Wait—when did all these messages come in?
And how did the group get this chatty in such a ridiculously short amount of time?
Luke stared at the absurd number of unread messages clogging up his screen. The employees of Delight Store had created the group chat to vent about work, stay in touch, and—most importantly—complain about their boss. No one liked their boss, after all.
But even on its best days, the chat barely saw any activity. Twenty messages in a day was a miracle. A hundred messages in a week? Practically a festival.
But eight hundred in a single day?
That was absurd.
Luke said as much out loud.
He wasn't about to scroll through all of it either. He'd just woken up and he was just returning from that awkward encounter with dave and honestly? Reading that much nonsense was not on the morning agenda.
Why did i not hear any notifications…?
The thought nagged at him.
The last time he'd sent a message to the group was right after he'd been fired. Then everything spiraled—finding the mysterious coin, being transported to another realm, smitten with his improved body… He'd been a little preoccupied, to say the least.
No wonder he hadn't heard the pings.
And with that distracting physical transformation, his phone had been the last thing on his mind.
He scrolled down to the last message. It was from Angela—one of his friends from the Delights superstore, back when he still had a job.
He'd had a crush on her once.
Let's face it: Luke had crushes on plenty of girls, but never the courage to act on any of them.
Angela, though—she was different. She had shown him the ropes on his first week at the store. She was kind, reliable… and she'd friend-zoned him so thoroughly, so effortlessly, that he hadn't even had time to consider making a move.
In a way, he was grateful for his cowardice; he could only imagine how awkward things would have become if he'd asked her out and she'd rejected him.
In the group chat, her message read:
I've been trying to reach you since yesterday. Please check your direct messages.
It was touching—unexpectedly so—but Luke brushed it aside. That was the past now, however fresh it still felt, and he was trying to move on.
He scrolled up, reluctantly, to see what the others had said. Mostly a mix of "you'll bounce back" and "sorry, man." His former coworkers offered sympathy for him getting fired.
But one message caught his eye.
Frank: Call me…
Frank—his closest friend from work.
Why would Frank ask him to call? Maybe he wanted to tell him by word that he was sorry about him being fired.
Luke wasn't interested in any more sympathy. He was just looking for a new job—or at least enough money to cover his rent.
He decided not to call Frank.
After pacing around his room for about five minutes, unable to get a single thought to settle, he picked up his phone, now reconsidering his earlier decision.
Frank picked up immediately.
"Hey man, I sent you a bunch of texts. I'm assuming you didn't see them."
"Yeah, sorry. I was still torn up about being fired. I couldn't do much of anything…" Luke replied.
"Well, put your worries to bed," Frank said. "I heard some chatter. The superstore opposite Delights just got an opening, and I think you should apply."
"What!? That's impossible. That superstore hasn't had an opening since before I even started working at Delights—and that was five years ago."
How was this possible? Their competition, Big Treats Superstore, hardly ever fired their workers. Their employees were rumored to be the best. They only hired school graduates who failed to land a job elsewhere, and their vetting process made it seem like you needed some kind of special talent to work there.
The only reason Delights Superstore managed to compete with them was because of the ridiculous amount of money Mr. Hargraves—the manager—was dumping into it. And who knew what lengths he'd gone to in order to keep up.
Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. "Frank… are you sure about this? Big Treats never hires. People practically grow old in that place."
"I know," "but this time it's real. One of the stock managers quit out of nowhere—like, packed his things in the middle of the shift and walked out. No warning. Everyone's talking about it."
Luke blinked. That didn't make sense. "Why would someone quit a job like that? People beg to stay there."
But suddenly it made sense, this was the work of the coin, he recalled that Lilith told him that the coin brings chances and opportunities.
And this was a very rare chance and it was an upgrade to his former job.
Luke sat down slowly on the edge of his bed. A chance at stable pay—good pay, actually—right when he needed it most. It sounded perfect.
Although he did not know if he would get the job but as this opportunity had presented itself to him, he would not let it pass him by.
He rushed straight to his wardrobe and began digging through it for the best clothing he owned. If he was going to apply, he needed to look presentable.
"Aha—found it."
He pulled out his finest outfit: a blue polo and a pair of white pants.
"Damn it…" Luke muttered as he tried to put them on. He had grown far too big for both the top and the pants. The polo, once a perfect fit when he was skinny, refused to go past his upper arm. And the trousers looked like they had been passed down through two generations before reaching him.
He really should have expected this, considering the unexpected growth spurt he'd gone through.
But how could he? He'd been too amazed by his new body to consider the consequences it would have on his wardrobe.
What was he going to do now, he had finally gotten and opportunity but would clothes really be his obstacles to holding it down.