Not another Day at the Beach

Chapter 11: Raising some Flags

POV: Max
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*Ding*

The bakery door chimed as I pulled a batch of cupcakes out of the oven. I set them on the counter and rushed over to the front of the store.
I rounded the corner and ran up to the counter.

"I'm sorry, we're closed. I forgot to lock the-"

Standing there was Cordelia, soaking wet. She was leaning against the windows at the front of the bakery that were being pounded with rain.

"Hey. Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"What? Oh, no it's fine."

The sky illuminated with a flash of lightning, followed by a loud thunderclap.

"Can I stay here for a few? Wait this out?"

"Uh, sure."

"Thanks."

Cordelia sat down at a table, pulling out her laptop. We hadn't talked since her visit to the hospital. Heck, I hadn't even seen her since.

"Oh, you probably don't want to get online here. The wifi sucks."

"I'll try, I guess. Better than no wifi."

The lightning flashed again, causing the lights to flicker. After a few seconds, they cut off completely, plunging us into darkness.

"Shit." Cordelia muttered, closing her laptop.

"Hold on, I have my phone."

I turned on my phone light, turning it to face up at the ceiling, bathing the front of the store in a dim white light.

"Thanks." Cordelia said, removing her soaking hoodie. "Do you have a sink?"

"Uh yeah, right here." I said, gesturing to a sink in the corner of the room.

Cordelia walked over to the sink. She wrung her hair, squeezing the water out of it.

"Thanks. Hopefully now I'll stop dripping water everywhere."

"It's fine."

We sat in an awkward silence. Cordelia dried off her water droplet covered glasses and put them back on, looking out the window at the pouring rain. Her dark hair hung down over her tshirt, wetting it around the shoulders. I noticed she was shivering.

"I have a jacket in the back if you need it."

"Really? Thanks."

I nodded, going to the back to fetch my letterman jacket. No, I didn't play sports to earn it. It was something that me and my art club friends had designed in high school. Yes, I'm an art freak. We wanted to have cool jackets like the jocks, only without having to do physical activity. So, we customized some jackets and ordered them in bulk. My design of a kid weilding a pencil like a sword was on the front. On the back it said "BROWN THE PENCIL SLAYER". Terrible nickname, yes, but I was known as the art guy in high school.

"Here." I said, handing it to her.

"Thanks."

Cordelia put the jacket on, looking out the window again at the pouring rain beating against the windows.

"So...how has the whole investigation thing been going?"

Cordelia looked up, surprised.

"Oh...that."

She furrowed her brow, looking down.

"I did some digging, I looked at the posts made on Twitter at Palmside. I looked at all of the pictures that coordinated with the date I got, June 2nd...I don't know what I was expecting to find."