Rachel's Rolls

Chapter Five- Rachel

He looks cute as an elf but I much prefer him in normal clothes after seeing him in the pub last night. The way he walks with such confidence, even in such a ridiculous outfit is hot. I carry on walking down the street towards the café, but, low and behold I slip on the snow, landing right on my behind. My hand instantly lets go of Nellies lead and I yelp when I make impact with the hard ground. Damn you boots! Nellie takes off running back up the street towards the main square. I call her back while fighting my way up to a standing position, but she chooses now to act like she's deaf, typical. I try running after her but I don't want to risk falling again so I probably look more like a penguin trying to run while flapping its arms.

Thankfully, once I reach the top of the street, I find Brad holding Nellies lead, crouched down next to her giving her ear tickles. As I approach, like the traitor she is, she flops onto her back, all fours in the air demanding belly rubs, which of course Brad obliges. He looks up as he see's my traitorous boots come into his line of sight and grins at me, which nearly makes me land on my behind again, but thankfully the gods must be listening, because I remain upright. Finally, someone up there is taking mercy on me.

"Hello again Rachel. Is this beautiful girl yours? he asks, while tickling Nellies belly.

"Yes she is. Thank you for catching her, I slipped and let go of her lead. Come here baby" Nellie looks up at Brad then at me, lets out a big huff then walks back to me and sits on my feet. Bradley chuckles at Nellies antics before looking back at me. I see his hands clench and unclench like hes itching to reach out to me but he refrains.

"No bother, I seen you fall and wanted to come and help you but I seen this little one, running towards me and I thought you'd rather me catch her, before coming to check on you" he says, his eyes looking all over my face as if he's checking for any injuries.

I give him a small smile and reach my hand out to take the lead. When he passes it to me, our fingers briefly touch and the shock of the slight touch makes me yank the lead out of his hand, without meaning to. Thankfully he just chuckles and fusses Nellie once more. Feeling a blush creeping up my face, I thank him again and go to turn to walk back down the street, but stop when I feel his hand circle around my wrist. I turn my head to look where his fingers are touching me then back up to his face. I'm surprised to see his eyebrows knitted together and him chewing his bottom lip. He looks up at my face then drops his hold from my wrist and rakes his hand roughly through his brown hair making it stick up all over the place. I cant help but smile at him.

"I'm ok, I promise. The only thing hurt is my butt and pride" I say, without even thinking of what was coming out of my mouth before it was too late.

Brad throws his head back laughing and I can't help but stare at his Adam's apple bobbing with his laughter. It does serious things to my insides, those butterflies from before, take flight in my tummy. He brings his head back up and looks into my eyes, with a look of pure mischief on his face.

"Thank you for that delicious image of your butt. Try not to fall again, hmm?" he says still smiling at me.

"I will try my best, Sir" I reply, which I instantly regret. His eyes darken and his features harden. "Sorry, dont know where that come from. See you around Bradley" I say while spinning on my heel and take off down the road back to the café with much less caution than I should have, before he can even reply.

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Monday morning passes by in a blur, Theo has been rushed off his feet in the front of the café while I've been busy in the kitchen, trying to keep up with the orders for hot desserts and sandwiches. We finally have a little lull at around 1pm, so we're able to catch a quick break. I'm sat sipping a cup of tea, while Theo fills me in on every little detail about what he and Tilly have been up to since I last seen them on Saturday. However, instead of listening to much of what Theo's saying, I find myself daydreaming about Brad and what I could have said to make him do such a U turn from laughing and smiling, to looking annoyed with me. When I realize I've not really listened to much for the past 5 minutes I tune myself back into Theos story time.