Boy from the Woods (9781311684776) (12 page)

“What’s on the menu?”

“Pizza.” She
shrugged. “I know how to cook properly, though. I’m just being lazy
today because I have to babysit my sister.” Oh, she could
kick
herself for that – apologizing for having fast food
tonight.
What did he care? What did
she
care?

“Hey
now, mind your words.
Pizza
is
proper food. Don’t let the
Italians hear you.
My grandpa on my mom’s
side is an Italian. I love pizza.”

“Amy’s
Kitchen isn’t exactly Italian,” Julia objected.

“No, but
it
sure is tasty.”
He shot
her a playful look.
“My favorite brand,
in fact.”

Oh my God.
She was literally
this
close
to inviting Michael for dinner, and
it was pretty obvious he was angling for it, dropping hints the
size of bricks.

“Yep, mine too.
Looking forward to it already.” She gingerly
took a few steps back.
“So, yeah, I’ll see you
around.”

“I hope so,” he said.

Julia
quickly took off before she could start blushing
again or – oh, horror – change her mind in a fit of insanity and
invite him anyway. At break-neck speed, she crashed through the
woods as if the devil were chasing her.

When she got
home all sweaty and out of breath, she called Gaby to invite her
over for a movie night after Anne’s bedtime. By now she could use
some support. Frowning deeply, she shoved two mushroom pizzas into
the oven.

Anne was
sitting at the kitchen table reading a Donald Duck comic. “Is
something the matter?” she asked, observing the testy way Julia
slammed the oven door closed.

“No.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Julia
couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s nothing
in
particular, Annie. I’m just nervous because of my first day at work
tomorrow.”

They are
their pizza and ice
cream while watching
Toy Story. When dusk set in, Anne went to bed and Gaby showed up at
their doorstep with three big bags of popcorn and a DVD.

“Just how
many movies are we watching tonight?” Julia
shot a look at the intimidating amount of snacks her friend
had brought. “Or have you invited some more people?”

Gaby waved
the DVD case in front of her. “It’s going to be quite a session,
Jules. This movie lasts for
hours
, and on top of that, Axel
told me we have to be focused and we’re probably going to need to
pause it every now and then to philosophize about it.”

“Uh-oh. Axel lent you a movie for geeks.”

Gaby nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, Florian
and Moritz were talking about Moritz’s band’s name last night,
right?”

“Waiting for
the Kick
?”

“Precisely.
And then Axel said Moritz and his buddies must
have watched
Inception
because that expression was used in the movie.
So he called me today telling me he’d burned me a copy, because I’d
gotten all curious about it.”

All of a
sudden, Julia remembered the
tiny spark
flying between Gaby and her cousin. “Well, Ax should congratulate
himself on turning you onto geekdom, too.”

“What?
Me? No way Jose. I love my dark, alternative self too much
for that.”

Julia studied
Gaby
’s flustered face. Should she ask
what her best friend thought of Axel? That might be too
confronting. She didn’t want to ruin things between Axel and Gaby
before they’d even had a chance to blossom. Maybe she could trick
her friend into spilling her guts by making a juicy confession of
her own.

“I asked Thorsten out today,” she said,
flashing a sultry smile.

Gaby yelped. “You
didn’t
. You did?! For real?
When are you guys going on a date?”

“Just, tomorrow.
So he can tag along to Shamrock.”

“Way to go, diva!”
Gaby slapped Julia on the shoulder. “I’m so
proud of you! When did you ask him?”

“Oh, I bumped
into him at
the supermarket in
Eichet.
He works there now.”

“Good, good.
I’m taking it you’ll be grocery-shopping for
your mom all week, am I right?”

Julia smiled.
Thorsten was a cute guy and he’d click well with her friends. This
was the right road to take. She conveniently forgot to mention her
less-than-casual encounter with Michael in the forest.

“On Sunday
we’
re going to book the plane tickets to
London.” Gaby flopped down on the couch. “We’ll make sure we can
see Moritz play. He’s leaving a few days before we do. Flo said we
should all meet up at his place on Sunday night, so we can print
off the boarding passes straight away.”

“I’m so excited! When are we leaving?”

“Third week
of August.” Gaby pointed at the copyright warning appearing on the
TV screen. “Axel is such a smart rat, isn’t he?
He
even copied the warning against copying DVDs.”

“Yeah, my cousin is our
resident Einstein.” Julia grinned. It wouldn’t hurt Axel’s chances
if she tried to talk him up a bit.
“And
not to mention, a dedicated friend. He must have slaved away for
you, ripping and burning that DVD at top speed so you’d have it
within a day.”

“Yup. He’s
the best,” Gaby nodded, reaching for the bottle of soda on the
table.
“You want a drink?”

Julia chuckled.
No matter how fast a talker Gaby was, she hadn’t
managed to hide the tiny blush creeping up on her face.

“Well, at
least make yourself a sandwich to take with you!” Julia’s mother
yelled from the kitchen the next morning, as her daughter was
running around in a panic trying to leave on time for her first day
of work.
“You need breakfast, don’t you?”

“I don’t have time!
I have to leave five minutes ago.” Julia quickly
put on a jacket while struggling to tie her shoelaces.

Resolutely, Julia’s mom snatched away one of
Anne’s sandwiches and packed it in a Zip-loc bag.

“Hey,” Anne
piped up, sounding offended. “My
peanut
butter sandwich!”

“I’ll make
you a new one,”
Ms. Gunther
promised.
“Now shush.”

“Thanks, mom.”
Julia grabbed the on-the-go breakfast. “Sorry
Anne! See you guys tonight!”

With an
anxiously pounding heart, she sprinted to the bus stop.
Why had she slept through her alarm clock
today
of
all days? She could only hope the traffic was quiet on Saturday
morning, or else the bus would definitely be late. She didn’t want
to make a bad impression by showing up late for work on the very
first day. Epic fail, as Gaby would say.

Once she was
on the bus, she calmed down somewhat. No traffic jams and all the
light
s were green. Julia leaned back in
her seat and popped in her ear buds while munching on her sandwich.
After a twenty-minute ride, she got off and hastily crossed the
bridge leading to the Old Town, ending up in front of the store at
exactly half past eight. Martin was just unlocking the door when
she appeared.

“Hello,
Mr
. Haider,” Julia called out.

Martin
swiveled around. “If it isn’t Julia! Happy to
see you. The store won’t open until nine, but I wanted to give you
a quick company tour and sit you down to fill in two more forms. I
need to know where to transfer your generous salary to, after all,”
he winked.

Julia chuckled.
She was beginning to really like her new boss.
“Let’s hope it is.
I’m going on a trip to London this
August.”

“You are?
Great choice. It’s a magnificent city.
How’s your English?
Reasonable?”

Chatting
amiably, they walked to
the back of the store where they climbed the stairs to the office
where Julia had done her job interview. After letting her fill out
her bank details, Martin accompanied her to the break room further
down the hall. “This is the kitchen where all the members of staff
eat between one and two, when the store closes for lunch break. We
close at five today, by the way.
Saturday
timetable.”

Another
flight of stairs led up to the
stockroom
and the toilets. Julia’s boss went into the room to get her a black
T-shirt with the store logo, which she put on over her own tank
top. Once they got back down to the first floor, Martin showed her
which categories of books were shelved on the first and second
floors of Höllrigl, after which she was more or less good to
go.

“Why don’t
you grab some coffee?
” he suggested. “The
store opens in a few minutes, and I’ll ask one of your colleagues
to introduce you to the rest of the team and explain to you how the
cash register works so you can man that position in the afternoon.
Is that okay?”

“Sounds
cool.” Julia couldn’t help but
grin like
an idiot as she looked around at all the books in the store. This
was a dream come true – she was having a
Beauty-in-the-Beast’s-library moment. Martin had told her she was
entitled to a pretty good discount on all in-store purchases. Axel
would cry with joy when she told him the news. Whistling
cheerfully, she walked up the stairs again to get some tea. When
she returned, Höllrigl was open for business and she bumped into
another girl in a company T-shirt going up the stairs.

“Hi,”
the girl said, extending her hand. “You must be
the new one.”

Julia shook the girl’s hand. “Julia. The new
one,” she said ceremoniously.

“Donna,” the girl replied. “The
old-timer.” They both laughed.

“I’m on my
way to the
checkout,” Julia said. “I need
some lessons before being thrown to the wolves.
Talk
to you later?”

“Absolutely!”
Donna beamed at her and continued up the
stairs.

Julia hummed
happily to herself as she made her way to the front of the store.
She was such a lucky bastard for finding this job! The work seemed
easy enough, her boss was a nice guy, her colleagues were friendly
and the pay wasn’t bad either – not to mention the discount Martin
had promised her. What else could she wish for?

“Ah, there
you are.” Martin popped up from behind a towering pile of
bestsellers. “Please come with me.
”

Julia trailed
behind him as
she walked over to the cash
register, looking left and right to catch a glimpse of her other
colleagues.

“Kolbe!” her
brand-new boss shouted toward the entrance. “Come and help me out,
will you?”

Julia stopped
dead, frozen in her tracks. Was she going deaf, or had Martin just
said… Her heart hammered ridiculously fast as her eyes zoomed in on
the front door.

“He’ll
c
ome and help you at the register.”
Martin’s voice sounded as though it was coming from far away. He
left her standing there, rooted to the spot.

Julia tried
to snap out of her paralysis and stumbled the final few steps to
the counter. Her breath hitched when she saw an all-too-familiar
figure walking in her direction.
She swallowed. But
surely it
couldn’t
be. Oh
God, no. No, no, no. This was
not
happening.

And then, she couldn’t look anywhere else but
up, straight into two eyes green as the forest.

6
.

“W
hat on earth are
you
doing
here?” Julia stared at him in alarm.

“I work
here,” he replied unfazed, a half-smile tugging at his
lips.

“Since when?”
It was simply
not
possible that she, in her unfailing stalker
mode, had somehow missed this: Michael holding a job at the same
bookstore she’d applied to two days ago.

“Since last week.”

His smug
composure quickly turned her initial befuddlement into outright
infuriation.

“Why?” she demanded fractiously.

He raised an
eyebrow.
“To earn some extra cash?” he
declared in an ‘isn’t-that-really-obvious’ tone.

“But
why
here
?”

Michael
started to chuckle. “Why are you giving me the third
degree?”

“Are you
following me or
something?” she grumbled,
her heart treacherously leaping in her chest for a moment as she
considered the possibility.

“Well,
I’m sorry to burst your bubble here, but I think
it’s the other way around. First, you turn up at the pub I always
hang out at on weeknights, then, you decide to take a jog near the
place where I almost had a fatal accident, and now you turn out to
have applied for a job at the same store I’ve been working at for
the past week. What does it look like to
you
?”