Four Of A Kind Novel Chapter 52: [2.25] My Employer’s Orders Include Self-Care

Chapter 52: [2.25] My Employer’s Orders Include Self-Care

I picked it up without thinking.

The art on the cover was gorgeous. Simple lines, muted colors, sothing almost lancholy in the way the character’s eyes looked past the viewer. I flipped it open. The interior pages continued the aesthetic: clean panels, expressive faces, action sequences that flowed across pages like water.

I knew this story. I’d watched the ani more tis than I could count. It was one of the few shows I’d actually revisited, usually on those late nights when I couldn’t sleep and the apartnt felt too quiet.

Sothing about Spike’s story had always hit different for . A guy drifting through space with no real direction, picking up work wherever he could find it, collecting people who beca sothing like family even though none of them would admit it out loud.

The whole thing had this lancholy thread running through it, this sense that he was always running from sothing he couldn’t outpace. The jazz soundtrack helped. Those long, moody saxophone solos over establishing shots of the Bebop floating through the void.

The way each episode felt self-contained but still built toward sothing larger. And that ending. I’d seen it half a dozen tis and it still made my chest feel tight, like soone had reached in and squeezed.

You’re gonna carry that weight.

Yeah. I got that.

"Bang."

"Ooooh!"

Harlow materialized at my elbow like a ghost with twin tails.

"You like Bebop?"

"I’ve never read it. Just seen the show."

"The manga is different! It’s more like a side story! Extra adventures that weren’t in the ani! It’s not canon but it FEELS canon, you know?"

I didn’t know. But I nodded anyway.

"You should get it!"

I looked at the price tag. Reasonable. Definitely affordable, especially now that my paycheck was significantly larger than it used to be.

"I’m not here to shop for myself."

"But you COULD be!" Harlow’s eyes went wide with earnest conviction. "I’m giving you permission!"

"That’s not how this works."

"It’s EXACTLY how this works! I’m your employer! I’m telling you to buy yourself a treat!"

"That’s not how employnt works either."

"It is when I say it is!" She crossed her arms, and despite her small stature, managed to look remarkably authoritative. "Isaiah. You drove

around all afternoon. You untangled my zipper. You carried my bags. You didn’t complain ONCE even when I spent twenty minutes looking at hair clips."

"Eighteen minutes."

"See? You were counting! That ans you were annoyed but you didn’t SAY anything because you’re too nice!"

"I’m not nice."

"You’re SO nice! You’re the nicest person I know!"

"You’ve only known

for three weeks."

"And what I know so far is that you work too hard, you don’t sleep enough, and you never do anything just for yourself!" She pointed at the manga in my hands. "So you’re buying that. It’s not a request. It’s an ORDER from your employer."

I looked at the manga. Dark cover. Lonely spaceman. A story about a guy who kept running until he couldn’t run anymore.

I looked at Harlow. Pink highlights. Heart-decorated nails. Eyes that genuinely seed to care whether I bought myself a comic book.

This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

"...Fine."

Her victory smile was blinding.

The checkout process took longer than expected, primarily because Harlow’s purchases required multiple bags.

Manga volus. At least fifteen that I counted. Figurines in boxes decorated with Japanese text. A blanket featuring characters I didn’t recognize. Keychains. Stickers. A wall scroll. So kind of plush creature with enormous eyes.

The total climbed past two hundred. Past two-fifty. Settled sowhere around three hundred dollars.

Harlow handed over her credit card without blinking.

"For you, sir?" The cashier, a college-aged guy with a Naruto headband, looked at my single volu.

"Just this."

"Oh, and this!" Harlow grabbed volu 8 of Spy x Family from my other hand and added it to her pile. "On !"

"That’s for my sister."

"I KNOW! That’s why I’m buying it! You can’t give her a gift if you’re the one who paid for it! That’s just reimbursent!"

The cashier watched our exchange.

"Should I ring these together or separate?"

"Together!" Harlow declared. "It’s all one order!"

"She’s paying for her stuff. I’m paying for mine."

"ISAIAH."

"Harlow."

We stared at each other. Her purple eyes versus my tired brown ones. A battle of wills in the middle of a manga store.

She broke first.

"FINE! But next ti I’m buying you sothing and you can’t stop !"

"There won’t be a next ti."

"There’s ALWAYS a next ti! You work for us! We’ll do this again!"

The cashier rang up Harlow’s mountain of purchases. Then my single Cowboy Bebop volu. Fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents.

I paid with my own money. Not the Valentine household card. My money.

It felt strange. How long had it been since I bought sothing I would enjoy?

Harlow gathered her bags, four of them now, and headed for the exit. I followed with my single small bag containing one manga and the Spy x Family volu Iris had requested.

"This was fun!" Harlow announced as we stepped into the late afternoon sun. "We should do this every week!"

"That seems excessive."

"It’s not excessive! It’s bonding! Employer-employee bonding! It’s important for workplace morale!"

"Is it?"

"Definitely! I read about it in a business article!" She paused. "Okay, I saw a TikTok about it. But the TikTok cited a business article! So it counts!"

I loaded her bags into the Lexus trunk. The burgundy satin. The hair clips with little strawberries. The manga and figurines and blankets. Four hours of errands compressed into shopping bags and tissue paper.

Harlow climbed into the passenger seat and imdiately pulled out her phone, probably to docunt her purchases for social dia.

I settled into the driver’s seat. Put on my seatbelt. Started the engine.

"Hey, Isaiah?"

I looked at her.

She wasn’t looking at her phone. She was looking at . Her expression softer than usual, less manic energy and more genuine warmth.

"Thanks for today. I know this isn’t really assistant stuff. Running around to craft stores and manga shops. But it was really nice having soone to do it with."

Having soone to do it with.

"It wasn’t terrible," I said.

Her smile returned, smaller this ti.

"Coming from you, that’s basically a five-star review."

I put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking space.

And drove back to Valentine Estate to face Cassidy.