Mirroring the Endless Night | Elliott x Female Farmer |

4. Bonding

After briefly mulling over Leah's suggestion at having a 'crush' on the farmer, Elliott stood from the table with a sigh, shaking his head. 'A crush? No, never, a slight infatuation would be a more believable claim, but perhaps this is simply due to her being a new addition in my life. It's practically impossible to not be intrigued by here since, in theory, I do still know so little of her.'

After convincing himself of this being the case, he made his way to the north-west road that would lead him to her farm. Just up ahead he could spy the farmer sat on a fence post, cradling a pink rabbit plush more than half her size in her arms, and laughing along with Leah who leaned against the same fence.

"Took you long enough," Leah said once he stood beside them.

"Apologies, I believe I got preoccupied with my own thoughts," he replied quickly, and before Leah could pipe up and ask about said thoughts he nodded his head towards the road, "now then, shall we get going?"

Maria nodded her head with a smile, hopping off the fence post and hoisting her new plush friend up in her arms. "Leah got us some drinks from Gus' set up, so we're good to go," she explained, before spinning on her heel and heading down the path.

The three chatted as they walked down the dirt road, using the shade of the various oak and maple trees to protect against the afternoon sun still high in the sky. Halfway towards the farm however, Leah suddenly let out a loud gasp and lifted her phone to her ear.

"Hello?... Oh yes, I've been working on your commission... the meeting? That was scheduled for two... oh crap! I'll get home right away to discuss the details and show you what I've done so far, I just got held up with an event in town, I'm so sorry... yes... mhmm... alright, give me about half an hour... thanks so much, bye!"

Maria stood by politely, knowing better than to speak up during someone else's phone call, but Elliott gave his artist friend a look of confusion, standing close enough to her to hear no sound coming from her device.

Quickly, Leah pocketed the phone, offering an apologetic look as she turned to look at Maria, "I'm so sorry, my client called and I totally blanked on the fact that we had a meeting today so I could show the progress on my current piece."

"No worries, work is important. We'll have plenty of chances to hang out, and I'm sure Elliott and I will be just fine," the farmer replied, smiling sweetly as she waved her friend off.

Leah turned on her heel, only to face Elliott who looked down at her suspiciously. "It is an extraordinary coincidence that you are to receive a phone call at this very moment which would whisk you away, leaving Maria and I alone," he mumbled, dropping his voice as he stared his friend down, "Yet we both know that there was no voice on the other end of that call."

"You should be thanking me, I'm giving you an excuse to have alone time," she replied with a cheeky grin, lifting the ales she'd bought from Gus and handing them over to the know disgruntled writer, "if I find out that you didn't talk to her about what you need to talk about, I'm going to tell her myself ."

And with that, Leah walked off, shouting a goodbye over her shoulder to Maria, leaving the farmer and Elliott alone once more.

"What was that about?" Maria asked curiously with a tilt of her head.

"What was what about?" Elliott quickly retorted, perhaps too quick.

"All the whispering," she teased, taking a few steps closer to him, "are you two hiding something from me?"

Elliott's face flushed and he shook his head, "no, of course n-"

He was cut off by Maria's sudden laughter, watching as she giggled sweetly, "Oh, you should've seen your face. I'm just messing with you Elliott, c'mon, you've got a cat to meet."