warnings: talk of pregnancy, mild language
It's Black Friday morning. Austin, Victoria, & Ashley go out to The Grove, which is an outdoor shopping center.
It's all decorated for the holiday's; Christmas music plays in & outside of every store. It's Victoria's favorite time of year.
"So, what are we shopping for? Or who, I should say." Ashley asks.
"I'll be shopping for my family, Mila, Ashton, and the baby. I know she won't be here for Christmas, but if I see anything on sale that I like, I'm getting it." Victoria says.
"What? Not buying for me?" Austin asks her.
"I mean, I will, but not today. Can't buy for you while you're with me, Aus."
"We should stop into Pottery Barn Kids & look at furniture for the nursery." Austin mentions.
"Oh, definitely. We haven't even decided on what we want yet though. Like a color scheme or a theme."
"I was thinking maybe an accent wall with floral wallpaper, and the walls being a color to match the wallpaper. Probably like a baby pink or something. White furniture."
"I like that. Let's go see what furniture they have."
The three of them headed into Pottery Barn Kids and started taking a look at everything they had.
"Vic, do we want a bassinet or a crib?" Austin asks.
"Um, I'd say for the nursery, we get a crib, and a bassinet for the bedroom. She'll be sleeping with us in the bedroom for the first six months or so."
"With us? Like, me & you? In the same bed?"
"Maybe the first few nights we'll do that while she gets accustomed to being home. We can get a portable bassinet, take turns on who gets her during the night, and we can transfer the bassinet back & forth from my room to yours."
"Yeah, that would work. Especially if we both have relationships, we'll want nights off to spend with said relationships."
"Exactly. You think you might find someone?"
"Maybe. You never know. I might start looking, but if it happens, it happens."
Vic nods her head in agreement.
"Good. Maybe he's moving on from me." she thinks to herself.
"Do we like this bassinet? It's on wheels and seems pretty basic. We don't need anything too fancy." Austin asks.
"Yeah, I like that. Seems perfect to me. Do we want to buy the stuff today and take it home, or order it?"
"Uh, we can order it. I don't think I'd have enough room in my trunk to put everything."
"Okie, that works. Let's take pictures of everything so we know what to order."
They go over to the furniture sets and right away Victoria spots a dresser/changing table she loves.
"Austin, look at this one! I really love the gold handles on this."
"Oh yeah, that's sharp. I like that."
"Let's just get this one then with the matching crib, which is 4-in-1?! Woah. That's so worth it. She can have this like her whole life if she wants to. Eventually she'd just make this into a bed."
"Bab-Vic, let's look at the others before settling." Austin almost called her babe, but caught himself before he did.
They continue to look at the sets, but nothing was speaking to them more than the 'Ava' set.
"Are you good with the 'Ava' one? Or do you want the 'Larkin' one?" Vic asks.
"I'm good with 'Ava'. I really like those handles too. What do you think, Auntie Ash?"
"I think it's a good choice." Ashley says. "I love the handles too. It's different."
"Alright, furniture is picked out then! What about a rocking chair?" Vic says.
"Oh yeah, let's look at those."
Victoria sits in one and practically melts into it. "Oh my god. Good luck getting me out of here. This is too comfy."
"Let me try it, Vic." Austin says to her.
"Okay, but you're gonna have to pull me up."
Austin grabs onto her hands and pulls her up.
"Already getting hard to get up?" Ashley asks.
"Sometimes, yeah. Depends on the seat. Also it's just really comfy & he'd have to pull me up anyways or else I'd just stay there for awhile."
"Okay, yeah. This is super comfy. Goodnight." Austin jokes, making himself comfortable, stretching his legs out onto the ottoman the chair comes with.
"I think that should be it. We'll look online at everything else and add it to our registry when we have the wallpaper & paint picked out."
They headed out of Pottery Barn Kids, and hit up some clothing stores to get some family members some gifts.
"I have to stop into Victoria's Secret to get some new bras. The girls are filling up with milk and are getting bigger. Also want to get some perfume for Mila." Victoria mentions.
"I'll go in with you. I should get some new panties." Ashley responds.
"I'll go into Barnes & Noble while you're doing that." Austin says.
"Alright, want us to meet you in there?" Vic asks.
"Yeah. I can kill a lot of time in there, so take your time. I'm sure it's hectic in there so it'll be awhile."
"I'm going to drop my bags off in the car. Want me to take yours?" Austin asks the both of them.
"Yes, please." the girls say in almost unison.
Austin takes the bags from them and heads out to the car to drop them off, then heads to Barnes & Noble.
He starts at Starbucks inside the store, getting himself an oat milk latte before walking around the store, seeing what new books he could find.
He picks up a book he's been wanting to check out, "City on Fire" by Don Winslow, a couple others before heading over to the parenting books.
A worker stocking shelves in that section, female, average height, medium length blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and freckles, wearing a white button down with jeans, notices Austin looking intently into the back cover of one of the most popular parenting books.
"That's a good book, by the way. I mean, I assume so. It's a best seller in this section." the girl says.
"Oh, really?" he looks over to her.
"Yeah." she chuckles. "I've cashed out a few of those & have restocked it a couple of times."
"Well, I guess I'll get this one. I have one already, but wanted something different, that more goes over every little thing. The one I have is just super basic info. Thanks for the advice."
"No problem. I'm Juliet, by the way."
"Austin. That's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl." he holds out his hand to shake hers.
Juliet blushes, "Thank you. I thought that's who you were. Butler, right?"
"It's nice to meet you." she smiled.
"Nice to meet you, too." Austin smiles back.
I loved your new movie by the way. You were incredible. I took my grandma to see it as she loves Elvis, and she cried."
"Aw, that's so sweet. Thank you. You'll have to say hi to your grandma for me."
"Or maybe, one day I could say hi to her myself? That's if you'd like to go on a date with me & we hit it off."
"I'd really like that." Juliet smiles. "You're not dating Victoria right? I just want to make sure."
"Okay, good. I did see the announcement you guys made, but I just wanted to make sure nothing had changed since."
"Yeah, we're still just friends and co-parents."
"That's great, because I'd really like to take you up on that date."
"How does tonight sound? I can pick you up when you're off work? Maybe get some take out & hang at my place?"
"Actually, that sounds perfect. I've been having to uber lately with my car being out of commission. I'm off at eight."
"Cool. I'll see you then. And I can give you a ride home later. Let's exchange numbers so if there's change of plans or anything."
Austin & Juliet exchange numbers and said their goodbyes so she could get back to work.
"Hey, Butler!" Vic calls out as she seems him when she walks in.
Austin turns around with a smile on his face & walks to them.
"What are you all smiley about?" she asks.
"I may have met a girl, and got her number, and set up a date with her for tonight. She's coming over to hang out & get take out. I hope that's okay with you."
"Oh, um, yeah. That's fine. I'll just hang in my room for the night & watch some chick flick Christmas movies."
"So, who's this girl?" Ashley asks.
"Her name is Juliet. She works here in the store. She was stocking books in the parenting section and the book I was looking at, she had told me it's a best seller & we just got to talking a bit."
"Aw, that's good you met someone, Austin!" Ashley says.
"Yeah, that's great, Aus. Love that for you." Vic mentions.
"Thanks, guys. She seems really nice and she's insanely gorgeous. Blonde, blue eyes, so many freckles."
"Well, I'm sure we'll get to meet her & see her beauty for ourselves if it works out." Ashley says.
Austin cashes out at the register & they all head out to finish up their shopping trip.
By the time Vic & Austin drop off Ashley at her house & get home, there's not much time until he has to go out and get Juliet from work.
He takes his shopping bags into his room and puts them all in his walk in closet, then changes into black jeans and a blue button down shirt. He makes sure his hair looks good & sprays some cologne on before heading back out.
"Hey Vic, I'm about to go pick up Juliet, then we're stopping for food. Want something from whatever we get?" Austin asks her, stopping by her room.
"Oh, yeah. That'd be great. You know my usuals." Vic responds.
"Alright. I'll be back soon."
Austin heads out the door and drives back out to The Grove.
He sees Juliet waiting for him outside of the store.
"Hi!" She says getting in the car.
"Hey! How was the rest of your shift?"
"It was good! Just finished stocking and then put away the things people didn't want."
"Sounds easy enough. I'm glad you had a good day. No shitty customers? I know working retail on black Friday you can come across some crazies."
"I didn't have to deal with any, but my co-worker said there was this lady who thought these certain books we're half off but it was buy one get one half off. The lady would not give up on it, even though the sign was right."
"Damn. Not surprised though. I remember when my mom was working as an aesthetician, she would complain about clients not understanding the pricing and sales on the products they sold in the spa she worked at. Even my dad working in real estate would deal with 'Karen's'" he chuckled.
"Yeah, any kind of retail sucks. I can't wait to get out of it."
"What do you want to do when you get out?"
"Well, I really want to be a writer. Well, I am a writer, that has yet to be published. So, once I get published, and if I do well enough, I will leave retail."
"That's really cool. What genre do you write?"
"I write young adult romance, mainly. I've also written a romantic thriller. This girl is super obsessed with this married man, and she tries everything to get the wife out of the picture. I saw the movie 'The Crush' and was inspired. Have you seen that movie?"
"This teen girl who is apart of a rich family, get's a really hot guy renting out their guest house. She gets a highly obsessive crush on him and tries to sabotage things in his life because she isn't getting what she wants, which is the guy."
"That sounds really interesting."
"We could watch that tonight if you want."
"Yeah, that'd be great." Austin smiles at her. "Any food recommendations?"
"Oh gosh, I'm not sure. What's good around your place?"
"Um, there's this really good Japanese place that has really good sushi."
"Okay, we can do that then. If you want, you can look up their menu & see what you want, then I'll call them and order."
"Alright. What's it called?"
Juliet looks up the menu & decides on what she wants, then Austin places the order.
They get to the restaurant with about ten minutes til their order is ready for pickup.
"So, Juliet. Tell me more about you." Austin says as they wait in the car.
"Okay. Um, I'm 27 years old. I'm from Anaheim-
Austin cuts her off, "Wait, you're from Anaheim? So am I!"
"Oh my gosh, really? That's so cool."
"Yeah, I grew up right by Disney Land & Knott's. My mom would take my sister & I all the time."
"We went a lot too! We probably crossed paths at some point."
"Probably! What else is there about you?"
"Hm, well you know where I work and what I want to do for a living. I have 2 older brothers & a baby sister, my parents are divorced."
"My parents we're divorced too."
"Yeah. My mom, passed away, when I was 23. They divorced when I was 12, I believe."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Austin. That must have been so rough. I can't imagine going through them divorcing and then having to go through losing your mom. I can't imagine losing a parent."
"Thank you. It's definitely gotten better, but I still miss her a lot."
"Looks like the food should be about ready. I'll go in and get it. Be right back."
Austin goes inside and picks up the food, then they head back to the house.
"Welcome to my humble abode. Make yourself comfortable." Austin says, leading into the house.
They go into the kitchen and see Victoria unpacking bags and sorting the new baby stuff in the living room, which is connected to the kitchen.
"Oh, hey Vic. This Juliet. Juliet, this is Victoria." Austin says.
Victoria waves, "Oh, hi! Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Juliet says.
"I'll be right back, I'm going to use the bathroom." Austin says. "Vic, we got Aji Ten. I got your usual, small miso soup & Cali roll with extra avocado."
"You're welcome!" He calls out as he heads to the bathroom.
Victoria looks over Juliet as she takes some plush bunnies out of a bag, watches her as she looks around the house waiting for Austin to get back. She sees Juliet take off her jacket and unbutton more of her top to reveal clevage.
"Horny bitch." Victoria let's her thoughts slip out of her mouth.
"Hm?" Julia asks, being caught off guard.
Vic looks down at the plush bunnies and starts talking for them, playing it off. "No, you're a horny bitch! Nooo, you're a horny bitch!" she laughs it off nervously.
Juliet laughs nervously as well, playing along.
"I'm back! Let's get this food." Austin says walking into the kitchen.
"I guess I'll grab my soup and sushi, & get out of your guy's hair." Vic says.
She gets up and grabs her food, along with a Sprite from the fridge.
"Have a good night, guys. Nice meeting you." Victoria says nervously before heading off to her room.
"What the hell just came out of my mouth?" she thought to herself.
She sat down at her desk, and propped up her phone to Facetime Mila as she ate.
"Hey girl, what's up?" Mila answers.
"Austin has a girl over."
"A girl. A really hot one too."
"Oh my. Do you think he's over you now that he's met someone?"
"God, I hope so. But you know what I did? You know what I fucking did?"
"I was watching her look around the house while Austin was in the bathroom, and she took off her jacket, then she unbuttoned her top more to show off cleavage."
"Then I just out of no where, blurted out, "Horny bitch."
"I did. Thankfully I was holding these plush bunnies we got for the baby and I played it off as they were fighting on who's the horny bitch."
"Wait, why is that funny?" Mila laughs.
"Oh my god, stop. It was so embarrassing. Like why did I just blurt that out?"
"Maybe he's over you, but you aren't over him. Kinda sounds like jealously." Mila takes a sip of wine.
"Lucky. I can't wait to drink again. Gonna be pumping and dumping when we go have a much needed girls night out after this pregnancy."
"Oh, yes. Once your body is up for it, we'll go and get LIT."
"Please, I need. But, let's not go to that one club though where we went for the cast parties. It's been Eliana's hangout."
"Oh, yeah. We'll go somewhere else."
"But back to you saying it sounds like jealousy. I am not jealous."
"You sure? Because I don't think you'd call the new girl Austin is seeing a horny bitch for showing off her titties a bit."
"Oookayy. If you say so."
"It was probably just pregnancy brain."
"Uh-huh. What does she look like?"
"She's about my height, blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles."
"She sounds cute. What's her name? I wanna look her up."
"Juliet. I don't know her last name. She works at Barnes & Noble."
"Eh, I've always been good at finding people. You know, before I got into acting, I was kind of a geek and was really good at tech stuff."
"Really? I don't think I knew that."
"Yeah. I worked at Best Buy once upon a time, selling computers."
"Wow. I don't think you ever brought it up."
"Mhm. Anyways, she is pretty. Her last name is Moreno. She's from Anaheim. Big family. Italian."
"Aren't I?" Mila flips her hair.
"Austin's from Anaheim. I'm sure they've bonded over that."
Mila gives Vic an eyebrow raise.
"Okay, okay. But are you sure?"
Vic walks into the kitchen to see Juliet wearing Austin's Mighty Ducks muscle tank, revealing some side boob.
"Good morning." Juliet says to Vic, as she makes herself a cup of coffee.
"Would you like some coffee?"
"Oh, no. That's okay. I can't have much caffeine and I usually just have a protein shake in the morning. Thanks though."
"No problem. I really hope we didn't get off on a rough spot..."
"Oh, because of what I said? That wasn't-
"Victoria, I saw you looking at me when you said it. I could tell it was about me."
"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I didn't even realize I said it until it was too late."
"You would have thought it either way though, right?"
"I don't know, but I'm sorry."
"I just hope you know that's not my intention with Austin."
"Good to know. Speaking of, where is he?"
"No, I'm not. Good morning, ladies." Austin says as he walks in, shirtless in just his underwear.
"Good morning." Juliet smiles at him.
He kisses her sweetly. "I had a lot of fun last night."
Victoria lowkey rolls her eyes & grabs a protein shake from the fridge and a banana off the counter, and goes to sit in the living room.
"I'll be heading out soon. I have to work in an hour and a half, and I want to stop at home first to get ready." Juliet says to Austin.
"Alright, sweetheart. Want me to give you a ride home?"
"No, that's okay. My roommate is going to pick me up on her way back from her hair appointment."
When Juliet was leaving, Austin was saying his goodbyes.
He kisses her & sparks fly. Maybe he is over his feelings for Vic.
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