Complications: Part 1

This is a start of another fictional mini series that I believe will have three parts.

First and foremost I need to explain that I was never a casual sex kind of girl. There was never a time that I locked eyes with some cute guy across the room and then later on we ended up at his place on a first names, probably fakes names, only basis. No walk of shames, no "who was that guy from last night?", no emergency trips to Planned Parenthood in my lifetime. Something I actually don't share with two many people is that I didn't even lose my virginity until I was twenty-two years old. It's embarrassing. I wish I could chalk it up to me being super religious or an avid RPG player, but the truth was I was a girl with no game.

Now that we got all that out of the way....the real story began halfway through my freshman year at college. My parents had worked real hard to save up enough money to pay for my college, but if I wanted any petty cash then I needed to get a job. Here I was several hours away from home not knowing anyone, anywhere, or anything but my name. Hey there, I'm Katie Keppler. Nice alliteration, right?

There was this bakery/cafe about a five minute walk from campus called Banjo's. Needless to say this was a highly coveted place to work for us out-of-towner college folk, alternatives were the retail hell the mall offered which you needed a car to get to and most freshman didn't have cars or working an on campus job for about half the pay. My past work experience consisted of odd baby sitting jobs, so landing a spot at Banjo's was a long shot. What do they say "Aim for the moon and maybe you'll land on a star?" I was the kind of girl that was most likely to get plummeted with a stray asteroid in the process. Come to think of it I think that's what they voted me in High School.

Although I was still very unfamiliar with my new surroundings, I had heard Banjo's had an oversized bird bath/fountain in the front. The open house interview started 7 AM the Saturday after we had all arrived at school. They were looking to take on three new people. My heart sank when I showed up at 6:45 AM to an already overflowing line of fellow collegiates. Defeated I slumped into a table in the back contemplating if I should even try at this point. I grabbed a napkin and began doodling on it.

"Art major?"

I looked up to see this tall skinny guy with a head of dark brown curly hair. He was cute, but in a not so obvious way. I studied his flip flops, polo shirt, and board shorts. He must be sizing up his competition. Proudly I held up my napkin to display my stick figures, "Yeah, I'm actually on scholarship."

He sat down across from me, "Oh, then why do you need this job?"

"I don't, I'm actually the bosses mistress. He likes them young and dumb. Eighteen years old, actually I'm on the high end of the age range he prefers. I do it for the muffins."

He smirked, "I had no idea he was fooling around on the misses. Good leverage to use if I want to move up in this place."

My face turned red, "You work here?"

"Yeah, my Uncle Tommy owns the place. After what you told me, well it's going to be real awkward at Thanksgiving this year."

My parents had warned me my quick wit would get me in trouble one of these days and I guess today was the day. I immediately abandoned my napkin artwork and stood up to leave. "I am so sorry, I had no idea. See I'm a little socially retarded. Anyways good luck finding your three new people." Stop rambling you idiot.

He stood up and blocked my way out, "Two, we're hiring two new people."

"Oh the sign said three. I guess math and literacy aren't my strongest suits either. Thank God I've still got my art to fall back on."

"It did say three, but now we just need two more. I think you'd be great here, you're real funny. I'm Nick." He extended his hand to me.

"You're going to hire me?"

"Well how could we not hire my uncle's main squeeze? By the way I didn't catch your name."

"Katie."



Nick had unofficially worked in the family business since he was about nine. He's refilled napkin dispensers, swept the floor, and greeted customers. He progressed to busing tables, waiting tables, working the bakery, and doing everything to learn the business inside and out. Today at twenty years old he was the assistant manager which gave him authority to hire smart mouthed college brats like myself. Banjo's wasn't some petty cash fund for him like it was for me, Nick wanted to eventually take over the place when his uncle aka my fictional lover decided to retire.

Throughout the next four years countless people came and went, but I stuck around. The O'Shay family unofficially adopted me, one year when weather wouldn't let me make it back home for the holidays I actually spent it with them. At Banjo's I learned valuable skills you just can't get in college: bathroom vomit clean up, what to do with all the fabulous baked good that didn't sell at the end of the day (the O'Shay's donated to a local food pantry), and the most dangerous type of person out there was the dreaded caffeine junky. Forget weapons of mass destruction, these people will rip you to shreds with their bare hands if you fuck up their coffee.

A little game I played had to do with the infamous long lost Charlie; he was Nick's cousin, Uncle Tommy's son, and the rightful heir to the Banjo empire. Charlie much like big foot was often talked about yet there was very little actual evidence of him. It's true there were photos, but for all I knew they could have been the photo that came with the frame. The basic story I had gotten was that Charlie went away to school somewhere midwest on a hockey scholarship. Somewhere during his sophomore year he got so badly injured he was permanently benched. Instead of coming home, he decided to drop out of school and travel instead. He never came to visit, not even for the holidays. There were post cards sent to Nick that were enigmatic, a few lines of poetry maybe. Nick could never make sense of them.

One late night that Nick and I were stuck in the shop doing inventory; It was just the two of us and his IPOD shuffle to keep us company. Oldies mostly.

I slumped down on the floor behind the counter, "You are the oldest person I know."

He joined me on the floor, "I'm only a couple of years older than you."

"I mean your soul is old. If you were a tree and I cut you open you'd have a million rings on the inside."

"Is this the part of our friendship where I find out you're a serial killer?"

"Ah Nick there are still so many things you don't know about me. It's time I confess my plans to get plastic surgery to look just like you, knock you up, and take over your life."

"Knock me up? Did you mean knock me off?"

"I know what I said, you misheard me."

"Oh, so this is actually the part of our friendship where you sexually proposition me?"

My face turned ten shades of red. Please remember I'm a virgin here and to clarify even further I have never done anything with a guy below the waist. Never even seen a penis, well okay I have, but do movies count? Not porn, you perverts. It was an art film, or at least that's what I was told.

Best method of escape, abrupt subject change. "Tell me about Big Foot."

Nick ran his fingers through his crazy curly hair. He knew just who I meant. "Hmmmm, where to begin. He was born on a cold winter's night..."

I playfully hit him, "Don't go back quite that far, how about give me the highlite reel."

"He's really good looking or so I'm told by all his groupies. In school he never had to worry about finding a date, they were lining up to be with him. It didn't hurt that he was a super star at any sport although everyone knew hockey was his first love. Even though we're the same age we couldn't be more different. He was the exciting one, I was the boring one. Charlie was and is rebellious, there wasn't a rule he didn't break and that included getting involved in the family business."

"Yeah but his loss is our gain. You were born to run this place Nick. I knew from that first day we met when you make that excellent executive decision to hire me."

"Where do you see yourself ten years from now?"

"Oh geez, I thought I had secured the job four years ago. Is this part two of the interview?"

"No, just a friend asking."

"I don't know. I probably should have some kind of clue since I'm graduating in what, a month? I'm not even sure where I'm going to live."

"Come live with me."

"What?!"

"I have that big old house all by myself, could use the company." The big old house he was referring to was the house he grew up in. His parents had retired and moved south about a year ago, leaving their only child the house to take care of and maintain until they were ready to eventually sell it. It was a fifteen minute drive from the bakery. Thankfully another thing I had managed to gain over the past couple of years was a car.

I started to tease, "Gosh I don't know Nick, this is so sudden and we just met. What will people in town think of us two unwed kids co-habitating together?"

He stood up, brushed off his jeans, and extended a hand to help me up which I gladly accepted. "Don't make me beg?"

"I do like it when a man grovels, but I will accept on the terms that you make sure to put the toilet seat back down for the lady of the house."

"Lady of the house? I'm confused, I asked you to move in..." With that I grabbed a muffin off the shelf and pelted it at him.

Nick smirked that boyish mischievous grin of his, "It's like that? Two can play this game." He picked me up and flung me over his shoulder. I kicked and screamed like a little girl who had been kidnapped because I knew all too well what was coming. Like countless times before when we got into a friendly scuffle, Nick had one way he always settled things in his favor, dump a fully clothed Katie in the fountain out front. Tonight was different though because he came in with me.

After a giant fit of giggles I brushed my hair off my face, turned to Nick and said, "You've really become my best friend. You know that?"

"Well that's cause I'm your only friend." I splashed him, then he wrapped his giant arm around me, "I'm real glad you walked into the bakery that day Katie Keppler."

"Me too."