#ch33.start

​one of the positives of having a “normal” part time job (and there weren’t many) was the endless amount of people that cycled in and out of the coffee shop throughout the day. people always needed coffee, they were addicted it, and that was something that he could use to his advantage. he walked in the back door fifteen minutes late for his shift, his manager giving him a disapproving look as he passed by, but he could see the beginnings of a smirk hidden in the corner of her lips. his coworkers were used to his behavior by now, but they would never fire him, he made the work day a lot more entertaining for them. ducking his head to put on his apron, flynn nudged the person already at the cash register with his elbow, interrupting the customer right in the middle of their order. “sorry about that, what can i get for you?” he asked, reaching behind his back to tie his apron strings in a messy knot. his dark eyes did a quick scan of the person at the counter, checking for any visible valuables; watches, necklaces, rings, etc. 

Eyes scanned the street as Alice walked around her apartment building, shaking the bag of treats in her hand. Her cat had managed to dart out the door before the blonde could catch. "Dinah! Come here munchkin, you don't want to stay out here!" Most likely she would come back on her own if Alice waited, but there was still a chill in the air and who knew what trouble the little rascal would get into. “Excuse me.” She approached the nearest person. “You haven’t seen a brown tabby cat with a blue collar have you.”

Every year Alice had to make at least one snowman, putting her own personal twist on them. It was a tradition that began when she was younger and one she continued still. Alice took a step back observing her handiwork, tilting her head slightly as she thought. Taking off her bright red scarf, she tied it as a sash around the snowmen. "It's almost there, it's still just missing something. I don't know what though." 

Oliver stood on the shoreline, skimming rocks across the surface of the water. Music playing through his headphones, gave a contrast to the quietness of the afternoon. After moving here he had quickly realized that he hated the quietness of the town. In the city there had always been a cacophony of noise. Here there was barely any, it was kind of unsettling. As a result he had started wearing his headphones almost constantly, needing some sort of background noise. The only downside was he didn’t always hear things happening around him, like the person who approached him. He only noticed when them came into his peripheral, startling him. “Fuck!” He took a few steps back, pulling the headphones. “Oh man, I thought I was alone out here.”

He had to remind himself, several times already, why he had chosen to put his name into the raffle at all. Pacing on the sidewalk outside Tony’s, he could feel the nervous energy radiating off the other participants as they made their way inside the restaurant to meet their ‘randomly selected’ dates. It had been ages since he’d been nervous or excited about anything. Deep in his pocket was the slip of paper that had been given to him when he’d initially arrived. He’d read the name written on it, hadn’t recognized it, and then crumbled it into a ball. He made a habit of knowing the names of everyone in Bounds Bay with money and whoever he’d been paired with wasn’t one of them. The best he was gonna get that night was a free meal, whatever his date had in their wallet, and maybe a ring or a bracelet. It was a little disappointing considering the fact that he’d dressed up for the occasion. Sort of. He stopped pacing to lean against the brick wall beside the entrance, racking his fingers through his dark hair. There was one other person there with him, either waiting for their date to arrive or too nervous to go inside. He briefly met eyes with them, an ill-concealed smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Think it’s too late to cancel?”

​it had been an incredibly long day for her, she’d been standing her entire shift and she desperately needed a moment to sit and rest her aching feet. but she wouldn’t settle for just anywhere, she could endure at least a few more minutes of pain for the the opportunity to watch the sun set over the water. when she arrived at her usual place, she was surprised to see that someone else was already there. she cleared her throat so that her approach wouldn’t accidently startle the other person, then joined them at the end of the dock. worried that the sound of her voice might ruin the tranquility of the setting, she caught the person’s eye and smiled, then slipped her phone out of her back pocket and checked for the time of that evening’s sunset. she wasn’t completely sure the person standing there was waiting for the same thing she was waiting for, but she certainly hoped so, or else what she was about to tell them would mean nothing to them and she’d have disrupted the peace for no reason. “shouldn’t be long now,” she whispered to her companion, “phone said the sun would start to set around 5:30.”