A Pirate's Life for Me

Chapter 13: My, What a Guy

Gaston strode off from his meet and greet line, glad for the respite. Still, it was pretty typical for him to go check on his tavern before going backstage. Besides, he had grown accustomed to seeing if his favorite guest was nearby, eating yet another cinnamon roll.

She sure loved those things. Thank God. It seemed like the only reason she put up with him were the sugary carbs. Not that he blamed her at all—they were delicious.

Lo and behold, she was sitting at a table, staring at her phone with a disconcerted expression that he immediately wanted to go away.

It was a good thing he was so great at distractions. "Nora!"

She looked up, placing her phone face down immediately, a smile spreading across her face. "Gaston!"

He grinned, glad their bump in the road was behind them. He had seen her a few times since his apology, which had been a bit tense, but now it seemed they were back to their old eager quipping. "Wow, you're actually showing that you're happy to see me."

"I just can't keep my feelings from showing any longer." Nora rolled her eyes. "Nah, the cinnamon roll is worth the possibility of running into you."

"Best in the kingdom." He leaned on the counter, flashing his ever charming smile. "But of course, that's just an excuse to come see me."

Nora plopped the fork into her mouth, eyebrows raised. "Oh yeah. Definitely. Which is why I stayed in here instead of going to see you."

"You knew I'd come in here. It's my tavern, after all."

"Sensed my presence?"

His grin widened. "More like your resentment."

She gave him a wry smile. It was so nice to have her not despise him anymore.

Yay.

"Busy day?" he asked.

"You know how it is. I don't usually have much of an agenda."

"Besides cinnamon rolls." He pointed to himself, eyebrows waggling.

She groaned. "If we open the dictionary, we're not going to see a picture of you as the example."

"We're not going to open a dictionary at all." He leaned, all seriousness. "What a waste of properly good trees, turning them into paper."

"Hey. I never said thank you," Nora replied, clearly ignoring his anti-reading sentiment.

He frowned. "For my awesomeness?"

"For talking to me that first time. I wasn't having a good day and you're actually the reason I started going to do character meet and greets. Before, I was too afraid to. But talking to you wasn't so bad, so..."

He blinked, momentarily speechless. He was used to having an impact on guests, but this was a pretty big deal. "I guess you understand why everyone thinks I'm so great now, don't you?"

She gave a quick smile. "Yeah. I guess I do."

And now he was expected to go through the rest of their interaction, as if she hadn't just moved his soul. "If you're not afraid of meet and greets, why don't you ever go meet with me in my actual line?"

Except that one time. He was probably already on thin ice as it was and shouldn't even be mentioning meet and greets, but he couldn't help himself.

"You don't need another guest in line added to your ego. Not to mention the last time went badly." She propped her chin up with her fist. "Besides, I like feeling special."