Waldosia/// George Weasley

Chapter 11

WARNING: Proceed with caution...

It had been a few days since the kiss and neither of the two had yet to say anything to each other about it. Since that morning, there was nothing more than polite greetings, business talk, and small nods between the two. They were both too stubborn for their own good; neither of them wanted to be the first to acknowledge what had happened.

Clover had always been very good at watching, at observing everything going on around her. And while not exactly being on speaking terms with her boss , she realized that  it didn't quite take a genius to see that George kept most of his frustrations to himself. His problems were like building blocks being stacked messily on top of each other; the more there were, the more unstable the stack became. It began with Angelina leaving, then his fight with Ginny, followed by the kiss with Clover, and by now George looked as if he were just about ready to come crashing down.

It was an hour before closing time on a Friday evening, and George was crankily refilling the shelves with boxes of Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs. His eyebrows were furrowed and his lips gave way to a frustrated huff every few seconds. He looked tired and lost and angry, just holding onto the fact that there was only one hour left until he could escape from everything and everyone. All the while, Clover and Lee were thinking the same thing from different places in the shop.

As Lee was balancing 10 Skiving Snack Boxes in his arms, trying to magically levitate them neatly in their place on a higher shelf, Clover was left in charge of the register for the time being. She had done it many times before, however, she was still fairly new at it. So, it was no surprise that the blonde girl took a little longer to figure everything out than Lee or George would've done.

The man across the counter from her was impatiently waiting for her to give him his change, but Clover couldn't quite figure out how to open the cash compartment.

"Maybe you could ask one of them to help?" The older man suggested as he crossed his arms over his chest and nodded his head towards both of Clover's bosses.

Stubbornly, Clover held back a glare and strung out a fake customer-pleasing smile, "It's alright, I'll figure it out. You just have to give me a moment."

"I've given you plenty of moments," he spoke under his breath and rolled his eyes while calling over to George, "Mr. Weasley, surely you can do something about this, yes?"

George heard his name and snapped his head over towards the commotion, immediately noticing Clover glaring down the customer in front of her and tightening her hold on the counter.

"There is nothing to do, sir," she once again shot a tight, fake smile and looked over at George, "I can figure it out. I just need another second."

"I've been here for 10 minutes already!" He shouted, throwing his hands in the air dramatically.

"What's got your knickers in such a twist that you can't wait one more minute?!" Clover defensively shot back, opening her mouth again to speak, "I pity your-,"

Annoyed at being interrupted by petty banter, George put down his boxes and stomped over to the register.

"That's enough," he huffed out, walking over to where Clover was standing and looking at her, "Why didn't you just ask for help?"

She looked at up him incredulously, as if the answer was obvious. "I can't exactly ask for help when I'm not on speaking terms with my boss, can I?"

George's face froze with hesitation before shifting his eyes away from Clover almost instantly. His hands went to open the register and pull out the exact change the man in front of them was due. Before giving over the money he looked back over at Clover, and spoke forcefully, "We are on speaking terms."