Hide Your Fires

15: Trust

"Hello! Welcome to Mile High Fabrics, can I help you find anything?" I ask the person that just walked in the store as I'm standing behind the counter of the store on Tuesday afternoon.

The woman doesn't even verbally answer me, she just purses her lips and shakes her head before she scurries off to find whatever it is that she's looking for. That's usually the type of response that I get from customers though, so I'm not deterred. I just go back to the task at hand which right now, is cleaning the glass counter beside one of the cash registers.

I'm manning the cash register by myself since Taylor is in the back helping a customer find the specifically perfect color that'll patch up some bridesmaid dress. I only overheard bits of the story but I gathered that a very drunk sister of the bride had a mishap while trying on the dress and needed it repaired right away before the wedding, which was next weekend. She's incredibly frantic, which will make Taylor incredibly frantic. I almost want to go back there to help out but Taylor was adamant that she could handle it on her own.

She is the boss, so I'll stay out of it.

I finish wiping down the counters just as another customer walks into the store so I open my mouth to recite my repetitive welcome line. "Hi! Welcome to-" But when I see that it's Tate that just walked into the store, I stop speaking and my eyes narrow at him for a moment before I continue. "Can I help you find anything?"

"I'm actually looking for you," He states the obvious. "And you're very hard to find, Hallie."

"Not that hard," I shake my head although I can't say that I'm not disappointed that he found my place of work. I'd went to a McDonald's around the corner to avoid the diner this evening since I know that Tate has his probation meetings on Tuesdays and today is a Tuesday. I didn't expect him to find out where I work though, and I wonder if Matt told him. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, let me just start by saying that I had to search two blocks of retail stores before I found this place," Tate tells me, standing across from me at the counter. I silently plead for a customer to walk in so that I'll have an excuse to ignore him, but alas, we are alone.

"Okay. So what are you doing here?" I repeat my question.

He gives me a strange look. "You have a strange way of saying thank you."

"I already said thank you for this weekend," I remind him with narrow eyes. "Did you expect me to worship at your feet or something?"

"That would be nice," He grins jokingly but I don't laugh. He reaches over the counter and nudges my shoulder. "Come on, Hallie, really. What's going on? I thought we were finally friends or something after Friday night but now you're just blowing me off."

"I had a momentary lapse of judgment on Friday night," I explain to him, referring to how I told him about my parents when I was all upset about Jude and the hospital. "I appreciate what you did but we aren't friends."

"Is that so?"

"I don't know who you are," I admit to him with a small shrug. "In front of your friends and at school, you're the infamous Tate Conner who's an asshole and so full of himself. But when it's just us, then you're Tate who's nice and a good listener. I like the latter but I'm not willing to deal with the former. I'm not willing to put in the effort to try and figure out which one is the real you."

"You know which one is the real me," He insists.

"Do I?" I wonder with raised eyebrows. "Because you can flip like a switch. I'm already dealing with so much right now and I'm not going to start dealing with you too."

"This is me," Tate tells me with a firm nod. "Right now, this is who I am."

"Good for you," I state sarcastically as I pretend to reorganize things behind the counter to make myself look busy so that I don't have to look at Tate anymore. "So all I have to do to be your friend is to deal with you being a bitch at school and then we'll just best friends forever when there's nobody around? I'm not your dirty little secret, Tate."