You-
"With me?" I questioned Dan, only to quickly receive a joyful grin from him.
"I mean, you know, unless you don't want to." He said, grin slowly faded.
Dan then rested his elbows onto the register counter, facing me as I walked around to the other side of it.
"It's not that I don't want to..." I trailed off.
"Then what is it?"
"Maybe you should do that video with Phil first. I've already been in one with you and him on his channel anyway."
"Well, maybe I don't want to do a video with him."
With a short pause to our discussion, my words fell out as a soft whisper, "Is something going on between you guys?"
Dan's shoulders suddenly stiffened to my words, "Why would you ask that?"
"You would never say something like that... That is why I'm asking."
Our conversations fell short as Dan's eyes scanned around the counter, as if searching for the right words to say. The thought of him keeping his emotions and honesty to himself made me feel uneasy.
As if sensing the worried tension, he drew his earthly brown eyes to me once again, "I guess I've just been thinking about a lot of things lately. I don't know."
"(Y/n)," Jacob, our new employee, called. Walking towards Dan and I, he carefully held a large, clear glass vase within his arms before setting it on the counter, "Is this the one you were talking about? There was another one in the back with swirls engraved in it, so I just took a guess."
"That one works. We'll work on the bouquet right after lunch break, okay?"
Jacob graciously agreed and stepped away.
"Did you and Phil have an argument?" I asked Daniel, picking up our conversation.
"No." He quickly answered.
"Are you-"
"I'm okay. Can we just go eat now? Please?"
-
Dan and I walked hand in hand on our way to Aroma Mocha. His grip was tighter than usual, and silence followed in between us as if it were another person.
"Say something. Say something. Why aren't you saying anything? He's probably waiting for you to say something."
"Tell me more about the jobs you applied to." Dan finally spoke without looking my way.
"Well, to be honest, I don't think I'm going to any of them."
"Why's that?"
"This morning I received a message from someone asking about the spare room in the apartment; they're suppose to stop by to check it out later today. Plus, I want to ask my boss if she'd be willing to let me work on the weekends. I'm sure she'll say yes."
"Do you know this person?"
"... My boss?" I jokingly asked.
The left corner of Dan's lips cracked a small grin, "The person stopping by your apartment."
"I only met her once, but she seemed nice."
"That's great."
"It'd be even greater if you told me what's wrong."
We came to a crosswalk, and his grip loosened. He opened his mouth to say something, except nothing came out but an annoyed sigh.
"Daniel."
"There's nothing wrong." He swiftly said, accompanied by a stern voice.
The light to cross the road appeared and as Dan moved to go, I didn't. Frustrated, he finally brought his attention to me as my hand, being locked with his, caused him to be yanked back to the pavement where I stood.
"What?" Daniel, obviously irritated, asked me.
"I want to know."
"Want to know what?" He huffed, "There's nothing to tell you, (y/n)."
"The way you're acting is telling me otherwise, Howell."
"Do I really have to tell you everything?!" His voice slightly rose, "Can't you just help me forget about what happened before I showed up?? Honestly, you should know when to just fucking drop things."
I pulled my hand away from his and dropped it at my side. Dan then balled his now free hand into a fist before shoving it away into his jacket's pocket.
"Just because you've been having a shitty day doesn't give you the right to take it out on me. Sorry for actually giving a flying fuck about you."
With a single step closer to me, Daniel lowered his voice to give the strangers passing by a harder chance of hearing our conversation,
"Phil and I had a discussion involving you, alright? That's it."
"And you really thought I didn't deserve to know this?!" I said back, matching the tone of my voice with his.
"I didn't want to tell you because it's not that big of a deal for fucks sake."
We stared at each other, both of us clearly heated. As seconds passed, Dan's grim expression slowly softened and his brown eyes now revealed his apologetic state of mind.
-
x. i apologize for my extremely long absence from this story. thank you for all the love & funny comments you've been giving this fanfic, and all the patience you've been giving me .x
