Tangled Vows

Chapter 9

Out of all the things Astrid had expected to come from her life, standing behind the counter of Hiccup's hardware store was not one of them. For her whole life, she had wanted something more, more than what most people in this town did. Especially more than what her parents expected from her and wanted from her.

Astrid was more adventurous than that. There was so much more from life that she wanted to explore, and it had nothing to do with becoming a retail employee sitting behind a counter at a high street store that barely receives any customers.

But there were enough. People perused around the store for a while, some bought something others didn't. There wasn't a complete lack of people that Astrid would become concerned about the number of customers, but it certainly wasn't the low number she had been expecting.

Looking behind her, Astrid tried to peer through into the back after Hiccup had left the door open in case she needed anything. Craning her neck to see round the corner towards where Hiccup's workbench was, Astrid caught a glimpse of that messy auburn hair hunched over a broken engine.

Hiccup had asked Astrid to take over the counter from him whilst he finished fixing the lawn mower engine he had been handed by Mr Mildew. Hiccup had been waiting for the correct parts to be ordered in, and they had finally arrived. So, wanting to shift the engine and Mr Mildew from his hands as quickly as possible, he had dedicated himself to fixing it that day.

Which, unfortunately, left Astrid to head the counter at the hardware store, whilst he hid away at the back.

Astrid wanted to hate him for leaving her with such a task, but then she understood his reasoning. Yet, she still let herself feel a little bit sour over the whole thing despite that.

Nevertheless, the day dragged on like any other, with every hour passing at a glacial pace and Astrid's sanity slowly decaying with each one, she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand everything. It was the same thing every time: smiling and greeting them before they would leave and preferably never come back.

It was past lunchtime, and Astrid was waiting for Hiccup to finally let her off so that she could go and grab a bite to eat and rest. She had served quite a few customers and was finally getting into the flow of things, despite being rather haphazard with the first few. Most of them just gave the customary greeting and appeared as though they wanted to get away as quickly as possible to get on with the rest of their day.

Astrid wished she could do the same.

A tall, rather brawny man sauntered over to the counter, thinking that he was one of the first customers Astrid had interacted with that day and smiled eerily towards her. Astrid furrowed her brow at this strange interaction after most of the customers she had dealt with had only given her shy smiles with very little behind them.

This smile was different, and Astrid recognised the insinuation behind it almost instantly. It wasn't the first time she had encountered such a smile, although it being directed at her was something new.

"What's a beautiful young woman doing working at a place like this?" He sneered, trying to sound smooth and flirtatious. Though to Astrid, he sounded rather judgemental and cynical.

"Trying to rectify her mistakes," Astrid replied with a sarcastic smile, really wanting to shut down the conversation before it could pick up.

The man put down his items on the counter for Astrid to scan, leaning heavily on the surface so he could get a better look at her as she moved to scan the items. From the way he was looking at her, she could tell he was trying to decide whether or not to continue this whole charade.

"What mistakes could a girl like you possibly make?" He asked with an edge to his voice that definitely sounded like he was trying to make himself sound sexy.