(Author's Note: If you would wish to listen to Chapter 12 on audio, please click the video. Please enjoy it)

      The day goes by slowly, but with the customers needing my help constantly, Chris fades out of my memories and the only thing I'm thinking about is helping the customers. I think if I was restocking, I would think about how his body was close to me, the way his fingers swept over mine. The way he...

   Aaargh! The day is not even over and I'm still thinking about him. I need to keep busy. I managed to avoid Camille practically all day, I can't deal with her nagging me about Chris anymore. I'm glad she decided to leave me alone- for once.

    Work has died down since this morning and the customers have come and left. I check my phone for the time and it's just time for my break. I make my way to the break room and head to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water; I'm exhausted. I have to sit down and relax- if I don't, I think I might faint from the lack of sleep, I need to get some rest tonight. Well, at least hoping I can get some sleep before I really become like the walking dead and start acting like a zombie.

    I glance up from staring at the water bottle way too long to notice Loren coming to the refrigerator to retrieve- what I suppose might be her lunch. Unfortunately, she spots me at the table and comes to sit across from me. What's this? She never sits with me. Do I have a tattoo that says, "come sit with the poor lonely girl," on my forehead?

  "So, you and Chris?" She sarcastically asks. Man, she's nosy.

  "What are you talking about Loren?" I ask. I'm so confused.

  "You and Chris together, well not really together like dating one another because he tells all the girls he's been with that he does not date, but I figured you guys were fucking," she smirks and I spit my water out getting my shirt all wet, and making a complete mess of myself. How dare she say a thing like that? I mean we're not even sleeping together, and if we were it would be none of her business anyway. She has some nerve.

 "No! Chris and I... We're friends and nothing more," I snap.

 "Just friends?" She questions and raises a brow.

  "Yes. Just friends," I scowl. Why does everyone look surprised that Chris and I are friends? And why is everyone interested in us hanging out? It's none of their damn business, especially Loren.

 "You could have fooled me." She takes the ranch dressing into her hands, smothers it in her salad, and shoves a fork full into her mouth.

  "Excuse me?" I say.  What is that supposed to mean?

 "Well for starters, you two looked like you had tension between you guys. I assume you guys were fucking."

 "We're not!" I shout and quickly defend myself.

 "Okay. Don't get feisty now. I'm just saying I thought you were. Anyway, you know how Chris and I use to fuck. Right?" Why is she telling me this? I don't want to hear about them being together and what they did in the past if it's still in the past.

  "Yes." I grind my teeth because I really don't want to talk about this.

  "You and I have known each other... what? Two years." Actually three, but who's counting? "I say what I mean, you should know that. Plus, I won't lie and you already know how I am... While Chris and I use to constantly hang out; one thing went to another, and you know how it is." What's her point? "I'll get to the point, whenever we would see each other, he would never turn me down, but today he did and that got me curious. Don't get mad, but the way he was acting with you... I just thought you guys were together. "

  Doesn't he always act like that? Not just with me, but with other girls.

  She keeps talking, but I really wish she would stop and eat her salad. "Anyway, if you ever need a good fuck, you could go to Chris. Man, is he good and can he-"

    I cut her off mid-sentence and hold up my hands.  "Okay! I get it."

    I can't hear anymore, especially them having sex. If I hear one more time say another word about Chris and her together, I might vomit. I haven't eaten anything, since I had lunch with Chris, but I surely would, if there was food in my stomach.

  "My break is over; I have to get to work," I tell her. Okay, my break is not really over, I have ten more minutes until I have to get back to work. I just need to end this conversation, before I actually start vomiting onto this wooden table. I feel nauseous, even just thinking about them two and having sex, I can't bear to hear another word.

   I stand up and head out of the break room, when almost in a whisper; I can barely hear her say, "I would be careful of Chris."

  I stop mid-tracks and turn- 180-degrees when I hear those words fall out of her mouth.

  "What?" I say in confusion and I don't know if I heard her right. What does she mean? My eyes travel to her holding a diet coke in her hands and I guess I never noticed she had it before... I'm getting distracted.

  "You need to watch out for Chris, a nice girl like yourself can get hurt. He may seem nice at first, but he can be... Well, let's put it this way- an asshole." My eyes go wide. What's this? Is she trying to warn me about Chris? "But who am I to judge anyone? Right?" She takes a sip of her drink.

  I want to ask her so many questions, like why is he an asshole? Can he be that bad he would want to hurt me? But instead of pressing the conversation on, I nod and walk out the door.

  I should have demanded her to tell me what the hell was all that about, but I was frozen; I couldn't even open my mouth, let alone say a full sentence. I was in complete shock, I mean how do you even respond to a thing like that? Maybe I should just go back in there. No! I'm not thinking clearly, I would sound obsessive asking her for answers, which I'm not sure she can answer all. Does she know a lot about Chris? 

  Of course, she does, she probably knows him better than I do. Hell, I don't know him at all and here I am obsessing over him. What the actual fuck? I can't believe I'm becoming one of those girls, who obsessive over a man and wants to ask questions to get to know him. I'm an idiot. Right? Then again, I want to know what she meant when she said, "be careful of Chris." This is going to drive me crazy all day- if I let it.  Well, I have to find out or this is going to eat me alive, but when I return to the break room she's gone.