Chapter Text
The days at Orsk bleed into each other so much that Amy’s go-to way to tell what day it was, became remembering how long she’d been rostered on for that day. Lately between the drudgery of work, being annoyed at her roommates and the fallout of a recent phone argument with her mother Amy had been feeling particularly drained.
She didn’t even bother to say hi to Matt or Trinity when she came in today, pretending she didn’t hear them. Hopefully she’d be able to barely interact with some customers, idle around the store then check out in seven hours without incident. This seemed to be working for 15 minutes until Amy caught Basil heading over to her with a chilling amount of pep in his step out of the corner of her eye. While she started speed walking in hopes of avoiding him with his long legs Basil caught up to her quick.
“Just who I was looking to talk to, I have an exciting task for you today.” He announced with unwarranted seriousness. “It’s Ruth Anne’s birthday today and we’re going to decorate the break room for her.”
That actually surprised Amy. “You wanna do that for her? Wouldn’t that be counter productive to ,you know, getting work done?”
Basil frowned, looking slightly offended. “Of course not, we have enough people to cover the floor today and it won’t take long. Besides, Ruth Anne is an important member of the Orsk team; she deserves to know how much we value her.”
Admittedly however much Basil annoyed her with his constant pestering and unnecessary advice, it didn’t seem like he’d let down Ruth Anne like that. They did seem to have a kind of weird friendship. Now she felt kind of guilty. “It sounds fun, I think she’d really like that.” Amy forced an excited smile.This seemed to encourage him a little, considering he lectured her about employee motivation as described in the Orsk employee handbook all the way to the break room.
.
He’d kept going while they set up but Amy had stopped replying with even polite hums focusing on hanging the cheap streamers up instead. She should try to remember Ruth Anne’s birthday on her own next year, bring in a cup of coffee or something for her just to make her day. Come to think of it, when was the last time she brought a gift for anyone? Probably for her mom and her mom’s new husband last Christmas. A nice-ish vase and some football merchandise, she didn’t exactly have the budget to wow them. What a lame point to be at 24. No boyfriend, no money, no education. All that hard work had become meaningless, eventually her body would get too old to keep even this up.
Amy pinned the last streamer and climbed down the step ladder to avoid spiralling further. Ruth Anne would have a good day at least. As she folded up the step ladder she noticed Basil looking at her expectantly from his place in front of the break room table. “Sorry I just missed that, what were you saying?”
He gave a light disappointed huff. “I was saying that if you worked at it, redid your test and applied yourself organising employee birthdays may be one of your responsibilities soon.”
She tried to churn out a non-firable way to shoot this conversation down. “Thanks. Who did the cake?”
The cake seemed to be chocolate under the clumsily applied buttercream icing, decorated with messily m&ms reading ‘Happy Birthday R.A.’. Basil looked down at the cake as if just noticing this. “Oh my sister wanted to make it, Ruth’s picked her up from school a couple times when I’ve been working.”
No wonder the two got along so well. “That was really sweet of her to do.” Amy offered sincerely, gesturing toward the cake.
He straightened up (with his height and already perfect posture was very unnecessary) with pride. “She did most of it herself too, barely needed my help for any of it.”
“Efficient, methodical, nice and looks out for Orsk employees.” Amy listed on her fingers. “She must be a mini you.”
After laughing her own joke, she looked up to see his reaction. Rather than taking it as the joke it was intended to be, the brown eyes behind his glasses had grown big and his mouth had stretched into a warm slightly smug smile.
Feeling embarrassed Amy checked the time on her phone, which she was technically allowed to do in the break room, changing the subject. “Hey I’m good to go on break now right?”
Basil broke out of his pleased haze, seeming a little disappointed but maybe she was just imagining it. “Oh sure, we’ll be doing cake as a part of the break so make sure you're back in 15 minutes.”
She nodded, taking the step ladder with her to put away and leaving the room. Awkward as it was with the sudden change in atmosphere, talking to Basil had given Amy a pretty good idea.
.
Hastily rushing back in through the back door, Amy noticed she still had 8 minutes till her break was technically over. Her sneakers skidded on the floor as she made a quick turn into the break room. She pushed the door open harder than she meant to, drawing the attention of all the employees seated around the table eating birthday cake. It occurred to her that this may have been a weird thing to do. May as well commit to it now. She cleared her throat and handed Ruth Anne the stuffed Garfield she’d purchased at the gas station. “Happy Birthday, Ruth Anne. I thought he could be a friend for Snoopy.”
Ruth Anne’s eyes lit up as she took the toy. “Aw, thank you Amy. It was really sweet of you to remember him.” She put down her plate of cake to give him a loving squeeze, overly happy about a cheap last minute gift from the gas station. Amy nodded sheepishly, deliberately ignoring Basil’s eyes boring into her from the other side of the table. Her break was about up by now she mumbled this to the group before heading back out to the floor.
The rest of her shift was pretty uneventful, she helped some customers choose between the Chorbon and Walbnan mattress models and Ruth Anne came by to chat. She didn’t see Basil for the rest of her shift though. Which was probably for the best given how she had no interest in discussing the merits of the founder of Orsk or how the employee system was designed to allow for moving up within the company. (It would’ve been incredibly pathetic if Amy had actually gotten to the point where talking to her gangly, pedantic, Urkle-like manager was something that cheered her up.)
.
She clocked out her time card and gathered her bags to leave, as she walked to the parking lot she heard someone calling her name and slowed down. To no surprise it was Basil, he waved at her lightly jogging to catch up. Something unexpected was being handed a bagged Tupperware container. At her obvious bafflement, Basil pushed his glasses up and explained. “You didn’t get any cake earlier, so I saved you some.”
Amy took the bag, a little touched by the gesture. She felt herself smiling at it. “Thank you.”
He scratched the back of his neck looking away. “It’s no problem.” He pulled his arm back to his side standing straight. “In any case it was really nice what you did for Ruth Anne back there, very much shop responsible material.”
She waved him off dismissively. “Seriously, don't mention it. It wasn’t that big a deal.”
“Don’t be modest. I think it really made her day.” There was a pause as he seemed to be weighing up how to say something. “Especially since you’ve seemed a little… out of it lately. If there’s something going on-“
Ugh, Amy was suddenly hit with one of the big reasons she didn’t like talking to Basil. The weird pity. Like she wasn’t three years older than him and fully capable of looking after herself. She’d really been hoping it wasn’t that noticeable. “Trust me there’s really nothing going on. Listen, I have a thing after work I really can’t be late.” She shut him down.
He sighed “Well if you have a commitment, you have a commitment.” The disappointment from earlier was even more apparent.
“Thanks again for the cake.” Amy offered conciliatorily as she walked off towards her car.