family friends

2 - trip to the store

Y/n's POV

I follow Clay out to his car, surprised to see it's nearly spotless other than one backpack that he throws into the backseat. As I sit down, an almost overwhelming aroma fills my nose. "It smells like... flowers in here," I observe, looking around for the source.

"Surprised?" he asks. I just nod in response. It's not that I think he's unclean, there's just not very many guys who keep their things nice. "It's that little turtle in the corner up there. My mom got it for me. The scent is supposed to last for a year."

I stare at the odd little thing and its tiny face stares back at me with boredom. "How long has it lasted so far?" I ask, buckling into my seat.

"Three years," he states plainly, putting the car in reverse and pulling out of the driveway with ease. "A bit obnoxious if you ask me. I just keep waiting for the thing to die out."

"It's seriously been in here for three years?"

"Well, no. I used to have a different car that it lived in, but it's been in here for the last two years."

"Wait, wait, wait. So you have two cars?" He laughs at this as if it's completely preposterous.

"The old one is my older sister's now. I don't need two cars. I barely leave my house as it is." That would make sense for why his car is so clean. He has no reason to keep anything in it.

"Okay, so I'm curious, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what the hell do you do?" I ask after a moment, breaking the silence. He laughs a genuine laugh—one that makes his eyes light up, one that I can't help but join in on. "I'm sorry, that sounds so bizarre and offensive. I mean like, for work. Your mom always talks about it like she's so damn proud, but refuses to tell me what it is."

He thinks for a moment before answering. "I'm a second grade teacher."

"No way." Clay seems like he's really nice, and I'm sure he's good with kids, but I could never picture him in front of an entire classroom of them, talking about how you add big numbers together. It just doesn't fit his vibe.

"Fine, fine. It's just that my job is rather boring."

"With the way Isabella talks about it, I don't see how that could possibly be true." This makes him smile.

"Well, I'm an accountant. But it's for this huge firm downtown Orlando and we do stuff for all sorts of big names. I dunno. If you get down to it, it's just a whole lot of math." I narrow my eyes at him, but he's focused on the road.

"Listen, I don't mean to be offensive and I'm certainly not saying that I think you're bad at math... but your mom told me you went to high school for two years then never went to college and I feel like you'd have to have a lot of college experience to get a job like that." He shakes his head and lets out a breathy laugh.

"God, what didn't dear Isabella tell you?"

"What you do for a living," I answer after a moment. He lets his head fall back onto the headrest for a moment before focusing back on the road. "Fine, fine. I'll stop bothering you about it. But I do plan to find out eventually."

"We'll see about that, George."

"George?" I ask.

"Curious George. That little monkey that likes to do everything people tell him not to do."

"So you're calling me a disobedient monkey?"

"I might be," he says, pulling into a parking spot and turning off the car. "Okay, you better know right where this stuff is because I sure as hell don't." I roll my eyes and climb out of the car.