Sou did cringe a little at the memory of Colette and Mariela wanting to force a shirt on him that had the letters MILF on it. Luckily, before he could even comment on that, Altair came forth, greeting him all nicely.
“How you’re doing, Alatir? Hope miss Mariela doesn’t make you work too hard behind there?”
And like an evil spirit he just summoned by saying her name too many times, there she was in the back. And unlike the other two she seemed not too happy about his presence here.
“Hello, miss Mariela!” He waved at her with a fake smile. Knowing she knew exactly it wasn’t a genuine one as well.
“Ahaha, how rude! I wouldn’t ever harass any of your employees!” Mariela herself however, was another story. “My bad, am I disturbing your business?” Another polite sounding question with some rather dissing intention behind it. Then when looking around the shop, it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t busy at the moment.
“Oops, well! Hey, if you guys are bored, why don’t we play a game? Miss Mariela can join too once she’s done hiding behind that door for whatever reason.”
“Sou doesn’t harass us!” The accusation surprised Colette. When had he done that? It was strange seeing her look so gloomy.
“Oh, a game! That could be fun.” It was true that the shop was rather… empty at the moment. It wasn’t always like this, this time of day it was always a little slow.
Colette turned towards the back where Mariela was still standing, peering apprehensively at the scene in front of her. Why was she nervous? Colette’s lower lip jutted out in a very slight pout. “Mariela, don’t you want to play, too? Altair, a game sounds fun, right?” She was already getting very excited at this idea.
“I promise if a customer comes in while we’re playing, I’ll go and help them right away!”
Is there some kind of exchange he’s missing here, an enmity? His eye looks between Sou and Mariela, brow creasing exponentially until Colette addresses him again. But with games being set on the figurative table, maybe that was just an imaginary thing.
“Oh, a game does sound fun,” he says. It should be, right? Frankly, Altair has not played many games before. “What sort of game is it?”
Likewise, a helping hand will be given should a customer request assistance. But for now, he offers his own hand toward Mariela. “Please join us.”
Mariela’s face gets a little red on account of holding her breath and her anger back from Shin. Of course he was disturbing her business, but for some reason her employees welcomed him with open arms. She scrunches her nose as if she had just smelled something bad, but lets out a deflated sigh when Altair stretches out his hand to her and Colette excitedly tries to convince her to stop working as well. A game did sound fun. She wasn’t really all that familiar with many games.
As if cautiously stepping into water, Mariela takes Altair’s hand. It would be rude not to, even if she was confused why she felt like she was being escorted to the ballroom again.
“Alright, if everyone else is, then I’ll play too.” Mariela tilts her head. “Doesn’t look like you’ve got any cards or anythin’ on you. Are we playin’ charades?”
