Pickled

| four |

Chapter Four 

Even as Diana looked at her father, with an expression mixed between guilt and embarrassment, the murderous light in his eyes didn't fade. He glared back heatedly, and Diana's heart dropped below the soles of her feet.

This looked very, very bad.

"I – " Diana began desperately, but her voice melted on her tongue before she could form a sentence. Her mind was scrambling as she fought to explain why she had literally just told a customer to buy something and get out. Behind her Alex stood still and completely silent, probably because he was just as caught in the headlights as Diana.

Her Dad was already sweeping past her, rounding the counter with attention already fixated on Alex. "Sir, I am very sorry about that."

Again with the "sir"; if Diana wasn't so terrified of her Dad in that moment, she would have happily rolled her eyes. Instead, she watched helplessly from behind the counter as he reached to shake Alex's hand.

"My daughter, she's..." Her Dad trailed off uncertainly, shaking Alex's hand vigorously, who stared back with wide eyes. "She isn't always...the most polite – "

"Dad – " Diana blurted, unable to contain herself, "I'm sorry."

But her Dad steamrolled on, ignoring Diana completely and imploring, "Is there any way I can make it up to you? Again, I'm so sorry about my daughter – "

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Alex blurted suddenly, just as Diana was preparing to dig a hole behind the counter and bury herself in it. His eyes, still stretched wide, flicked past her Dad's towering figure to meet Diana's gaze. "We're friends from school. I was just teasing her."

Diana's father hesitated, now turning to glance over his shoulder at Diana behind the counter, a puzzled look overtaking the murderous glare from before. "But—it's no excuse. We're polite to our customers, always—"

"I'm sure you all are," Alex hastened to agree. He flashed a grin at Diana, so forced she worried he was in pain. "We're best friends, though, so we tease all the time. Right, Diana?"

She stared back, tripped up on the phrase "best friends", which would have been the last term she would have used to describe her relationship with Alex. There wasn't even a relationship to begin with. But her Dad had turned to gauge her reaction, so Diana choked out quickly, "Yeah. Alex and I were just messing around."

There was a moment of silence where her Dad glanced back and forth between Alex and Diana, like he was struggling to comprehend what they'd said. Diana's heart pounded against her ribs and she oddly felt like she was on trial, waiting for the jury to stand and announce their verdict. She'd never been known to have any friends besides Millie, and her Dad knew this all too well. To say she was best friends with a boy of all people seemed almost laughable.

But her Dad believed the lie. He shook Alex's hand again and apologized, to which Alex only nodded and accepted the handshake in a stunned silence. As he was rounding the counter to leave, he even gave a meek apology to Diana.

"Sorry, kiddo," her Dad admitted somewhat guiltily. "You know why I...you know."

Diana nodded – the reputation of their store was everything, and she knew that. It was the only source of income for her family, so if word got around that they were rude to their customers, it could be very bad for them. Diana was not about to be at fault for something like that.

Her Dad patted her shoulder and disappeared into the back. Even after he was gone, Diana's heart continued to pound like she'd been sentenced to death row.

"Wow," Alex breathed after a beat of silence, looking at Diana with wide eyes. "I thought I was a dead man."

"You?" Diana exclaimed in disbelief, almost whispering now in case her Dad was still in earshot. "You were about to get a free jar of pickles. I was about to be grounded for a year."

Alex shook his head, the terrified, wide-eyed look from just minutes earlier already fading. He was starting to give that stupid half-grin again, the expression that infuriated Diana to no end. "Hey, my quick thinking saved us both."

Diana rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't call that 'thinking'."

He shrugged in response. "Your Dad's a scary man, Diana."

"You're telling me," Diana said bitterly. Her pulse was only just now returning to normal, but the whole ordeal had given her heartburn.

"Does that happen all the time?"

"I don't usually have some guy driving me insane, no. I try to stay on my Dad's good side."

Alex clutched his chest, like Diana had stabbed him in the heart. "What do you mean, 'some guy'? Did you forget my name already?"

Diana shot him a look, as if to say, really? Like she would be lucky enough to forget his name. "So are you going to buy something—" and, sarcastically, she added, "—sir?"

At this Alex laughed out loud, and even Diana's lips curved into a tiny smile. She couldn't help it. This boy could be so ridiculous that she had to treat the situation like a joke.

"Why, yes, ma'am. I'd like the Classic Pickles, if you please."

Diana stared at him, eyebrows raised. "You can stop that now, thanks."

With that she stepped out from behind the counter, sweeping past Alex to retrieve a jar of their original batch from the opposite shelf. When she returned to her station, planting the glass jar before the register, Alex had pulled out a small handful of crumpled dollar bills.

"Not Eleanor today?" Diana mused, absentmindedly pressing the register keys. "It's $4.25."

Alex shook his head, grinning but with a tinge of red coloring his cheeks. "Not this time, no."

When he handed her the five dollars, he purposefully gripped the bills for a second longer when she tried to take it. Fixing him with a glare, Alex smirked and finally let go. The register rattled as the drawer slid open, and Diana strategically straightened out the crumpled dollars he had handed her.

He accepted the three quarters in change, the coins clinked together in his palm. Tucking the pickle jar under one elbow, Alex nodded to Diana and started away from the counter. "Thanks. See you tomorrow at lunch."

Diana blinked. He was already halfway to the door, but she called after him. "Lunch? What are you talking about?"

Alex turned to press the door open with his back, grinning broadly across the empty store. "Yeah, at school. Best friends eat lunch together, right?"

Before Diana could process what he'd said, the door's bell clinked and Alex was gone.