(A/N: While I wouldn't say that this is a dark story per se, it does have some dark themes. There's also a reference to a nonconsensual situation, so if that's a deal breaker for you, consider yourself warned)
While he'd never admit this outloud to
anyone
, Connor saw Anna as his 'work wife'. And to be fair, there was a good reason for this.
"Are you shitting me right now?" Anna glared up at him, making full use of her five feet of fury.
"Nope." Connor casually replied, flashing her his best shit-eating grin.
"Boy, don't you play with my heart like this."
Connor chuckled and showed Anna his phone. "Donuts'll be here in fifteen minutes and counting."
"Yes!" Anna moaned, throwing her hands up in the air in reverence. "All hail the gods of Krispy Kreme! I am forever your servant!"
There were times like these when Connor just wanted to... hug her... touch her... do various... things, but he knew not to overstep his bounds and that was
before
he got the promotion. But when she was this excited about something it was just... nice. Her guard was down and he could just look at her. Save things away in his brain for later.
As far as Connor was concerned, Anna was a fucking knockout. Her diminutive stature only made her features more adorable. Her cute little nose, those fierce blue eyes, those pouty lips, the long blonde hair which had a habit cascading sensually down her very impressive pair of-
Connor immediately looked away. He was in the danger zone. He could think about those massive mammaries later. "I ordered a dozen. Nine for me, three for you."
Anna froze in place and flashed him a dark glare. "Bitch, what?"
"What?" Connor grinned. "You said you were watching your figure. I'm helping."
"Motherfucker! If you do not give me half of those donuts, I'm going to kick your ass and eat all of them anyway. Besides, the fat just goes to my tits anyway."
Connor tried to hold back his snicker, but failed miserably. "Not touching that one." He put up his hands in surrender.
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Anna grinned back wickedly, giving Connor a playful punch in the shoulder. "Biiiiiiitch."
"Is that language
really
necessary?!" A very angry woman scowled, slamming a gallon of milk on the counter.
"Fuckin' right it is." Anna replied, with a wink, while punching in the price on the register. She then glanced down, smiling at the eight year old next to the woman, who clearly found this whole thing hilarious.
"Well, I never!"
"You should try it." Anna's eyes went wide with glee. "It's
orgasmic
! Also, your total is $3.50."
"
Who
is your manager?!"
Anna pointed over to Connor, who was currently covering his face as his shoulders shook with laughter. "I wouldn't expect much from him. He's totally my bitch."
Connor was able to regain himself enough to at least pretend to do his job. "I'm very sorry for her behavior, ma'am. She will be reprimanded."
"I would hope s-"
"He ain't gonna do shiiiiit." Anna rolled her eyes, also giving the woman her change. "Nobody wants this fucking job. It pays shit. Have a nice day!"
The woman grabbed her milk and stared daggers into Anna. "I can't wait to get a Walmart in this neighborhood so you get fired."
"I'll just work at Walmart then!" Anna laughed. "Welcome to Walmart! Buy your shit and get the fuck out!"
As the woman and her laughing kid stormed out, Anna glared at them until they were out of sight. "I probably shouldn't have done that..."
Connor shrugged. "You're not wrong. We literally can't afford to fire you and the job is shit."
"Oh no, I don't give a fuck about
that
. I feel bad 'cause I probably got that kid in trouble for laughing at his mom."
"Ah," Connor glanced at the door, and then shrugged. "Possibly. Not a lot we can do about shitty parents though. What we
do
have control over is all these donuts I'm going to eat."
Anna grinned back widely and poked his chest in challenge. "Okay asshole. We'll see how that goes."
Anna was fun. And she wasn't wrong about Connor being wrapped around her finger. He was crushing on her
hard
, but he was also firmly in the friendzone. And even with Connor's usual lack of social skills, even
he
caught the plethora of hints that nothing beyond friendship was on the table and that was made clear very early in their friendship. But the funny thing about being friendzoned when you have no friends is it's actually a win/win. He was perfectly fine with their situation. Though he wouldn't lie and say she didn't feature heavily in his fantasies.
In fact, as he made his way home, his mind was so preoccupied with the various things he wanted to do to Anna that he almost didn't hear it at first. It was faint. But eventually it was as clear as day. Someone was crying. Looking around, Connor couldn't see anyone in his immediate vicinity. In truth, that didn't account for much since half of the streetlights were busted and even the ones that were lit did nothing for the various alleys he passed on a nightly basis.
And upon closer inspection, it
was
an alley where Connor could hear the crying was coming from. "Um... you okay in there?" As worried as he might have been, he wasn't going to step out of the relative safety of the streetlight and into the pitch blackness of the alley.
The crying halted for just a moment, hitching into a sob. "Y... you can hear me?" A soft voice called back.
"Yeah. So can other people... This isn't exactly the best neighborhood to be crying in alleys in the middle of the night. Do you need a cop or something?"
"...can you see me...?"
"Nope." Connor quickly replied and left. His empathy had limits. And as worried as he might be about the strange girl in the alley, the fact that she didn't answer the cop question or acknowledge anything else that he said was enough for him to write it off as too risky. He was tired. It had been a long day. He just wanted to go home, jerk off to some porn, take a shower and go to bed. And he wouldn't be able to do any of that if he went down some weird alley and got murdered.
As he made his way to his small apartment, he kept thinking of reason after reason that he was in the right to ignore the disembodied voice. He was even tempted to go back once or twice, but when it came down to it, his gut agreed with his decision. Personally, he thought that his gut was fifty-fifty at best, but he was at least comfortable with his decision by the time he opened his door.