Trash Panda — Roleplayer Guild

Crow hopped down from the wagon bed. His green eyes swept over the bustling crowds like a predator hunting for prey. There were so many unsuspecting villagers with satchels swinging at their hips, filled with money and goods. It was almost as if they were begging him to steal from them. He watched a particularly wealthy looking merchant near the end of one aisle. His cart was filled with exotic produce the thief had never seen before. However, what had caught Crow’s attention was the fat purse that laid carelessly at the man’s feet. Its drawstrings strained against the overflowing gold coins that they struggled to keep contained. All it would take was a clever distraction, a simple slight of hand, and then—

“So where to first?” Penelope’s friendly voice interrupted his scheming.

He turned to look at her, carefully forcing his excitement into check. He didn’t want her to know where his thoughts had been, since he already knew she disapproved of thievery. He cast the rich merchant one last wistful glance, and turned his back on him with a sigh. For the sake of his friendship with the knight, it would be better to leave the big fish alone.

“I try not to have a destination in mind when I visit places like this,” Crow answered with a shrug. “It’s much more fun to wander. You never know what sort of interesting things you’ll find.” He smiled at her and tipped his head in the direction of the food stands. They stood at the end of one long aisle of rowdy merchants. “We can go this way first though. I never miss an opportunity to try foreign food.”

He led the way towards the vendors, weaving effortlessly through the sea of people. Having been to marketplaces like this since he was a child, it wasn’t difficult for him to navigate his way through a busy street. “Come on,” he called to Penelope over the continuous roar of the people around them. He reached for her hand to help guide her. In his excitement about being in a market once again, he hardly even felt the awkward pang that usually hit him when he touched the knight.

As they dodged through the crowd, Crow began eyeing coin purses again. Everyone here seemed to have their guards down. He peeked over his shoulder at Penelope. Surely it wouldn’t matter if he took just a few bags, right? Even though he held one of her hands in his, he doubted she would notice the motion. Besides, they might need the extra money later on if they got separated from the others. He made up his mind.

Crow turned slightly and bumped into a passing woman. “Sorry about that,” he apologized while he pocketed the coin purse he had snatched from her hip during the collision. The woman snorted and turned away from him, continuing towards the merchant stand she had been trying to get to. He smirked, Easy.

“Let’s try that stand over there,” Crow said to Penelope, pointing at a vendor on the other side of the market. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the woman when she discovered her money was missing. “Looks like he has some interesting wood carvings. Also, there are a couple of food stands near him that smell amazing. What do you think?”

A regular work day at Precision Horizons Co. was, in a word: dull. At least, that’s how it felt to Roman. Unlike the other salesmen in his division, Roman typically met his quota within the span of two or three hours—it just depended on whether or not he felt like putting in much effort. Today was no different. He finished the phone call with the retail company in thirty minutes, and was well under way with the other project he had been assigned when Abigail’s text came in.

His phone chimed and he raised a brow inquisitively when her name appeared on the lock screen. Interesting. She was more forward than he first thought. He usually prided himself on being a judge of character—it was necessary since he dealt with so many feisty women, whom he needed to take precautions against—but it seemed like he had been off the mark with this girl. He picked up his cell and opened the message:

Hope you got to work safely. Thanks for the ice cream by the way!

Roman tapped a pen against his desk twice, a smirk tugging at his lip. It was still forward of her to text him so soon, but at least the message wasn’t anything crazy. No need to worry. He set the phone down again and continued working on his project. He didn’t want to respond right away and seem like he had been waiting for her to talk to him. To Roman, flirting was a well-rehearsed dance, full of grace and precision. Every action he chose to take had the opportunity to help or hinder his cause, and he wasn’t the kind of man to give less than one hundred percent when it came to getting what he wanted.

He finished his project after about another twenty minutes of work, and spent another two hours after that making sales calls to potential clients. He met his quota easily. With no more incentive to work—the company had a cap on commissions—he decided to take a break and finally text Abigail back:

Got to work just fine. Also, no problem at all! Happy to treat a pretty lady like you ;)

With that done, Roman glanced at the clock. There were about two hours left to kill before the day was over. Normally, he would just go home early, but he wanted to wait and see if his boss put in a request for his raise or not. He sighed and rocked back in his chair. There wasn’t much to do, and he wasn’t about to keep working without commissions. He peered out the door of his private office at his coworkers, who all shared a large room separated by cubicles. There wasn’t anyone he particularly wanted to talk to, and he doubted any of them wanted to talk to him. He had a reputation for causing trouble.

When Roman first started working at P.H. Co., he had been just as successful with clients as he was now. With so much free time, he got into quite a bit of mischief at his coworkers’ expense. He would flirt with the women, spread scandalous rumors about people he disliked, and blatantly distract any of the salesmen whom he deemed as any sort of threat to his own success at the company. It was part of the reason why his boss agreed to let him upgrade to a private office space.

Unfortunately, his past behavior left him with nothing to do but watch Netflix on his work computer for the next two hours. He had figured out how to get around the firewall long ago, so it wasn’t hard to access the streaming site. He yawned. Wish I could have a beer right about now…

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