The process seems slow because time does not exist - Justine / August / Charlie

[molten-lead.livejournal.com]

"You seem preoccupied."

August made the observation as he counted the money behind the counter, and Justine closed up the front of the shop. She shrugged as she came back, meeting his eyes before disappearing into the back of the shop so that she could pick up the broom used to sweep up.

"A friend of mine's gone down to London cause some of his friends died."

Because of her timing when she said it, August had to wait until she came back from the back room, with broom in hand, to reply with anything.

"Well that's pretty heavy."

Justine looked at him, before she began to sweep. "That's why preoccupied," she said, as though that should have been obvious.

"Of course." August went back to counting up the money. He was fast coming to the idea that it was impossible to know where you stood with Justine. Some nights when they went out, she really seemed to warm up to him. Her housewarming was no longer the only time they had kissed, far from it. But then, every time it seemed to head to more than that, she made up some excuse and then when he next saw her at work again, she was walled up behind that Ice Queen exterior again.

He'd never had so much trouble with one woman before. At least he'd slept with his conquests, before freezing them off.

"Are you done?" Justine asked.

August looked at her blankly, her question seeming to come from nowhere.

"The money," she continued. "Have you counted it?"

"Almost." He went back to it, concentrating on it then, rather than her.

She walked past him when she finished with the sweeping, and August looked away from the money he had almost finished counting to check out her behind. It was a nice one. He wouldn't have settled for less. Making out like he'd never taken his eyes from the money, he neared the end of tallying up the day's takings when he realised that Justine wasn't taking notice of him at all.

Comments

[enchantedverse.livejournal.com]

Charlie came to Quail because nobody had been at their house when she'd checked in there, and she didn't know where else she was supposed to go to make sure that her friends were doing okay.

Justine opened the door to her, gazing at her inquisitively, and fair enough. Charlie hadn't come here to visit before. She hardly glanced at the man standing behind the counter. "I just got off the phone with Uncle Logan. He said that someone called Jax died. A musician that Asia knew. And I thought, because Renee knows Asia and Ryan, and also Ryan said something about visiting a Jax for her show... Have you heard? Was she someone you knew?"

[carmaline.livejournal.com]

Justine opened the door to Quail a little wider so that Charlie could come inside, rather than continuing to have the conversation on the front step. She locked it again after them. "Yeah. Ryan knew her. He went to London yesterday afternoon."

[molten-lead.livejournal.com]

With the money counting out of the way, August came out from behind the counter. With this small amount more information that Justine hadn't supplied before, August had cause to wonder how much this was affecting Justine, from the sound of hurt in her voice.

[enchantedverse.livejournal.com]

When he moved, Charlie's eyes moved towards him. "Oh," she said. "That was rude. I didn't mean to ignore you." She gave a little wave, an acknowledgment at least of his presence. Her eyes went back to Justine's. "Are you and Lance doing okay?"

[carmaline.livejournal.com]

"We didn't really know them," Justine said. If Charlie had a problem with not acknowledging August, Justine would have preferred to have kept her groups of people separate. "Do you want to go?" she asked. "I'm pretty much done here."

[molten-lead.livejournal.com]

When Justine made her wishes quite explicit, August shrugged. "Nice to meet you," he said to Charlie, determined at least to appear polite in front of Justine's friend. He nodded once to them, before making his way past and unlocking the door to make his way out.

[enchantedverse.livejournal.com]

"You too," Charlie said as he walked past. "Yeah, let's go. Do you want to come to our house? Or just a coffee?"

[carmaline.livejournal.com]

"Either's fine. We'll need to go out the back to make sure everything's properly locked up." But even though she said it, Justine glanced back in the direction August had gone in. She didn't trust him. She didn't trust he would be good to her if she showed him interest, but if she didn't show him enough interest, she thought sometimes, more than she'd like, that she might be in danger of pushing him away.