Brand New Love *Chapter 3* Monday morning came around after a weekend that felt like an eternity, all I could think about was him, I'd thought about him so hard and so much that I couldn't actually remember his face, just his glasses and that gap between his front teeth oh how am I going to manage to keep it together today? the day I actually get to see him in the flesh, the thought of it made my stomach twist and turn in a feeling I have never felt before, I got up at a ungodly hour, showered, spent hours doing my hair, makeup and waxing. Anyone would have thought I was going on a hot date, not my first day at my new work place. 1pm came along, an hour to go, till I see him...Max.. The man I had dreamt about seeing clapping my eyes on his goofy photo three days ago. My stomach tightened more at the thought of our first meeting. 1.30pm I left home, deciding to walk I thought the music that pounded my ears from my iPod would send my fears flying, but when I arrived at Simpsons I had two fears, one was the fear of starting a new job and two because I was about to meet sex on legs in the flesh. I stood outside Simpsons composing myself, taking a deep breath in, I pushed the doors and entered, walking up to Josie on the healthcare counter, she beamed at me in the way she does, "happy first day at work!" With her arms thrown wide open, she moved round from behind the counter and pulled me in for a hug, which I received with a embarrassed look."Are you ready" Josie emphasised a look at the photo counter, I pulled my face up into a grimace. Over the weekend, me and Josie had a girls night in at her place, as my bedroom was still in an atrocious state, it was there that I confessed that I had a crush on Max but I'd only seen his photo, feeling ashamed I had crushed at the sight of a photo, and my worries of seeing him in the flesh, sensing that Josie was shocked and didn't no what to say next, I started on "what's he like?Is he single? What's his favourite music?" Realising I was bombarding her with ridiculous questions I stopped. Josie pointed out "I've never really said more than two words to him, he's on a different counter to me, I only see him when we pass each other on the stairs" I sighed realising I was only going to get the answers to my questions by actually meeting him on Monday. Josie led me up the stairs in Simpsons, to Ellie's office, Josie opened the door "Eve's here" she gestured towards me, Ellie looked up from her desk "looking forward to your first day eve?" Ellie questioned, "yes except I'm very nervous" I replied in a small delicate voice "you'll be fine, Mary and Max will take good care of you whilst we train you up" ...Jeeez that made me feel a whole lot better... With that Ellie rose from her desk, she was wearing a very sharp grey suit with a tartan lining which was evidently tailored to her specifications as it was the perfect fit, she accompanied this with a emerald green silk blouse, the artificial light in the office bounced off the beautiful colours of her blouse and blonde hair like sunlight on a lake, following Ellie out of the office she reiterated where the cloakroom was and designated me a locker and handed me a locker key, in which I bundled my satchel into without any due care or attention, and hastily shoved my black coat on a free peg, I hadn't been provided the company uniform yet so I had gone for simple black pumps, black trousers and light pink shirt, which was either a too smaller fit or my boobs were too big as you could quite clearly see my cleavage between two of the done up buttons, looking at myself in a full length mirror that hung on the wall, I looked pale... My bright blue eyes were red and puffy from the very early morning 'must look like a sex goddess' charade, This was my nerves showing their ugly side... And making me feel clumsy and tongue tied... I released my shoulder length blonde hair from its band and shook it out trying desperately to look more sexy... I slid a slick of lip gloss on and walked out the door without even looking when WHAM!! I hit the linoleum tiled floor with full force, after a few moments i managed to scrape myself off the floor, i sat up on the dark blue tiles, then looked up... "Oh my god, are you ok eve?" Ellie was standing over me, "yeah...yeah I'm fine" picking myself up fully from the tiles, I dusted myself down "I'm such a klutz sometimes, sorry I didn't look, it's my fault" I uttered " it's alright, no harm done to me, are you alright though?" Ellie asked sympathetically, I nodded embarrassed. "Good...good... Now your all dusted off... We'll go down to the photo lab" I followed Ellie through the stockroom , holding my shaking hands still as much as possible and down to the shop floor, walking two steps behind her, we approached the counter, my eyes searched frantically for him... Max.. He wasn't behind the counter... Following Ellie behind the counter and the into the photo lab... I noticed he wasn't there either. Feeling a little deflated. I continued to listen to Ellie as she spoke to Mary about my training. I nodded enthusiastically at Ellie and Mary as they showed me how to work the till, how to enter in films to be processed and how to give out films to customers who had returned for their prints. After about half an hour Ellie and Mary left me to my own devices convinced I'd grabbed the basics. I had my head stuck into a 'understanding photography' book Mary had given me to read that taught you about the various different 35mm film and digital cameras when all of a sudden all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I became increasing aware of someone reading over my shoulder, "Hello" the voice was deep, smooth like chocolate and rippled through me. I spun around to be faced with a face I suddenly recognised. A face that lurched my memory from the deep recesses of my mind. "I'm Max".
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