I walk out of the hospital, re-clipping my hair in a claw clip. I look over and spot Christian's SUV. Christian is standing outside of it, leaning against the passenger side door, looking down at his phone.
"Hey you." I say, causing him to look up from his phone.
A grin spreads across his face as he pushes off the the car, instantly wrapping his arms around my waist. "Hey." He says, dipping his head down until his lips connect with mine.
I hear a whistle echoe throughout the parking lot and I pull away to see Logan walking towards the entrance.
"Logan!" I yell, running over to him.
Christian comes following after me, only he's walking.
I wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him for a second before I step back. "Wait? Why are you here?"
"Bringing Nora lunch?"
"Nora isn't here..." I say and his brows furrow.
"Are you sure?" He asks, pulling out his phone.
"I think I'd know if my best friend was working. Especially since she just got back from her honeymoon and I have yet to see her." I say, my brows furrowing.
He turns his phone around, showing me texts from Nora saying she was here.
"Logan. She's not here."
"Well then where the hell is she?" He asks, a look of worry flashing across his face.
"I don't know. Maybe you should call her." He put his phone to his ear before I even finished my sentence.
"She didn't answer."
I pull my phone out, calling her. Once. Twice. "Okay, I'm getting worried now." I say. My stomach twisted into a knot. This isn't like her.
All of the sudden I hear someone yell as something squeezes my sides. I scream and jump back. Turning around to see it's Nora, dying laughing. "Oh my God! We got you so good!" She says through laughter, high-fiving Logan.
"Are you fucking kidding me? I was starting to think you got abducted or something. You can't do that shit." I say shoving her.
Logan, Nora, and Christian continue dying laughing. "You were in on it?"
Christian tries to catch his breath. He shakes his head, "No but-" He laughs again, "that was fucking hilarious."
"We'll I'm so glad you all find joy in my worrying and fear. What wonderful friends I have." I say, rolling my eyes.
Christian immediately stops laughing. "Friends?" He shrieks. "To hell with friends. Don't even speak that," He makes a circle motion with his hand in the air, "into existence. What is wrong with you?"
"So if you aren't friends, what exactly are you?" Nora asks. Of course I'd told her some things, but I wanted to wait to get into detail, in person.
"I don't know. I still have 1 business day left until I get an answer." Christian says.
"Oh my God! You're actually making him wait 5-10 business days?" Nora laughs.
"He was running his mouth about it. So, yeah." I say and she snorts.
"That's amazing, oh my God. Okay, we're gonna go eat and then nap. You know, time change and all. I will see you, tomorrow." She says pointing her finger at me.
"Bye." I say fake bitterly.
"Let's go." Christian says, intertwining our fingers as we walk down the sidewalk to his car.
"I haven't driven my car or been home in a week. Are you sure this ain't considering kidnapping?" I tease, lightly bumping him with my hip.
He slightly stumbles for a second, nearly pulling me with with. "I believe it's called the honeymoon phase. It'd be so much more fun without the three year old in the way though. Talk about a cockblock." He grumbles.
"I love her though."
"I know. She is cutie, isn't she?" He asks, a proud grin on his face.
"You've done good Christian. She's a good kid." I say, my tone turning serious for a minute.
"Thanks. It means a lot." He says, kissing me on the cheek as he opens the car door for me.
I climb into the seat and he closes the door before walking around to the drivers side. Music plays softly in the background as we buckle our seatbelts.
"I'm starving." Christian groan, "What do you want to eat?"
"Okay honestly, I've been craving a damn quesadilla from Chipotle." I say, pulling my glasses off.
"Ooh, that sounds good. Hey, what do I look like to you right now?" He asks as I clean my glasses with my sweatshirt.
"A blur of colors. Like, I can see your outline, so I know your a person but, I can't see any details. It's just a bunch of colors together." I say, sliding my glasses back on.
"I don't know if I think that's odd or cool." He says, pulling out of the parking lot.
"It sucks."
"I bet. But, you look cute." He says and I grin.
"I know." I say and he rests his hand on my thigh, giving it a squeeze.
"And you say I'm cocky." He says, looking over at me.
"You are. Well, only in the bedroom... And on the ice." I say and he grins, looking back at the road.
"At least my cockiness is true. My ego isn't bigger than my dick, ya know." He says and I snort.
"Sweet baby Jesus." I say, shaking my head. Christian laughs, looking back towards the road.
The traffic from Saint Paul to Minneapolis surprisingly wasn't bad.
"Hi Brinley!" Charlie says as Christian opens the back driver side door.
"Hey Cutie." I say, smiling at her.
He gets her buckled in before he hops back into the driver seat.
"Are you ready to go shopping?" Charlie asks, looking out the window.
"I am." I answer, looking down at my phone. "Where are we going, by the way?"
Christian grins, "Outdoor World."
My mouth gapes open, "We're going to Bass Pro Shop?" I ask, my eyes lighting up.
"Yup. Is that okay?" He asks.
I hold up my index finger, before digging around in my purse for my wallet. I pull it out, unzipping it and pulling out my Bass Pro Shops Club credit card.
"You tell me." I say, holding the card next to my face and grinning.
Christian laughs, throwing his head back. "Of course you have a Bass Pro Shops credit card."
"Actually, it's a Bass Pro Shops club credit card. I had to earn a shit ton of points to get this." I correct him.
"I feel like it didn't take you that long." He says, looking over at me with his eyebrow raised.
"Only a couple of years." I shrug my shoulders. "I basically get free stuff for how many points I've saved up. I'm a genius." I say, slipping the card back into my wallet.
"I don't know about that." He teases.
"I want sweet teaaaa." I whine.
"Huh?" He asks and I look over him like he's insane.
"I'm sorry?" I ask, my jaw nearly hitting the floor.
"What the hell even is that?" He asks and I'm pretty sure my eyes nearly pop out of their sockets.
"Okay, I know it's not a thing around here but, I at least thought people knew what its was."
"I've heard of it, I just don't exactly know what it is." He says, like it's not a big deal.
"Oh dear God, I think I'm about to have a heart attack." I say, placing my hand on my heart.
"I think you're being a bit dramatic."
"Oh sure. I'm being dramatic." I say and he nods. "Okay, do you have a coffee pot?" I ask and he nods. "Here's what we're gonna do. We're stop by a grocery store, or something. Pick up some tea bags, and when we get back to your place, I'm making sweet tea." I say, looking forward. "Yeah, that's what we're gonna do." I reassure myself.
Christian chuckles, "You're a hot mess, you know that?"
"No, I'm just southern." I say and he grins.
"Southern sass at its finest."
"I believe it's: sweet southern sass." I say, a cheeky grin on my face.
"I don't know about the sweet part." He says and my jaw drops.
"I'm very sweet. I was raised right."
"Are you implying that I wasn't?" He asks, looking over at me.
"No.. I'm just saying." I say, shrugging my shoulder.
He slides his hand up my thigh a little more, his fingers lightly moving back and forth against my skin.
We pull into a large parking lot as I feel my excitement bubble up. "You really know the way to a woman's heart." I say, grinning over at him.
"You're the only woman I know that gets excited about Outdoor World." He retorts.
"What can I say? I'm a different breed." I giggle.
"That you are."
"This one is a good brand." Brinley says, holding up a kids fishing pole.
"You do realize that you're not the only one who knows about fishing, right?" I ask, lightly chuckling.
Charlie's fishing pole broke towards the end of last summer and she's been asking for a new one ever since. I was just gonna wait till Christmas, but then Brinley appeared into our lives and I figured "why not?".
"Yes, I'm aware." She says, putting the fishing pole back.
"I want this one." Charlie says, pointing to a hot pink pole.
"Do we have to go with pink?" I grumble.
"Yes." She states, reaching out for the pole.
"Fine." I say, setting the pole in the shopping cart.
"What's next?"
"I need some new trail cameras. Emery broke mine last year." Brinley says, a frustrated look on her face.
She starts walking towards the hunting section. "What's that?" Charlie asks, pointing to something.
"Crossbows." Brinley answers. "It's kind of like what Merida uses."
"Oh, Cool!" Charlie says, taking in her new surroundings.
We go back into a little room with a wall of trail cameras and a little shooting range.
"So, do you shoot with a bow? Or a gun?" I ask as she scans the items.
"Bow. And I got a crossbow last Christmas I have only used a couple of times." She says, her face lighting up.
I knew a little bit about hunting. One of my high school buddies was a die-hard hunter so, he was always talking about it.
"So, North Carolina isn't super cold. How well does hunting go?"
"Well, I don't hunt much deer back at home. I go up to my grandparents house in Illinois for that, especially because archery deer season lasts longer." She answers, grabbing two boxes off of the shelf.
"We mainly just hunt squirrels, sometimes raccoons. Turkeys every once in a while." She says.
"Do you eat any of it?"
"No. We send it over to the local butcher and he sells it there. We get paid for it so. Works for me!" She says, walking towards the clothes. "Do I need a new Carhartt jacket? No. Am I gonna look anyways? Yes." She says and I chuckle.
Charlie swings her legs as she sits in the shopping cart seat. "Can we see fishies?" She asks.
"Yeah, we'll go in a minute."
Brinley groans, walking through the Carhartt section. "Get me out of here before I buy it all." I chuckle. "Take me to the fish." She says, pointing towards the small aquarium area.
"Seriously. Do I have one child, or two." I say and Brinley glares at me.
"Boy, you better watch that mouth before I smack you upside the head." She says.
"You sound like my mother."
"Am I your mother or your child?"
"You go back and forth." I say, a cheeky grin on my face.
"You must be itching to sleep alone tonight." She says and my expression falls to serious.
"Not funny." I say.
"Oh how the tables have turned." She says, a smug grin playing on her lips. I sarcastically laugh.
"Shut up and look at the fishies." I say, turning my head away from her.
Word Count: 2,014