❛ oh, Ashley. he's dreamy. ❜ [ we talked about this so- ]
"Stop, stop, hold that thought—"
This, of course, doesn't prevent the thought, even if Ashley makes a desperate plea to whatever's listening to cease it. It's hard to tell beneath his protection of dark lenses, but Ashley knows a look when she sees one. The kind that your heart veers as much as your eye, where the steady ba-bump of your chest rises to clammy hands numbers. While Zeno's eye was drifting, Ashley's was trying to avoid, but now she can't not address the elephant in the room.
Steering Zeno's slowing - no, no, don't slow down, what are you doing, wait it's kind of cute, no it'd be cuter if it weren't over him - pace elsewhere, Ashley ducks them both a sizable distance away, all with a convenient doorframe to lean from, gauge his ever potentially shifting position.
"Okay, you being a lovestruck puppy is, like, seriously cute. Did you know you blush?" for emphasis, Ashley leans up, but doesn't capture his cheeks in a pinch - the action done inches away, just in case it's... too much? -- touch is a finnicky thing, and she doesn't want to make playful teases into something hurtful. "But that guy's- bad news is putting it, like, nicely. You know how I'm a hot mess? He's, like, that but worse."
Ashley holds out a hand, counts down fingers accordingly.
"He wasn't my ex, but he was the ex of a friend of mine. Always wears the same socks. No, he doesn't have multiple pairs of the same socks, just the one, and yes, they could probably stand up straight. Second, serial food stealer, and not in the cute, I feed you, you feed me way. I'm talking 'purposefully visits you after a grocery run so he doesn't have to go on one himself,' which personally was up there with the sock thing for me."
She hates ruining this for him, really. It really was sweet, the way his gaze latched on and didn't falter, but his eye's meant for something--
long-lasting. Pinnacle of romance, something only written about in novels.
"... If you gimme' a checklist, I dooo have some people I'd like you to meet? Good people, not... actually, we'll make a whole new category for him in particular: fridge raiders."
The tone in which she stated the title could only be described as wrapped in negative connotations.
