| 04 |

~ Banks Woods ~

"Burnnnn! I feel the burnnnn! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." Caleb grunts, cursing after every crunch of his body.

I roll my eyes, kicking his foot. "Can you not do this while I'm working?"

"Sorry. Have to get abs before I turn seventeen." He does another crunch, his face turning completely red.

"You can do that at home."

"There are no girls there to wink at me." He brushes me off, wincing as he does another crunch on the floor right in front of the register.

Once he was doing weights in the café and this girl winked at him. Since then he's been hell-bent on trying to impress other girls by working out in public spaces. More specifically, the space where I work.

"I'm gonna step on you if you don't move your ass from here." I raise an eyebrow in warning.

He groans, flopping down on the floor, and closing his eyes.

"Couldn't—" he pants. "Couldn't do more—anyways—ouch—abs hurt—ouch, ouch—can't breathe." He continues making dramatic noises.

A couple of older people give Caleb amused looks while others try their best to pointedly ignore him.

I roll my eyes. "Get up."

He holds out a hand and I grab it, struggling to pull his heavy ass to his feet. I might be five years older than him but he sure as hell is growing taller and bigger than me.

He wipes a bead of sweat off his forehead before moving toward the corner of the room to do wall sit-ups.

"Can someone put a timer?" He yells.

"On it!" Kaylee yells back.

"Shouldn't you be stopping these types of things in your café?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I should." She states then shrugs, setting up a timer on her phone. "But your brother is too damn adorable for me to stop him."

"He's not appropriate for your age." I deadpan.

She slaps my arm. "I meant as a little puppy."

Shaking my head, I carry a tray of coffee and muffins to a table at the far right.

After a couple more orders, my back starts aching, and my face turns stiff from all the fake-smiling. Caleb is still halfway through his workout routine. He usually comes here after school so we can go home together. On the days when he's extremely tired, he goes directly home and sleeps. Wish I could go back to the days when I could do that too.

The bell above the door chimes and I turn around with a fake smile ready on my face—only for it to drop when I realize who it is.

And, this time, he's not alone.

Three more guys with him immediately soak up everyone's attention. The space seems smaller, suddenly, packed with these four.

Even though the others are just as attractive, my gaze can't help but be snatched by the only blond in the group.

Damn, does he always have to radiate?

The space around him lights up with his charming, cute smile and golden hair that curls onto his ears and falls onto his forehead in a messy but sexy way.

Kaylee slides up beside me, whistling slowly. "I knew that boy was gon' be my favourite customer."

Lance's eyes immediately meet mine as if he came here for the sole purpose of finding me. His smile widens, and he walks straight towards me.

"Shit, can't get between the MC and the love interest." Saying that, Kaylee quickly disappears, leaving me alone at the register.

I shoot a glare after her scurrying figure. MC and the love interest? What the hell?

"Hey." Lance stops in front of me.

I look back ahead and almost widen my eyes. The masculinity rolling off them—it's so strong, it makes me want to shuffle my feet which I refrain from doing so. All of them tower over me with their brooding heights.

Two of his friends look identical but one of them has the biggest grin on his face while the other has a blank, bored look.

The other guy has a calm, curious look. He's the lankiest of them all with huge round glasses that give him a cute nerd type of look.

"What can I get you?" I force myself to not look intimidated, which is hard because any girl would feel nervous around guys like them.

"I'll have what he's having." The grinning twin slings an arm around Lance's shoulder, looking overly excited about something.

I look at Lance.

"The Van Gogh painting mocha," he says.

I stop myself from squeezing my eyes shut, typing it in.

"And you?" I look at the scarier-looking twin.

He shrugs. "Just water."

"And you?" I look at the guy with glasses.

He grimaces. "I don't like coffee."

Then why come here?

But honestly, "Same. Me neither."

"I'm almost close to gagging just by the smell."

"Welcome to my world." I like this guy. "So nothing for you?"

He nods.

"Find a table, I'll be right with you." I turn to walk away.

"Banks. Wait."

My body tenses up. Why am I tensing up? Because I'm scared he's going to call me pretty again.

Last night, I spent an entire hour going over Lance's words, while constantly checking myself in the mirror.

He called me pretty. Pretty. I know I shouldn't let it get to my head, but I'm far weaker than I thought. I nearly blushed so many times then smacked myself out of it.

Don't fall for pretty boys and their pretty words. That's been my mantra since the breakup. It helps most of the time. It definitely wasn't helping last night.

"Yeah?" I turn back around.

"I think Caleb is kinda...constipated." He points towards the corner of the room.

I glance and almost let out an embarrassed groan when I see my red-faced brother, still against the wall with a tight expression and trembling legs.

He does look like he's constipated. Or maybe he's trying to keep his shit in. Whatever that face is, it sure is attracting a lot of attention.

I look back towards Lance, blinking. "Caleb who?"

His concerned look drops when he sees I'm sure as hell not worried.

"That is Caleb, right?"

"Unfortunately."

Lance opens his mouth with a grin, probably about to call out to him, but before he can, his friend cuts in.

"Hi. I'm Theo." He thrusts out a hand towards me.

"Uh, Banks." I reluctantly shake his hand.

"Thanks for breaking my buddy's nose and letting him get robbed." He smiles.

I blink.

I glance at Lance who's pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I thank your friend for reaching towards me and making it seem like he was going to harass me."

"Oh yeah, he does that a lot." He snorts.

"No, I don't," Lance grumbles.

"You do, you just don't realize it."

"I wasn't even reaching towards her. I was reaching towards her brother to simply put my hand on his shoulder."

"Lance also has this habit of drawing smiley faces on his pillows," Theo says. "He even names them and talks to them at night."

The guy with the glasses smiles while Lance elbows Theo.

"I'm not surprised." My lips twitch.

"Tell her about how when you sleep on Mandy, she gives you good dreams, but when you sleep on Cindy, she gives you nightmares." Theo pokes Lance's side.

"Stop making things up, you fucker." Lance drives his elbow harder.

"And when you sleep on Mindy, you get these–" Theo starts making kissing noises, trying to hug Lance.

"Fuck off!" A hint of embarrassment coats Lance's face.

Theo hoots out laughing, almost making me crack into a smile.

"He's lying. I don't do any of those. I sleep like a normal person." Lance tells me.

I shrug. "For some reason, I trust your friend more than you."

"See, everyone knows you got the look of a person who sleeps with four smiling pillows who give you different types of dreams."

Lance narrows his eyes. "Guess who's meeting your mom tonight?"

"Don't bring Okasa into this!" Theo punches his side.

"Stop making shit up then." Lance puts him in a headlock.

"Cut it off." The scary-looking twin orders, looking annoyed.

They eventually stop hurting each other.

"Right," I say when everyone finally stops talking. "I'll go get your drinks. Meanwhile, find a table and—"

"Banks! Help! My muscles! Ouch! They're cramping." Caleb falls dramatically onto the counter between me and the men. He makes noises as if he's dying and wails. "Ambulance! I need an ambulance!"

I roll my eyes. "I'm in the middle of something."

"I'm gonna dieee." He wails.

"Cale—"

"Goodbye beautiful world! Even though you've treated me and my sister horribly!"

I look heavenward, squeezing my eyes shut.

"I don't know who this person is." I open my eyes and look at the men.

"Are you okay, buddy?" Lance asks.

Caleb groans. "Who's asking?" He rolls half-way and his face instantly lights up with recognition. "Lance!" Then he notices the other three men and his eyes widen.

He quickly rolls off the counter, coming to stand beside me, and giving a nervous smile.

He clears his throat. "Sorry, I didn't realize Banks was busy."

He's intimidated too.

"What's up?" Lance holds out a hand that Caleb eagerly shakes.

"I was working out."

"Ohhh." Castle, Lance and Theo chorus.

"So you weren't constipated?" Theo asks.

Caleb furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Who's constipated? Banks, are you constipated?"

"Yeah, looking at your face."

He fakes a punch to my face to which I–unfortunately–flinch.

"Oh hey! Are you Chinese? I have a teacher who's Chinese too." He looks between Xander and Theo before joining his hands in front of him and giving a bow. "Nǐ hǎo."

"We're Japanese," Theo states.

Caleb freezes. "Oops."

I sigh. "I'll go get your stuff now." I leave to head towards the kitchen. Before I disappear, I turn back around. "Caleb?"

He looks at me.

"Stop fucking embarrassing me or I'll kill you."

●・○・●・○・●

Anyone can take one look at Lance and his friends and assume that they were once the popular kids in high school. If they were still in high school, they would've been The Friend Group.

Currently, they're making a lot of noise. Especially Lance and Theo when they burst out laughing or start yelling at each other. Castle occasionally says something but the scary twin, whose name I learnt, Xander, barely says anything and mostly shoots glares.

They're every customer's attraction this evening.

We've had other friend groups too, mostly students from college, but something about this one—I can't quite place my finger on it.

Kaylee, especially, can't seem to take her eyes off them.

"You know your eyes are gonna remain glued open if you keep staring at them like that."

"I can't decide who I want." She mumbles, dreamily. "Which one would you go for?"

I shake my head. "Neither of them."

"I'm not asking you to go up to them and ask them out. Just, imagine, if you were to date one of them, which one would you pick?"

I glance at them. "Probably the one with glasses."

"Really?"

I shrug. "He seems smart and he hates coffee. Pretty good reason to pick him."

"You're boring." She scoffs at me. "I would definitely go for the quiet one. He looks like he can rock your shit anytime and it would be good."

"Sometimes I worry about the filter on your mouth."

"You're just jealous that you're not as open as me."

"I'm glad I'm not as shameless as you."

"You're fired."

"You can't fire me."

She simply can't. She loves me too much for that and she knows it.

"Go wipe down the tables!" She throws a rag at me that hits my face because my hands are too busy with washing the cups.

I grumble under my breath. I dry my hands before picking up the rag and moving towards the table to wipe them.

I glance at Lance and his friends once only to see him already staring at me.

My heart stutters and I nearly flick my gaze away. Instead, I raise my eyebrows, silently asking if he needs something.

He shakes his head but doesn't look away.

Furrowing my brows, I ignore him and get to cleaning the tables.

Caleb is sitting at the next table. Papers and books are spread out in front of him with a concentrated frown on his face.

"Hey, Banks?" He calls out.

"Yeah?"

"I don't get this liberalism shit."

"What?" I move to look into his papers.

"I have to write an essay on it but I just don't get it. We have to refer to these white dead men, but these men are so bipolar. I can't figure out their perspective. They change their views with every quote."

I try helping him for five minutes before he shoots me a scowl. "Get lost. You're even more bipolar than them."

"Ungrateful ass. At least I'm trying to help."

"You're not helping at all."

I swat the back of his head.

"Maybe I can help," Lance says.

My head whips up to see him standing in front of the table, giving his natural smile.

"You can?" Caleb asks.

He shrugs. "Sure. I did a similar essay during my high school."

"Great! Sit down then. Help me or else I'm going to fail and get kicked out of school." He pats the chair next to him.

Lance takes a seat, unbuttoning the jacket of his suit to get comfortable. He rolls up the sleeves and something nearly happens to me when I see the veins of his strong forearms.

I quickly look away.

He starts working on it with Caleb and a hint of jealousy shoots through me at the sight of him with my brother.

I walk away to wipe the rest of the tables.

Glancing frequently, it doesn't help with the jealousy. Caleb looks so comfortable with Lance. He normally doesn't do well with strangers except for cracking jokes, but now he's all comfortable and relaxed.

I should be happy.

Caleb is finally talking to other people and being confident in his skin. It was worse when we moved from Aunt's house. He was so insecure and shy that he never left my side. He hated going to school and always complained about how no one spoke to him.

Out of nowhere, he started getting into frequent fights. I tried talking to him about it and he said it was because the other kids were mean to him and some other guy, so he was just standing up.

It doesn't explain why he tries looking for trouble outside of school.

At first, I thought it was because he was depressed or something. It's not a really good life when your parents, who never loved you, are dead. Your older sister is the only one providing. No one approaches you at your new school or you have no friends.

I'm trying my best though. I really am.

Sometimes, I'm glad that it's just me and Caleb and no one else. It's like a little bubble of safety where I know nothing will harm or hurt us.

But I know it's also wrong to not want Caleb to go out there and meet other people. It just hurts. The thought of him leaving me or being unsatisfied after all that I'm doing.

Right now, it doesn't help me that he's chumming up to Lance only after meeting him once. It's not even Caleb's fault. It's Lance. Lance has that aura around him that makes people comfortable around him. He looks like the person to give you a big hug and shower you with comfort even when you don't deserve it.

He's the type of person who's able to completely break my walls and have the ability to break my heart.

"Yo, Banks!"

I turn around to see Theo waving me over.

"Yeah?" I ask when I reach him.

"This is seriously good coffee." He nods, looking into his cup.

"Thanks."

"Lance wasn't kidding when he said there's this talented waitress who could draw out the exact Van Gogh painting of a bear."

Castle, the guy with glasses, furrows his eyebrows. "I thought he said it was a lake."

Theo shrugs. "Same thing. Anyways," he looks at me. "Me and my buddies run a restaurant. We make the best food. Seriously. This one customer said our food was better than getting an orgasm."

I blink. "Okay..."

"We're holding a street food kinda thing for this amusement park. It's a great chance of making a lot of money. Not that we're broke." He says quickly. "It's just a lot of money feels good in your hands. You know? Just imagine the feel of the thin paper between your fingers and bringing it up to your nose to get a good whiff of richness." He sighs, dramatically.

Castle rolls his eyes while Xander narrows his.

"Just get to the point." The former grumbles.

"Right. Right." Theo sits up straighter in his chair lacing his fingers under his chin. "Will you collaborate with us and sell coffee?"

I raise my eyebrows. "You want us to collaborate?"

He nods.

"Let me go get Kaylee. She's the manager." I turn around but apparently, I don't need to because Kaylee is already moving towards us.

"I heard my name!" She stops beside me, plastering a wide smile, looking at the men.

A scrutinizing look comes on Theo's face as he looks Kaylee up and down.

"You're the manager?" He questions.

My eyes narrow, daring him to say anything about it.

"Yup." Kaylee nods.

"You're pretty hot."

A blush instantly explodes across Kaylee's face.

"You're pretty hot too." She compliments back. "All of you are."

"I know, right?" Theo grins leaning his shoulder against Xander and making faces like a model.

"Get away from me." Xander shrugs him away.

"Anyways, Miss Manager. We have business to talk about."

Realizing, this has nothing to do with me, I walk back towards the counter where a customer waits.

My eyes keep glancing back and forth from Caleb to Kaylee.

Caleb is having fun with Lance. He's smiling a lot and laughing too. Kaylee is having fun flirting with Theo. I bet they finished talking business long ago.

Looking at them reminds me of when I used to be this talkative too. People did call me pretty grumpy but they were whom I used to share everything with. Whom I used to hang out with all the time. They were my best friends, and there was Ben.

But they all walked away. They walked away when they realized I was not the ideal friend. Ben lashed out when he realized he was making a mistake dating me. All that's left is a damaged me.

I force myself to stop having these thoughts. I can't even afford a therapist. Caleb once offered to be my therapist and to make him shut up, I went along.

It would always go with him asking, "How are you feeling today?"

I would reply with: "Let me sleep."

"Okay, so you have trouble facing life right now. I know breakups are hard. Especially where you were abused. But recovery is possible. You have a cute little adorable brother who fully supports you. Go get up and show him some love before it's too late. It's the best way to face life."

"It's 3 AM. Can you shut the fuck up?"

He gave up being my therapist a few days later.

A sigh escapes my lips as I slowly wipe the counter where a kid spilled his hot chocolate.

"Banks!"

I look up to see Caleb grinning at me.

"I think I can graduate from school!" He yells, excitedly.

"Good job!" Theo yells from the other side of the café, clapping his hands.

"Thanks!"

"Anytime! You graduate and grow up and get a job, then get a house, then get a wife, then kids, then you work till you're sixty, and then you eventually die!"

Caleb's grin falters. "Uh...cool!"

Lance, Castle, and Xander throw Theo a glare.

It takes two seconds for Theo to realize the looks everyone's giving him. He quickly straightens. "What I mean is—Grow up and live your life to the fullest!"

"Will do!" Caleb's grin returns.

●・○・●・○・●

The more sound my back makes, the more concerned I get. I'm not even twenty-five yet and it's making more noise than the eighty-year-old lady in front of me who's mirroring my actions.

I heave another giant sack of coffee beans into my cart. The sack is two-thirds of my weight. I refuse to show my weakness in front of the old lady who keeps shooting me sly looks as she effortlessly picks up the sacks.

I narrow my eyes at her as I pick up another sack, everything straining in my hands, arms, shoulders, back and legs as I heave it into my cart. The old lady picks up another, shooting me a smirk.

I pick up another. My lungs constrict at the effort.

She picks up another, giving me another smug look.

I pick up another one. This time, my face tightens. I barely manage to get the sack into the cart.

The old lady picks up another one effortlessly.

How the damn hell is she doing that? Isn't her spine supposed to break in half by now?

I aggressively pick up another sack, no doubt a whole lot of challenge sparking in my eyes.

Kaylee asked me to buy only ten sacks but fuck it, she can have twenty.

The lady picks up another.

I heave another one.

She does the same.

I haul another.

She does too.

I pick another, and the challenge drops when I feel the muscles of my back cramp as if someone's pulling me apart. My body hits the floor within two seconds, shrieking while my muscle spasms.

The old lady's smirk widens as she watches me roll around the floor, trying to get my back to calm the fuck down.

"Stop giving me that look, you slimy hag." I glare at her, clutching my side as if that will do something to relieve the cramp.

She gives me a simple shrug.

"To be fair, you had more experience than me since you know, you've lived longer."

She raises an eyebrow that irritates me. "I was still stronger than you."

"I have a shitty life."

"And?"

"At least I don't have to worry about my heart stopping any time soon."

She gasps. "You arrogant girl!"

"Truth hurts." I try shrugging but wince when my cramp doesn't chill.

"You're a shame to your parents!"

There we go. That's the only insult older people can come up with when they're offended.

"My parents are dead." I snap.

Her face reddens. "That's why you turned out to be such an ill-mannered stupid child—"

"Wanna talk about being a child? How about when you challenged me out of nowhere to pick up the most sacks? Who acted like a child first?"

Am I really arguing with an eighty-year-old woman in the middle of a wholesale market?

Yes.

Her face reddens further. "You insolent brat—"

"Yup. That's right. Act your age before you get dementia and forget your name!"

"You've gone too far!"

"Not farther than you. I have more time before I'm gone."

This time, she nearly looks like she's going to combust. Have I gone too far? I guess. But you know what they say? If you go low, I go lower. Extremely lower.

"You bitch!" The old lady screeches at me.

"Hey, that's not a nice thing to say for someone as old as you—"

"Can you stop attacking my age?" She snaps.

"Not when you look like you're on the verge of breaking your spine or accidentally swallowing your fallen tooth—"

"Banks?"

My head snaps up at the familiar voice. I nearly scream when I see an upside-down face of Lance gazing at me in confusion.

Well, I'm the one who's still on the floor, clutching my back as if my heart is having an attack over there, so Lance's face is pretty normal.

"What's wrong?" His eyebrows furrow in concern.

"Nothing. Just a small cramp."

"Her weak little bones couldn't handle carrying those sacks."

"Shut up, granny."

"She's your grandma? Hello, grandma." Lance nods, smiling at her.

"Oh hell no." Me and the bitch says at the same time.

"I would rather get high blood pressure than be her grandmother." She raises her chin at me.

"Don't worry, It's already coming your way."

She scoffs with a glare before wheeling her cart away. The cramp seems to get better too.

"Any reason why you're still on the floor?" Lance asks.

A hint of embarrassment colours my cheeks as I stand up and dust myself. I look at the cart to see fifteen bags of coffee beans.

You know what? Kaylee will have my head if I spend too much of her money.

With a groan, I grab a sack, heaving it out of the cart and struggling to put it back. I pick up another and bite my lip when I feel another cramp coming on. Not even that, my arms start to shake like the damn little weak twigs they are.

"Here. Let me get that."

Suddenly the sack is being lifted from my arms, giving them the much-needed relief. I sigh, stretching my joints. Lance places the sack back, using only one hand.

My eyes catch onto his strong forearms and something in me flutters. I avert my gaze, clearing my throat.

"Can you put, like, four more of those back?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Sure."

He gets it done within six seconds, lifting two sacks at a time.

"Wow. Thanks."

He smiles. "Anytime. Are these for the Carnival?"

I nod. "Yeah. Kaylee's super excited about it." I grab the cart and wheel it to the next aisle, looking for a hundred more items that she needs.

Lance follows me.

At first, I thought he'd move into another aisle within a few steps, but that didn't happen.

A sense of wariness creeps into me the more he casually follows me around. It's not because he's creeping me out. It's because of his presence—it's too loud, too exposed. I feel more in the open with him beside me as if there's a spotlight for him and somehow everyone else can see me too.

'You're just so pretty.'

Self-consciousness crawls over my skin and I hate myself for it. Why can't I be like other girls who bask in the compliment instead of taking it too seriously? I know I'm overthinking but I can't help it. My brain just loves to go against me— the fucking backstabber.

It doesn't help that I feel Lance's eyes on me, watching my every move. It raises my self-consciousness to the point where I forget how to breathe. Shit. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breath in—

"What are you doing here?" I ask when I can't handle his stare anymore.

He doesn't answer right away. I glance at him to see him gazing at me with a blank look. It takes him two seconds to snap back to reality.

"Oh, uh, Xander needed help with a few things."

I nod. "Okay."

Silence fills between us. Reaching the syrup section, I scan the shelves for the different ones Kaylee wants.

There's one high up on the shelf. Getting on my tippy-toes, I scowl when my fingers barely graze it. It's ridiculous why store owners would decide to make such high shelves when they know almost sixty percent of the population is short. I'm not short, but the shelf is still too high.

I'm still trying to reach for it when, suddenly, I feel heat on my back, followed by a wall of bricks, pressing into me.

Almost immediately, warmth fills my cheeks as Lance reaches for the bottle, pressing into me further when he accidentally pushes the bottle back with his fingers. Something drops into my stomach, travelling to a spot between my legs as I feel not even half of him against me, rubbing slightly. I'm horrified by my body's reactions.

My face is still flustered when he finally grabs onto the bottle, pulling back and away from me, taking all his warmth. My heart beats loudly in my chest.

"Here." He smiles, holding the syrup out to me. I take it from him with flustered cheeks.

Why am I reacting like this?

Why do I always react like this?

I hate it. I hate it so much.

"Thanks," I mumble, swiftly grabbing onto the cart and walking.

He follows again.

I grab a couple more things, growing irritated when he shows no signs of leaving. He's not even doing his own shopping and simply walking behind me like a lost puppy, lending in a hand occasionally when I can't reach or lift heavy stuff.

Finally having enough of it, I whirl around. Lance doesn't notice me stop and walks right into me, and him doing that is the equivalent of a truck ramming into a traffic cone, so I tip backwards, losing my balance.

His hand immediately closes around my arm, steadying me. My face heats up again and I snatch it back, glaring at him.

"Why are you just following me around?" I demand.

"Oh." He blinks, looking genuinely confused. "I wasn't supposed to?"

"What do you mean wasn't supposed to?" I frown.

He blinks again, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry. I thought...I thought we were gonna shop together since we're at the place coincidentally."

Coincidentally?

Now that he mentions the word...I cross my arms. "Are you sure you're not stalking me?"

His eyes widen in alarm. "What—I'm not. I promise. It really is a coincidence."

"Three times?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I have no idea."

I give him a suspicious look.

"I really promise." He holds his hand up in defence. "I'm not stalking you."

I narrow my eyes, skeptically. He puts on a wide innocent look. Seconds pass by before I mutter. "Fine."

I start walking again and sigh when I feel Lance follow me.

"Do you need me to throw you a treat or something to make you run away?" I grumble.

"Depends on what the treat is." He grins, then he furrows his eyebrows, looking serious. "I don't know why I'm following you. Shit. Am I creeping you out? I promise I'm not a creep."

"Great way to make your point." I look behind and give him a flat look.

He stops walking.

I pause to see why.

A concentrated frown appears between his eyebrows as he stares at the distance between us. He keeps staring intently, not making a move.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know how to follow you without looking like a creep." He says with honesty.

What the hell? I nearly crack a smile.

"How about you don't follow me at all and we go our separate ways?"

"But if I appear in front of you, you'll think I'm following you again."

I shrug. "That's true."

He scratches the back of his head. "Fuck, this is hard." He grumbles after a while.

Why does he actually look so serious about this? I wanna laugh but it's because I'm incredulous. If he frowns anymore, I'm sure he'll get permanent lines on his forehead.

With a sigh, I shake my head. "We can shop together."

He perks up like a golden retriever. "Really?"

I nod.

"I promise I didn't manipulate you into coming to that decision."

"Wow. Thanks for putting that into my head."

He grins.

"So what are you buying?" I put a bunch of bags of flour into my already overflowing cart. How the hell am I gonna carry these to the car and then into the cafe?

Lance fishes for something in his back pocket and comes out with a paper. "Xander asked me—more like abused me—to get these things. This is my first time in this store so I have no idea where anything is."

He shows me the list and I take a look at it.

"I know where these are."

"You do? That's great! Help me find them, please?"

I shrug. "Let's go."

He smiles, trailing after me again as I look for the things on his list.

"Have you noticed that whenever we meet we're always helping each other out in some way?"

I look away from the list and raise my eyebrows at his question.

"It's like fate or something." He jokes.

"I still think you're stalking me."

"I'm not!"

"I don't believe in fate so that's going to be my explanation for now until I get a better one."

"I promise I'm not a stalker." He groans into his hands.

"We'll see in time, buddy."

After getting all the stuff we need, we pay for it before moving towards the parking lot.

"Guess this is where we part?" Lance asks.

I nod. "Pretty much."

"Thanks for the help. It would've taken me double the time if you weren't here."

My face warms a bit at his appreciation.

My mouth opens to say thanks but for some reason, it doesn't come out. Instead, I say, "Pretty sure you could've asked anyone else and they'd happily do it."

"Yeah, but I'm happy it was you."

The same fluttering feeling in my chest.

I duck my head to hide my face and nod. "See you later."

I start wheeling my cart away but since it's thrice my weight, it looks like I'm trying to push a mountain. I still manage to get it moving so I guess I got stronger picking up those fifteen sacks a while ago.

"See you later," Lance calls after me.

I give him a wave before disappearing between the parked cars.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

I'm excited about the chaos that happens in the next chapter!

Hopefully, I've put at least a smile on your face with this book <3

Words: 5,400

Date of publishing: 21st May 2024