Garden of Eden

A/N: So now Eden and Zach will be going at it like rabbits...Right?

Garden of Eden


Chapter 3

I blew a large strawberry flavored bubble with my gum, while flipping through an old ‘Cosmo’ magazine. I glanced up from behind the counter, keeping an eye on the two customers browsing through racks of comics and manga. I could hear the movie that played on the T.V. to the right of me, it was in Japanese so I had no idea what was being said. And I could hear the tapping foot of a thoughtless delinquent.

I turned to look at my ‘Coworker’ who was sitting on the floor behind me, “Shouldn’t you be doing something?” I asked Daniel, I hated having to work a shift with him. First of all he was a pervert (evidenced by the porn magazine he was flipping through at the moment), he was also lazy and thought he was Gods gift to woman. Somehow I always ended up working with him, I really had my suspicions that he had something to do with it.

His brown eyes rolled up to mine, after lingering for a moment on my breasts, “Huh?” He asked. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a second, before saying impatiently, “You know, work?” He snorted and stood up, before taking a look around, “There are, like, two people here.” I put a hand on my hip, “Five including us and Tom.” I said, referencing our boss who was sleeping in the back. He tossed his magazine onto his back pack, “Well what do you want me to do, oh Goddess of the productive workers?” He said sarcastically. I pointed to the other side of the store, “I want you to get away from me.” He had hit me on the butt with his magazine five times today and I was tired of it.

“Somebody’s pmsing today.” He said, before walking around the counter and going up to one of the customers. I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a Daniel induced headache coming on. I watched the back of his bristly brown head, making sure he wasn’t coming back anywhere near me. I inched back and stepped on his magazine, twisting my foot until I heard it rip. I smiled at the small sound, hoping I tore his favorite page.


School was finally over, so I was back to working full time. I didn’t mind the work when I wasn’t paired with Daniel, I preferred working with Di or Sam, and Chris didn’t talk much. But silence was still better than hearing Daniel tell me my ass had more cushion for the pushing. I was the only girl who worked here, Di and Sam were your typical comic book and Anime geeks and they were proud of it. Chris, well I don’t know why he worked here and we sold old porn in the back room so that’s why Daniel worked here. He’d look at the magazines when he was supposed to work and than he’d put it back later. I mean I did that too, but at least I bought the magazines after looking at them.

The thing that was unfair about Daniel was that he was actually hot, he had short brown hair, a chiseled jaw and he was built like a track star. In fact at school he was on the Track team, last year we had had two classes together and I tried to ignore him as much as I could. I leaned back onto the counter and tapped my fingers in quick succession on the counter top. The shop was never really busy, a lot of people just didn’t read comic books anymore, but luckily the ones who did were obsessive and came every week for new issues or back issues. Melody had already left on vacation and so I had no one to talk to about the “Zach Issue”.

Yes it has an official title now.

I hadn’t been able to talk to her about it yet, she’d always joked about my crush on him and I didn’t want her to tell me, “Do you really want to put your friendship at risk,” and blah blah blah. I had already dwelled on it so much myself; I didn’t need her to throw it in my face too. Since that kiss our relationship had shifted. We had always teetered on that edge between friends and much more. I looked down and inspected my nails, they were painted an almost fluorescent pinky purple called ‘Dreamy’. The color was chipping at the top which meant I needed to change it.

I sighed and looked up at Daniel, he lead a customer up to the counter for me to ring up. I pasted a tight smile on my face, “All set?” I asked as he brought forth a stack of comic books. We didn’t put bar codes on our merchandise so I always had to put the price in manually. Very tedious work. This guy had about forty comics so this was going to take awhile. He wandered around while I added the comics up, the monotony of the clacking cash register was slowly lulling me to sleep.

“Brinng, bbring!” I started at the unexpected ringing of the phone, then it occurred to me that Daniel was too busy doing…nothing to answer the phone. I put the comic I was holding down and picked up the receiver, “The Green Footstep, this is Eden, how may I help you?” The owner was a big ‘The Hulk’ fan. “Hey, whaddya want?” Zach’s voice spoke through the phone. “You called me.” I said, picking up the last comic and entering the price, he sighed, “No, I’m coming over on my break, do you want me to bring you something?” I blinked, “Oh! Um, that coffee thing I get with the ice cream and whipped cream.” I could hear the buzzing and whirring of the cappuccino machine.

“Its espresso, not coffee.” I snapped my gum, “Whatever, just put lots of whipped cream on it.” Someone yelled at him in the back ground, “I’ll be there in a bit.” He slammed the phone down, I stared at the receiver in shock. What was his problem? He had been this way on and off for the last week. He would be hot, flirting and touching me, then he was cold, snappy and short with me. I put the phone down carefully, trying to off balance his abruptness. Daniel hummed behind me, “Are you done yet?” He asked. I looked up, the customer was in front of me, tapping his fingers on the counter. I raised an eyebrow and stared at hi until he backed away and went to look at a rack of Pokémon cards.

“Oh, fierce lion lady.” Daniel said behind me, curling his hands into a claw and taking mock swipes at me. I growled, “Fine, you do it!’ I yelled before stomping off to the break room, hearing him cry out behind me, “Wait! I didn’t want to!” I ignored him and plopped down onto the worn flowery couch in the break room, I put my feet on the scuffed and scratched coffee table that we had dragged in from the trash. I took a deep breath of air and held it, I could still hear the clacking of the cash register (which was much slower then when I was putting prices in.) I let my breath loose and looked at the door leading to my boss’s office, he never cared when we took a break as long as no one was waiting at the cash register.

The bell rang above the door as someone came in, a deep rumble of a voice sounded in the front, Daniel answered, “She’s in the back, and tell her to stop taking her sexual frustration out on me!” I knew it was Zach, the deep timbre of his voice was something I had heard for the last few years and could recognize it in a crowd. I slouched deeper into the couch as he walked through the door with two plastic travel coffee cups in his hands. His hair was brushed back from his face, with the exception of a couple strands that fell over his eye. He wore his black uniform shirt, the collar folded back. A short black serving apron was tied over his ironed khaki’s.

He placed my coffee on the table and sat next to me. Normally he would have leaned back and put his arm around the back of the couch, almost like he was holding me. Today, however, he sat on the edge of the couch, his body held tense. He put the cup to his mouth and tipped his head back, I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he took a gulp. He lowered the cup and licked his lips. I pulled on the tip of my finger, “So… when are you getting off?” I asked, just to make conversation. “Five.” He replied before taking another gulp. I reached for my cup and lifted it to my lips, when the liquid touched my lips it felt like a lit match stick laying against my skin. “OW!” I ripped it away and looked at him with wide eyes, “This isn’t mine!” I said, he looked in confusion at his cup, “I was wondering why this was so cold.”

I felt something bubbling within me, up from my stomach. I snorted and then began giggling wildly, Zach’s lips parted into a wide smile, his white teeth twinkling at me. As my laughter began fading we switched our coffees and I took a sip from the mercifully cool beverage, while still laughing to myself. “You get off at six, right?” I nodded at his question, swallowing the ice creamy espresso drink. “You forgot the whipped cream and the straw. It’s easier to drink with a straw.” I said. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “’Are you complainin’ about a free drink. Especially when it usually cost’s $5.40?” I nodded, smiling saucily at him. “Brat.” He muttered, tugging one of the many thick braids I had braided in my hair that morning.

He stared at the braid caught in between his fingers, his thumb stroking along its ripples, “So,” His voice was husky so he cleared his throat, “Do you wanna see a movie with me tonight?” He let my braid go and brushed his hand against the back of his head, a nervous gesture. “Kay.” I said, not understanding his nervous, almost awkward behavior. “Their playin’ The Princess Bride at cult night, I know it’s one of your favorites. Uhm, I’ll pay and stuff.” He stood up and reached for my coffee cup as I tried to process his words, “I’m not finished yet.” I said automatically, pulling my cup back. He gave me his ‘stern face’, also known as Thunderbrows. “Tomorrow you’ll want coffee right?’ I nodded, “And if I bring it in a Styrofoam cup you’ll yell at me?” Again I nodded. “Then I’ll have to take the pretty plastic one back so I can reuse it tomorrow and not have to pay six bucks for another one.”

Hmm, condescending voice.

“I’ll bring it to you on my next break.” I told him, before taking a freezing cold gulp. “Ha! I could not believe you less.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, whispering, “See ya later.” I watched him walk out the door, as he yelled at Daniel, my heart pounding in my chest. I had the horrible feeling I was about to begin giggling uncontrollably, I had a date with Zach!

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Before I left work I called up a friend in my social circle. Tawny and I were close, but not as close as Melody and I. She dated, a lot. She’d had a steady boyfriend for the last year and aside from Zach was one of my only friends who’d slept with someone. She was really into fashion and knew all there was to know about make-up, so I figured she could really help me get ready.

I walked home, my bag slung over my shoulder. My eyes blurred as I stared into space, praying that my mom wasn’t home. If she knew I was going on a date with Zach she would have an opinion and I didn’t want to hear her advice on what to do with a guy. As I neared my house I pulled my keys from a pocket in my bag and shook loose my house key. Our house stood out in the sea of beige that was our neighborhood. Everyone’s house was adobe or brick in different shades of brown or tan or some neutral color. While ours was a plum purple, with turquoise window panes.

As an interior designer my mom gets these bugs up her butt and decides to redecorate everything, sometimes I come home and half my stuff is in the garbage and I have to drag it back in, which always results in a huge fight with my mom. So a couple of years ago she became tired of having a house that blended in with the others, so she had the adobe painted deep purple. In the drive way I saw my mom’s car and felt myself sag, I put the key in the lock and pushed. Inside my mom was lounging on the pale blue couch, her arm flung over her eyes and her work binders were on the floor.

“Hi.” She said without looking at me, “I thought you were busy working with that…. Whatsername?” “Tiffany.” She said in a high pitched mockery of a voice. I raised my eyebrows as she continued, “That women is a tasteless sycophant. I couldn’t work with her anymore, so I made her decide that she was beyond me and recommended she work with Travis, whose taste is as juvenile as hers.” “Oh.” She took her arm off her eyes and sat up, “So I’m only working with Lorna Chekovsky and Isla Shorn now.” “Oh.” She raised her eyebrows at me, “So how was work?” She asked, I shrugged, “Workey.” She stood up, stretching, “You’re so eloquent today.”

Must not appear suspicious.

“Well, Daniel was a perv, Zach stopped by and we’re going to a movie, and Tawny’s coming over for awhile.” I said in one breath. Please don’t notice, please don’t notice. “Why is Tawny coming over?” I shrugged, “No reason.” She hummed and turned around, heading toward the kitchen, “Have fun on your date.” I huffed and stuck my tongue at her back.

When Tawny got here we held up in my room, she was putting hot rollers in my hair to give it soft waves. “What should I wear?” I asked, “Something sexy, but not to expectant. You wanna look good, but not like you expect too much.” The song ‘Castle in the Sky’ thumped its techno beat on my CD player. The heat of the rollers was making my hair line break out in sweat, “You want to pretend you threw something on and just look fabulous.” I grinned, “Yeah right, you’ll never find something like that in my closet.” She put the last curler in and then walked over to my closet. Tawny was exactly as her name implied, she had golden hair, golden eyes and golden skin. She wasn’t tall or short, she was skinny, but not as thin as Melody. Tawny dressed as if someone was going to put her in a magazine any minute.

She shifted around tops and skirts in my closet, completely avoiding the dresses. She plucked out a white kimono-like wraparound top, with three quarter sleeves, “You have a pair of black pants, right?” she asked, I nodded. “White and black always go great together.” She gushed as she got on her knees to shift through my dresser, I snorted, “If you start singing ‘Ebony and Ivory’ I’m going for your jugular.” She looked over her shoulder and shot me a withering look. I smiled, “What about boots, I have some calf high lace ups.” She perked up, “Your Nine West’s?” I nodded and watched her brow furrow, “But aren’t they a wine burgundyish?” She asked before going back to looking for my pants. I shrugged, “Yeah, but my pants will hang over them.”

She pulled my pants out and tossed them and the shirt on my unmade bed. She stood, put her hands on her hips and cocked her head to the side inquisitively, “That might work.” She said, I snorted, “So if I’m wearing white and black, what should I put on my nails?” I showed her my ‘Dreamy’ nails, she took the tips in her hand. “Just retouch them.” I took my hand back and pushed myself off the bed, when I opened my door I made sure the coast was clear before darting across the hall. If my mom saw me she’d die laughing. I opened the cabinet under the sink and grabbed my make up bag and my nail polish bag. I straightened, preparing to run back to my room. Behind me I heard a smothered laugh and froze. Damn. I lifted my head, heavy with the rollers and saw my mom, her hand covering her curling lips, her eyes dancing with mirth. “I’ve seen you with curlers in your hair.” I said defensively, she gave in to her smile, “I know, that’s what’s so funny. Guy’s don’t ever have to go through this. The nails, the makeup, the hair. Could you imagine Zach with curlers in his hair?”

I had seen him in make up, but for some reason the image of him with curlers in his hair, cold cream on his face and in a pink fluffy bath robe had me in stitches. I grinned at my mom. Her own smile fell as she watched me, as if she were trying to look through me. Her hand reached up to my face, I almost flinched away as she touched my cheek, “I never realized… your smile is like your dads.”

“What?” I asked breathlessly. She never talked about my dad, the only reason I guessed I was Native American was because I looked it. She dropped her hand and blinked, and her face lost the softness of the moment before. “I probably won’t be here when you get back.” She said, before walking into her room and shutting the door.

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When Zach arrived I was dressed and my hair was in soft waves and any evidence of my mom being here was gone. When he knocked I walked to the door, but my heel got tangled in a cord and I ended up flinging myself to the door and tearing it open. “Hey.” I said, attempting to not look like a fool, he nodded, “Hey.” His hands were tucked in his pockets, his hair was in his face and his eyes were twinkling. He smiled at me, “Come on,” He said. We walked to the theater, which was only a couple blocks from the house. At first we were silent, just watching our feet as we walked, until Zach cleared his throat, “You forgot to bring the coffee cup back.” He said, but not meanly. I looked up guiltily, “Oops.”

The movie theater was a quirky place. It played cult movies and independent films produced locally, the concession stand served beer and wine to anyone as long as they had money, and the people who worked there were stoned most of the time. Plus every Saturday night at midnight they played Rocky Horror Picture Show with a cast doing the scenes along with the movie.

I had seen ‘The Princess Bride’ so many times I could quote the entire movie on my own, when I was a kid I even had a guinea pig with wacky hair named Miracle Max. Plus the Grandpa really made me think of mine. Sometime during the movie, as our shoes stuck to the sticky floor and the lumpy cushions formed to our butts, Zach put his arm around my shoulders. His hand hovering slightly over the swell of my breast. As Westley and Buttercup shared that one perfect kiss Zach leaned to me and pressed his mouth to mine, his lips pleaded with my own to open up and his tongue pressed deep. I felt his hand cup my head, his fingers tangling in my hair, he guided it to the side as his lips pressed harder, his other hand gripped my waist. I sighed into his mouth, thinking that, like the boy in the movie, I didn’t mind the mushy stuff.


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A/N: If you haven’t seen The Princess Bride, drop what you are doing now and purchase it, the quintessential romantic best movie ever!!