurted out while looking at me, his gaze intense, but then he quickly dropped his gaze down to the laptop. "You're a beautiful laptop," he said, laughing nervously.

I could feel myself getting warmer from the way he had been looking at me, and I had a billion butterflies in my chest and stomach. It sounded like he was calling me beautiful at first... right? No, he was talking about the laptop.

That was weird.

Jimmy went and purchased the laptop.

I still felt weird about him buying it for me, but Jimmy joked that he didn't want the Department of Labor coming after him for not paying his employees.

He was such a dork that I didn't even bother to explain that a laptop wouldn't qualify as payment anyway and that it's illegal not to pay workers using actual money. Besides, I was just helping out today; I wasn't an actual employee, but he obviously wanted me to get compensated.

After he finished paying, we went back to the car and Jimmy drove me back to my apartment complex to drop me off.

"I'll walk you to the door," he said to me, grabbing the new laptop from the car.

"Okay."

My heart was pounding so hard that I swear I could hear it in my ears. He was so sweet.

As we neared the door, we both stopped in front of it and faced each other, looking into each other's eyes.

I broke the silence, saying, "Thanks so much for the laptop."

Without even thinking, I pulled him into a tight hug. Overwhelmed by his comforting scent, I started to bury my face into his chest for a second before I realized that this didn't really seem like a platonic hug, so I pulled away. I could feel that I was blushing.

Even in the darkness, I could see that his cheeks were tinted slightly pink. His voice was a little shaky, even though he was laughing. "Thanks for being such a great employee today."

I laughed as I pushed open the door to my apartment building. "Good night."

"Good night."

~*~