Limerence • Auli'i Cravalho (gxg)

farmers market

"Hey! It's you again." You smiled at the sight of the girl in front of you.

"Good morning." Auli'i returns the smile, "Y/N. Right?"

"Yup." You nodded, "Good morning! Looking for anything in particular today?"

"See, they all look delicious. So I'm having a little trouble deciding here." She chuckles, eyeing your table of baked goods and jams.

"Ah, well- this is a new thing and flavour if you want to try." You motioned to the plate of peach and thyme blondie samples.

"Ooh." She looked at it, intrigued. Auli'i picks up a piece of it, jabbed with a toothpick while letting you answer a customer's question. And packing another's purchase.

"Damn, these are so good." She says once she has your attention, "How are you selling these?"

"One, six or nine pieces." You told her, "$4 each, but nine pieces would be more value for money- $21."

"Okay, I'll take nine pieces. My best friend would love these." Auli'i decided, "Oh, and a jar of your white chocolate matcha spread."

"Of course. Last bottle." You pointed out as you began packing her purchase.

"Lucky me." She laughs.

"Here you go. Your total is $28." You handed her the bag containing her purchase.

She hands you forty bucks. "Thank you- keep the change." She smiled, "See you next week." Before you could give her her change, she quickly walked away before you could catch up with her or even say anything.

—•—

As you were closing up at the farmers market that afternoon, you got a text from Auli'i on your phone. You were confused until you read her text.

Then, you remembered that you had business cards now and included one in each bag of customers' purchases. You froze, staring at her text, contemplating how to respond to it. Eventually...

What's the worst that could happen, right? Wrong. Hoo, boy. Were you in for a hell of a ride.

— • —

After your work at the farmers market was done, you drove home to shower and unwind. You had a bit of leftover baked goods that you decided to leave for yourself as snacks throughout the day. Keeping them in a Tupperware, you grabbed your towel and a fresh set of clothes then headed for the shower after plugging your phone in to charge. After you'd showered, you made yourself a teriyaki chicken rice bowl for lunch with some broccoli and carrots on the side. At that point, you completely forgot about your teensy little conversation with Auli'i prior to your shower. You were hungry and lunch was all that was on your mind. Until it led you to think about Auli'i's question because you were eating- and she asked you out to grab a bite. Well, hang out. But you had a feeling you were in the middle of something. You heard your phone buzz but you were determined to finish your meal without getting distracted. And so...you did. You only checked it after eating and washing up the dishes.

Other than a couple close friends or family members that would text you, no one else usually does. Except this time it was Auli'i. Asking where the two of you should go. Clicking on the notification, you got up and decided to go grab your favourite scented candle to light it. No particular reason- just felt like it. You asked her if she would prefer lunch, dinner, drinks or something else. And what did she tell you? Brunch. Shrugging you typed out with a 'sure!', but changed it to 'hahah sure'. God, why were you overthinking this?

Aaand cue the worst day of your life the next day. She did not respond after that. Not that you were completely free since you had work but it bugged you. So badly. Eventually it was farmers market say again. So essentially a whole week since she first texted you. You'd lost hope that you two could even be friends.

"Hey, I need to talk to you after you're done here." She showed up.

"O-oh, okay. Yeah, sure." You agreed. On one hand, you felt mad that she basically ignored you even though she brought up hanging out, but on the other hand, you couldn't exactly stay mad when you saw that face of hers. She bought her usual order then promptly left after telling you she'll back here at 4:30. The day went by pretty fast, and while you were packing up, Auli'i returned. As the other vendors started filtering out of the place, you were too. She offers to take you home since you walked here today but you two had to talk first so you got into her car.

She drives, to a parking lot nearby and parked. "I wanna apologise to you. It was wrong of me to ghost you when especially when I was the one who initiated plans. You didn't do anything wrong and you are so great. I recently got out of a pretty...bad relationship or well, situationship and I wasn't sure if I was ready for us hanging out to lead to something more serious. After I texted you I got scared and I decided to just...push you away and just ignore you so I wasn't thinking about you anymore."

You listened intently. As the words poured out, the more emotions started to consume your mind. You could not pinpoint what you were feeling but it was intense. "But I told myself- it was wrong to do that to someone so I sucked it up, mustered the courage to tell you what I was feeling. I want you to know that it is one hundred percent okay that you're mad at me because if I were you, I would be yelling already. And, that one bad person doesn't make the rest of the world bad, too. So I should just...go for it."

"I- Auli'i, I don't want you to rush into anything. That's the last thing I want for you. I- like you. And I don't want things to go bad because you're not ready. I want you to be okay- mentally, physically. We can just be friends first if that's what you need to do. I'm not gonna disappear, y'know? You know where I live."

She chuckles, teary eyed as she sniffled. "Okay, this went way better than I thought. I was so sure you were gonna ban me from your business and curse me out."

"Well, you thought wrong, my most loyal customer."

She laughs, swiping away her fallen tears, "Okay, we'll uh- take it one day at a time. So-"

"Do you want me to drive instead?" You offered.

"No, why?" She sniffs, glancing at you.

"Well, for one, you're crying. And two, I can't let your impaired vision have us get hurt." You teased.

"Y/N. I promise- I'm fine. Not gonna cry anymore." She sighs.

"Get out." You insist, "I'll drive. Let's go get something to eat."

— • —

Unedited. Published: Thursday, 14 March 2024

I started writing this one with no ending in mind but I guess I'm pretty satisfied with it. :')