Spice

17 || Saffron

Jared felt like his luck was a little unbelievable today. On one hand, he'd been stewing in his guilt for the whole day, and on the other hand, he was hoping he'd see her again.

Alas, hell sets traps for the wicked. Bailey was right in front of him at the moment, and looking at that stupid expression of speechlessness on her face, he felt the urge to mess with her.

"Cat got your tongue?" He tapped her forehead with the case of the video game, creating a sharp 'thwack!'

The dumbfounded woman flinched, and covered her forehead, even though the impact surely didn't hurt. He didn't use any strength.

"What'd you do that for?" She snapped, glaring at him angrily. "Why is it so difficult for you to be civilised? Don't go around smacking people."

Bailey was shorter than him, but she had a lot of momentum. When she glared, it was particularly scary.

Her eyes were a pale grey. They seemed to completely freeze over when she was angry, like two sharp, deadly, shards of ice.

"I didn't smack you, I tapped you." To prove his point, he did it again, tapping her on the chin. "What's a lady like you doing with a game like this?"

"I wanted to play it, obviously." She eyed the game case in his hand for a moment, then reached out to grab another horror game to put in her shopping basket.

Jared was surprised to see the contents of her basket. The new version of the gaming console that'd come out two months ago was not cheap, but that was what she'd decided to buy. There was also a professional photography camera, some lenses, and, as the present situation provided, several video games.

"Are you Christmas shopping so early?" He remembered hearing that she liked getting Christmas presents for others months in advance. "You should at least wait for cyber Monday. There aren't any significant discounts out right now."

Bailey snorted, turning to walk away from him. "I did my Christmas shopping a month ago. This is for me."

Like a dog on a leash, he trailed after her. "You want to play video games?"

"Yes."

Jared felt like he'd been choked. It wasn't that he wanted to run around after Bailey, but he really couldn't help himself.

Some remote, banished part of his brain warned that this was a symptom of something very, very bad, but that warning was so far away that he couldn't hear it.

As far as he was concerned, they'd gotten to know each other a little more during their work trip. Why should it stop after they came back to Toronto?

By all means, these were not his thoughts two days ago. They weren't even his thoughts two hours ago. It was like seeing her in person, so close to him, had completely short circuited his thought process, and he'd just acted on impulse.

So, he followed Bailey all over the store, feeling very stupid as he did so. He watched her seriously choose accessories for her camera, looking very in her element.

He picked up one of the lens boxes in her shopping basket to read the description. Jared Jung did not know anything about photography, and he'd had no idea that Bailey liked it.

She didn't seem in line with anything artistic. She was just so strict, and stiff...

Even her posture was tense.

Jared took the basket from her hands so she wouldn't have to carry the weight.

"You don't have to do that." She looked at him with a strange expression. "I'm not so delicate."