Sweet as a Strawberry

42 ~ Sour as Greek Yoghurt

A/N: idk if you guys even remember anything after a year lmao, but no matter. here is a new chapter, i hope you enjoy! feel free to abuse me for being gone for so long lmao. also, i've become ashamed of the intensely cliche, lack of diversity ridden work that has for so long plagued my writing, and as such, i'm going to be working on fixing that after SAAS and TBHH are over. also, keep in mind that Rick most recently appeared at the end of chapter 39 I believe, or somewhere in that chapter. happy reading :-)

also, dedicated to saniam888 because of the bloody adorable cover she made that's on the side! she made another one that's also really good, so it was hard to decide between them!! 

Chapter 42: Sour as Greek Yoghurt

"Look, I'm not one to point fingers," Lottie said cheerfully after half a minute of dead silence, "but this is totally, completely your fault."

I turned around and shot her a flat look. "Who came in here in the first place?"

"I told you not to shut the door!"

"So you're saying this is my fault?"

She laughed. "I literally did just say that, Ben." She walked over to the door and jiggled the handle, as if that would help at all. "Do you have a credit card on you or something?" she asked me.

I dug in my pocket and took out my wallet, handing her one of my credit cards. "Do you know how to unlock locked doors like that?"

"No, but now I have your credit card," she replied, grinning at me. I scoffed while she slid the card between the door and the frame and wiggled it around to no avail. "Okay, this isn't working. Can you call Clark or Ginny? I left my mobile in the back room." 

I pulled out my phone, but then clenched my fists and blew out air in frustration. "I definitely could, but I locked the front door like you told me to, so I don't think either of them would be able to get in."

Lottie turned and blinked at me, her eyes filming over kind of vacantly. "Oh swell," she said blankly. "We're stuck in here? Yikes, yikes, yikes."

I waved a hand in front of her face. Should I do it now? Maybe I should do it now. While we were waiting, possibly left to freeze to death, just go ahead and do it. No time like the present, I always so. Even though I never say that. Because I don't do things like this. "Charlotte, listen to me."

She blinked again, looking like she didn't know what exactly to do. When she breathed out, a small cloud of fog gathered around her face because of the cold. 

"Lottie, come on. Someone will get us, okay? Just chill out and look at me for a second."

After a second, her mouth twitched, and just like that she was grinning again. I felt relieved because I really didn't know what to do when she got all stiff like that. "Chill out?" she repeated. "Poor choice of words given we're stuck in a freezer unit, Benny, don't you think?"

I rolled my eyes but couldn't stop the smile, and I handed her the sunflowers that were in my hand. I'd accidentally crushed the stems a bit, and they were quite small since our part of England didn't generally have the ideal climate for wildflowers. However, their bright yellow colour reminded me of her, and so I couldn't help but buy them to accompany the question I had for her. I was going to get roses, but along with being pretty much bankrupt, I thought she'd appreciate the sunflowers more.

"Ben!" she exclaimed, burying her face into the sunflowers. She sheepishly looked up and wiped the pollen off her nose, and I smiled softly at her astounded expression. A fucking doll, she was. "These are sticky," she said, but smiled widely. "I love them. Oh, thank you, Ben! Thank you!"