roman holiday

LOCATION: outside the liquor store 

        Wine coolers in hand, Elina stopped in front of her car once seeing one of the back tires completely flat. Dark brown eyes rolled dramatically as she hugged the still cool six pack of Jack Daniels Watermelon Punch flavored liquor to her chest. Elina for the most part was good when it came to keeping a level and calm head about things even when they were as unfortunate as a flat tire but for whatever reason she was on edge today. Maybe it was the difficult liquor store employee or her more than annoying employer nagging on her all day. Either way, she seemed to be pushed to her last straw. 

Turning around when hearing someone coming up, she jumped slightly at the sound of foot steps before sighing in relief when realizing it was a familiar face. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to change a tire, would you?” She asked before holding up the wine coolers. “I’ll give you a free wine cooler as payment.” 

“Let us make one thing clear; the day I change tires, the world has truly ended or I’ve grown old and grey and men don’t like my boobs anymore.” What Tanya was doing at a liquor store didn’t need to be asked; but it might have been comical to know that she wasn’t here to buy something to drown her own sorrows in. She was just about to walk in, when she spotted Elina. 

@tcnyabcssir

“That’s your mom, right?” Emilia double checked, her eyes scanning the crowd to see if there were any men that could possibly distract said mother so the two girls could do whatever they pleased to do. “There has to be at least one dilf out there that wouldn’t mind taking a lovely lady on a walk. If there’s two, I’ll take the other,” she joked – though was she really joking? After talking to Tyler again, all she wanted was to just drown herself in some sort of alcohol, do a few lines and forget about every single worry in the world.

“If she’s been calling herself my sister, she’s a fucking liar. Yeah, that’s my mother alright.” Tanya had dragged the older woman out of the house, mostly because she was tired of being cooped inside the same room as her. And also because, Tanya had felt sorry for her mother. She didn’t want to think what the other woman was going through, but even now, she was being faithful to the memory of a man who left them on the streets. “If there’s three, I’d love to take him home tonight. Or share him, I don’t mind.” She was standing by the cotton candy stall, the sugar assaulting Tanya’s sense of smell. “Let’s go hunt some DILFs, shall we?” 

       Ivy was just finishing up with brunch with a client when she was stuffing her folders into her bag and glanced up to notice a familiar face that had a rare smile appearing on her features as she wrapped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Tanya!” She walked closer towards the other woman as her heels clicked against the pavement. “Oh my god…I thought I was seeing a ghost.” 

A second pair of heels started on the street, and Tanya’s own pair stopped. The voice, all too shrill and familiar, was like a pull. A piece of the past she had missed all too dearly. “Don’t tell me my tan’s paled. I worked very hard on it, all summer long.” It was a joke; Tanya thought herself to be above sentimentalities anyway. “Well, you’re looking banging, if I do say so myself, Ivy.” 

Whether or not Tyler knew she was playing a game as well or not, it was still entertaining and that’s all the male really cared about at the end of the day. In a town like Southport, you had to make trouble yourself. Get things moving if you were the type of person that enjoyed seeing pretty things crumble and Tyler Gray happened to be one of those people. Put something pretty in front of him and he’ll latch on only to destroy it once he got all the juice he could out of it. Not that he looked at the girl in front of him and saw a huge juice box but he did see someone that could entertain him and he would be a liar if he said he didn’t think of some devilish scenarios.

Finding her whole innocent vibe amusing, Tyler raised an eyebrow before tilting his head slightly to the side. “I knew you had to be new. A pretty girl like you wouldn’t go unnoticed for long.” Tyler said, deciding to go with the flirty choice of motive. They both seemed to put out different acts to figure a person out. In a way, they were a lot alike for two strangers that knew nothing about each other. “Ooo, that’s definitely gonna be something I add to the list.” Smiling towards the stranger, he stepped closer, looking at the address she had shown him. Tyler wasn’t a fucking navigator but he had been in Southport his whole life, so if he knew a street name, he could probably tell you the general direction. “Maybe, but if I did and I sent you on your way, how would I keep flirting with you?” 

Only if Tanya knew what was going through his pretty little head, she would have berated him for lowering to a juice box. But she could respect the rest of his chain of thought. After all, it was so hard to find people who thought like her; men called her the devil for breaking their hearts, but they never stopped to consider why she would do that. To entertain oneself, by whatever means...sometimes, it was the only thing keeping society sane and running. Between the both of them, it would be a matter of who fell first; Icarus, or the sun he was beginning to challenge. Tanya liked to think of herself as a worthy contender. But she didn’t know what was going through this pretty boy’s head. 

She could keep up this phase, have him eating out of the palm of her hand by the end of the night. Maybe, if she played her cards right, it could happen tonight. “Yeah? Would you have done the noticing?” She bit the corner of her lip, careful not to displace her lipstick. Tanya moved in closer to fill the gap between them, a not-so-innocent move on her part. “Well...if you took this poor little girl home, maybe she’ll give you her number. Or maybe she’d tell you that she’s lonely, and looking for company.” 

It was pretty immediate that Nikki noticed the brunette with her head in a map. Most people would just use their cellphone to navigate through town yet, here someone was, with a paper map. If Nikki was being honest, he probably couldn’t even read one of those things right. He’d more than likely lead someone or himself to the wrong place entirely. It may have been harsh but he thought about not helping the girl. Leaving her be and walking in the opposite direction but instead he found himself sighing and making his way over to the girl. 

As he got closer he couldn’t help but find her oddly familiar. It was like when you saw someone you didn’t really know but it felt like you knew them. Maybe from another life or something? Not that Nikki believed in that sort of thing… At least he hoped that wasn’t true. He knew when he died he wouldn’t want to come back and do it all over again. Although, maybe that’s what hell was? Ugh, that was a unsettling thought. Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he narrowed his brows slightly. 

“Do I know you?” He asked, genuinely curious. “You look crazy familiar to me and I can promise you right now that this isn’t some weak attempt at a pick-up line.” Nikki commented, before looking at her map once again. Still curious as to why the hell she went the map route. 

Truth be told, Tanya would kill anyone who ever told of her Girl Scout past. She was eight, she was spoiled and bored. So she marched up to her father’s study and demanded to join the Girl Scouts. She had gotten up till Cadet, and then she got bored of it and decided that ruining a girl’s day was much more mentally stimulating than selling cookies and learning skills. Being able to find her way on a map, and using a compass were the only two things Tanya still remembers, not something she brags about. 

The man kept coming closer and she was tempted to tell him off and walk away. Or just walk away. Could you swat people away with flimsy paper? Maybe Tanya would learn another skill. Eat your heart out, Girl Scouts. She frowned, moving back. “I..---did we go to school together? Would be weird because no one I went to school came from Southport, but what the fuck do I know about people?” Now that he mentioned it, Tanya studied his features again. He probably was familiar, or she was just searching for companionship on the tarmac. 

The map was still in her clutch, gently fluttering in the wind. “Don’t ask.”

Mateo knew Southport like the back of his hand, he’d been there his whole life and despite his lost time, he still knew Southport like the back of his hand. He was pretty sure he could get from point A to point B with his eyes closed if he wanted to. The point was, there was nothing in that town that Mateo didn’t know about. Besides, it was sort of his job to keep an eye on everything. At least, that’s what he had been told by his father. To keep an eye on everything, keep track of what’s new and what’s old, never let anything take you by surprise. 

Assuming the woman was having trouble finding whatever it was she was looking for, Mateo made his way over to the girl. Asking her if she needed some help. It was obvious she hadn’t heard him when she turned around to look at him. “I was just wondering if you needed any help?” Mateo repeated, his eyes on the new face. “I can help you get wherever you need if you’re looking for something in particular.” The male spoke truthfully. Mateo was actually surprised someone hadn’t stopped to help her already. 

“I’m Mateo, by the way.” He added, trying to make the situation less uncomfortable, if she was uncomfortable. He knew there were some people that didn’t do well with strangers and he figured sharing his name would make him a little less of a stranger than he already was. 

Tanya was always uncomfortable, but not for the reasons anyone would think. All her life, she strove for control, and for independence. And being Southport was against all of that. It was like being on a boat; standing up would throw her overboard and she didn’t know how else to gain her footing. She looked back because she was curious; coming face to face with what she could only assume was the local bad boy of the streets, she tensed. 

He asked if she was looking for something in particular. And Tanya’s gears starting spinning, as if he was a parent who just said there was no curfew. Like she was being shown the yellow brick road at that moment; she could go anywhere in this place, that wasn’t the apartment they were renting out. Her eyebrows raised and she pursed her lips, before she opened her mouth to speak. “Well...” 

A few more dots were connecting in her head, before Tanya said, “Where does a girl go to get a drink around these parts? I’m new in town, and I’d love to celebrate with liquor and beer.” 

It wasn’t that difficult to take notice of the only person in this town with a huge map in her hands and it was no secret that Tyler made a b-line for the girl. Finding the whole situation not only amusing but he was curious. Curious as to what type of “fresh meat” there was in their little town of Southport. Sure, he could’ve probably worded it better in his own head, fresh meat was a little distasteful but Tyler wasn’t looking to win any awards and it was a thought. Then again, even if it wasn’t and he said the words out loud, he wouldn’t give two shits about what anyone thought, If anything he’d say it just to get the odd looks or the reaction. 

Tyler let out a decently loud, “excuse me” before waiting until she turned around and when she had, he wasn’t disappointed. She was pretty and in his opinion not a waste of his time. He really was an asshole, wasn’t he? Either way, it didn’t really matter. Tyler had never filtered himself and he wasn’t about to now. He thought what he thought, felt what he felt, and did what he did, take it or leave it. Although, you better adore the hell out of him or he’d be a little offended. Classic, narcissistic asshole, at your service. 

“I haven’t seen one of those in years,” he spoke of the map, pointing his index finger in the direction of the paper. “If you’re going for the whole, trying to get someone’s attention thing, it might be working.” Tyler commented before adding, “I should add carrying a map to my list of things to do when I’m looking to be noticed.” 

The fucking map. Tanya rolled her eyes; just because the scenery changed didn’t mean the rules changed too. She had to think quick, be on her feet; did she let this man think he had her attention, or did she just walk away faster? Once upon a time, Tanya would have easily made the former choice. She liked having a man’s attention, and later on, his devotion. That stupid voice in her head however, it paused to think if this was worth it. The words were there, hanging in the air. Her eyes went up and down, sizing the man, from over her shoulder and decided that she was going to have fun. This wasn’t a prison sentence, it was a new start.

So put the map down and turned. Bit her lip. Set the stage. “Well, you know what they say about the new girl.” She shrugged, and then looked down at her shoes. Pretended to hide her red cheeks. Tanya decided to play innocent, till she could sense him out. “I hear umbrellas on a clear evening are a definite show stopper too. If the map doesn’t work, I mean…” She folded the paper in her hand, clearly embarrassed to have been caught with it. “You wouldn’t know where this address is, would you?” Grabbing the pen from shirt pocket, she quickly scribbled down an address that was close by, but not her apartment complex.

In the few weeks that Tanya has lived in Southport, there have more than a few emotions. A lingering sense of shame and guilt, that leaded to her throwing her phone onto a street, only for it to be crushed under traffic. Unpacking led to frustration, because she was at odds with her mother, about her father’s belongings. Needless to say, Tanya was having a time in a new place. The only good thing about anything was work, and even that had to end at some point in the day. 

It was to happen eventually; Tanya was lost. She had a map in her bag, one of those weird, on paper for tourists kinda thing that she wouldn’t draw out because it’s a rookie mistake, and even she knew a thing about learning, it was that being hard on herself never failed. She had been in the middle of figuring out the way home, deciding that a walk would probably take longer and hopefully, she wouldn’t have to talk to her mother if the former was tired. 

The woman only looked over her shoulder when she heard someone saying something. She wasn’t quite sure if it was her name or something else entirely unrelated to her. After all, she might have left the city, but her scandals followed at her heel, and she would not be surprised if this was one of them.