Long, three-day weekends. The long weekend meant an extra day without classes but instead a party in the making at the house. It wasn’t supposed to be anything huge or super fancy, but Rebecca still planned to make the day spectacular for the girls after an afternoon of charity work in the community. They had to get their hours in, after all, and it was a chance to really put the pledges to work. Speaking of the pledges, Rebecca had tasked a couple of the girls to pick up some supplies. It had been a very detailed and precise list. While there was a casino night mixer in the works for later, this party was meant to be a simple pajama or old school sleepover vibe. Simple but fun.
The only problem was that rain was in the forecast, so some of the party decorations that were collected by the pledges weren’t as usable in the house. Early that morning, there was not a pledge in sight to pick up a few items for the necessary changes. Begrudgingly, she got dressed and was soon out the door to collect the last-minute decorations.
Thanks to the holiday, the shopping center was extra crowded, and Rebecca grimaced at the line waiting for her at the register. “Perfect,” she muttered to herself, and after what seemed to take forever, she was out the door with her two bags of merchandise. She couldn’t believe she was doing this herself, but she did what needed to be done.
As she walked down the sidewalk to her car, Rebecca’s eyes widened and a coy smile appeared on her slips when she passed by an incredibly cute guy. He gave her the same sly smile, and after passing by, she turned around to give him one more look. As soon as she turned back around, though, she slammed right into someone, and her bags flew out of her hands.
“Hey, watch it!” She huffed, even if technically the spill was her fault.
Shopping wasn’t something that Ash did often, in fact, he avoided it. He hated it, there were crowds and people, and worst of all tourists and uppity college kids who thought the world belonged to them.
He’d just been heading in when he’d moved out of the way of some idiot checking out a girl and just as he stepped back to his path the same girl turned into him and managed to blame him for it.
“I hear watching where you’re going usually helps,” he responded as he bent down to help pick up all the crap she had. He picked up a stuffed monkey and gave it a weird look before awkwardly shoving it into the bag. “If you’re set on checking a guy out, try talking to him at the fire station, he’s a fireman,” Ash grumbled as he stood up.
Rude much? Rebecca thought to herself and knelt down to pick up the items that fell out of her bags. Thankfully, the guy at least had the decency to help. Rebecca felt a bit out of sorts now, and the hot fireman was now nowhere to be found. “Thanks, I guess,” she said and smoothed out her skirt.
The idea that the guy was a fireman was enticing. A man in a uniform? Yes, please. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? Then again, if he’d seen her fall, she didn’t want to subject herself to that embarrassment no matter how entertaining Mr. Hot Fireman might have found it. “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” she said and smoothed out her skirt.
“Thanks for the help.” Even if he did make her fall over.
Ash looked at the girl, entitled was the first thing he thought of when he looked at her, she had no sense whatsoever about anything outside of herself. It was judgemental of him, but boy did he feel like he was right.
He glanced around and saw one more piece on the ground she’d missed. “Hey,” he said bending down to pick up a little miniature acoustic guitar. “Don’t think you want to forget this,” he added handing it over as he looked at with confusion, stuffed monkey’s, little guitars and other strange things. Ash was starting to wonder if the girl was into some dedicated monkey mash up.
Just as she was about to go, Rebecca turned back to see him holding out the little guitar she’d bought. It was tiny, and she’d had the idea that one of the girls, one of the pledges to be more specific, could serenade them with a song or two after a few drinks no matter how weak her singing voice might be. A couple strong drinks for all of them would make up for it. Probably.
“Thanks,” she said again and put the guitar in her bag. Looking at the guy, she could at least appreciate he was good-looking even if she didn’t tend to go for his type. The somewhat gruff, quiet, possibly broody, and really put together kind of type. She could tell he was older than her even if she didn’t much care about that. Sometimes it was a check in the plus column.
“Well, better watch out where you’re going from now on,” Rebecca said with a mostly disingenuous smile followed by a quick shrug.
“Do the same,” he said raising an eyebrow as he continued on his way into the store grumbling about entitled college kids.