Chapter 18 - KMCF

Miranda and I slept in my bed. We finished all the calculations for Anders, ordered our outfits and caught up on our favorite TV show, Scandal. We sat on my bed and told each other stories about our pasts while we ate brownies. It was fun, and I didn't want the night to end.

I woke up on the floor wrapped around my bed sheets, Miranda was in a weird sleeping position on the bed. I had always known I wasn't a person who moved around in my sleep, but I knew Miranda was the exact opposite.

"Miranda!" I had just gotten off the floor and thrown a pillow at my soundless friend.

She shot up like a rocket like there was some type of emergency she had to attend to. I rubbed my neck who had to suffer the pain of sleeping on the floor.

"I'm going to go take a shower," I said as she rubbed her eyes. "Thanks for messing up my bed." I mumbled.

I walked into my bathroom, stripped myself of clothing and walked into my walk-in shower. It wasn't a long shower, but it sure was a calming effect. I brushed my teeth before I blow dried my hair, it went back to its beautiful, original state. I left my bathroom with a towel wrapped around my figure and strode to my bedroom.

My room was back to being clean, I figured it must've been Miranda's doings. She was enclosed into my closet, gliding hangers and opening drawers. "Can I borrow some clothes?" She asked without looking in my direction.

"Yeah, sure." I waved off her unnecessary question. "Food!" I yelled. I had now been using food to catch, Ozzy and it was working.

He came and jumped onto my bed. I grabbed a bundle of tops, pants, shoes, and cardigans; I laid them out on my bed. "What do you think?" I asked.

Miranda laughed. "I can't believe you still do this."

I rolled my eyes. "Ozzy, don't mind her. Take your time."

Like always he didn't need that much time, Ozzy stepped on a muscle shirt with a laced design, along with a black and white kimono cardigan. He stopped moving and looked straight at me. "Okay, so the muscle shirt, cardigan and," I picked up my black jeans. "Black jeans?" He meowed in response.

I took that as a yes and watched him leave the room. "See, it works." Miranda looked at me like I was crazy before she went into the bathroom.

I put on my chosen clothes matched with my white pumps. I sat on my bed and looked through my notifications. Nothing interesting, just typical Grace and business. No calls from Hunter. When did I become a woman who waited for a man to call me? Was I always this desperate? I sighed, what was wrong with me?

I went into my kitchen and took out some breakfast bars and ate them one by one as I filled up Ozzy's self feeder.

"You'll gain weight, if you eat all of those." Miranda said as she walked into my kitchen. She wore a slimming dress with a blazer. "You know Grace has us on a diet."

I snickered. "And who ate all the cookies?"

"Touché." She grabbed a breakfast bar from the pile.

"Today's going to be so boring," I deliberately yawned.

She smirked. "Because Hunter won't there."

"No," I lied somewhat.

"I've been thinking about expanding," Miranda stared at me. Jokes aside, she was serious.

"Like renovating?" I asked with a high eyebrow.

"No. I'm talking about having a second Anders, so in other words two stores." She put down her breakfast bar and locked her hands together.

A second Anders, wasn't a bad idea. I mean we were having so much success with the first one and we were a lot wealthier than most people with shops. I still hadn't given her an answer yet, I was trying to find more pros than cons. There was the possibility that it could fail and it'd cost us for both locations.

"Jen, we're living on piles of money just by owning one store. You live in a luxury condominium and I live in a penthouse a few minutes from here. We have enough time and cash for another store." She said. I could see how much this could benefit us and people around us just by looking at her.

I nodded. "Okay, let's do it." I smiled.

"Really?" She jumped in excitement.

"We started it together with all of our savings, I'm not going to let it be just a clothing store in New York. We started it small, let's finish it big!"

** **

We talked about getting a white board to formulate our business plans and strategies before driving to Anders. There was a surprise waiting for us, and that was Rocxy. Her hair wasn't as colorful as before, she dyed it platinum blonde while she wore a scarlet skater dress, matching lipstick too. Her shoes were the same edgy shoes. She looked amazing.

"You look different, Rocxy." I said with an impressed expression as Miranda unlocked the doors.

"The rebellion look isn't my cup of tea anymore. Plus, by my calculations, it was decreasing the amount of customers by three percent." I looked at her in shock, I never would've thought those words could come out of her mouth.

"Calculations?" I raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "And why does it matter to you if the customers decrease? It's my store after all."

"I'm smarter than you think, Jennifer. Less customers means less pay for me." She rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's not like you do anything anyway," I mumbled to myself.

"And I have to consider the fact that you two haven't fired me yet, which is a big shock for me. So, thank you." She mumbled the last part as we walked into the store.

I smiled. "You're welcome."

Rocxy was maturing and the effects were showing. I had a good feeling about this new her, I judged her, we judged her when all we had to do was wait.

** **

The store was booming like always and that emphasized the idea of a second location. Rocxy and I were working the counter while Miranda went around folding and sorting clothing and giving fashion tips. Though, so customers were asking for the tall, handsome man that had been helping out the past few days. I laughed at how their descriptions always included tall and handsome, I didn't give them an accurate explanation. I convinced some that he wasn't feeling well and others he was busy.

It was during our lunch break when I felt my phone vibrating in my back pocket. Miranda and I shared a salad to make up for the junk food we ate last night. Rocxy enjoyed a delicious McDonald's meal, it wasn't helping our situation.

"Is it Hunter?" Miranda smirked.

I looked at my phone, Miranda was right. He was calling and I knew this could be a good time to ask him about the things we found on Google. "No," I lied with a grin.

"Hunter?" Rocxy questioned. "Were you two lying about being together?"

I looked at Miranda for help and like always she helped. "It's complicated, a little girl like you wouldn't understand."

I answered the call as Rocxy and Miranda gave each other nasty looks.
"Hello?"

"Hey." His voice wasn't as tiring as yesterday, it was more subtle.

"How are you?" I asked, unsure of where the conversation was going.

"How are you?" He laughed. "You're so formal."

"What would you like me to say, then?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Well, you could tell me how much you miss me." He said. "From a scale of one to ten, how much do you miss Hunter Manning, Jen?"

I laughed a tad bit. "Negative one."

"Ouch, that hurt." He faked a grunt. "Lying is bad ya' know?"

Miranda and Rocxy listened attentively to our conversation like it was a blockbuster movie. I turned around to avoid their piercing eyes.

"From a scale from ten to ten, how much do you miss Jennifer Anderson, Hunter?" I could hear Miranda and Rocxy pretending to throw up in the background.

"Ten to ten? That's not fair, I have no other choice than ten."

"So, pick ten." I unconsciously smiled.

"Ten. Happy?"

"What're you doing?" I asked.

"Laura just went out to go do some errands and until she returns I don't have much to do." I despised her name whenever it came out of his mind, it wasn't on purpose it was just a natural reaction I couldn't control.

"I can't believe a single hotel problem is being this stressful," I tried getting something out him. I looked at Miranda, who gave me a thumbs up for effort and Rocxy who looked puzzled.

"A hotel is pretty big." He said in a convincing tone. "What're you doing?"

I sighed silently, he wasn't going to budge and I knew that. I didn't want to look him up again because I preferred he tell me in person than for me to gather intel on him through multiple websites. "We're having a party in celebration of you not being here."

"Oh, really? Must be a really boring party then." He seemed delighted.

"Actually, it's pretty fun, right Miranda?" I stared at Miranda until she caught on to what I was trying to do. Miranda began to make terrible party sounds, but she ended up laughing.

"Sounds really fun, Jen." He said sarcastically before starting to chuckle.

Miranda tapped her wrist repeatedly, indicating our lunch break was in the midst of breaking, pun intended. "I have to go. Promise you'll call again?" The last part slipped out and my cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Only if you promise to pick up."

"I will. Bye." I said before, he hung up.

This was starting to become a new habit, I stared at my phone. I don't know why, maybe I was trying to savor the conversation, even when we hung up or maybe I felt a little connection.

** **

•A picture of Hunter since we might not be seeing him in a while. Sad, I know.

•I want to ask if you'd like to see a picture of Rocxy, but at the same time I don't want to ruin the picture you already have for her.

•I want to apologize for the short chapter, tbh I had no idea what I wanted for this chapter and I knew if I continued to keep writing it I'd give out important information or mess things up. Most of the really important things happen in the chapters after this one. So, I really wanted to get it over with.

~Love, Universally Unique