Yin needs her to get back to work

"Carina!" Guanyin practically shouts at her.

Carina looks over at the small woman. "Bwuh?" she asks, shaking her head to clear it.

"Are you back with us? You were spacing pretty hard." Guanyin puts a hand on Carina's arm like she's ready to stabilize the woman if she falls.

"Oh, yeah. I'm totally fine, I was just out of it for a moment," Carina says. Oddly enough, it seems to be true. Her hangover vanishes immediately, and she feels like she got an extra few hours of sleep.

"Good. You're all I have scheduled today until the after-church crowd comes in. I need you in good shape."

"Don't worry about me," Carina says, flashing a smile and standing up straighter. "We can handle this, no problem." She grabs a towel from the back and slings it over her shoulder. "If I have time to lean, right?" she says and starts wiping down the counter.

"It's okay, I'm not mad," Guanyin says. "I was just worried about you." She herself leans against the counter, underscoring her point.

"Aww, you care about me," Carina teases. "That's why you're my favorite manager."

Guanyin blushes. "Really? I was worried. You always seemed..." she stops herself.

"Seemed what?"

Guanyin hesitates before saying, "sullen? Like you're disappointed to see me."

"That's just because you only see me in the morning. I'm always like that in the morning. Trust me, you're the best boss. You're so good at taking charge and getting things done. You have our back with the customers, too." Carina can see how much Yin needs this. She hadn't realized before now that Yin had some self esteem issues, but she can see an immense sense of relief at the compliments.

"That's nice of you to say but..."

"No buts. Seriously, I mean it." Carina stops wiping to look the small woman in the eyes, "you're great. You're great with customers, and you're the kind of boss that makes us want to do a good job." Everything Carina says is true, to some extent, though she can't say she's always motivated to do her best. Still, she sees her boss' posture change at the compliments.

"You're pretty good yourself," Yin says. Carina can swear that, just for a second, Yin's eyes flick down at Carina's body when she says it. "Thanks, by the way."

Carina shrugs. "You looked like you were down on yourself. But I meant every word of it. Are you okay, by the way? Are things going well at home?" She regretted the words as soon as she said them. Guanyin's face falls again, defeated.

"Not really. My husband and I have been arguing a lot. About kids."

This is news to Carina. She'd known her boss was married, but that's as far as that went. But they're having a moment, so she presses on. "Do you mind if I ask?"

Yin rolls her eyes, but not at Carina. "It's his mom. She's putting a lot of pressure on him to have kids and he doesn't know how to say 'no' to her. So he's passing on the pressure to me. Neither of us even wants kids yet. Like, I'm not making any money here, and he's still interning."

"I've known men like that. Your husband needs to realize that he can't let his mom act like his wife. And I've seen you with customers, so I know you know how to take charge and shut that kind of thing down."

"You're right, Carina, I can't let his mother run our lives."

"Besides," Carina continues. "You're still young and hot. You've..." she trails off when she notices a change before her. Her boss's face seems to change before her eyes, a quick ripple through it, and what's left after still looks almost identical to her, but more attractive. Her eyes take on a sexy look, as if her boss can see right through her, her lips are more pouty. Even the shape of her face shifts slightly. She can't tell under the uniform and apron, but to Carina it looks like her body changed too.

"I'm what? Don't tell me you're spacing out again," Yin says.

"No, uh, I was just saying that you've got plenty of time to have kids if you want," she mutters.

What the fuck had just happened?