Sometimes, Rae wondered exactly how much Kori could take before she came undone. The Stone family was notorious for being strong, but Kori had always been the softest of the bunch. It wasn't a bad thing, especially considering softness and kindness was the basis of most of their friendship, but she didn't have the thick skin that her sisters and brother did. It worried her. “I'm worried about her,” Rae told him honestly. “Her new thick skin could be a good thing, but she's not... she's not like Leah and Brandon, you know? She isn't hard like they are.” She sighed. She simply nodded when he told her that he was glad she hadn't given her son up. “So am I,” she said seriously.
“Well, splurge or not, it's a treat.” It was hard for her not to worry about his tendencies a little. His smoking and drinking. He never did them in her apartment, which was good, but if, for some reason, they ended up getting him hurt or killed? She didn't know how she'd be able to recover. “So, what, you're going to get nice and drunk, so I can take advantage of you?” It was a joke, of course, but it was still funny.
Chewing on her lip, she nodded. “I'll research it, obviously. Really thoroughly. It's better than using food resources to make something that you're not even sure will come out right...” she trailed off. Charlie's foray into making pizza had irritated her, for that reason alone. She didn't say anything more.
Rae knew misogyny. Her former occupation had afforded her many opportunities to see it in full bloom. Being called babe wasn't misogynistic in the least, in her eyes. It was nice. Sure, it was a little 'my property' sounding, but Rae liked feeling like she belonged to someone. So... it was nice to hear. “You were the one who told me not to die and everything, right?” she joked, winking at him. “Just doing my best to ensure that doesn't happen.” She looked over her shoulder at her backside and nodded her head. “They're my favorite pair for a reason,” she told him, making a show of walking for a few steps. “Give you a lot to look at, hm?” she told him, wagging her eyebrows.
“That a challenge?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip and looking up at him with playful eyes. “Because I'm pretty good at rising to challenges like that, sir.”
She nodded her head. “Think you can get your feet in there while I put mine on?” she asked, taking a seat beside him and getting her skates ready. It was a little silly, how excited she was about this. It only took her a minute and a half to get hers properly laced, and then she slid down to the ice in front of Topher, on her knees. It occurred to her, for a split second, how this would probably look to any outsiders, but she didn't linger on it for long, because there was no one there.
His comment brought a grin to her face, and she shrugged a shoulder, quickly taking the zipper to her coat down about six inches, revealing the v-neck shirt she had on underneath the coat... and quite a bit of cleavage. “That what you meant?” she asked, wagging her eyebrows, before leaning down to tie his skates for him... and likely giving him a nice show.