“We can get lunch with ten dollars, it will be fine. Now, I have a whole day of activities lined up. I thought we could go to the Met, and then maybe the movies. Ooh and then I’m going to take you to a few thrift stores and see if we can buy you something nice.” Okay, my cheek is hurting now.
“This is ridiculous, but a deal is a deal. Come on then, Star. Let’s see how the other half lives.”
“Oh yeah, and no car. If we can’t walk it, then we’ll get on the train.” I’m just going to ignore his little glare. He’ll thank me for it later. Yeah, he really won’t.
Our first point of call is the Met, and I have no idea how this will go down. Museums aren’t really my thing, but once we start walking around, I begin to enjoy myself. Emmet even seems to be enjoying himself, although he has yet to go into a thrift store, and I’m crazy excited to take him in one. I don’t even know why, but I’m almost giddy about it.
“Why have you got that silly smile on your face? What do you have planned for me, Star?” he asks, as he slides his arm around my back, and rests his hand on my hip.
“I’m just excited to take you into your first thrift store, that’s where I did most of my shopping,” I say with a little bounce to my step.
“You buy your clothes out of a thrift store, like clothes that have been worn by other people?” he asks, as he wrinkles his nose and grimaces.
“You don’t have to make it sound so abhorrent. Besides, you can find some decent stuff there. I like them.” I shake my head at him, and he pulls me closer until my hip is resting against him.
We stand here looking at a painting and it feels natural to be held like this, by him. My head leans to the side and connects with the side of his chest until he’s moving to stand behind me. His arms go around my stomach as he holds me against him, and my head leans back against his chest.
“Why are you so comfy?” I really didn’t want to say that out loud.
“I have no idea. You’re the first person to think so,” he replies, before we move to the next exhibit and his hand returns to my hip.
Our next stop is a vendor. The look on his face is priceless. He looks a mixture of disgusted and downright scared.
“It isn’t that bad, trust me. Get a chili dog. They are amazing and you really can’t go wrong with one of them,” I say as I pat him on the back and his answering glare has my sides splitting with laughter. I’m not even trying to hold it in.
“You are such a brat,” he says, as he marches over to the vendor and orders us both one.
“I know, but it’s so much fun,” I tease, as he hands me mine and I give him a wink. I’m never doing it again though, it felt so weird.
“You’ve never winked at someone before, have you?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Not at all. I just notice the small things when it comes to you.” We look at each other, before he moves forward. I have to shake myself off before I hurry to catch back up to him.
“Come on, let’s go check out these stores you’re so keen to drag me to.” I can’t stop smiling, and I don’t even want to try.
I practically skip into the first one we come across, my eyes instantly fall onto a pair of shiny black Doc Martens. They’re my size. This has to be fate. Only, fate is cruel because as usual, I can’t buy anything.
“You like those, huh?” he says, as he eyes them, and I swallow down my excitement so I can sound as blasé as possible.
“They’re okay, do not get them though, Emmet. Please, I’m really enjoying myself today, and I don’t need any gifts.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t do gifts, especially after what happened the last time I got you one.” I can’t help but toe the ground, as I stare at it.
“I’m still sorry about that. I overreacted, and it wasn’t fair to you.”
His hands cup my face as he tilts me up to look at him.
“It’s okay, I didn’t do it for the right reasons, anyway. Some of them were honorable, but mainly I was just trying to buy your affection. That’s how it works in my world.” I glide my fingers over his cheek, and I’m so tempted to rise up on my tiptoes and kiss him, but I won’t.
I pull away and start rifling through the clothes until I come across a denim jacket and hold it out to him.
“Here, try this on,” I say with a smirk.
“No.”
“Come on, Emmet. You have to try something on.”
“It has rhinestones on it, so that is a Hell no,” he throws back at me and I can’t help but laugh as I put it back and my eyes fall on something even better.
“Fine, but you have to try this on,” I thrust it at him, and he looks at it as though it’s riddled with fleas.
He slips it on, and I let out a wolf whistle that is even worse than the wink.
“That looks amazing on you, and it’s only fifteen bucks.” I clap my hands and he takes it back off.
“Yeah, it will be great for whoever decided to buy it.”
“No way, you have to do things my way. You can’t come in here, find a leather jacket like that, and not buy it. I mean it, Emmet, you have to buy something.” I may be a little too passionate about this, but I love seeing Emmet like this.
“Fine, but that means we’ll only have twenty-seven bucks left. How are we supposed to go to a cinema and get food with that?”
“We’ll go to the matinee, it’s only about fourteen bucks for us both. We can even share a bucket of popcorn.” I smile cheekily at him, and he walks over to the counter to pay for his jacket.
I swear I even hear him mutter, “it probably isn’t even real leather.”
The thing that is really making me melt, though? He said that we had twenty-seven left, not him.
“It was a good film, although it felt like there was more action than storyline,” he says and I completely agree.
“I know, I like action, don’t get me wrong. But there was rarely any point to it,” I say back and we share a smile before walking off.
“So, what now?”
“We could go for a walk around Central Park, I’ve never been there.”
“Me either, let’s share this first together.” He takes my hand in his, and our fingers interlock.
We walk around for a while, and chat about anything and everything. We skip all the heavy stuff, and I almost forget about the whole ‘me looking like his mother’ thing. Because yeah, that’s nothing major. Just keep telling yourself that.
“Okay, so I’ve got two bucks left. What are we going to do for dinner?”
“Well, if you want the true experience, then there is only one thing you can eat…”
“Which is?” He’s done nothing but smile today, aside from when he’s glowered or grimaced at me.
“Noodles, you have to eat noodles.”
He looks so perplexed, and I can’t wait to introduce him to such a culinary feat.
We head back to his, and my feet are killing me. I’m not going to complain and he can’t stop looking at the packaging. We walk back into his place and I get started on preparing the noodles. It doesn’t take long until I’ve got them in a bowl and I slide it over to him.