Leave an “Offer Me” and get my character giving yours a gift.
Clement stared across the coffee shop at Pearl from where he was sitting, ignoring his cooling coffee in favour of fiddling with the stiff gold ribbon of the small lavender bag. Other people were flitting in and out of the seating area of the coffee shop; blocking Clement’ view of Pearl, but he knew she hadn’t moved, even though losing sight of her gave him an edge of urgency.
This wasn’t a gift out of the kindness of his heart, no, this was a strategy. Something to bait and guide dearest Pearl into an entertaining situation… not her entertainment, but certainly his own. This was simply entertainment in the guise of being soft and kind.
Clement was rarely either of those.
He got up from the table, weaving through the crowd of people to arrive at Pearl’s table just as she was packing up. “Hey, Pearl,” he said, “I have something for you.”
She smiled, the implied ‘yes go on, please’ plain on her face.
“Here.” He handed over the gift bag. “I can’t tell you who it’s from, but I’m sure you can figure it out — they fancy you.” He didn’t know if anyone was mooning over Pearl at the given moment, but he was banking on her filling in the blanks and getting invested herself.
Before she could say anything, Clement said, “I have to go, but definitely keep me in the loop when you figure out who employed me to be a messenger boy.” He smiled with a warmth that didn’t sit in his chest; it didn’t reach his eyes. “Please, I’d love to hear everything.”
