The Ineffable Ruth Rhodes

17 third and fourth wheeling

ruth

Ruth glanced at her palms, counting the lines as she waited for Vincent, Sage, and Sumaiya outside the Color Me Mine storefront.

Why did she always have to be the one to come early? She was too anal for her own liking.

She opened her phone, bored, sending Vincent a quick message.

You're late, by the way :~)

"Why are you smiling?" a voice called, and she looked up to find Vincent staring at her with a grin.

"What?"

She realized then, that her lips were upturned in a wide grin.

And her grin dropped.

"Hey, y—" Vincent's phone pinged, and he looked down at it, then back up at her, amusement broadening. He held up his phone screen to her. She could only slightly make out his contact name for her— 'the' something, followed by an S, and maybe an R or T. "Thank you for the reminder, Siri."

She saluted. "Anytime."

He laughed, looking around. "Wait. Where are they—?"

"Hey guys!"

The pair's eyes flitted to Sumaiya, who was almost tripping as she hopped out of Sage's car. She caught herself and laughed, laughing even harder when Sage said something to her. He turned off the car, leaving his side to help Sumaiya.

Ruth smiled. She thought Sumaiya looked happier these days.

"Hey! You guys are late!" Vincent yelled with a hand cupped around his mouth. Ruth realized that he was holding her hand with his other one. She blinked.

When did that happen?

"Sorry," Sage said, barely containing his laughter as he helped his girlfriend over with a hand on her waist. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand, and Sumaiya did the same. "We, um, lost the directions."

The swollen lips and rumpled shirts say otherwise, Ruth thought as she narrowed her eyes and lifted a brow in disbelief. She quickly peered up at Vincent who wore the same expression, and they exchanged small smiles.

"That's alright," Ruth said, trying not to laugh, "Let's go."

The couple took the hint and entered first, laughing to themselves after Sumaiya sent her friend a wink.

"This isn't even a double date," Vincent murmured to her as they followed. "We're just third and fourth wheeling."

"Right?" Ruth whispered back. The next words that came out of her mouth made her want to smash her head against a wall. "Maybe we should've roughed up our clothes a little too to look more realistic."

Vincent nodded, completely serious. The only thing giving his joking nature away was the slight upturn of his lips. "Oh, definitely. We'll write it down."

Ruth looked over to Sumaiya to see how she was doing. She was staring into a mug Sage was holding, with her hands holding it on top of his, laughing so hard together. Her heart felt so warm.

"Have you been here before?" Vincent asked as they scaled the walls of pre-made pottery, jolting her out of her thoughts.

She scrunched up her nose, a grade three birthday party gone wrong popping up in her head. "Unfortunately."

He smiled at her, eyes meeting hers briefly before moving onto the next row of clay creations. He was always smiling. "You don't like it? Why?"

"I don't really want to spend time doing things I don't need in my career path." And she couldn't draw to save her life.