Maxie woke up way too early in the morning, lying on the old couch in her family's tiny apartment. She felt sore all over, and had more than a few itchy spots on her skin. Her hair was a mess, and her throat was unpleasantly dry as well.
She got up quickly, grunting in effort— which produced a bit of an irritating sensation just a little past the back of her tongue.
'Waking up like this is the fucking worst...'
The tip of her tongue felt both dry and cold, while the back of her throat felt simultaneously rough and sticky. She must have forgotten to drink enough water before sleeping.
Once she was on her feet, she had to carefully tread her way around the small living space. Her father might be pissed from trouble at 'work' and stayed up all night drinking, and there was a chance that her mother was high as all hell and lash out if she thought that someone had invaded their home.
Thankfully, they both occupied the only bedroom in the apartment, so it wasn't too difficult to go unnoticed when Maxie could never enter it herself.
Speaking of her parents, while passing by the bedroom door on her way to the kitchen, Maxie's nose was assaulted by an unpleasant mix of odors. That, compounded with her dry throat and icky-feeling mouth, made for one of her least favorite experiences in the world— she almost wanted to throw up.
The bedroom reeked of booze, weed, and the smell of sex. It wouldn't have been so bad if the door wasn't slightly crooked...
And as much as the carnal 'aroma' would imply, her parents did not have a happy marriage. Not even an 'eventful' one, either. Her mother must have brought in a few men while her father was out peddling his 'substances' all night.
Leaving all of those thoughts behind her, Maxie finally reached the kitchen. Instead of drinking from the tap where the water was entirely unsuited for drinking, she had to fill a little plastic cup with actual drinking water from a plastic water jug sitting by the sink.
She felt immense relief as the water washed away the sticky roughness in her throat.
Noting that the dim portion of the water jug's blue plastic hovered dangerously low, Maxie made a mental note to herself.
'We're almost out... I should tell Bailey to get another jug from the water station on her way home. Hope she has some extra cash...'
Bailey was her older sister by a year, and had dropped out of high school years ago to start working— all of that in order to help Maxie get through school. Her salary from doing construction work paid for now, but it still wasn't quite enough.
Maxie moved over to a sad little corner in their apartment. This was where she kept all of her stuff: clothes, schooling materials, and other personal things, all crammed into a three-tier drawer. Thankfully, it was wide enough to serve both its primary function, and as a desk.
Sitting down by the wide drawer, Maxie stared down at the stapled-together sheets of paper resting on top of it, all photocopies of pages from a textbook.
'I just got my first job... hopefully, I can stop relying on my friends for this shit...'
She contemplated doing a bit more homework before leaving, but she felt depressed just imagining the hassle. Too many assigned tasks, and all of Saturday had already been eaten away by school shit. She wasn't about to sacrifice her last and only real day of the weekend, consequences be damned. Push come to shove, maybe she could just—
'No. Bad Maxie. Don't think about that.'
Looking to distract herself, Maxie just took her new 'uniform' out of her drawer. All it was were a black shirt and grey jeans, the former having had the restaurant's logo stitched onto the left breast as a patch.
"Inigo's," the patch said. The owner's name came in bold, red text with black outlines. The symbols were tastefully misaligned on the y axis, backed by solid yellow. It was all contained with a black oval outline, and past that outline was a neat green border.
Setting her change of clothes down on the couch she had slept on, Maxie made her way to the bathroom... which was only three steps away, and Maxie was pretty short.
God, was that bathroom tiny. It was barely five feet long and four feet wide— some major real estate shit right there. The only reason it didn't feel too cramped for her was her own relative size.
There was no room for a sink in that bathroom; it only had enough space for a toilet that couldn't damn well flush, a tap, and a showerhead. If anyone wanted to relieve themselves there, they'd have to pour water down the toilet bowl afterwards using the bucket they had under the tap.
Completely used to these conditions, Maxie absentmindedly stripped herself naked and hung her clothes off the rack behind the door. Giving them a tentative sniff, she decided that she could still wear those when she got home later after work.
She wrapped up her shower quickly, wanting to leave before either of her parents could wake up— she felt painfully uneasy under her own father's gaze, while her mother, she just couldn't bear to look at.
Once out in the living room, Maxie dried herself off, freshened up, and threw on her work clothes. She made sure to lock up behind her as she left, bringing her phone, charger, and earphones along in a beat-up shoulder bag.
...
The trip to Inigo's was... relaxing. It was the most therapeutic walk that Maxie has ever had since she started college. The route was fairly safe, too; once Maxie was out of her neighborhood, it was only the 'cleaner' streets from that point.
She even passed by Robinson Park along the way, so she took the chance to walk through there instead. It added a minute or two to her trip, but it was around four in the morning still; there was more than enough time.
Unlike the rest of the city, the air in Robinson Park was crisp. Pleasant. Maxie almost wanted to leave everything behind and just sleep on a bench here for the rest of her life.
Sadly, the safety of her family's apartment was still preferable. Despite her only company there and the less-than-stellar comfort, it was still protection from the elements, as well as other people. At least, her parents haven't done anything too drastic yet.
From those thoughts, Maxie's mind wandered back to her mother. Despite being... neglectful, she still felt some modicum of gratitude towards her; it was quite a miracle that none of her mother's 'clients' had laid a hand on her yet.
...
"There it is..." Maxie mumbled as her workplace came into view.
The outside was so bright, not in terms of lighting, but color. The paint on the front wall was faded, but the green still stood out from the dead grey buildings that flanked it. About a foot up from the ground was a line of yellow paint, matching the logo both above the door and on her patch.
Maxie snickered a little, feeling melancholy. 'This looks so out of place... but also right. Whatever. I remember my boss telling me to just knock and someone should open up for me. I hope they're already up... oh...?'
She spotted something she hadn't noticed before: there was light inside the restaurant. It hadn't been too visible from the windows, but it was there. The light just seemed to be way further back inside.
Supposing that whoever was inside had already awoken, Maxie gulped to calm her nerves, and then knocked.
One knock, two knocks, three... two would have been too little, and four would have been too much. Three was just right...
'Why am I even counting my knocks?? Nobody else pays attention to that. No normal person should, at least...'
Maxie waited a little bit. It was way too early for her to have been there anyway, so the person inside would probably take a bit.
She was starting to feel sorry when something slid up in front of her. Maxie panicked a little, but calmed down when she realized that it was just the blinds behind the door's glass panel sliding up.
Staring down at her from inside was a man's face. He was around a head or so taller than her, staring down with... a stunned look? She couldn't really tell; the light was behind him, so she didn't have the clearest view.
Gulping, Maxie thought, 'Is he angry? Did I wake him up? His eyes are so sharp, it's kinda scary... wait actually...? Why he kinda...? Stop. No. Bad Maxie.'
Giving up on thinking as her pulse rose for more than one reason, she did something that Bailey usually would in a staring contest with anyone trying to intimidate her: she raised a brow and cocked her head.
That action seemed to bring the man behind the door back to the real world. He blinked twice, then opened the door.
There was the sound of the door's lock clicking open, then it swung in rather fast. The man had stepped back a little to make way for Maxie to enter, and—
'Oh my gah,' she squealed in her mind, quoting a certain slice-of-life/comedy anime in her head.
She caught her eyes drifting down for a second— though this man had been wearing a loose shirt with the sleeves torn off, there was still some definition where he was covered up.
Maxie couldn't catch sight of any abs or something like that, but this man's traps put his shirt's straps at a nice, angled taper. Then, his shoulders were nicely built, enhancing that V figure of his. Maxie always had trouble building her own deltoid muscles, so she couldn't help but admire those whenever she could.
Then, there were also his forearms—
"Sorry about that," said the man who had opened up for her. "I kinda just woke up..."
Hearing his low-ish voice brought Maxie back to reality.
'Ah... so I did wake him up...'
"I-it's fine," she said to try and assure him. "I mean... it's still really early..."
She went ahead and entered as she spoke, too. She had no idea what to do by this point, so she planned to just keep moving until he called her out for being weird or rude or something.
Then, trailing towards the end of her last statement, she looked up at him and came to a realization. Black hair, seemingly-perpetual bedhead. Grey eyes, and a bit of a slouch.
"You're... Lucian, right?" she asked, unsure, and he answered in the affirmative. Maxie relaxed significantly hearing that.
She just kept making small talk with him after that. She would have preferred to just be alone at first, but this was quite nice, too.
Despite her first impression of him, Lucian wasn't actually scary. He was a little awkward, and fidgeted with his hands a lot. It didn't match the initial 'confident' aura that he had, but Maxie thought that that gap was kind of cute.
Come five in the morning, Lucian got up to start cleaning. Not wanting to feel guilty about just leaving all the work to him, Maxie joined in. Lucian didn't stop her or react negatively, so she figured she was in the clear.
She couldn't help but stare sometimes, especially when Lucian had to reach up for something, or had to exert some force during a certain task. She heated up a little whenever his shirt lifted up to show even just a little bit more skin, or whenever his muscles shifted beneath his skin while mopping or scrubbing.
'Fucking hell, is this how all those girls felt whenever they cheated with the gardener or something in those amateur romance drama novels??'
...
They had both grown silent while working, but Maxie couldn't bear it. The atmosphere felt awkward to her, so she tried to revive the string of small talk that had died down before.
She hadn't really heard the name 'Lucian' anywhere else before, so she figured that it might be a good idea to ask about that. Breed familiarity between them, or something— Bailey said that it was how she got close with her coworkers, enough to get a share of food or extra cash when they felt generous.
When Maxie did pose her question, Lucian answered, "Well... I'm not really sure where my first name comes from. If you wanna know my last name though, it's Albrecht."
'Albrecht...' Maxie parroted in her head. It sounded vaguely... European? Now that she thought about it, Lucian did seem like someone from that continent, based on looks. Only vaguely, though.
Then, while wondering about that, Lucian threw shot her a question that she honestly should have seen coming.
"What about you? What's your full name?"
Maxie cursed herself in her head. She didn't like her name. It wasn't that she thought it was bad— it was just one of those irrational irritants that people just had.
In the end though, she knew that she had to answer honestly. "Maxine... Maxine Steele."
Lucian smiled a little. Seeing that, Maxie feared the worst. Looking for a chance to deflect or something, she said, "Sounds bad, doesn't it? Makes me feel old..."
"I wouldn't say it sounds old," was Lucian's counter. Maxie didn't expect that.
"What would you call it, then?" she asked. That sort of response wasn't what she expected, so she couldn't help but feel hopeful.
"I'd say it's mature," Lucian explained. "I think it's a really pretty name."
Maxie was... happy, hearing that. Really happy. To mask that response, she snickered and rolled her eyes. Lucian was turning out to be a bit of a dork.