Shopping (Erik + Children / Danny)
After he felt as though he’d gone over the usual expectations for good behavior inside a store (don’t pull things off the shelves, don’t tear open any packages, and so on) a sufficient number of times, he ventured into Danny’s store with the stroller in front of him and the twins at his side.
He immediately gave his longtime friend a smile and a wave. “Hello there! Lovely day to cause a public disturbance in someone else’s place of business, don’t you think?” He laughed awkwardly. “But really, I do have business here…everyone else just decided they’d like to go as well!”
By then, Lucia had already made her way up to the counter, but due to her height, she couldn’t see over the top of it. In order to correct that issue, she started to repeatedly jump as high as she could in order to talk to Danny.
“Danny! Lookit!” she started off. “Baby Jo is here! She’s so cute! And I’m hopping up and down like frogs! Except Masey doesn’t like frogs! Have you seen a frog?!”
By then, Erik was already stifling laughter as he also approached the counter. He picked Lucia up and held her up so that she could actually see the person with whom she was having a one-sided conversation.
“Ahaha…frogs and such aside, I do need to buy some cooking oil. Somehow, I managed to run out completely without noticing!”
“Well, lovely day or not, you’re certainly making a racket anyways.” Danny’s expression and tone waved away any sort of notion that he was at all bothered by the parade that had marched into his store. Normally he was quick to chase away anyone who wasn’t interested in buying, but since it was Erik, he didn’t really care either way. A longstanding tradition of Erik barging in to pester Danny meant he was welcome any time.
“Oh yeah?” Danny leaned over the counter to look into the stroller. “Heya Jo. How’re you doing?” Danny smiled down at the baby. Even though she was just an infant, she looked a lot like Erik. Danny considered making a comment on that being unfortunate for her, but since there was a chance the kids would misunderstand it as anything but teasing Erik, he held it back for now.
Turning back to Lucia, he took a moment to figure out how to answer her question. “I’ve seen them, but I haven’t in a while. Let’s see, not this year yet... maybe last year? Or two? Haven’t really looked for them. You said Mason doesn’t like them, but I’m guessing you do, right?”
Getting back to Erik, Danny said, “Anyhow, cooking oil, right? Considering how much you cook, I’m surprised. Would have thought you’d notice when you used the last of it. Guess things have been busy for you, huh?”
