Swallow

Chapter 1.24:

Riley was facing away from me and looked down at the ground as soon as she was at the counter.  Anna left her there to go running across the room to find JD.

When Riley finally looked at me, I grabbed one of the squishy keychains and tried to make small talk.

"Why'd you stop?" I asked.

"Shut up."  She mumbled out grumpily.

Riley and I stood awkwardly without speaking to each other for a long time. Gone was the little flicker of energy we had from the other morning.  I wanted to ask her how she was doing after everything. I wanted to just say anything to her to get her to talk to me.

"What is taking so long? This is so stupid. What are they even doing back there?" Riley said, finally cutting through the silence.

"Do I even need to answer that?" I questioned.

"Please don't."  She said and shivered with disgust like her brain was already there.

"If you're bored, we still have those pink stuffed animals over there if you want to throw them around again."  I pointed at the wall where the blobby things were staring at us with oversized shiny eyes.

"You're not even remotely funny."  She crossed her arms and made the same little noise JD had given me earlier. 

Hers was much more adorable.

"Fine, you win. You can get drunk and decide to become a hooker again." I teased, hoping she would give me another little noise.

"I did not do that." She frowned at me.

The game was back on.

"You asked me if I had any money. I went to the ATM this morning if you're still interested."  I leaned down against the counter and she turned her head to look at me. She bit her lip as I looked up and down every inch of her body. She was in the most simple, casual clothes. Without even trying, she still was more gorgeous than anyone I had ever seen. She lowered her eyes to her feet nervously. I hated that she seemed so self-conscious.  At some point, I was going to figure out exactly why.

"Riley, I'm just fucking with you. We both know you wouldn't make me pay for it." Her face went blank and her mouth formed a straight line.  She wasn't amused with my witty charm.

"You are quite full of yourself, aren't you?" She pouted, crossing her arms over her chest again for the millionth time. 

"And you are too uptight. You need to learn to relax a little." I turned my head to stare at her some more. I could find a way to make her relax, if she let me. It wouldn't take very long.

JD and Anna came up from the back, looking a little more lopsided than when they went in.  They definitely had a little fun in the back for a few minutes.  JD opened his wallet and handed Anna a fistful of cash for her services and she leaned down to kiss him.

"What are you two ladies up to today?" I asked.

"Just some girl stuff, Brazilian waxes, buying some dirty outfits for the concert. The usual." Anna said, playing it off like it wasn't a big deal.

She had my full attention at the mention of dirty outfits.

She caught JD's attention too. His ears were red and steam was already billowing out. 

"Hell no. You do realize you are with my baby sister. That's not happening." JD bellowed.

As much as I wanted to side with JD on this one, I was really interested in what Riley considered dirty. The wicked portion of my brain wondered if she would want to come back to the store later to model some of them for me.