Re: quicklog: connie and cris awkward blind date
[Since the train, Cris hadn't seen Connie in-person. And before that, only a handfula times, and mostly in passing, huh? It was weird now—to feel like you knew somebody, least a lil bit, you'd only seen a couple times in your life—, but weird was more commonplace than you'd think, especially in a place like Repose. The brightness in the girl's smile was met in kind, wattage-wise, if not entirely in its width.—It was prolly an effecta trauma—imagined or otherwise—an effecta that night, in the compartment, when he felt flayed and split open, and she'd been there, that Cris felt like did. Normally, he was much more circumspect. Oh, he'd play friendly, but to really open up, it took him a long, long time. And he didn't usually go right for the big smiles, even when girls were twirling their skirts. But, that lil splaya white and orange reminded hima Sam and Teresa, and he was already too open with the girl, so he gave her an encouraging sorta nod.] You look good, chica. [He told her it easy, 'cause she did.
Still in that frotha ignorance, he laughed at that stupid z that was all youth, and he scratched under his chin, eyebrows up—right up 'til a fissure brokered black between Connie's dark brows and that fizzy smile inverted. It only took about two words for Cris to put the pieces together.
Connie shook her head, walking backwards into the counter, and the guy was looking at her with the same sorta confusion.—He felt bad, huh? He did. Immediate. 'Cause, as much as he was tempted to get his phone out and dial up Sam and yell at her, he knew she'd only been trying to help. That said, she'd misled Connie in a worse way than she had Cris. Connie thought she was meeting somebody. She had hopes pinned on this, and the Sheriff could see that.] Ah—[He looked down, up, not drawing closer to Connie, even though it was his instinct to try and calm her down.] I'm sorry—[He looked it.] I didn't know. I just—[In retrospect, him saying she looked good seemed bad and Cris tucked his chin to his chest to run his hands through his hair.] I don't think she meant to—[He licked his lips, looking for words, but in the end, after a second, he just gave Connie a bracing smile.] Y'know what? Let's play a game, huh? I prolly can't keep up, but I promise to give you whatever tickets I win, so you can get whatever you want—[He gestured at the counter behind the girl, hopeful, like maybe he could put out this fire before it started.]