(I'm sorry to have taken an unexpected hiatus!! I was overwhelmed with schoolwork and had some personal things going on that made me not want to write. But I'll get back into the swing of things this summer and hope to keep writing! Missed you guys and thank you if you decide to keep reading. Hope you like it xx )

Chapter Ten

By the time Saturday morning rolled around, Diana was no closer to determining if she was going to attend Alex's lacrosse game or not. Even as she sat at the pickle shop's front counter, helping with the unusually busy flow of customers, she continued to weigh the pros and cons in her mind.

Diana had become quite the expert at going through the motions on the outside, almost robotically, while her mind raced through other, more important thoughts.

The pros were obvious. It would give Diana a chance to get out of the apartment on the weekend, which was a rare occurrence. She normally had so much homework on top of managing the store that it was impossible to do anything else.

She would also finally be able to say that she had been to a school game. At Diana's high school, lacrosse was more popular a sport than football – mostly because their football team had yet to win a game in three years. Diana had never been one to care what other people thought, but it would certainly be glorifying to snap at the snotty blonde Angela Tyler on Monday that yes, for once she did know what the weekend game's score had been.

But then, there were the cons. The weather would be horrible, as it always was, and because the game was at night it would be closer to freezing rain than anything else. Diana knew she could tell Alex she didn't want to go because of the rain, since she couldn't afford to be sick with everything going on.

If Diana was being honest with herself, it wasn't the weather that was making her hesitate. It was Alex's stupid milkshake idea that had thrown her.

Going to the lacrosse game with Millie to watch Alex play couldn't possibly be considered anything close to a date. But Alex had asked her to get a milkshake with him before he'd resorted to the game. Milkshakes sounded an awful lot like a date, though Alex had been so cryptic about it that Diana had nearly popped a blood vessel trying to figure out what he'd meant.

She just didn't want Alex to get the wrong idea. There was no time for Diana to be running around with a boy, going on dates, even if she had wanted to. Which she certainly didn't, of course.

Diana remained immersed in her thoughts as she punched buttons on the register and counted out change for each customer. The shop was always busier on the weekends, but today was an exception. She hadn't even had time to slip out and grab a snack from the kitchen.

A middle-aged woman with a squealing toddler at her hip came back up to the counter, asking Diana for a paper bag. She'd just bought three jars – of what kind, Diana couldn't be bothered to remember – but had scarcely made it to the door before the plastic grocery bag had begun to rip.

"If you could put it in a paper bag instead, that would be great." The toddler was tugging at his mother's hair as she awkwardly placed the torn bag back on the counter.

Diana forced a smile and bent down to sort through the mess that was underneath the register. There were overflowing piles of envelopes and spare rolls of receipt paper, but Diana knew they kept paper bags down there somewhere for those particularly needy customers.

When she finally spotted them, tucked under a dusty cardboard box full of old labels, the toddler was starting to cry. Diana hurriedly tugged at the edge of one, but when she slid it out, the box on top came with it and tumbled to the floor.

She grumbled a choice word under her breath as labels fluttered around her feet, but there was a small child just feet away and so Diana kept her voice down. Red-faced from leaning over, Diana shook open the paper bag and hastily dumped the plastic bag's contents inside.

"Here," Diana said somewhat stingily, handing the paper bag over the counter. She couldn't help it; the floor behind the counter was now a mess, and the toddler had snot dripping down his upper lip.

The woman gave Diana an annoyed look before turning away, muttering a half-hearted thank you over her shoulder. Once she had turned her back, Diana rolled her eyes and ducked back below the counter to clean up.

She was still brimming with annoyance a full minute later, because the labels were so thin that it took several tries to pick each one up from the tile. Diana's fingers scrabbled against the floor and she breathed a quick "Damn it" under her breath.

"Excuse me? Could you check in the back for...?"

Diana had straightened up so quickly that whoever it was didn't get a chance to finish their sentence. She knew her face betrayed how livid she was, because couldn't they see she was in the middle of something?

But it was Alex, raising his hands in defense as he broke into his half-grin. "Just a joke," he said quickly, taking in the sight of Diana's scattered hair and cheeks red with anger. As an afterthought, he added somewhat seriously, "Please don't kill me."

"God," she seethed, slapping the handful of dusty labels onto the counter and pinching the bridge of her nose. "I almost exploded."

"I know," Alex said. "If I'd seen your face when I walked in, I definitely would not have done that."

Diana shook her head, running a hand through her wild curls and trying to catch her breath. She stuffed the rest of the labels into the box and shoved it back underneath the counter forcefully. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was going to say hi." Alex turned to look at all the customers scattered around the store, about fifteen in all. And the door was clinking open again with another. "Wow. It's busy."

"You don't say," Diana replied dryly.

Alex opened his mouth to respond, but an older man had stepped up and placed four jars on the counter. As Alex hastily got out of the way, tucking himself in the last available space beside the counter, Diana punched price numbers into the register. She handed the old man his change, and this time, she immediately put the jars in one of the paper bags she'd unearthed.

"Alright, I'll make this quick then," Alex told her once the old man had turned away. Another customer, a middle-aged woman with a pinched face, was attempting to browse the Bread and Butter jars behind Alex, and he awkwardly sidled out of her way. "Are you coming to the game later?"

Diana was tearing open a roll of quarters when he asked. She busied herself with emptying the coins carefully into the register; one too many times, Diana had been distracted and dropped the whole roll onto the floor. If that happened right now, with customers packed together like sardines, she'd probably blow a fuse.

"I might make it," Diana said vaguely, working the roll with her fingers to free the last of the quarters. "We'll see what time my Dad lets me off."

"I'm gonna need a more specific answer than that, Simmons."

Diana raised her eyebrows at him, crumpling the paper in her palm and tossing it into the garbage. "Since when do you call me by my last name?"

Alex shrugged, leaning against the side of the counter as the pinched-face woman scanned the shelf behind him. "Since right now. I don't know, it felt right. Anyway, you didn't answer my question."

"Do you not see how busy I am?"

"Oh, I figured that out when you almost strangled me for saying hello."

The woman behind Alex turned her head to give the two of them a nasty look. Diana returned the expression with pristine imitation, until the woman scowled and turned away. Alex followed Diana's line of fire and had to hide his grin behind one hand, waiting until the woman had exited the store before saying anything.

"She must have eaten too many lemons this morning," he mused, then screwed his face up into a copy of the woman's pinched lips and nose. Diana laughed out loud, but quickly attempted to smother it as another customer leaned across the counter to ask how much the large jars of Classic Pickles were.

After relaying the price to the customer, Diana forced herself to look away from Alex so she could focus on sorting through receipts – and so he couldn't make her laugh again. He always made it impossible to work.

"Alright, alright," Alex said finally, hands raised in defeat. It was almost as though he'd read her mind. "I'll let you work. Just tell me you're coming to the game tonight, and I'll be out of your hair."

Diana slipped the pile of credit card receipts into an envelope and glanced over at him. He looked so hopeful, standing there beside the register with his hands clasped together loosely. There was an innocent expression on his face, and Diana watched him skeptically for a moment, waiting for him to break.

When his expression didn't falter, Diana sighed heavily and looked away. "Fine. I'll go."

Alex's lips split into a wide grin, teeth shining through and his eyes crinkling at the corners. He clapped his palms together and said, "That's what I like to hear."

"I'm bringing Millie," Diana warned, remembering the milkshake idea from yesterday. The last thing she wanted was for him to think something he shouldn't.

He was already backing away from the counter, hands raised again with palms facing outward. "I expected nothing less. See you out there, Simmons."

Diana opened her mouth to snap at him, but Alex had already weaved through the remaining customers and was slipping out of the store into the street.