D A N C E –– D A N C E

—CULLEN PAUSED FOR a moment, more surprised that the woman had offered her earbud than anything. “oh yeah? guess that explains why I don’t recognize it,” He glanced at her phone — at the unfamiliar spotify album being displayed there  — and nodding, took hold of the bud. “you’re right. its only fair. They never play the good stuff on the radio anyway,” He held the device up to his ear. It was a little loud for his liking, but he didn’t bother to point that out. The beat was strong  — really got your heart pumping. Before long, Cullen was bopping his head. “wow, way better,” He commented. “what other kind of stuff do they do?”

“I’m not offended, I just–was curious.” She told the other while rolling her eyes and sighing. “No–go ahead I just, sorry I’ve had a hard day.” Which was actually an overstatement because nothing horrific happened to her and she was really just complaining for no good reason. 

She hadn’t meant anything by the question, but clearly the other had taken offense and while normally she hated having any type of confrontation, she’d just been curious about what the other liked to during her spare time and hence she’d mentioned it. “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was curious.” And since this person was a stranger, she didn’t need to tell her that Maya actually spent a lot of time in the library, especially since Avantika was at that age where she wanted her to grow her knowledge as much as possible before kindergarten.

going for a walk, she brought rose along, her cavalier king charles spaniel. she was enjoying the weather tonight and was taking in the scenery, but was soon interrupted when she felt rose’s leash being tugged. glancing back at the small dog, she realized rose was rushing toward others and merrie couldn’t help, but smile at that. following behind rose, she gave the person a small smile before saying, “sorry about that. rose gets excited when meeting new people.”

She listened the other’s suggestions, mentally ticking off the places she’d already been to quite a few times in town before she heard the remark about the library. “While I agree that books are amazing, I don’t know if it’s exactly what I’d call the place to be. But I’ll keep your suggestion in mind for sure.” She wondered what exactly prompted the other to make that suggestion and so she followed it up with a question of her own. “Is that what you do? Spend your time in the library, amongst the books?”

@mackrussells

“ hey, ” finn leaned against the library counter. “ what’s the worst book you ever read? ”

—ALRIGHT, SO CULLEN had basically walked himself into this one. He thought he at least had a handle on the most popular bands, though. “sorry, it was really loud,” He added with a shrug, as he frowned to himself. “no, not really. I’ve heard the name but I’m not big on the radio,” Read: he only listened to show tunes, because he was a giant fucking nerd.

owen furrowed his brows. “that wasn’t a joke,” he told her in a serious tone, not really seeing funny part of this situation. this is not what women usually did when he hit on them. normally, they would get flustered or even flirt back, but laugh? this was new. he honestly didn’t know how to react. “i wouldn’t actually mind you staring at me for a long period of time. if you haven’t already noticed, i’m incredibly good looking, so i’m pretty used to getting stared at.”

rose resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle mack’s hair. something like maternal contentment filled her watching the younger girl drum her fingers against her own drink. “addy and arlo have it covered most nights. we can all bar-tend but unfortunately i’m the only one who can do our taxes.”

“yeah” rowan replies, looking over at the girl yet again. rowan didn’t mind her hair, she wished she could do something different with it though. “i’m tempted.  i mean, of course but which colour though? that’s the question” she muses. 

rose hadn’t bar-tended regularly since college. she spent most of her nights in the back of holiday brewing crouched over a computer screen putting three ivy league degrees to good use. it was nice to get back into the saddle sometimes and give addy the night off. now she raised her eyebrow across the bar conspiratorially, hand fisted around a bottle of scotch. “that’s cute, i’m cutting you off.”

“don’t be so conceited, not everyone’s looking at you,” wren was quick to snap, crossing her arms and glimpsing away in a very conclusive manner. however, after a few beats of silence, she was quick to flip. producing her phone from her pocket, she suddenly had a newfound sense of purpose. “—but while we’re here, mind if i grab a shot for the insta story? followers will eat up the whole moody, faceless image in the golden hour. don’t worry, i’ll tag you.”

continuing to stare, erin didn’t realize what was going on until mack spoke up. a second later, they shook their head before saying, “huh? oh, my bad. i was just staring off into space and thinking of what to eat later for dinner. i apologize for being rude.”

Elena heard the words from the other and watched as she quite rudely just slid into the empty seat across from her, apparently standing this was her table, which didn’t really seem likely. “Strange, it didn’t have a reserved sign on it for you.” She said, taking another sip from her coffee as she waited to see how the other would respond.

Maya was thankful for the other pointing her in the right direction, until she heard her words and ended up smiling. While folding her map up she glanced at the other woman. “Okay, so what other places would you recommend?” Maya had been around to Holiday a few times in the past, but she knew the town was ever changing so there must be more exciting places that have popped up this year as well.

owen couldn’t help but jump at her hostile words. he wasn’t expecting her to be so vicious– most women weren’t like that, especially when it came to him. “no, no, there’s not a problem at all.” he shook his head. “can’t a guy just stare at a beautiful girl? with no reason? i don’t think it’s illegal to do so.”