The nice, light feel of the coffee shop’s music enlightened Claire’s mood as she waited in the never ending line for her coffee. Tapping her foot, she continuously checked the time on her phone. Claire had never been tardy in her entire life and she refused to start ruining her record now. There was still a solid 45 minutes left and it seemed as though another employee had started working for the line was already beginning to quicken.

Thoughts of the night before drifted into Claire’s mind. The fact that Sophi disliked her was absolutely gnawing at her mind. All she was trying to do was to be helpful and kind, worthy of being her friend. Was it something she possibly said? Claire understood how much stress she was going through, suddenly taking full responsibility of five children was a lot to handle. Perhaps if she gave her a gift of some kind? Lotion was always a good backup and Sophi’s skin did seem a little dry. Perfect! Pulling out her planner, Claire made plans to go shopping after her volunteering at the Red Cross. It might also be a great way to spend time with Riley after two failed attempts yesterday. 

To: [color=seagreen]Riley[/color] [@lovely complex]
[color=FF9900][i]Good Morning! <3 Want to come shopping at the mall with me around 6 tonight?[/i][/color]

After pressing the send button, conversation within the coffee shop seemed to diminish and all eyes were staring directly behind Claire. The once calm and serene atmosphere of the coffee shop had dramatically changed. Raising her eyebrow, she turned around and found the town’s own ‘prince’ and eldest of the Harmon family, Wesley. Some days were just simply meant to go wrong from the start. 

The man’s eyes shown an eager need of hunger as they latched onto her. A shiver rippled through her body as he looked her up and down. Hundreds of rumors surrounded Wesley and while she had never met him before, she’d heard enough stories to get a pretty good idea of who he was and he was not someone she wanted to be hanging around. Wesley approached Claire and without even saying a word to her, threw his arm around her waist and began escorting her to the front of the line. Claire’s eyes widened and her face burned bright pink with embarrassment. The dress she was wearing suddenly felt too short. People in line simply stepped out of the way as Wesley told them to, although several of them gave her dirty looks when he wasn’t looking. 

Wesley gave the poor barista an impossible order and Claire couldn’t help but feel completely helpless. Who was she to tell one of the richest family’s eldest to back off? While they lived in the same neighborhood, Claire’s family made nothing compared to Harmon family. He was not the person you wanted to make enemies with. Wesley looked to her and claimed she could order whatever she liked but Claire couldn’t even bring herself to speak. Part of her was screaming to simply order something and just walk away but she knew this was all wrong. Wesley’s touch was extremely unwelcomed and if he moved down even an inch lower, he’d be touching her bottom. If Riley even saw her, what would he think? While falling in love was on her bucket list, cheating was not. Not even his attempted flashes of grins could persuade her to listen to him. Taking a deep breath, Claire reminded herself who she was. Claire Evansworth didn’t let rich men walk all over her like she was made of paper. 

Politely, Claire removed Wesley’s around her waist and showed a slight smile. [color=FF9900]“Look, I’m really sorry if I gave off the wrong idea but I’m currently in a relationship with someone else. I hope you have a great birthday though but instead of skipping in line, perhaps you could flatter everyone by purchasing their coffee? I have class at the academy soon so I must be going.”[/color] Claire tucked in her hair and turned to leave the coffee shop, begging the man wouldn’t follow her. From her her hands shaking uncontrollably, Claire wasn’t sure she could handle another conversation with him. 

[@Viciousmarrow]