[ just a filler chapter that I kinda hate. I'll try to have the next one out quick because I plan for it to be deliciously smutty ]

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JUST 'CAUSE HE'S HANDSOME DON'T MEAN SHE'S GONE FOLD.

HIMARI had a huge grin as she approached the table full of StormPAR workers, her fingers tangled up in necks of beer bottles as she brought them over. Maybe she didn't know any of their names except for Javi, but she was still going to be polite and buy them beers — not like she paid for it anyway.

Javi noticed her first, eyeing her warily as she gently sat all the beers onto the table without spilling any of the alcohol. Then she beamed down at him, her hands on her hips.

"This round's on me, boys," Himari declared.

Those who were overall unaffected by Himari's pranks instantly reached for the beers and thanked her, but Javi was hesitant.

"Did you spit in them?" he asked curiously. "Drug them so we sleep late and miss out on the early morning storms?"

"No," Himari scoffed. "Roofies aren't funny, Javi. Pranks are funny, not dangerous."

After a second, he nodded and reached for the last beer remaining. "What's this for? A peace offering?" he asked, wondering if the one sided prank war would finally end after three weeks.

"Well, I came into some money," Himari said with a smirk, thinking of the five, crisp twenty dollar bills in Scott's wallet that she'd already burned through. And she was tempted to buy the whole bar a round with his credit card, figuring he could afford it if Marshal Riggs was his uncle. "Hope y'all are enjoying your night."

"It's been okay," Javi said, thinking this small talk was weird. He felt like he needed to be on alert — was a gallon of red pigs blood going to drop from the ceiling like in 'Carrie' once she lured him into a false sense of security?

"That's good. I know you guys work real hard," she said, still seeming pleasant. But then Himari leaned her elbow on the table and smiled extra charmingly at Javi, who didn't buy it for a second. "You wouldn't happen to know Scott's room number, would you?"

Javi raised a dark eyebrow and shook his head, smirking a bit. "Now, why would you wanna know that, Himari?"

"Innocent curiosity?" she tried with a smile.

It made the older man snort. "Nothing is innocent about you, especially when it comes to Scott."

"Oh, let me have my fun, StormPAR," she pleaded. "I'm just gonna torment him about something before letting him go to bed with dreams of ruining lives and kicking puppies and setting fire to orphanages."

"I don't think Scott would set fire to an orphanage," Javi said with a joking smile.

"So what you're saying is he would kick a puppy," she accused with a twisted grin.

After a moment of studying her, Javi just sighed and gave him. "He's in room 221."

Himari perked up — she was in 220, after all. "Thank you very much, kind sir. And just know, if he's in a particularly grouchy mood tomorrow, it's your fault now."

"Yeah, maybe don't tell him I'm the one that gave his location up," Javi said, rubbing behind his neck. "God knows what you have planned."

It wasn't bad, what she had planned — and what Tyler suggested after finding the wallet and spending all Scott's money. All Himari wanted to do was hopefully wake him up, which would put him in a bad mood as he opened the door to see her, the person he hated most. Then she'd wave his now empty wallet in his face to piss him off even more.

He'd yell. She'd yell. Then they'd part ways, Himari feeling smug and satisfied as she went next door. Maybe she would play her TV extra loud to bother him through the night, a constant reminder that she was right there and not going anywhere.

"Alright," Himari said to the table full of Tornado Wranglers as she left the StormPAR table. "I'm out. Off to be a Good Samaritan and give a lost wallet back."

Dexter snorted. "I don't think the Good Samaritan got away with highway robbery before his act of selflessness."

"How do you know? The Bible didn't cover everything," she said, snickering. "Night, guys."

"Bye, Mari," Dani said in a teasing tone as Himari walked away. "Have fun getting laid."

"Yeah, right!" Himari laughed, leaving them behind.

"I love how in denial she is," Lily smirked, sipping on her Long Island iced tea. "Like we don't all know they're gonna be married within a year."

"Hell, naw," Boone said, his face screwed up.

"Come on, man," Dani laughed. "You saw Scott when she was on that dance floor with Ty. He's gone snap soon, and she'll have her way with him."

"Naw, not Mari," Tyler said, shaking his head seriously. "With what he does — she'll never forgive him."

"I'm sure she will," Dexter told him, thinking it over. "Their behavior patterns point toward an eventual relationship no matter what he does for a living with his uncle."

"Well, then she better not bring him home with a job like that," Boone muttered into his glass. "There's a reason she gets so worked up about it."

"Boone," Tyler said in a warning tone as the others looked at him curiously.

"What's he mean?" Dani asked with a frown.

Tyler and Boone shared a sad look before the blonde cleared his throat. "Mari... you guys know she grew up in Arkansas with us. Well, so did her older brother."

"I didn't know she has a brother," Dexter commented. Himari talked about her parents and cousins all the time but never mentioned a brother.

"Used to," Boone mumbled sadly, looking at the table. "Man, we used to hang out with Akio all the time. He was always trying to talk us out of doing crazy shit."

"We had plans to go to the Univerisity of Arkansas together," Tyler added, fiddling with his hands. "His parents wanted him to stay home and run the family business — they owned a sandwich shop that Subway was always trying to buy out. But he wanted to be a news reporter."

"But, uh," Tyler paused, swallowing thickly. "When we were fifteen, there was this big ol' tornado that came through town. Akio was running the shop on his own while their parents were with Mari at a movie. Storm wiped out everything on that block — their house just down the street, the sandwich shop. And it took Akio too."

"Shit," Lily whispered, her shoulders sinking. They'd seen a lot of loss because of the storms they chased, and each of them had personal stories where a tornado affected their lives. But they'd never lost a loved one to a tornado before like so many in the world had.

She thought Himari was a lot braver for going into storms with Tyler and Boone now.

"Yeah," Boone muttered sadly. "And, uh, Himari's parents couldn't afford his funeral and to fix the house, you know? The shop was all they had. So, when Subway came in and tried to buy the land again, they lowered their offer even more, but Mari's parents had to take it."

"So, what StormPAR does for Riggs hits a little deeper for her than it does for us," Tyler finished with a heavy sigh. They could all see the sadness in his eyes — he was still mourning his friend all these years later. "So, trust me. She ain't gone forget all that just to sleep with Scott. It ain't nothing past attraction. Just 'cause he's handsome don't mean she's gone fold."

Except, no matter what Boone and Tyler thought of her, Himari wanted to fold. She wanted to fold so badly as she walked across the street from the bar to the motel, eyes on Scott's wallet. She smiled at his driver's license photo, thinking he looked so handsome. His hair had been longer, and the makings of dark scruff were on his face.

Then she kept snooping through his wallet, seeing if there was anything to tease him about. But other than a library card, he didn't have much else. However, in the very last card slot, she spotted something just barely poking out, so she pulled it free.

Himari came to a stop just a few feet away from his door, eyes a bit wide as she read the familiar note. The note she'd left behind the morning after they slept together.

She couldn't believe that he'd kept it, and something in her stirred the longer she stared at it. How could such an asshole be so sweet and sentimental to keep something like that? 

Now, she felt kind of bad for spending all his money.

Her eyes traveled from his wallet to his closed door, her heart picking up its pace just a bit, which made her squirm. And she hated that her thoughts were making her so uncomfortable. Scott made her uncomfortable in the best way possible.

Himari figured the only way to get rid of the guilt eating away at her was to apologize, and that was something her pride often kept her from doing. But she supposed she could try her best.

And so, with a deep breath, she raised her hand and knocked lightly on Scott's door, more nervous that she'd have liked as she waited for him.