A True Lady

"Is it really fine for me to use this?" Elliot asks while taking the handkerchief- it’s one of those washable ones, and blood isn’t something easy to take out from fabric. But the stream manages to get into his mouth, so he quickly presses it to his nose.

"Oh! Yes! Don't worry about it!" She says, patting his shoulder. "There's more where that came from."

Sharon guides the boy inside with the hand on his shoulder, leading him past the counter and into the kitchen. There's a sink in the back, next to a pile of towels. She pulls out a stool and gestures for him to sit.

God, she hopes this doesn't give the boy a bad impression of the cafe. Speaking of, she still doesn't know his name. "I'm sorry, I forgot to ask, what's you name?"

Oh- She was offering him tea. That was a little more important than the way she said his name. Just a little, though.

"But of course, milady. Who would I be to turn down such a generous offer?" Hold on a second. Hold on a goddamn second. He didn’t mean to say milady, he’d just- That was something he only called his mother! And yet it seemed… sort of appropriate to call this girl that as well. Either way, he’d better start speaking again soon or he was going to start thinking about this way too much and shatter his usual facade.

Milady. The last time anyone called her that was in a dream. A dream filled with silks and dresses and titles, everything you could imagine in an old aristocratic lifestyle, everything she ever wanted. Such an outdated referral in these times, yet it sounded so natural coming from him. Something swells in her chest, something that makes her sit straighter and smile wider.

"Of course."  She says, standing up to pour him a cup of tea. Rather than add such a ridiculous amount of sugar herself, she slides a bowl of sugar cubes toward him, an open invitation.

"Oh, how rude of me! Forgetting to introduce to a lady of your status. How could I?” While his words sounded sincere enough, the smirk that was present on his face as he said them made the whole little speech seem a little less genuine. Okay. A lot less genuine. “Ah, but I suppose that is a necessity if I’m going to work here, hmm?” A small pause before he continued on, displaying a fake moment of deep thought.

On top of that, his attitude about the entire situation is getting more and more difficult to place. He seems to be serious, but can't help but act entirely too childish with everything he says! And.... and Sharon is intrigued. Enjoying it, even. It's like a game, one that she's all too good at playing.

The door opens, and he looks up to see a pretty young girl is standing in front of him, obviously trying to suppress a smile. His face turns red.

"I’m fine, it barely hurts," he pinches his nose, then realizes he sounds ridiculous and stops. The blood has now officially ruined his favourite shirt, as only his mom knew how to wash those kind of stains out. 

Elliot tries to explain again. “It happens often, my nose is weak,” he watches some drops fall on the ground, then looks at the cafe. 

She hands it to him, taking note of how much the blood has spread. It's over his shirt now, as well as smeared across his face. It looks like a problem to Sharon, but the boy waves it off as if it were nothing. Sharon wonders exactly how many times he's gone through this exact situation before.

"A Rainsworth, mm?” He offers, feeling around for a spare chair with his foot before taking his seat and rather impolitely kicking his legs up on the table. This wasn’t exactly a proper interview, and likely wasn’t going to be any time soon. He lets out a small, thoughtful sigh before continuing on, doing his best to keep his eye on the girl instead of letting it wander around the room and try to make sense of all of the pink. Not a great idea.

"I suppose so." She answers, relaxing back in her chair. If there's one thing she prides herself on, it's her ability to swiftly and accurately judge others. This man seems rather carefree yet arrogant, and his knowledge about her family, while seeming innocent, gives her a rather bad feeling. Normally, one would take this as a sign of danger and retreat. Instead, Sharon finds herself oddly interested.

Eventually, seeing that he has nothing better to do anyways, Elliot decides to go outside and walk around the neighbourhood again. He grabs his camera and hangs it on his neck, hoping taking some photos will calm his nerves at least a little bit.

The sun isn’t setting yet, though his wristwatch says it’s almost seven. That’s what Elliot doesn’t like about summer- people stay outside longer and ruin the chance of him getting decent shots. He grabs some other things like his wallet and brand new bus and metro cards (just in case) and heads outside.

As expected, the crowd has barely dwindled in numbers, some still coming back home, some just starting their night life adventures. Elliot dislikes the suffocation, but he moves along with others until he gets to slip to one of the less noisy avenues. He snaps a few photos of the beautiful architecture and balconies full of blooming red flowers, then decides to glance around the shops for anything interesting.

A sign in a window catches his attention- mostly because his eyes have learned how to automatically detect ‘hiring’ by now. It’s a very effeminate looking cafe, with all the pink and whatnot. He looks throughout the window, debating furiously whether he would be able to find anything else…

"Fuck it," he mumbles to himself and steps two huge steps towards the entrance, pushing the door-

And manages to collide with it. Quite hard.

"BLOODY FUCKING HELL," stumbling back a little bit, he grabs his nose and curls up a little bit. It stings a lot, and he, with horror, realizes he feels something warm is coming out of his nose.

All the excitement that she had felt that morning had vanished by that point, and instead left her with a weariness that struck her deep to the core, making her want to do nothing other than get home and crawl into bed. Which was exactly what she was planning to do - once she finally closes up.

There's about a half an hour left until closing time, which was a bit early, yes, but no one was complaining. It'd certainly make up for opening early. In fact, in a fit of desperation and exhaustion, Sharon had already began going around and tidying up unoccupied tables, when a sudden shout startled her and almost caused her to drop a teapot.

She quickly rushes to the door, a million possible scenarios running through her head. Was someone attacked? Did someone get overexcited about the non-fictional existence of cute tea shops again?? She pulls open the door, ready for anything, only to see a kid standing outside with a nosebleed, and looking rather bewildered about it.

It only takes her a minute to piece the facts together, and then it takes all of her years of learning ladylike mannerisms to keep from bursting into giggles.

No, instead it was a crime for a man to spend a few long minutes trying to pry the door of a cafe open when he was unable to tell whether it was truly closed or not. For all he knew the door just could have been jammed, right? How was he supposed to know that it was locked? The lack of luminous fog beyond the glass didn’t mean anything. Power outages weren’t completely unheard of.

But that’s hardly the point now! It didn’t matter what the words he heard meant. All that mattered was that they were coming in the same direction that those beautiful, delicious smells were, and sure enough, when he went to open the door, it didn’t resist a bit! He was finally in. And now that he was finally in, a simple shopping spree wasn’t going to be enough. 

Which is why, when she overhear the man who just entered asking the counter girl about getting hired, she thinks that her prayers are being answered.

"That'd be me." She answers, setting her teacup down on it's platter. She doesn't get up from her seat however. It's her policy to make people come to her, not the other way around.

Congratulations, Kat. You’ve been accepted for the role of Sharon Rainsworth. Please send us an ask from your Sharon blog within 48 hours.

Mod Danni liked Sharon’s ambitions, as well as how she is described as a perfectionist and how she came to life in the roleplay sample. Mod Geta loves the idea of Sharon being a proud owner of a shop and striving to prove she is indeed a Rainsworth woman. It’s also admirable to see her handling a business and studying at the same time, and he also simply adored the roleplay sample as well. We look forward to seeing you on our dash.