Josiah
~
Even though I looked considerably different after a long shower, I still couldn’t help but feel as if everyone was still staring at me, an unwanted nuisance in their personal space. Even knowing that it was all in my head, I still couldn’t help but feel that way.
After taking a shower this morning, I had thrown my hair back in a ponytail, the used rubber band not long for this world, then I’d gotten ready for my first day at work.
However, after taking care of all the hygienic necessities, I’d been forced to walk out of Pepper’s bathroom in only a towel, loathed to put my dirty clothes back on.
Luckily for me, Pepper hadn’t been at all surprised to see me walking around her home in only a towel, and when I had pointed out my dilemma, she had grabbed me a clean t-shirt that hadn’t fit and a pair of sweats that I’d been barely able to walk in, they’d been so tight.
Still, I had suffered the discomfort as Pepper had thrown all my clothes in the washer, breakfast on the table as the laundry had been running.
Thankfully, one of her employees had agreed to open the shop for her, giving us plenty of time to make me presentable for work.
When we’d gotten to the shop, we had barely made it in the front door before Pepper had been bombarded with questions about her attack, and everyone wanting to make sure that she was okay.
It’d been wild to see so many people come together for one of their own, and even her ex-husband had stopped by to check on her, reminding her of her appointment with the security company.
I’d also been introduced to Wilmar Perico, Pepper’s delivery man, Pepper announcing that my first day of training would be with deliveries.
Since no one knew that I was the homeless man that had saved Pepper, everyone was treating me like your average everyday new employee, and I couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t feel nice.
Of course, her ex-husband knew who I was, but I only knew that because Pepper had been very forthcoming during breakfast, letting me know that her ex-husband, daughter, and best friend all knew about me and my situation.
Anyway, Laurie Ross was Pepper’s other full-time employee, and from what I could gather, she was just as kind, bubbly, and outgoing as Pepper. As for her part-timers, they didn’t come in until after school, so I wouldn’t meet any of them until later.
Pepper had also decided to order pizza for lunch for everyone, and it was getting harder and harder not to feel emasculated every time that she came out of her wallet.
I knew that she meant well, and I also knew that she couldn’t possibly know how I felt as a man, but that didn’t stop me from feeling a tinge of shame each time that she was generous with herself.
“How’s it going?” Pepper asked, walking into the back room where Wilmar and I were eating lunch.
“No offense, Pepper, but it’s not rocket science,” Wilmar quipped. “With the magic of GPS nowadays, it’d be hard to get it wrong.”
Instead of taking offense, Pepper just smiled. “I’m not talking about getting the deliveries quickly, I’m talking about all the single women of Macon ordering flowers from us just so that you can deliver them.”
That got a laugh out of me, and I’d forgotten what it felt like to have normal banter like this with other people. “She’s not wrong.”
Wilmar looked over at me. “Says the man that had to help Darla Perkins with her one vase of flowers.”
Pepper arched a brow at me. “Making friends out there already?”
“Hardly,” I muttered, my ears turning red.
“We’ll see when you suddenly get an influx of emergency flower orders,” Wilmar snorted before helping himself to another slice of pizza.
“Well, once he’s trained with you and Laurie, then we can keep him stuck in the back room to keep the single women of Macon from rioting in the streets,” Pepper teased.
Just then, Laurie peeked her head in, and she had a tiny grin playing on her lips. “Kenneth Query is out front again. He’d like to speak to you about some fresh roses.”
“Talk about causing a riot in the street,” Wilmar snorted, leaving me curious.
“Who’s Kenneth Query?” I asked, looking between them all.
“Just a douchebag that’s been trying to get Pepper to go out with him for months now,” Wilmar answered. “Still, he thinks that his money is a substitute for character.”
Pepper just rolled her eyes. “You guys are too much.”
“What do you want me to tell him?” Laurie asked, and as much as I had no right, and as much as it was too soon, I felt an immediate jealousy that I had no business feeling.
“I’ll be right there,” Pepper sighed. “Better I deal with him than you.”
Then looking my way, Laurie asked, “Are you single, Josiah?’
Everything in me froze. “What?”
“If you’re single, then we can just tell Kenneth that you’re Pepper’s new boyfriend,” Laurie suggested. “It would solve everything.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Wilmar chimed in.
“Jesus Christ, it’s the man’s first day of work,” Pepper drawled out. “Can we give it another week before we ask him to start sacrificing himself for the sake of my love life?”
“I’m just saying, it’s not a bad idea,” Laurie chuckled.
“Don’t forget to clean up when you’re done, gentlemen,” Pepper said before heading out to go deal with Kenneth Query.
As soon as Pepper and Laurie cleared the room, I turned towards Wilmar. “Is this Kenneth Query a real problem or...?”
Wilmar shrugged. “He’s not dangerous, if that’s what you’re asking. He just...he’s one of those entitled pricks who are used to getting their way, and he thinks that Pepper’s the type of woman that can be bought or tempted with money.”
“She doesn’t seem like that,” I agreed.
“She’s not,” he replied. “Pepper Milo is as far as you can get from a gold-digger.”
Not wanting to examine my jealousy too closely, I said, “Well, I guess we better get back to work.”
“Good thing that the pizza can go with us,” Wilmar chuckled.
Yeah, good thing.
~
Pepper~
A month later, things were looking up for all of us.
The cameras in my house brought a comfort that I had taken for granted before, Leah was in Colorado with Tullie, helping him set up his new home after getting the promotion that we’d all known he would get, and Josiah was still working at the shop, doing his best to earn his keep.
I’d also gotten some serious satisfaction when I’d found out that my attacker, Timothy Sharpe, had a long criminal history before he had decided to knock on my door.
According to the police, he’d been visiting some friends in Macon, and he’d been driving by the shop when he’d seen me locking up, then had assumed that I’d have some kind of money on me or at home.
It’d been a simple crime of opportunity, and my sense of security was paying the price for something that Mr. Timothy Sharpe couldn’t care less about.
Thankfully, his history had sent him to jail for a couple of years, and there was some small measure of comfort to know that it hadn’t been personal.
All-in-all, everything was going well, except for one minor hiccup, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore with each passing day.
While Josiah was insistent on still sleeping in the shed, with no other choice, he continued to knock on my backdoor each morning and use the downstairs bathroom, and whenever he walked out in a towel because he’d forgotten his clothes or something, it was hard not to drool all over the place.
For being homeless, Josiah Austin had not let himself go, and though he’d probably been thicker in his military days, he was still very well kept, and my lady bits were noticing more and more these days.
I also found myself feeling guilty every time that I ogled the man.
Josiah had a lot on his plate, and the last thing that he needed was for his boss to have the hots for him, which I did.
Over the past month, he had proven to be a hard worker, team player, and he was surprisingly kind for someone so rough around the edges.
There’d also been the whole incident on payday.
The second that I had handed Josiah his check, he had tried to hand it back, insisting that he owed me.
We had argued for a good hour before the stubborn man had finally set his pride aside to be pragmatic.
After making it clear that I’d consider us even when he got back on his feet, he’d had no choice but to take the check, and a part of me wished that I’d kept the damn thing.
When he’d gone missing the following Saturday, sadness had gripped my heart at the thought that he’d fled, but he hadn’t.
Nope.
Instead, Josiah had shown up that evening with a brand-new haircut and shave, and it’d taken everything in me not to climb him like a spider monkey.
To say that Josiah Austin was gorgeous was an understatement, and knowing that he had all those masculine military vibes just added to his appeal.
A girl was safe with Josiah, and if that wasn’t one hell of an aphrodisiac, then I didn’t know what was.
He had also gone to the thrift store in town to buy some ‘new’ clothes, and with both Josiah and Wilmar both working for me, I was going to have to start beating the women of Macon off with a stick.
The man was also proving to be very versatile.
After training with both Laurie and Wilmar, I’d had him train with some of the part-timers, and once Josiah had learned everything that there was to know about how we did things at The Flower Shoppe, the man had started taking the initiative, even helping with some of the building maintenance.
In fact, everything was perfect right now, but that didn’t mean that I still wasn’t prepared for one of his episodes, something that I’d been researching on my own time.
When and if the time came that Josiah fell apart, I wanted to be there for him with some inkling of knowing what I was doing.
Helping a veteran through a flashback was entirely different than patting your friend on the back after her boyfriend broke up with her.
“Are you about ready, Boss?”
I glanced up from my desk, finished with most of the paperwork for the day. “I am.”
Though no one at the shop knew that Josiah was homeless, they knew that he didn’t have a car and that we carpooled, so Wilmar and Laurie were comfortable with leaving when they could, knowing that I had Josiah here with me.
“Well, if you don’t mind, I was hoping that you could drop me off at the city library on your way home,” he said, and I hated how the tip of his ears always turned red when he was asking me for something.
“Sure.”
“I finally found an online support group that might work for me,” he said, explaining himself, something else that I didn’t like. “The library offers free computer use, and so I was going to speak to someone about reserving one weekly or...or maybe twice a week.”
Making sure not to look at him, I glanced down at my desk, busying myself with shutting down my computer and tidying up a bit before we left. “You know, I have a home computer at my house. You can just use that one.”
After a brief second of silence, he said, “I already use your bathroom, washer, and dryer, Pepper. I think that’s enough.”
Unfairly using my ace for moments like this, I said, “Well, considering that my life is worth more than the use of my shower, washer, and dryer, I disagree.”
“Pepper, look at me,” he ordered, and I did because that voice of his could probably make me do anything that he wanted me to do. “Your manipulation isn’t going to work forever.”
I grinned at him. “I don’t need it to work forever. I just need it to work right now.”
Josiah shook his head, but there was still a hint of a smile on his lips. “You’re killing me, baby.”
His sudden and unexpected endearment had us both freezing in place, and while he was probably feeling horrified at taking such liberties, my lady bits were tossing confetti in the air and putting on grinding music.
That had me wondering about my last date, and not being able to remember it was probably not a good sign for poor Josiah Austin.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Uhm, I’ll just go...I’ll go double-check everything as you...as you close up in here.”
Not knowing what else to do, I just nodded. “Will do.”
With Josiah lost in his own thoughts, and me lost in my own, neither of us said a word the entire drive home, and when he had mentioned the library again, I had quickly nipped that in the bud, practically forcing him to use my home computer, pointing out that things would probably work out better if he had some privacy for what he needed.
After I’d left him in the den to do his thing, I’d gone upstairs, had taken a shower, and now I was trying to figure out how to ask him to stay for dinner, my attraction for him getting the better of me.
Now, while he had no choice but to join me for breakfast each morning since I was his ride to work, that was the only time that we ate together unless I ordered lunch for the shop.
Then it hit me how stupid I was. Right now, the man was downstairs, trying to overcome his demons, and I really had to be the biggest asshole on the planet to be worrying about a date.