Alone at last, for this Summer

by Cackling Moron

Four

Author's Note:

The stakes could not be lower.

If there had been hopes that a nice night’s sleep might have dispelled the lingering awkwardness of the previous night, these hopes did not last long. Things were still highly, well, awkward. Neither Adagio nor Thom really knew where to look or what to say and so mostly, mutually settled on not saying anything and not looking at one another.

For his part, Thom had been looking forward to having Adagio arrive on time (which is to say on time for her, which is to say late) and be right back to her lazy, fun, full-of-herself usual and have everything back to what now apparently constituted normal for him. Instead, she came in on time on time (which is to say, on time) and was alarmingly quiet and withdrawn.

She didn’t even complain when he gave her something to do. Not so much as a put-upon sigh. It was distressing.

For her part, what grand plans Adagio had had about letting Thom know she’d worked out his immense, burgeoning, romantic feelings for her and how sweet this was but how misguided and unprofessional and how they could sort it out with her guidance all went out the window practically the moment she’d stepped in through the door.

The words she’d compiled in her head to lay it all out for him just sort of wafted away after he’d said good morning to her, and they’d then refused to come back. Just something about his friendly, idiotic face had driven them right out of her. Trust him to ruin everything. Idiot.

This uncomfortable state of affairs persisted the whole morning and through lunch. Customers popped up here or there but were nothing of note. Every time Adagio heard that bell above the door ring her head would whip up and she would feel a surge of relief on seeing that it was another of the old, doddering, unthreatening regulars.

Up until the point when it wasn’t. That time the relief did not come. Horror, however, did.

She did know this girl with glasses who liked books.

“You!” Adagio practically snarled, leaping up from where she’d been crouched by a shelf, applying pricing stickers with all the enthusiasm such a task could stoke.

The girl - who had entered and smiled on seeing Thom - jumped nearly a foot in the air and staggered back into the now-closed door of the shop, startled.

“M-me?” She stammered, hand to her chest as Adagio advanced, storming across the shop towards her.

“You!” Adagio said again. “You and your friends ruined everything! All of my plans! All of my hard work! I could be home right now! I could have put everything back the way it was! But you! You!”

She grabbed the girl - Twilight or something, maybe - by the collar with both hands and hauled her up so she was on her tiptoes.

“I’ve never met you before and I don’t have any friends but I’m really sorry me and my friends ruined your life I’m sorry!” The girl squealed.

By then Thom had finally snapped out of it and lunged across the shop to interpose himself between the two of them, breaking it up and holding Adagio at bay. It was more difficult than he might have expected.

“Hey hey hey break it up. What the hell, Dagi, what the hell are you doing?”

Him using that name did a very good job of distracting her and she tore her attention away from the still-cowering maybe-Twilight and back to Thom, stopping for a moment at least in trying to wriggle out of his grip.

“I - she - they - “ Adagio said, flustered, thinking of the best way of summing the situation up for Thom but realising quite quickly that it would take far too long.

So instead she just tried against to get at maybe-Twilight around him. And failed, because Thom had used her moment of confused hesitation to better wrap his arm around her waist and once she started up again he just lifted her up and carried her away, struggling the whole way.

Honestly, that surprised her. She hadn’t known he had it in him.

“I can come back,” the girl said quietly from the doorway, hands clutched before her.

“Or you can stay away!” Adagio all-but yelled over Thom’s shoulder at her.

“Dagi! Stop!” Thom said before turning to the other girl. “Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.”

He then carried Adagio away from the shop floor, setting her down but making sure to keep standing where he blocked her from going and continuing what she’d started.

“Not sure if I have to point this out to you but that wasn’t really great customer service. What the hell, Adagio, you can’t go around doing that. Seriously! What was that?” He asked.

“You don’t understand! She was one of them! They ruined me!”

“I don’t understand, no. And she didn’t seem to know who you were,” Thom pointed out, having heard that part.

“She - she has to be pretending! She couldn’t have forgotten,” Adagio said. Thom shrugged.

“I wouldn’t know.”

“She…”

In the quiet of the back, away from Twilight and with only Thom’s painfully disapproving stare for company, Adagio found herself reflecting. It would be very odd for Twilight to forget, also odd for her to just pretend. Wouldn’t it?

Something was different about her, beyond the different hair, the glasses and her failure to recognise Adagio. Her whole aspect was different, like she was someone else completely. It was odd, but as far as Adagio could tell it was genuine.

Maybe Thom really had put her off her game...damn Thom...

She shook her head. Not that it mattered. Adagio was meant to be a professional. That was the whole point of this, wasn’t it? That had been her whole motivation before allowing the moment to carry her away. Professionally ensure that this unnecessary influence did not disrupt business - clearly the girl had no intention of being a good customer.

It was written all over her. A pernicious and disruptive influence. Just here to cause trouble. And laugh with Thom, disruptively.

“You’re taking a break, alright?” Thom said, snapping Adagio out of her train of thought. She tried to protest but Thom cut her off. “Right now. I am going to go and help the customer and kind of hope she doesn’t get us all into trouble seeing as how you basically assaulted her. Okay? Cool off.”

“But-” Adagio tried, only to be cut off again. Had it been anyone else but Thom she probably would have ripped their head off. Here though, she supposed he should be cut some slack. This time. He was probably tired and confused from having carried her into the back like that.

She was still low-key impressed with that. Really hadn’t thought he had it in him.

“But what?” Thom asked, patience plainly wearing thin.

She couldn’t work out why he was so upset with her and also couldn’t work out why him being upset was making her feel so damn bad. She slumped.

“Nothing. I’ll take my break,” she said.

“Glad to hear it,” Thom said, turning to leave.

“Thom?” Adagio piped up and Thom, sighing, stopped and turned back to her.

“Yes?”

“Don’t be mad at me,” said Adagio, lip wobbling. A nice touch, she felt, though one that came a lot more naturally than it had in the past.

Thom sighed again, deeper this time.

“I’m not mad. Just deeply confused. Enjoy your break.”

She did not. She mostly just sat and stewed and listened. The customer - this maybe-Twilight, whoever or whatever she was - had not left as Adagio hoped she might have done and so the sounds of her interacting with Thom were soon unavoidable.

Bits and pieces of their conversation drifted through to Adagio. Prattle about books. Stupid jokes that Thom made that maybe-Twilight inexplicably laughed at. Again with the laughing. Disruptive influence! Certainly didn’t sound like anything productive was happening.

Adagio sat through fifteen minutes of this torture before reaching her limit. Looking around for something she could use as a pretext her eyes alighted on a box perched precariously above head height. Perfect.

Slipping into the front of house again - and feeling an immense sense of satisfaction on seeing that Twilight’s girls eyes widen behind her glasses - Adagio found Thom standing behind the till, which was perfect. Smoothly did Adagio slink up to him and, once again, lace her arms around him from behind.

“Thoooooooommmm. I need you,” she said as he stood there, stock-still.

Maybe-Twilight looked between them.

“Oh. Are you two-” she started to ask.

“We’re friends,” Adagio said emphatically. Thom raised his eyebrows.

“We are? News to me,” he said.

“Of course we are,” Adagio growled, squeezing him about the ribs hard enough to make him wince. Strong girl, Adagio. He looked down at her and found her smiling up at him, sweetly.

Really, really could never get a read on her could Thom. One minute over here, the next over there, with no obvious indication of how she got between the two. It was like playing pinball with your eyes closed.

Or, rather, like having a conversation with someone who has whole portions of the conversation in their head then expects you to keep up. Or some combination of these two things. Point was she just kept on leaving him in the dust.

“I am sure my friend here wouldn’t object to me helping you have a look through the stock for something that might catch your eye, would my friend?” He asked her, eyeing maybe-Twilight.

“Actually, I kind of needed your help…” Adagio said, all innocence.

“What? You do? With what?” Thom asked.

Adagio had not expected Thom to press her for details. In her head he’d just accepted it, like a good boy. She had to think on her feet.

“Um...something. In the back.”

It wasn’t her best work.

“What in the back?” Thom asked.

She thought on her feet some more.

“...something.”

Definitely not her best work.

Thom scrutinised her closely for a second or two and for that second or two Adagio was genuinely worried he might actually, finally lose patience with her - though why would she worry about that? - but then he just sighed, shoulders drooping.

“Fine,” he said before turning back to maybe-Twilight. “Do you mind giving me a second while I help my colleague? I’ll be right back out. Again,” he said.

“O-oh, it’s okay, I can go if you need to do something,” said maybe-Twilight.

“Yes,” said Adagio. “You should go.” Thom shot her a warning look which she ignored completely.

“No, you can stay. It’ll be a minute then I’ll be right back out. Again. You have a browse, see if anything catches your eye, alright? I’ll be right back.”

“Okay…” said maybe-Twilight, risking Adagio’s ire by giving the tiniest of smiles. Luckily for her, Thom whisked Adagio away before this could become an issue.

And into the back they went.

“Hasn’t she bought anything yet? She’s been here nearly twenty minutes now! I think she’s deliberately wasting your time, you know. You should get rid of her. She’ll be wanting to use the toilets, next. In fact, she’s probably stealing right now,” Adagio said. Thom rubbed his face.

“Look, I still don’t know what’s going on here but I know that something is going on here and I am not a fan. How do you know her? What’s the deal?” He asked, looking distinctly nonplussed and continuing to look nonplussed even as Adagio cupped his chin.

“I just need your help, that’s all Thom. And I don’t think she’s a serious customer anyway, you shouldn’t worry about her. I bet she’ll be gone by the time you go back out. I wouldn’t worry about it,” she said.

“Seriously, what’s going on? What am I missing here?” Thom asked, not bothering to remove his chin from her hand. He wasn’t sure what the point would be.

She moved her hand to pat him on the cheek anyway, making it moot.

“You’re not missing anything, Thom. Nothing at all. You don’t have to worry about anything. Except getting that box down for me,” she said, pointing to the box. Thom looked at the box. It was such a mundane non-issue that he looked at it for far longer than he needed to. He then looked at Adagio.

“That’s it? You know there’s a ladder over there,” he said, pointing to the ladder.

Adagio sidled up and put her head onto his shoulder before asking:

“Why risk my safety when I have you?”

Again, the weight of his utterly irrational soft-spot came to bear and what burgeoning irritation he’d felt at being called back to do something so petty and stupid just melted away. More fool him.

“Heh. You’re a very, uh, unique personality you know that right, Adagio?” He asked.

“Dagi,” she said, pouting.

“Dagi, sorry.”

She stopped pouting. Then said:

“Say I’m unique again.”

“Uh...you’re unique.”

Adagio was smiling now.

“Mmm, good boy. Now, the box, please?”

Rolling his eyes he took the box down. It was such a trivial task it was barely worth describing. He then handed the box over to Adagio, who took it. She did not say thank you. Thom had not expected her to.

“Happy now? Got what you needed?” He asked.

“Oh, I don’t even know what it is. Just looked untidy up there. I’ll do something with it, don’t you worry Thom. It’s like you said - good help is hard to find. And I’m good help, aren’t I?” Adagio asked. Thom thought of saying something and got right up to opening his mouth to say it but then caught himself and stopped, grinning instead and looking away.

“You know, I wouldn’t let you get away with half as much as I do if I didn’t...nah, nevermind,” he said. Adagio again felt that odd kind of lurching sensation in her belly. Probably nothing.

“What? What were you going to say?” She asked, clutching the box close to her body.

Thom could not properly articulate his position because he wasn’t completely sure what it was. Looking at Adagio while trying to pin it down did not help, either. Chuckling at the sheer absurdity of it all he had to turn away again, shaking his head.

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it. And maybe just hang back here until she goes, okay?”

“Okay,” Adagio said in a small voice, not-at-all crestfallen, not one bit.

Comments

[Cerulean Blue]

Competition when you refuse to contemplate why they might be competition makes things hard.

[Noobly60]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

I love this. Please keep going.

[Eternal Samson]

If there had been hopes that a nice night’s sleep might have dispelled the lingering awkwardness of the previous night, these hopes did not last long. Things were still highly, well, awkward. Neither Adagio nor Thom really knew where to look or what to say and so mostly, mutually settled on not saying anything and not looking at one another.

The stakes have gone underground and discovered civilization at the planet core
Then the stakes gained sentience and took over the world
Or reinvented ice cream
Or unvented
One of those things for sure

[mommy5260]

calling it now: Mind Control fuckery. either that or this man is a loner (poor bastard)