Sorry, I Over Swept -Tigg and Junis-
tiggnevertiegan:
Tigg had already started mopping. See, she may not mind being spoken to sharply, but that didn’t mean she wanted to disappoint him and make him angry on top of that. She paused a second and acknowledge him, and continued mopping in his preferred pattern. “What do I mean? Oh, right,” Tigg chuckled to herself, tucking a strand of hair that fell out of her ponytail behind her ear. “I mean I’m not goin’ ‘round gettin’ up in arms over someone’s tone.”
Especially not Mr. O’Hare, who gave her invaluable advice on her job applications when she first came to town. Junis, Shere, and Jiminy were the Holy Trinity of people she wasn’t sure she could ever be mad at.
“If you don’t mind me sayin’,” she continued, stopping to lean on the mop, the top of the handle making an indent against her cheek. “You ‘ave this natural tone that can come off as…cross.”
Tigg started mopping again, since that’s what she was here for. “Like I said. I don’t care. S’just ‘ow you talk. But not everyone appreciates ‘ow much stress you probably constantly ‘ave on your mind, runnin’ a farm and business. Or that you’re the literal boss of this place. Lot of people think everyone’s gonna and gotta talk to ‘em like they’re best friends. Idiots.”
It was interesting to hear what he already knew. That people disliked him for the way he ran things. For having his hand in every jar, for being too picky, too on the nose, for getting to bent out of shape when something was wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong. People would always get annoyed when he had to check their work, or when he had to ask them to clean something again even though they had just done it. He knew, he did, he’d just never gotten outside confirmation because what employee was going to tell their boss what they really thought? He nodded to her, eyebrows raising up in an invitation to ‘please, go ahead,’ as she leaned against the mop.
He felt as thought she had just wacked him over the head rather than told him all of that. With his siblings gone it wasn’t often that someone told him something with that much insight into the behind the scenes of his life. It made his expression soften, a small smile form from the remains of the frown he’d been wearing for so long now it had began to feel permanent.
“Well....thank you,” he said with a confused sincerity. Junis cleared his throat, unsure as to why it suddenly felt tight. He gestured to her, trying to think of how to respond to that. “You are very...smart and...thoughtful. For someone of your age. If only the rest could share the same traits.”
















