Page 80 of Unraveling Connections

“I’ll never say no to their coffee,” Rage agrees.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince Victor to give me the recipe this time,” Rafe mutters, looking amused.

“You ask every time, and he still won’t tell you,” Riot points out, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

“Didn’t you even ask him when he came to the bar with us that time?” I ask.

Rafe tries to repress a smirk, “I did. He still wouldn’t fucking tell me.”

His response has us all laughing. Victor is a good guy, and we have actually been to the bar with him and his wife a couple of times. Not as often as any of us would like, mostly because of how much work we do.

Everyone puts in their orders for coffee and cake, and then Rafe, Rage, and Atlas take off.

“I’m going to take Shadow for a walk,” Pete says once they are gone, “unless you need me here?”

I shake my head, “No, I’m going to get absorbed in planning and figuring out all the different situations that could happen.”

“I thought you might,” Pete smiles as he heads toward the doors on the extension, Shadow already trotting at his heels, having heard the word walk and appeared as if from nowhere. He calls over his shoulder, “Don’t stress yourself out with maybes, or I’ll tell Ever.”

I wave him off but don’t actually bother replying, there is no point trying to deny what we both know, that I am going to do exactly what he’s accused me of doing. I can’t help it, it’s just what I do.

Rafe

The trip into town doesn’t take very long, we decide to just go around and pick it all up together rather than split up. Especially since I need to grab quite a lot, and they only need to get one part.

Christmas, and having everyone up at our place and having loads of people stay, depleted our supplies by quite a lot and I haven’t had a chance to replace them yet.

“So, what are we getting?” Atlas asks as he pushes the cart around the grocery store.

“We need some of the basics, like rice and flour, I like to buy them in bulk. I also want to get some batteries and a few extra torches and electric lanterns since I could only find five when I checked. Then there are just a few extra things, we shouldn’t be here for too long.” I reply.

“Sounds good,” he says, and then promptly pushes the cart in the wrong direction and down the aisle with all the candy.

“Dude, you have a problem,” Rage says as Atlas adds some to the cart.

Atlas scoffs, “No, I don’t. I just like candy, and I have to get more because you raided my stash, and now I'm low.”

“You’re both as bad as each other,” I point out and then add, “but we’re running low on chocolate; I need some for baking, and Ever’s going to want extra in a couple of weeks.”

“Good point,” Atlas says, as he does a U-turn and starts loading the cart with chocolate.

“How did I forget how fucking chaotic you were when you shop?” I question, rolling my eyes but unable to keep the amused smile off my face.

Atlas just grins at me.

Rafe and I make the easy decision to get this shopping trip done as quickly as we possibly can before Atlas ends up deviating from the list even more, and we end up having to get another trolley because he has filled up ours with random stuff that he doesn’t actually need. He is the worst impulse buyer ever.

We are about halfway through the store when a familiar voice calls out to us, and we stop.

“Hey guys,” Lucien greets us happily, carrying his own basket that is full of cheese.

I nod toward it and say, “A new pregnancy craving?”

Lucien chuckles, “Yep. To be honest, we are all happier with this one. The pickled onion one was not a favorite.”

I wince, “Yeah, I can imagine.”

“I’ll walk with you, save us blocking the aisle and Atlas adding anything else you don’t need to the cart,” Lucien says with a smirk.

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