According to plan

Emily smiled at her.She was cute and Emily was a sucker for cute. “You haven’t done a single thing wrong,” Emily said with a laugh. “These carts are a little hard to manage on most days, but once we got the right balance it isn’t so bad.” She has run into her fair share of things here and she didn’t want this woman feeling like a fool. There’s nothing more upsetting than a woman being made a fool. Emily had been made a fool on more than one occasion in her life and she wasn’t ever going to share that kind of feeling to someone else. “If it makes you feel better, I knocked over a bunch of oranges earlier. So I guess this really isn’t my first accident today. Clumsy me.”

It was strangely reassuring to hear that coming from a stranger. “You would never believe me if I told you I’d never used once until recently,” she said. The other person’s words were kind though and Victoria appreciated them. She stifled a giggle at the other’s escapade with the oranges. “That’s alright. Things like that seem to all happen on the same day and they just pile up until it’s one big mess. It seems that way sometimes, at least.”

@misseverglot​

Emily didn’t like going to the store alone. Taking Helena with her everywhere was routine for her and sure, she liked to add way too many snacks into their cart, but without her she was feeling a little…lonely. But Helena was absorbed with one of her video games and didn’t want to go, so Emily left her with her neighbor who has watched her countless times and went herself. Humming to herself, she browsed with a dull look in her eyes, her mind drifting to Barkis. His presence was putting her on edge a little bit and she wanted to pretend it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. It was big enough of a deal to distract Emily and she ended up crashing her grocery cart into someone else’s. “Oops.I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get in your way.”

Coming to Corona had been a bit of a culture shock to Victoria. There were so many things she had never done before coming there and with her parents not breathing down her neck every second of the day it was freeing. It was also very confusing. She had to learn to do so many things the average adult should already know. Like grocery shopping! She’d never gone herself before coming there. She was getting the hang of it though but that didn’t mean she didn’t still struggle controlling the stupid grocery carts. “No, no it’s alright! I hate these stupid things.” She felt foolish sometimes about the things she couldn’t do but not having her parents around also meant she could buy whatever she’d liked. Even if she had to marry a man she barely knew at least she could still be free. “You didn’t drop anything, did you? You wouldn’t believe me when I say I’m no good at controlling these things.” She offers the other woman another smile.

an interaction for @misseverglot​

It was the pervasive noise that drove Victor from his room that day, the steady roar of voices lurking just at the edge of his hearing, inescapable anywhere and yet utterly oppressive in small spaces. It was all in his head, and yet the constant drone seemed to roar steadily louder indoors. To escape, Victor stumbled into the street with a woefully inadequate coat only for the chill to set in blocks too late. Distracted, as he so often was, he didn’t notice someone walking the other way until he knocked into them. His hands flew out on instinct, ready to steady the other if needed. “I do apologize,” Victor began, swallowing the stutter that rose unbidden. “I was otherwise distracted.” Raising his eyes from where they had been fixed on the pavement just to the left of the individual’s shoe, he acknowledged the existence of Victoria Everglot.

Victoria had mostly kept to herself since coming to the island and that seemed to have been ages ago already. Aside from work she didn’t really go out much. Sure she’d go to the stores if she needed something and she’d go out for a bite to eat on occasion but other than that she’d stay home. Today happened to be one of those occasions. She had cooped herself up long enough and had let her parents keep her cooped back home so she was going to go out and do something. She just hadn’t quite figured out what that was yet. She was walking down the street, hoping maybe a shop or something would stick out to her when someone bumped into her. She lost her footing for a moment but grabbed on to the man’s shoulder to steady herself. “No need to apologize,” she said softly. “I was just as distracted.”

@misseverglot​

While Barkis would have appreciated it more had his move been calculated, for preparation’s sake if nothing else, walking into a woman as he strode down the sidewalk because he’d been too busy on the phone didn’t have to end badly. In fact, as he took a second look, and a third, more pointed, it didn’t have to be a bad thing at all. He rearranged his stance, his face, more apologetic now than it was, and fussed immediately over her. “My god, I’m so sorry,” he exclaimed, not flustered, but upset for causing her upset. He picked up the now mostly empty paper cup, nodding towards a trash can down the road a bit further. “I’ll take care of this, I am again, so sorry for that. I insist you allow me to buy you another - wherever you want it from, entirely on me.”

All Victoria wanted was a hot cup of coffee for the terribly cold day. She had been outside for a better part of the day, helping out by volunteering to shovel the driveways of the elderly. It wasn’t something she ever had to worry about doing growing up as there was someone to do it for her but she wanted to do her part by giving back and helping. She was very cold, to say the least, but was clad in a thick coat, hat, gloves, and scarf. That helped a little. After getting her coffee she made her way down the street and was barely twenty feet away from the entrance when she was ran into, causing her to drop the cup. “Oh, dear. No, no. It was only an accident,” she said in a soft voice. She looked up at the man that had caused her to drop the coffee and smiled. “Accidents happen.”

send  🌿  for  our  muses  to  be  caught  under  mistletoe .

This was entirely improper. Victoria wasn’t sure how she found herself under the mistletoe but she had. She’d simply been standing near the doorway of the holiday party, not realizing at all that there was mistletoe hung above it. She had been minding her own business when a very handsome gentleman made his presence known. Now their noses were nearly touching and Victoria’s cheeks were blushing. She was supposed to be marrying Victor though. Surely she shouldn’t be doing this. Still she couldn’t help herself from leaning in just a little more until their lips touched.

“Would you wear these?” Anita slid her own designs across the table to the other person, a nervous look on her face. “I’m trying to prepare some sketches to show to Candice this afternoon but I’m starting to second guess myself.” She always tended to second guess herself when it came the designs she gave to Candice, she had seen the things Candice could do and she wasn’t sure if her own designs could measure up sometimes.

Victoria takes a look at the designs sprawled across the table. She picks two of them up and looks back and forth between the two. “I think they’re quite nice. I would wear them.” She smiled at the other woman. “Don’t second guess yourself. These are wonderful. You have a real talent.”

“Fine, don’t even worry about it.” His response was hurried, but he’d gotten it out in the right order and without stuttering, which was nice while it lasted. It never went longer than five minutes. “Oh, that’s nice of you…Didn’t know they had tea.” Victor, as artistic as he was, rarely spent time in cafes on the island, preferring his own coffee pot. That was possibly the main thing that he had in common with either parent. Still, as he glanced around for some sort of…menu or whatever, he did perk up when he heard that she played piano. That was surprising. And drawing as well! Victor felt himself smile. “Pretty much the same, minus dance lessons. I’m definitely…well.” Victor gave himself a long pause, trying to think of the least embarrassing thing he could say that would work. “It’s very much a white dad at a wed…wedding.” He’d had to force that last word out, and had to direct it at the table, his face heating up. “And I draw quite a lot.”

Victoria didn’t say anything else on the matter, not wanting to embarrass him any further. “They have all sorts of teas, coffee, lattes, and from the looks of it plenty of pastries,” she said softly. Victoria slowly looked up to make brief eye contact with Victor, looking away quickly after. She could feel her heart pounding against her chest and wouldn’t have been surprised if Victor could hear it beating as well. When she first arrived in Corona it didn’t seem so scary. She was away from her parents after all. Meeting Victor made it seem so much worse though. It brought everything into perspective for her and made her realize there was no getting out of this. If she didn’t do what her parents said they would just bring her back home and that might have just made things worse for her. “Not much of a dancer then?” she asked with a small smile, glancing back up at him. “What do you draw?”

Victor, still fidgeting with his pencil, managed a quiet “Oh, good,” before silence took over again and he waited for her to say anything. Her comment about sitting sort of shocked him back into realizing that yes, he was being a little off, and he ended up stubbing his toe in his hurry to sit down as well. Luckily, he managed not to swear, though he was sure she’d noticed by both the pain on his face and the solid thump from the table leg. “Right. Um. So, what do you actually like to do?”

Victoria put a gentle hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh. “Are you alright?” she asked him with a slight smile. Victoria smoothed out her skirt and scooted her chair into the table more. “I hadn’t ordered anything because I was unsure if you wanted to. I think I might order some tea though,” she told him. His question shouldn’t have caught her off guard but it did. She should have prepared some of her own questions if she was supposed to get to know him. “Me? Oh, I-- I don’t know.” What a stupid answer. Of course she knew she just couldn’t think in the moment. “Growing up I played a lot of piano and was in dance lessons. I still enjoy the piano now though I don’t play much anymore. I do like drawing. Well, I prefer to paint but that can be messy sometimes. My parents never liked mess. What do you like to do?”

Victor wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he was nervous. Well, maybe he was a bit. He stepped into the cafe, hands in the pockets of his dark jacket so he wouldn’t want to fidget as much. He still was, fidgeting that is, spinning a pencil in his fingers as he looked around for the woman he was supposed to be meeting. When he saw her, it took everything he had to keep himself from turning tail and running out. Stopping in front of her, he tried to smile, knowing it was an awkward attempt, and ducked his head. “Hello,” he greeted her shoes before he tried to look up again. “Haven’t kept you long, have I?”

Victoria could tell that Victor was nervous. She couldn’t blame him. The situation was so archaic. Victoria wondered if people hundreds of years ago felt as they did or if it was such a normality that they remained rather calm throughout the whole thing. “No, not at all,” she said softly with a small smile. There was an awkward silence for a moment. “We could sit. Unless you’d prefer to stand.” She bit her bottom lip briefly. “I’m going to sit,” she said before taking her seat back in the chair. 

To say Victoria was nervous was an understatement. As she sat at a small table in the back of the cafe she looked down at her trembling hands. She wished her parents were there with her to meet Victor. Why couldn’t they have all met together? This was their parents doing anyways. The only way Victoria recognized Victor when he walked into the cafe was from a picture her parents had shown her. He wasn’t bad looking at least. She stood up, smoothing her dress out before waving at him to alert him of where she was sitting. “Hello, Victor,” she said softly when he made his way over. “I’m Victoria.” She hid her shaking hands behind her back so he wouldn’t see how nervous she was.

“Oh, I would love to help, but I’m absolutely awful with directions,” Peri admitted apologetically. “I can, um, I can help you look if you’d like?” she offered, looking around to see if there was anything she was familiar with. She knew what buildings were next to that spa, but she couldn’t remember how to get there. “Moving stress, though. Did you just get here?”

“It seems that most people are though, doesn’t it?” Victoria asked with a smile. She was never good with directions herself. “That would be great.” She nodded at the girl’s question. “Yes. Not long ago. I’m still adjusting.”

Wanda frowned slightly, “Honestly? I couldn’t give you the best directions. I’ve been here a year and I still haven’t got the routes mapped out how I’d like. Usually I’d have a whole map about how to get each place faster than others but I’m still at a loss with most of the island.”

“Oh, dear. Alright. Thank you anyway.” Victoria let out a soft sigh. “I haven’t been here very long at all. I’m afraid I still don’t know where much of anything is yet.”

“Oh uh…” He wasn’t paying any attention to the things around him, too much of his brain pulled into… whatever was happening to him. Danny still didn’t fully understand that. “Just down that way, I haven’t actually been here myself.” 

“Seems I wasn’t far off from it then,” Victoria said in a soft tone. She offered the man a smile. “Thank you. You haven’t been though? I haven’t either but from the reviews I read it seems like a great place.”

“Uhh…” Adora furrowed her brows, stopping and taking a look around. She wasn’t the best at navigation and the only time she had been to the spa was when Glimmer and Bow took her but that was months ago. “I don’t know off the top of my head but I’m sure we could figure it out. It can’t be that hard, right?”

Victoria smiled at the other woman and nodded. “I’m sure we can,” she said. She took a look around, trying to familiarize herself with her surroundings. “Do you know if we’re far from it or not?”