“Your manners, apparently,” Riley fires back, sounding equally unimpressed. Accepting the fact that Charlotte isn’t gonna shake her hand, she slips it right back into her pocket, a little bit too smug for Charlotte’s liking. She purses her lips, sends a pointed look in Riley’s direction, and turns to Lou.
“I was just complimenting Gabi on her taste in friends, but Lou, dear, don’t take it the wrong way when I say that yours is spectacularly subpar.”
“Alright!” Gabi claps her hands loudly to break the tension. “I need wine.”
She turns around to grab two glasses off the bar and hands one to Lou, who gratefully accepts. Riley, being the insufferable show off that she is, also takes two glasses and offers one to Charlotte. “Señorita?”
Charlotte seeks out Gabi’s gaze for a millisecond, as if to say‘see?’before reaching out to accept the wine. But as her fingers graze Riley’s, a strong static shock sears through both of them. Charlotte gasps and jumps back, Riley shouts“ow!”and promptly drops the glass. It shatters into a million pieces, red wine spilling all over the floor and, oh no, Charlotte’s black pumps.
Her nostrils flare as she looks down, slowly inhaling. Making eye contact with Riley again, she can feel her hands practically turning into claws. With a dangerous, almost feral look on her face, she lifts her arms to launch herself at Riley. Just before she can attack her, Gabi jumps in between the two of them.
“You!” Charlotte growls over Gabi’s shoulder. “Look what you did! Do you have any idea—”
“Me?” Riley scoffs. “If you hadn’t declared war on some party decorations, we wouldn’t have been electrocuted.” She wiggles her fingers to get rid of the tingling sensation in them, and reaches down to pick up some of the bigger pieces of glass.
“Charlotte, bathroom,” Gabi says to her friend, resolutely wanting to defuse the situation. Charlotte exhales, and turns around with a dramatic flourish.
“Are you gonna tell her she’ll be paying for dry cleaning?” she shouts over her shoulder as she walks away. “And get me another glass of red. Pronto.”
Charlotte knows Gabi has put her in a metaphorical time-out corner, but at least she feels a little calmer when she returns after a while. She silently slips into a booth in the back of the venue, closes her eyes with a sigh, slumps down, and drops her head against the backrest. The increasingly loud music isn’t doing much for her ability to be friendly and social.Just 30 more minutes,she promises herself, and then she’s allowed to go home.
With her eyes still closed, she feels a slight dip in the cushion.
Cracking one eye open, she lets out an annoyed huff at the sight of Riley.
“Oh please, not you. You lost the right to talk to me today,” she murmurs softly, but loud enough for Riley to hear.
“You sure? I came to make it up to you, sweetheart,” Riley says, putting two intact wine glasses down on the table.
“Don’t call me— oh.” Charlotte eyes up the generously poured peace offering in front of her, and shuffles in her seat so she sits upright. “Well. Fine. You may stay.”
She picks up her glass just as Riley picks up hers and puts it to her lips right away, ignoring Riley’s invitation to clink their glasses together.
“It’s good to know you can be bribed,” Riley hums softly before sipping her own drink.
“It’s not bribing if you give me something and I give you nothing in return.”
“And yet, here you are, having a conversation with me, while a moment ago I wasn’t allowed to talk to you,” Riley says, witha smirk on her face.
“Yeah, momentary lapse of judgment. I’m revoking that right as you can’t seem to stop being annoying,” Charlotte shoots back, hoping that is going to be it.
Charlotte can’t truthfully say she hates the ego boost she gains from Riley’s flattery, from being clearly found attractive, but Riley isn’t anything if not relentless, arrogant, and above all, a woman. Charlotte, being Gabi’s best friend, is supportive of the queer community in all the ways, it just isn’t for her. Sure, she’d kissed plenty of her female classmates back in the day, but it’s nothing she’d want to do again.
So with nothing to win or lose, Charlotte doesn’t really mind keeping up their playful banter. Some might even call it flirting, but she’d been very clear about being straight, which did seem to throw Riley off a little at the time. However both women had soon realized their banter keeps them on their toes. It’s innocent and it’s fun.
Charlotte catches herself staring at Riley’s face, whose eyes are sparkling at the challenge. Riley raises her eyebrows, looks away, and mimes locking up her lips.
She tears her eyes away from Riley’s mouth, only to land on the three opened buttons of her shirt. Realizing there had only been one unbuttoned earlier, she can’t stop herself from saying: “Wow. You sure ammo’d up.”
Shaking her head, she takes another sip. Riley locks eyes with her again.
“Glad you noticed,” she says, straightening her shoulders. She leans one elbow on the table, chin in hand. “What can I say, I know what I want. Is it working?”
Charlotte snorts. “Ha! No. Still not on Team Boobs.”
It’s Riley’s time to shake her head. “Yeah… you’re actually insane for that.”
“Who’s insane?” Gabi appears in front of the booth, followed by Lou.
