Laughing Fate (21 page)

“Excuse me, ma’am? Could you tell me which brand of spiced rum I should get? I’m not much of a drinker.”

Puck glared at the customer that had snuck up on her and interrupted her thoughts. She stepped off of the step ladder she had been using and with hands on hips, she told the customer off.

“What’s going on here?” boomed the deep voice of her boss.

Puck mentally groaned as she turned to face her boss. He was a good enough guy, but had warned Puck several times already to start being nice to customers. Oops.

“This lady just told me to go shove a bottle up my bottom!” declared the self righteous elderly lady. She was practically quivering with outrage.

Puck sighed and wracked her brain for a quick fix for this situation. She couldn’t think of anything so she decided to wing it. “What I said, ma’am was that a nice bottle of rum did better up on your bottom…shelf. I’m sorry if you misunderstood me.”

Puck felt her weak smile die a small and horrific death when the trouble making senior citizen pointed one little wrinkled finger at Puck accusingly. The old bat was obviously going to be stubborn about this. Puck shot a quick look at her boss, he did not look happy.

“
This young hussy told me to shove the bottle UP MY BUTT! I may be old, but I know the English language and she clearly threatened me!” She turned her squinty self righteous eyes on Big Al, quivering with rage, and demanded justice.

Puck rolled her eyes, which was a mistake because both the old bat and Big Al noticed. She quickly put on a polite face and smiled at the lady. “I’m really sorry ma’am, maybe your hearing aid isn’t working correctly because I clearly said place it on the bottom ummm shelf. I’m willing to accept your apology however whenever you’re-

“ENOUGH!” roared her boss, who now looked as if he was going to have a stroke. Puck seemed to have that effect on people… Big AL forcibly shoved Puck out of the way, blocking her from the customer’s view with his big body. He was suddenly all gracious and apologetic, placating the old bat, determined to have her leave his store with a good impression.

He stood at the door, a huge smile on his face, as he personally saw her out of his store, waving goodbye until she was out of view. Puck watched this whole display, faintly amused to see her hulky boss play the gentleman. She was also partly disgusted by all the fake smiles and partly terrified of what would happen when Big Al stopped being a gentleman.

As soon as he turned away from the door his smile died, his face full of storm clouds.  His voice boomed out like thunder, his eyes practically turning red from his rage. ‘Uh oh,’ thought Puck, ‘I’m dead.’ Big Al was clearly mad.  He marched up to Puck, grabbed her arm and dragged her to the small closet that doubled as a break room. He slammed the door shut and just glared at Puck.

“
Listen, Big Al, I know you’re mad. I totally understand why you’re mad too, and I promise that it will never happen again. I swear!”

Puck winced when Big Al just continued to glare at her. She wondered briefly if she should mention that technically it was against the law to manhandle her the way he had just done. Puck took another glance at his face and decided against it.

“What were you thinking? WHY would you yell at an elderly lady dressed up in her finest dress and pearls? WHY? She’s my minister’s mother! My God, Puck! WHY?!”

‘
Okay, that made it sound a little bad,’ Puck acknowledged to herself. “I didn’t know she was a holy woman! She was rude to me first! I really didn’t tell her to shove the bottle up her bottom! And I never yelled at her, I just raised my voice a little on account of her hearing!”

Big Al sighed in frustration, he knew Puck well enough to know what she probably had said to the old lady, none of it pretty. “Did you tell her shove it up her ass?” he asked resignedly. “Never mind, I don’t want to know. Oh, and her hearing is fine! She doesn’t even wear a hearing aid. God, could you have been more offensive to her?”

Puck avoided his gaze and flushed out of embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I really am.”

Big Al’s eyes softened and his voice came out a little more softly, “So am I, Puck. I can’t have you working here anymore. This isn’t the first time you’ve yelled at a customer, I just can’t let it happen anymore. I’m sorry, but you’re fired.”

Puck opened her mouth to argue, but shut it with out saying a word. She took in a deep breath, stood straight and pushed her shoulders back, she would not beg Big Al for her job, she had more pride than that.

Puck nodded once and said, “I understand.” She walked out of there her head held high, appearing as if she didn’t have a care in the world. She let the door swing shut behind her, silently seething. That stupid old lady and her spiced rum! She was just wondering if it would be petty to hunt the old bat down and manually show her where the bottle should go, but realized that the community might look down on that sort of action.  Plus it may be illegal to do that to another person…

She was thinking all of these dark thoughts, allowing the anger to cover the small twinge of despair she was feeling, when she ran smack into Potter.

He put his hands out to steady her, an easy smile on his lips. “Hey, get your head out of the clouds! What are you doing? Playing hooky?  Can I join you?”

Puck looked up at his smiling face and just couldn’t tell him that she’d lost her job. What was she going to do? Sure, she still had the job at the diner, but that was only part time. She put on a brave smile for Potter and stepped out of his arms.

“
I don’t really have anything planned, just a boring day really.”

“
Boring? Really, I find that hard to believe, Puck.”

Puck glared up at him, when had Potter become some sort of Puck expert, she had boring days! Puck recognized that she was probably just transferring her anger and worries onto Potter, but couldn’t help making a snide remark. “Why is that Potter? Is it because you think I’m crazy? That I don’t deserve a nice day of rest and relaxation? Tell me Potter, because I’m dying to hear why it is that you think that I can’t have an uneventful day and just enjoy some peace and quiet.”

Potter took a quick step backwards. He had been starting to rethink the whole ‘Puck is scary like a seagull’ thing, in fact he had been sure that now that he really knew Puck that she couldn’t scare him anymore. Boy was he wrong. Right now Puck was about a gazillion on the scary scale. If there had been a seagull for him to face instead, he would have gladly faced it right now.  Everything Puck had just said right now was a trap, anything he said would just make himself an even bigger target.

Slightly disgusted with himself, that he was still scared of Puck even though he knew that she wasn’t always as tough as she seemed, Potter ran away. Literally turned around and ran with out saying a word.

Puck watched him run, bewildered. Okay, so she hadn’t exactly been polite, but she hadn’t pulled out a knife and tried to stab him! Why was he running from her? He hadn’t said a single thing, he just got that old deer in the headlights look and after a moment of panic had turned around and ran the heck out of dodge. Potter was a very weird man.

Puck stared after Potter as he ran, he almost knocked a mother holding a baby down, but steadied her the last minute before he continued his mad dash. Normally Puck would be laughing at Potter, but she didn’t much feel like it. Even though Potter had been annoying her with his smug assurance that he knew her better than she did, Puck realized that she wanted her friend back.

Potter stopped to get his breath back, one hand leaning on a brick building for support as he gasped in air. What the heck was he doing? He realized that he was acting like a coward, and a crazy one at that. Puck was his friend, she was the same girl who hummed when she was happy, who smiled up at him so prettily, whose kisses sent him to heaven, who hid her pain from the world, she wasn’t a threat to him, she had a tattoo of a penguin on her butt for goodness sake! She wasn’t a psychotic murderer, WHY had he run?

As he was thinking that he saw Puck running after him and all logical thought fled.  Holy crap! She was chasing after him! Potter took one last panicked breath and then resumed running. With each running step he took he mentally chastised himself for being a fool, but nothing on this planet could compel him to stop running.

Why the heck was he still running? Puck picked up her pace, she could run pretty darned fast (she’d gotten her practice from running from her brothers) and was gaining on Potter quickly. Potter glanced back at her, his eyes widening in fear, and changed directions, heading for the park.

Puck followed his turn, gaining on him even more until she was just a step behind him. Not giving much thought to what she would do when she caught the spaz, Puck lunged for his feet, rapping her arms around his legs in a tackle. Out of instinct, when they were both in the air she turned so that when they hit the ground she’d take the blunt of the impact.

They landed with an oof, Potter on top of Puck. Puck had momentarily lost her breath and so just stared up at Potter, who was looking even more panicky than before-if that was even possible.

Potter had been surprised when Puck tackled him, which he really shouldn’t have been. It was just that Puck was so much smaller than him; he honestly hadn’t thought she could tackle him. He stared down at her in honest to god panic, the type of panic Potter imagined people felt right before they died. Slowly though, his senses started to filter some odd facts that led him to believe that maybe, just maybe Potter wouldn’t die today.

First of all was the fact that it was Puck who was beneath him, a breathless, bewildered Puck, who was just staring up at him with her pretty blue eyes. Second was the fact that her labored breathing was pushing her breasts against his chest, which pushed all remnants of fear from his mind. Lastly, was the knowledge that he was an ass, Puck wouldn’t actually kill anyone.  It was just that when her eyes had narrowed in anger and she’d shot those questions at him, he’d panicked and running away had seemed the best solution.

Potter felt himself blush as he stared into her eyes. She must think he was crazy for running like that. His breath was still labored from the run, and his limbs just didn’t have the strength to move, so he continued to gaze down into her beautiful face, knowing that he was probably crushing her with his body weight, but lacking the energy to move.

Puck couldn’t take her eyes off of Potter, his eyes had slowly regained their normal sparkle, and now they held warmth for her.  She was painfully aware of their position, her arms were wrapped around him, their legs entwined, and his face was so close that she could feel his warm breath on her face. If she was smart she would push him off of her, if she was wise she’d walk away from Potter right now.

“
Are you sure you’re not a witch doctor?” Puck asked softly as she stared up at his dear face. He had a tiny little scar near his hairline that she’d never noticed before; she wondered how he’d gotten it. She moved one hand to frame his face and wondered when he had become so dear to her. Sure he was a great friend, but right now all she could think of was how endearingly retarded he was and that Potter was hers.  Puck didn’t quite know what to do with these possessive feelings; she didn’t want a relationship, did she?

Potter smiled slightly at her question and dropped his gaze to her lips. What spell had she put on him? What was so special about Puck that drew him to her like a moth to flames? He felt her breath on his cheek, coming out in shallow breaths, saw her tongue dart out to moisten her lips, and was entranced. Why was he so drawn to Puck?

Because there was no one else like her. She was beautiful, kind, dang sexy, and she was his. Her body felt like home, a very erotic home, but still there was a comfort that he felt when close to her that made him feel safe. It was ironic, considering that moments before he’d been running from her like a mad man, but it dawned on Potter that all this time he should have been running towards Puck.

Sure, he was attracted to her, he’d stopped denying that a long time ago, and she was his friend, but for the first time Potter realized that Puck could be something more. For once, Potter wasn’t scared by that thought, he embraced it just as he was embracing her now, pulling her even closer and cradling her head. Sure Puck had her moments when she was scary, and she was stubborn, and had no regard for her safety, and would probably cause his early death, but Potter loved her, respected her, and didn’t want to let her go.

He kissed her lightly on the lips, giving her time to object if she needed to. He was rewarded by a little sound of pleasure and was pulled even tighter to Puck.  She was doing her best to merge their bodies into one, clothes and all, which would have been a scientific wonder if she had succeeded. Potter let all logical thought float away as he trailed little kisses down her throat. Maybe she didn’t love him right now, but he would make her love him.

“
NO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION!” boomed a loud voice above them. Potter tried to break the kiss and respond to the officer, but Puck pulled him back, wrapping a leg around his waist and biting his lower lip. It wasn’t very hard to distract Potter again and soon he was lost in her kiss again.

Puck whimpered as Potter was lifted off of her, she missed his warmth, his heart beating next to hers, his shallow breath on her skin, his kisses that had just been trailing down to her shoulder, his warm hand that had made it under her shirt…SHE WANTED HIS KISS! Puck sat up on one elbow and glared at the officer who was holding Potter by the scruff of his neck. How dare he pull them apart? Puck narrowed her eyes and wondered if she could telepathically blow up their intruder.