Elusive // The Weasley Twins

29. Burn

George stepped out of his office and made his way towards the front of the shop, pushing his sleeves up to his elbows as he stepped to the side to make way for an employee heading in the opposite direction.

For a friday afternoon, it was pretty slow. George knew that as soon as the summer months hit, business would be booming but with most children and teenagers still enrolled in school, he expected days like this.

"You going out for lunch?" An employee, Holly, asked when George stepped behind the counter. He glanced over today's sales reports and nodded.

"Lottie's meeting me, we're going to grab a quick bite, I won't be too long."

"I'll try not to burn the store down when you're gone," she joked, leaning against the counter as well.

George rarely worked on the floor. Having sole ownership of the shop, he had bigger things to worry about than customer service, but he always made sure that the employees were well trained on all of the products on the shelves.

He pulled open the drawer that had all of the cashiers paperwork and scanned over some numbers as the bell above the door rang when someone opened it. Next to him, he heard Holly suck in a faint breath and fix her posture.

"Hi," She happily greeted the new customer, stepping around the counter to personally assist him. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm good, thank you," he responded, and George recognized the voice.

George slowly raised his eyesight from the paperwork to see that Holly was talking to Benjamin Nott. He had his hands in his pockets and a charming smile plastered on his face as he spoke to Holly.

Even if he hadn't gone on a date with Cosette, George still couldn't stand the guy. Even though they were two years apart at Hogwarts and never said a word to each other, George hated how Ben carried himself as though he was better than everyone else. He looked down on everyone younger than him and thought he could get away with anything by simply flashing a smile and his fathers money.

But then George saw him with Cosette and then he really despised him.

He didn't know what Cosette saw in him. He was arrogant and disrespectful and had the complete opposite personality of who he thought she should be with. While Cosette had only ever dated Fred, it was no secret to anyone that Benjamin was nothing like Fred.

Cosette was smart, she knew her worth and after someone like Fred, George assumed that she wouldn't go ahead and settle for someone like Ben.

Apparently, George thought wrong.

"I'll go check in the back for you," Holly's voice was cheerful before turning and walking past the register towards the stockroom, leaving George alone with Ben.

George clenched his jaw and tried to pay attention to the paperwork he was looking at, but he kept glancing up as Ben slowly wandered around, scanning over the products in the aisles.

Ben turned and noticed George behind the counter. He furrowed his eyebrows but then cleared his throat as he took a step forward, "You're Cosette's friend, right?"

George flipped to the next page, not wanting to look up, "Yep."

Ben nodded slowly as he continued walking closer to the counter. In his peripheral vision, George could tell that Ben was still looking around the shop and silently judging everything that was on display.

He opened his mouth again and George held back the urge to roll his eyes, "And you were at the game last week, yeah?"

"Yep."