What you were trained to do

You tried to give the woman your warmest looking smile and although you thought you would feel nervous, the jitters you used to get when talking with strangers felt a lot calmer than they did in the past. You could say for a fact that you were definitely a different person from who you were a week ago considering the addition of the KDK to your life but you only now seemed to realise the more gradual change that had been going on since you had got it.

There had obviously been bigger and more noticeable changes but those were the ones that you had specifically used the KDK to change and not something that had slowly been building up in the background. That didn’t mean your nervousness was completely gone but you did your best to walk the woman through the exact process you had seen Grace do earlier and thanks to the increased intelligence from your other KDK change, you were able to run through it without making any mistakes and made sure all her questions were answered before she moved away from the front desk. The woman walked away with a smile and a thank you, letting you breathe a sigh of relief once she was out of earshot.

“That was pretty much perfect, good job! When did you get so confident?” she asked after praising you for handling your first customer well.

“Well, I think confessing to your daughter has sorta raised my threshold for my nervousness. If she had started shouting at me I think I might have tried to curl up into a ball” you jokingly replied, relieved that things had gone well.

Grace gave you a smirk and a pat on the shoulder before her expression got more serious as if she had made up her mind, giving you a firm look in the eyes as she started to speak.

“It looked like you can handle yourself well enough on your own so although I had some concerns, I think you've proven yourself enough for me to let you have the job. Now before you get excited, I’m still gonna keep you on probation for a few weeks as I’ve done with the rest of the staff and we still need to get all the other formal stuff worked out first but…” Grace explained, getting up from her chair before you interrupted her with a hug.

You wrapped your arms around her as she got a little surprised and you really were excited about getting the job but your plan to become more ‘touchy feely’ with Grace was definitely the main reason for you to grab her.

“You could have at least let me finish what I was saying” Grace teased, relaxing into your hug and subconsciously pushing her chest against you.

“Sorry” you sheepishly replied, loosening your hold on her but still keeping her in your arms.

“I think we should still go over the finer details while you're here. You still don’t know what your hours will be and there's more stuff you’ll need to be made aware of” Grace said, trying to sound serious even with the hug that was still taking place.

You reluctantly let go of her while keeping the same excited expression on your face as before. You wanted to keep the hug going but she was right to try and keep things professional when she would now technically now be your boss in addition to being your girlfriend's mom. You discussed your hours and pay first as those were the 2 main points on both of your minds. You honestly weren’t that concerned about the pay other than having enough to buy a gift here or there for your subjects, using whatever was left over to put into your savings but the figure Grace had given you was more than enough in your eyes.

Grace didn’t seem like she would play favorites but you checked and made sure she wasn’t paying you more than any of the other employees' base wages. The more important aspect for you though was the hours. Grace told you that everyone had a base shift but the option to clock in additional hours if you wanted to was available.

You felt quite lucky when you realised that the girl who had recently left had only worked the afternoon Monday shift as well as working a full 8 hours on a Sunday. With the gym being open 24 hours thanks to the cameras and the customer id cards blocking access for non-members, staff weren’t necessary except for the busiest hours and the scheduled classes but Grace was serious when she said you can come and work any time if you needed the extra cash.

You would probably take on more hours once the summer break started after the few weeks you had left in school finished and stick to the minimum around your exam period which was rapidly getting closer.

Taking over the hours of the previous girl was the least you could do and the option for extra hours also meant you could clock in at any time with Rebecca or any of your other subjects and still get paid. You’d still do your job of course and trying to **** the system was the furthest thing from your mind. You also got the perk of having free access to the gym when you weren’t working but to minimise any unwanted stares, you decided to use that at non-peak times with your work uniform on display just in case.

The finer details took a little longer to go through but your shift drew to a close as you were starting to finish up. Grace offered you a lift home which you gladly took when you realised that the ride would mean you’d barely be able to make it back by 8:30 pm and refusing would mean walking home in the dark.

Grace did the final checks she needed to do and she went upstairs to lock up her office, grabbing your bag as she did so before you walked with her across the road to where her car was parked.

“Do you usually end up working this late?” you asked as you got in the passenger seat and fastened yourself in.

“Not usually but a few things popped up today and there was some stuff I had been putting off that needed to be taken care of” she replied, seemingly happy that she had someone to vent to.

You let her talk about what had been bothering her for the day and politely listened to her problems. None of them were anything you could solve but she seemed happy to just have someone she could vent to and so she could avoid going home angry.

After she finished, it seemed that Grace was pretty tired after the long day, so you were happy to let her spend some time in silence for the rest of the journey and thought back to the events of the day. You’d only managed to make some extra progress with Grace, Rebecca and Lucy but you were pleased with the additional setup work you had been able to work on which although didn’t directly affect the KDK, it paved the way for you to make your progress in the future go a lot smoother than it would have otherwise.

“You're gonna have to tell your Mom when you get in as well. I’m already keeping the workouts we do a secret and you know I don’t like lying to her” Grace said, breaking the silence as you were only a few streets away from getting back home.

“Will do. I hadn’t planned on keeping that a secret but I didn’t want her to influence your decision if she did find out.” you replied, getting an understanding nod from Grace.

Both of your homes came into view as you finished speaking, giving you a chance to check on the house as Grace pulled into her driveway. You thought you saw movement in the living room and a flicker of light from the TV told you that someone was still downstairs. You looked back into the back seats of the car to find your bag when you saw Grace looked like she was hesitating about saying something.

She had been relatively calm on the drive back apart from her mini outburst when she was complaining about her work but now she looked nervous about bringing something up.