new money, suit and tie chapter 4
He sees her before she sees him. She’s got her hair up in a ponytail wearing sweats and a pale pink t-shirt with a box of cinnamon toast crunch in her hand.
She’s also, he realizes when he notices her earbuds, on the phone.
“Right, he’s not that bad.” He hears her say. “He just frowns a lot which is a shame cause his smile is pretty but—”
Her sentence cuts off the moment she turns to see him standing there. Her eyes are wide as he raises a hand up as a greeting.
“Mr. Jackson,” she says, clearly flustered. It’s incredibly cute and he can’t help but smile.
“Percy is fine,” he replies. “Hello Annabeth.”
There’s a pink tinge to her cheeks as she hugs the box of cinnamon toast crunch closer.
“Hi,” she responds, somewhat shyly. “I didn’t expect to run into here.”
Neither had he honestly. Nor had he expected to overhear her conversation. (And he will admit he’s immensely curious about who she was talking about.)
But he also doesn’t miss the emphasis on the here part of her sentence.
Raising an eyebrow, he responds. “What? Did you not think I went to the grocery store?”
She looks down, still blushing. “I didn’t mean, it’s just, I thought you had someone else do that.” Then she looks up quickly. “Not that you can’t, I just meant—”
She’s somehow even more adorable stumbling over her words, but he decides to help her out.
“My dad does. But I happen to be a great cook and like getting my own ingredients.”
“Oh.”
She looks at him, her head tilting ever so slightly to the right, as if she’s trying to imagine him cooking.
(Which to be fair, he knows he doesn’t really look like someone who cooks.)
“Do you not believe me?” he teases, and chuckles when she rushes to deny the accusation.
“I’m kidding,” he says, cutting off her apology. “But I guess I’ll have to prove it to you.”
“What?”