It Would Be An Honor

"I don't know if I'm going to survive there," Eden finished with a moan. "Sorry for complaining so much."

Troy was quick to reassure her. "Don't be sorry! I wanted to know everything that happened today good or bad. And hey, if Amanda has survived there as long as she has, I'm sure you can too. You're smart; you can pick up this guy's weird habits so you stay on his good side."

"You really think so?"

"I do! Don't let that jerk intimidate you. Prove his assumptions wrong by being the chemistry rock star you are."

Eden snorted. "Chemistry rock star?"

He coughed, embarrassed. "Well, the way you talked back at Freddie's made it seem like you really love it. If your boss truly is 'married to science' like he claimed, he'll be able to see that the more he works with you. That might make him lighten up."

His words were oddly touching. She couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Troy. I appreciate your input. I think I feel better now."

"That's good. And here I was hoping you would have a better day than I did. I guess the curse of Mondays followed both of us."

Eden's brow furrowed. What had happened to him today? "Are you okay?"

Troy seemed to realize he had said too much and immediately backtracked. "Oh, I'm fine! I just got some news I didn't want to hear. It's not the end of the world. And I feel a bit better after talking to you too."

"Even though I complained the entire time?" she asked skeptically.

"Yeah. I've told you before; I like talking to you no matter what it's about. Besides, listening to someone else's problems is a great distraction from your own. So don't ever worry about complaining to me, okay?"

He really knew how to make someone feel better about embarrassing themselves. She had always appreciated that about him.

"You might regret making that offer," Eden joked. "Now I'm going to complain to you as much as I complain to Aubrey."

"I don't mind. It would be an honor to be on the same level as the best friend you've known most of your life," Troy replied seriously.

For some reason, that filled her stomach with butterflies. Why? It wasn't that weird of a thing to say. Except that it implied that he wanted to be important to her. She must be reading him wrong; that couldn't be it. They hardly knew each other.

Not knowing how to respond, Eden changed the subject. "So, how was work for you? Anybody do anything crazy?"

"Nah, it was the same as usual. Nothing new or exciting at all."

"That's probably for the best though considering how Freddie's gets," she said with a laugh. "What are you doing now that you're off for the day?"

"Waiting for my takeout to arrive. I didn't feel like cooking and we ran out of the lasagna my aunt brought for us the other day. A meatball sub sounded good so I'm rather impatiently waiting for it. I made the order right before calling you," Troy admitted.

"Riveting," she deadpanned before becoming more serious. "You know how to cook?"

"I kind of have to. After moving out from my aunt and uncle's house, it wasn't like anyone was going to cook for me. It's not my favorite thing to do but if I want to eat decently, I have to do it myself. Most of the time anyway.

"My aunt doesn't always trust us to eat properly on our own and occasionally drops food off for us like with the lasagna. She knows that I'm more of a cook than my cousin is so I think she does it to make sure he's eating properly and not mooching off of me too much."

Eden laughed. His cousin, the guy whose house he was living in, mooching off of him? Somehow that seemed a little backward.

Before she had the chance to say anything, Troy spoke up again. "Hey, I think my sandwich is here. Can I call you back after I've eaten?"

"Sure," she said in surprise.

She was done talking about her first day of work so she wasn't sure why he wanted to keep talking but she wasn't complaining. The two of them never ran out of things to discuss back at Freddie's.

"Talk to you soon. Bye!"

He hung up quickly and Eden figured she should probably eat something too before he called her back. She was hungry but her tiredness had won out earlier so she hadn't made herself anything yet.

Feeling lazy, all she did was pop some toaster waffles in the toaster. She didn't have energy for anything fancier than that.

Troy called her back about five minutes after she finished her food. He was a fast eater. That or he really wanted to talk to her again. The ridiculous thought made her earlier butterflies come back with a vengeance.

Stupid! She shouldn't get this worked up about a phone call.

"That really hit the spot," he sighed with satisfaction. "Sorry for having to hang up on you though."

"It's fine; I needed to eat something anyway. Zim wore me out so much that I didn't bother when I first got home," Eden said simply.

"What did you have?"

"Toaster waffles. Super lame but I didn't want to cook either."

"I used to love those! I don't know why I stopped buying them. I guess I got in the habit of having cereal for breakfast instead. Or maybe it's because I knew if I bought them, I wouldn't even get the chance to have one before my cousin ate them all," Troy lamented.

His cousin seemed like quite the character based on what little Eden had heard about him. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Tragic. There's nothing worse than buying food you never get to eat. That reminds me of this time that Ezra was still living at home and I really wanted the last piece of cheesecake so I labeled it specifically as mine but he ate it anyway and then tried to blame it on a ghost. That idiot."

"A ghost? He really thought you would buy that?"

"I was ten at the time but I wasn't dumb enough to believe in ghosts. I paid him back by eating the last of the breadsticks before he even got one the next time we ordered pizza," she said triumphantly.

That led them off on a tangent about the horrors of growing up with siblings. Two hours had passed before Eden knew it. Troy was way too easy to talk to! She had already taken up so much of his time today.