Shameless, Reckless Love (GirlxGirl)

Part 3: Chapter 4

The next day, Sunday afternoon, Eden is on her shift at the Kesh and Grab. As she is gathering a customer's items in a plastic bag, her phone rings and she goes to answer it.

"Hey, Logan." Eden answers.

"Eden, just wanted to let you know that Ricki should be coming in to work today." Logan informs. Eden smirks.

"Yeah, I figured that." Eden says back, and the customer leaves the store.

"She called me asking to continue working there." Logan explains. "Where has she been this whole time anyway?" Logan then asks.

"Uh, juvie." Eden shyly replies.

"Oh, lovely." Logan sarcastically responds. Eden laughs.

"How's little Toby?" Eden asks sincerely. It was hard not to think about that baby ever since Kesh's disappearance.

"He's louder than he used to be." Logan jokes. "But Vera's doing great with him."

"Good, good." Eden says, remembering that Logan had, thankfully, found a new girlfriend that was willing to act as a mother to his son.

"Well, I gotta run now." Logan then says. "And don't let our customers know Ricki's been to juvie twice." Eden laughs as they both hang up the phone.

As if on cue, Eden suddenly notices Ricki outside the window. Ricki enters the store, and walks behind the counter to place her coat somewhere.

"It's a little weird having you back here." Eden comments. Ricki smirks and goes to grab a beer from the back of the store fridge. Eden ignored it, knowing that that beer was already coming out of her pay.

For an hour or so, the day was spent with Eden and Ricki having small conversations. But once small children came into the store, Ricki seemed to be hovering over them. Eden laughs a little at Ricki's aggressiveness toward children.

When the front door swings open, Eden gets ready to greet the new customer, but Eden's smile fades quickly as she sees who it is.

"Hey, Little Red." Ness's cool voice says. Eden cannot say any words. This was too uncomfortable. She remembered that she told Ness that she could come by the store, but now that Ricki decided to continue working here, this was intensely discomforting for Eden. Eden sneakily looked behind Ness to see if Ricki was watching them, but Ricki was still busy reprimanding the kids back there. Eden then breathes out.

"Ness." Eden replies. "Hello." Her voice was getting a bit shaky now.

"Nice place you got here." Ness says, but Eden already knows she's joking around. Ness was very kind and all, but she was quick to judge a place if it couldn't be compared to the Whole Food markets she stopped at. Eden rolls her eyes at Ness's snarky remark.

"What brings you here?" Eden asks anxiously. Ness then looks around, as if she's searching for a good enough excuse. Then she turns behind her, and grabs a small bag of chips from a shelf.

"Uh, I was hungry." Ness finally answers. Eden looks at her with a tired expression. She was clearly not falling for that.

"Oh, I see." Eden says. "So you drove all the way to the South Side just for a bag of chips. Is that right?" Eden continues. Ness bites her lip, knowing that it did sound a bit ridiculous.