Witness Protection ✔

Brown eyes

Cassius didn't get the appeal of gardening and today was the first day in over 15 years he set foot in a garden center. And even though they were in a different store in a different state everything looked the same as he remembered it.

As they entered he quickly analyzed their surroundings and found it to be safe, giving Nathalia the o.k. to go further.

He walked behind her so he'd be free to look at her, thinking back to this morning when she woke up all flustered and avoided eye contact all day. He could only imagine what she'd dreamt about, and hoped it was him.

Get it together Cassius, he thought, I'll never get another job again if they found out I've messed around with someone I'm supposed to protect.

Pushing all thoughts of her red and flustered face out of his mind he decided to look around the store again. Off in the distance, some redhead smiled at him, but he chose to ignore it. She just wasn't attractive to him. He was more into brunettes, like Nathalia.

Fuck, I'm doing it again. Focus.

They stopped by a rack of gardening tools, and despite them looking all the same to him she stood staring at them for a good few minutes.

Looking around again he saw more customers had entered and he knew they had to be faster than this, they couldn't be seen by too many people.

"Kat."

She turned around and for the first time today, she made direct eye contact with him. Big brown eyes stared up at him, her mouth slightly opened indicating she was pulled from some deep thoughts.

Gods I love her looking at me like this.

"Yeah?"

"Just grab one, I'm sure they're all the same. No need to think about it for 10 minutes," he said. In reality, it probably hadn't even been one minute.

That was the moment the redhead that had smiled at him before decided to suddenly appear from behind the rack, flashing him that same smile she wore earlier.

"Good morning, do you maybe need help with finding the right spade?"

Cassius really didn't want to talk to her, but he also didn't want to seem too rude to people in front of Nathalia. But what truly annoyed him was the fact the employee ignored Nathalia altogether and only asked him.

Do I look like I love gardening?

"She can't decide what spade to get," he said pointing at Nathalia.

The redhead briefly looked at her but for some reason decided to continue talking to him instead, annoying him further. So he decided to sweep the room again with his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Well, a plastic spade is lighter so it's easier to carry around but a metal one is more durable, less likely to break, and won't rust if you take good care of it," the girl replied, her voice faltering at the end as it became clear Cassius wasn't giving her the attention she so desperately wanted.

"Yeah, right, I'll just get this one then. Er, thanks," Nathalia replied.

How she had been able to be kind to the employee despite being treated like that was beyond him. But he had to admit it added to his attraction to her.

She quickly threw the spade in the cart and powerwalked past him towards the fruit tree section. He was pleased to see she had written down exactly what she wanted so they were going towards the next section in no time. That is until she grabbed two plants and kept looking at them for the longest time.

Suddenly she looked at him.

"Darius, what do you think?"

He didn't know what to say, she hadn't explained what she was talking about and he didn't know what was going on.