Dance In The Rain

~37~ Get Mad, Friends

"You brought me coffee?" I ask with a smile as I accept the cup.

"I figured it would make you less grouchy," Holden says with his crooked grin and a wink that makes me forget to be annoyed at his comment.

"Excuse you?" I ask in fake anger.

He chuckles as he tucks a loose strand of my hair back behind my ear. "Why do you think I've never offered to work a day shift before?" He asks as he bends until he reaches my lips.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Go get to work and make people smart, mister."

He nods as he looks at his watch. "Yeah, we gotta go, we're running behind."

"Maybe if we didn't have to stop for coffee," Tate snips, and Holden tightens his jaw and grabs Tate by the shoulders sternly, bending so he's eye-level.

"I'm going to say it once more. The way you've pouted and argued about EVERYTHING since yesterday is really starting to get on my nerves. Do it with her, and I'll give you the spanking I had intended to give you yesterday. You do every chore she tells you to do without so much as a roll of an eye, or when I get back you will be a very sorry kid."

"How would you roll just one eye?" He sasses, and Holden's nostrils flare. He silently grabs Tate by his arm and drags him to the kitchen, and three sharp slaps and a "ow" later, and I fight the urge to smirk.

This day is gonna be fun

Holden and Tate come back out, both looking unamused, and he kisses Tate on the head. "Love you," he says, but Tate ignores him as he sits on a bar stool.

"Thank you, Sylv...Want me to cover any extra shifts this week as payback?" He asks as he rubs his fingers up and down my back softly.

"Actually," I say as I nod. "Ryan just called in sick for today. Any chance you'd want to work after school?"

"Sure," he nods.

"So I get to spend literally all day here? Lucky me," Tate pouts as he glares at the counter.

Holden ignores him as he kisses me quickly before he and Julianne rush to get to school on time.

When it's quiet, I look over at Tate and he meets my gaze.

"Looks like we're stuck with each other, huh?"

Tate just rolls his eyes as he looks back at the counter in a pout.

Fun times

~*~

"Alright, sir. I'm really going to make you do chores...But you can pick and choose what you want to do. As long as ten of these get done today, I'll be good." I say as I hand him the list I wrote out before he got here and he looks at it in disgust.

"These are all horrible!" He gasps

I simply shrug, and something on my face must keep him from arguing.

"Before you mark a chore off as complete, come find me so I can make sure you did it right. I'm kind of neurotic....."

"I really wanna flip you off," he snaps.

"Oh yeah?" I ask as I cross my arms and lift my eyebrows. "You gonna?"

"No," he sighs as he heads toward the lounge to do a chore.

I'm doing inventory of my hard liquor when I hear him come up behind me. "I got one done," he says, and I put my list down and follow him into the back room.

I try to be kind as I look over the windows he was supposed to wash and the carpet he was supposed to vacuum, and try to remember that he isn't my employee and I can't bully him into doing it better.