Chapter One: Life's a Peach

Rick felt the blanket being pulled from his body, he opened his eyes and sat upright in his bed.

"You stole my blankets."

Michonne still had her eyes closed when she smirked, "Yeah, they're mine now."

Rick squinted at the sunlight that was filtering in through his blinds. He turned off his alarm that was only minutes from going off.

"Alright," he said pulling the blankets from Michonne. "We have to go to work."

Michonne dug her face into her pillow.

"Come on...you gotta hurry up before Carl wakes up. He has a morning shift today so we're taking him into work."

"Okay, okay...I'm getting up." Michonne replied. "Can't keep the loyal customers of Walker Department Store waiting." She said sarcastically.

The three pulled into the parking lot of Walker's, a large mutli-level department store located on the west side of Alexandria Mall. Rick Grimes was Assistant Manager to Store Manager Deanna Monroe. The two had developed a great working relationship, especially with Michonne as Floor Manager. Walker's had a solid group of people, and Rick loved it.

Carl went ahead to clock in and find Enid, the two worked in the Junior's Department on the second floor.

Rick and Michonne headed into their office. The two gave each other the same confused look as they noticed Deanna wasn't around.

"Maybe she's late, not like her though." Michonne said, grabbing a walkie and headset.

"Well then we'll just go about business as usual," Rick said looking at the security cameras.

As Michonne was still thinking about the whereabouts of Deanna, Daryl opened the office door.

"Hey guys, is it cool to open all the gates?"

Daryl was the store's security and oversaw the store opening/lockup. Rick turned on a walkie and asked for everyone's position. Everyone had made it to their department. The first floor held Perfume/Makeup, Women's Clothing, and Men's Clothing. Those departments were run by Rosita, Denise, & Beth (perfume/makeup), Maggie & Sasha (women's), and Jesus & Aaron (men's). The second floor held Sports, Electronics, and the Junior's Department: run by Glenn, Abraham, & Heath (sports), Eugene, Morgan, & Tara (electronics), and Carl & Enid (junior's). Sitting at the Customer Service desk was Carol, the ultimate bull-shitter, perfect for the job.

All employees had arrived. Rick and Michonne headed out to their posts.

Abraham was struggling with multiple boxes full of sports equipment. He finally gave up and walked around the aisles searching for Glenn. He finally found him by the snowboards, texting on his phone.

"Come on man, you've been texting Maggie all morning." Abraham sighed.

Glenn put his phone back in his pants pocket. "Sorry, I'll come help."

"Have you two gone out yet or what?" Abraham said, leading Glenn to the hoard of equipment.

"I mean, sort of? Does a vending machine date in the breakroom count?" Glenn laughed. He didn't want to let Abraham know he was too nervous to bite the bullet and just ask Maggie out.

"I guess for now it counts. You just gotta rip off that band-aid. I didn't hesitate with Rosita, and it's been going good ever since." Abraham said, he knew that was only half-true. Things with him and Rosita haven't been going good lately, and he wasn't sure what was going to happen with them.

Glenn picked up one of the heavy boxes, "Jeez, what's in these boxes?"

"I think these ones are baseball bats."

Maggie stared at her phone from behind the Cashier Counter in the Women's Department, Glenn had fell off the face of the Earth in the last hour and she was starting to get nervous. The last text she sent was a peach emoji.

"Maggie!"

Maggie jumped in place and quickly put away her phone. "Sorry, what?"

Sasha walked over to the counter, "I know it's been unusually slow, but you've been really distracted today, what's up?"

"You ever send a risky text and get no response for a really long time?" She asked.

"Haha...yeah I guess. Don't worry about it...is it Glenn? Abraham probably yelled at him for texting you so much during work." Sasha said.

"Hopefully...if not then I'm the world's biggest idiot." Maggie said leaning on the counter.

"What did you send? Something flirty?"

"Well, we've been slightly flirty for a while now, this morning our texts were a little more-so…..and I texted him a peach emoji because I read that's something you're supposed to text."

Sasha bursted out laughing. "You know that means you want to be physical right?"

Maggie started to turn pink, "I-I know that, I mean, I-Ugh….this is what happens when you grow up on a farm." Maggie sighed. "Well maybe he'll finally make a move."

Sasha was still laughing and Maggie couldn't help but laugh too.

It was mid-afternoon and Rick and Michonne met up with each other by the store's escalators.

"No word from Deanna?" Michonne asked.

"No….I'm starting to get concerned, should I go try and reach her?" Rick asked.

"Yeah let's go to the office." Michonne said.

The two headed to the office when they saw their District Manager, a man named Dale, standing by the door.

"Hey Dale, what's going on?" Rick asked.

Dale looked at Rick with a sad expression. "Let's go into the office to talk."

Rick and Michonne sat across from Dale, anticipating whatever it was that he was going to tell them.

"I'm sure you're wondering why Deanna isn't here today...corporate decided that the Alexandria location needed a boost. They didn't think Deanna was fit for the job anymore. Now, I suggested, Rick, that you should be Store Manager. But there's this guy who's apparently really good at this kind of work, so they hired him instead. He's going to show up tomorrow."

Rick and Michonne sat in silence. There was a certain vibe that the current group had created, it was calm and routine. Rick didn't want a new boss; neither did Michonne. Yeah the store wasn't as busy as it could be, but it felt like home. And Rick didn't want that to change.

"That position should've gone to Rick." Michonne grumbled.

"It's okay Michonne…" Rick said, although he felt the same way. If anyone should be Store Manager it should be him. He knew every inch of the place, knew every employee. He felt the anxiety creeping inside.

"I'm sorry you guys, if it was my call Deanna wouldn't have even been replaced. But it's corporate, and they want money over relationships." Dale said.

"I'll call a team meeting before we open tomorrow." Rick sighed. The three continued to talk, all unsure how this was all going to go down.

| End of CH 1 |