sweet tea. -tkam

small talk.

-3rd pov-

    The confusion of the situation was promptly cleared by the man, but even still, daisy felt afraid. Not afraid of losing friendship with scout, afraid of the man.
    A tall, stoic man. One with gravitas, a strong, highly intelligent, and well respected man among the people of maycomb county. He had a dominating and dry kind of presence, speaking in carefully thought out words.
      On top of his already intimidating demeanor, it was rumored that he wouldn't like her. Daisy Mae was invited inside by the man, who she had learned to be scouts father, so, she timidly accepted the offer.
      Sitting in the chair across from him at the table, she fidgeted with her dress under the table with nervous hands. She seemed tense, awkward, and afraid. Some obvious things hinted to this, but most of what gave it away was purely word choice and body language.
        Two things atticus had become an expert in reading and noticing in his time as an attorney. Though he knew he had not done anything to invite this kind of behavior from daisy, he understood that he was a rather intimidating person.
       He never thought much about it, but in all honesty he appreciated his aura, as it helped him in work, and was a rather accurate portrayal of a completely neutral and professional him.
      However, When it came to interactions like this, he wished he felt more approachable. But even being aware of his intimidating nature, daisy maes reaction to him was rather unnatural.
        He had already pegged her to have had some not so desirable past experiences with men, or people in general. She seemed like a kind young woman from what he had seen her do with scout, and he was understanding, but a bit dissapointed that she would not show her personality to him.

"You do your hair wonderfully you know, it's beautiful."

He lightly complimented the nervous woman, attempting to make small talk

She looked up at him with a slight confusion in her eyes, as if she had been expecting him to say something wildly different.
    Daisy took a sharp inhale and responded, looking as far to the side as she could.

"Thank you sir..." she said, all in one quick exhale.

"You don't have to call me sir if you don't want to, you may call me atticus, most people do."

She nodded

"Wh..what do you want me to call you?" She asked, almost sounding even more afraid, worried she had annoyed him by calling him sir.

"Anything, I don't mind, but if would think of simplest just to call me my name."

He calmly responded, his tone unchanged.

Daisy on the other hand, spoke with anxious, quick words, her eyes desperate to look at anything but the man in front of her.
     Still, atticus continued attempting conversation with her, wanting to at least be acquainted with his daughters new friend.

"You're new here aren't you? I don't believe I've seen you around for very long."

Daisy nodded again

"Where are you from?"

"South Carolina..." she quietly answered.

"It's beautiful there isn't it, very nice beaches. It's quite historic hm?"

Daisy looked around for a moment and softly shrugged, gripping the ends of her dress tighter.

"Oh I...I'd assume so. I don't really....know what all it looked like.."

"Did you not live there long?"

"No I...I lived there my whole life I just...didn't see most of it..."

"Hm...well, what did you think of the beaches there? I wonder how they compare to ours."

Atticus intently continued the conversation, slowly getting more and more words out of the anxious young woman.

"Oh I've...I've never been to a beach....actually..."

"Really? I suppose it's not everyone's thing."

"I'd like to...one day...I just...it's not that I don't want to...I just never...had the chance..."

He furrowed his eyebrows ever so slightly as he thought, maybe a little to hard, about what she was saying.
     She claimed to have not seen much of the state she had lived in, little enough to not be able to confirm or deny that it was a nice place.
      Ontop of that, in a state with multiple lovely beaches, she had never gone to one in her life. She didn't seem like she was just too lazy to talk about her experiences, but it seemed so unlikely that she just didn't hardly have any.

"Hopefully you'll get the chance to visit a beach here sometime then."

She nodded.

Something nagged in his brain to press harder with his questions.

"So I'm- sorry if this is prying you don't have to answer, I'm just curious. So you've lived in a state your whole life and never seen much of it? I just have to ask what you did during your time there."

She thought for a moment, atticus carefully analyzing each look and each movement she made by habit.

"Well...."