As Snow Falls on Desert Sky

I pulled up to my place of employment and hopped out of the car. I ran through the door of the entrance while putting my hair up in a high ponytail. I didn’t want my hair to get pulled like last time.

I entered the building and saw no one there. I walked up to the front desk and signed in. As I turned around to go to my locker I let out an ear piercing scream. Standing behind me with her arms folded was my boss, Aimee Banter.

I took a step back and took in her appearance. She stood at glowering at me, in all her 5’2 “glory.” She was wearing a very low cut V-neck purple top and black caprice, with red flip-flops, showing off her yellow chip nail polish and corned toes. Now normally I’m all for anyone wearing purple and black, but this outfit did not look right on her. Purple just wasn’t her color.

"Ri’Kaylah!!!" yelled Aimee, my boss.

"Yes Ms. Banter," I said respectfully.

"You're late! Did you know that?!"

"Yes I'm aware of that Ms. Banter. But what happened was--"

"I don't want to hear it! This is the third time this happened this week-"

“Well, this is the last week of summer job. I told you all summer that I was going to take this week off to prepare myself for school.”

"And you're talking back! Look Rick, I don't care what you said or when this job ends! All I know is that I got you until the last day and I’m gonna work you ‘til then and you better not be late again.... or you're fired! Do you understand me?!"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?”

“Yes, ma'am."

"Hey Rick!"

I looked over to see who called me. I was relived to see it was Tyler. Tyler worked one of the two registers while I worked the other. He’s been like a mentor to me since I started this job earlier this summer and he and I have become good friends.

I walked over to him and gave him a hug. When I pulled away, I took in his appearance. He stood, towering over me at 6”2’, while I was just 5”7’. His pale blue eyes were looking into mine as if waiting for my reaction to something.

“Hey Tyler. You look different,” I stated. I could see he looked different; I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Duh Rick. I dyed my hair.”

I looked up at his hair and it most certainly was not the color I last remember seeing him with. His normally jet black raven hair was and unnatural platinum blonde color than didn’t match his skin tone, but looked oddly great on him. I smiled bashfully. “Oh, I didn’t notice. I thought it was always like that.”

He chuckled a bit and said “Y’know Rick, for you to be one of the most observant people I know, and be able to pick out these little details, you sure can miss the obvious.”

I laughed too, but my laughter was cut short by Aimee’s shrill voice.

“Simmons! Get to work or you’re fired!”

Tyler and I stopped laughing and I turned to glare at her. When I turned back to Tyler he merely said “Man, Aimee's sure being a hard ass today."

"Yeah, tell me about it," I said rolling my eyes. Aimee was always a hard ass to me. “But I don’t care.”

“You don’t care that she keeps threatening to fire you?”

“Dude,” I said in my serious voice looking him straight in the eye. “This is a summer job that the government gave me that ends as soon as summer’s over. The last day of summer is tomorrow, so she just got me today and tomorrow and then I never have to see her again. Hell, she lucky I even showed up today.”

“That’s right. I forgot that this would be your last week,” he said as realization donned on him. “Ima miss working with you. You made this job fun.”

I let out a loud sigh. “Ty, can we please not start the waterworks just yet. I mean c’mon. We still got the rest of today and maybe tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you’re right, sorry about that Rick.”