Anything is better than this

The three of you made it inside and Grace stopped taking the lead, waiting for the two of you to catch up so that she could tell you something, unlike how she had been ignoring you since you had gotten out of the car.

Your thoughts made you briefly calm yourself as you were still sure that being left frustrated was having an impact on your current actions. While you clearly wanted to continue what you had been doing with Grace, as long as you ended up cumming, it seemed that that wasn’t going to happen any time soon and taking your frustration out on anyone was just likely to lead to you upsetting someone else.

And if you could guess as to who that might have ended up being, it would have clearly been the girl you were planning on spending the next couple of hours with, in an attempt to get her to warm up to you.

“Now Jess, you have been here the longest out of the two of you so I’m hoping you will show Max the ropes. He’s had a shift or two already but this will be the first time he’s had someone with him so I’d appreciate you giving him a hand. Is that alright?” Grace asked, having already guessed that there was some tension between you and knowing she had to be the one to try and resolve it.

“...Sure, I can do that” Jessica replied, taking the time to compose herself so that she stayed professional.

“Great! Now, the first issue is that you both need to get ready so as I’ve said to you before Max, you are free to use my office if you think you need to. I need to catch up with Jess for a moment so you’re free to use the actual changing room but when you are both clocking out it might be best if you use the office” Grace declared, giving you a smile and a look that clearly said that now was the time for you to head off.

You weren’t about to stick around for longer than you needed to so you did as you had been asked and headed up the stairs, leaving the two of them alone.

When you got upstairs, you still knocked on the door to the staff changing room just in case there were any other employees you didn’t know about but when you heard no response you went inside and got undressed.

There was no hurry in your movements as you were very happy to not interrupt whatever they were going to be talking about. It clearly involved you and Jessica working together today and while you were going to try your hardest to get along with her, the interaction before you got inside had dashed some of your hopes.

You took your time and went over a few of the topics you had wanted to try and bring up and reminded yourself of the things Sarah had told you to avoid, fighting the urge to just give up when you knew you were doing all this for Sarah’s sake.

After waiting a couple extra minutes, even after you were fully changed into your work attire, you left the room and made your way back into the lobby. Your ‘work attire’ just consisted of a slightly more form fitting and some baggier shorts but it was what you still considered to be your uniform at a place like this.

You stopped at the top of the stairs and saw that Jessica was already waiting for you at the front desk on her own, suggesting that Grace had already headed up to her office to start her own work.

You fully expected Jessica to head up to go get changed as soon as she saw you but she stayed standing where she was until you made it next to her. It looked like she was taking a moment to look you over before coming to a decision.

“Grace has told me to get along with you” she stated, in as matter of fact of a tone as you thought possible.

“...Did she say anything else or was that it?” you asked, doubting that Grace would end the conversation there.

“She…she said she doesn’t know what’s gone on between us but that I should give you a chance to explain yourself” Jessica added, repeating something that sounded a lot more like what Grace would suggest.

You paused for a moment and considered what to say next, but Sarah’s earlier words about how being honest with Jessica was probably the best path stuck in your mind as you chose what to say next.

“I think that you have every right to just ignore me for the rest of our shift but I do also want to talk with you. More for Sarah’s sake than anything else” you replied, seeing her perk up at the mention of Sarah.

You could tell she wanted to ask further and while you didn’t like using Sarah as bait to hook her into having this talk, Sarah would probably push you to use this tactic if she was actually listening in.

“Before we get into that, you should probably go get changed and I need to clock in” you suggested, knowing this was likely to be a longer conversation that was better if you didn’t get interrupted.

You slightly regretted your words when you saw that Jessica didn’t like following along with your words but she seemed to swallow down whatever she was feeling and nodded her head, walking off without saying anything further while you were left at the desk.

After doing what you said and clocking in to start your shift, you did the basics of straightening what had been left on the front desk from another member of staff and settled into one of the chairs while you waited for Jessica to return.

There wasn’t much more to do as far as you were concerned and you suspected that Monday wasn’t a busy day for new sign ups or anyone asking questions. You could see some people you recognised from your previous shifts but they looked happy to be left alone and as the only male in the building, you weren’t planning on doing anything to get in their way. Instead just waiting around on the off chance that one of them needed your help with something or needed some information that you had on hand.

The time passed with you just looking bored for the next 5 minutes but eventually you saw Jessica walking down the stairs and while you tried your hardest to keep your eyes from wandering, you couldn’t help but admit that she was good looking.

She had a similar physique to Sarah given that they were both on the cheerleading squad but her auburn hair made her distinctly different compared to the rest of the team. You managed to pry your eyes away from her body when she got to the bottom of the stairs and was actually facing you and she didn’t seem to notice where your gaze had been.

Author's note: As said previously, I wanted to make more of a fuss over this milestone but I just haven't had as much time with which I wanted to dedicate to it as I could.

I'll keep trying to be open about how things are going and if all goes according to plan, I'll be back to usual by the time October rolls around.

Again, and I couldn't be more genuine when I say this, thank you for the continued support and I hope you have enjoyed reading this story alongside its creation. Or whether you are reading this months/years down the road and are getting annoyed at the random author comments, I also appreciate you and apologies in advance for any more.

Many thanks :)