Ah Crap.

[safetypinalert3]

It’d been nearly two weeks of moping over that bakery incident. Rhys had called her phone. Well. He had blown up her phone. To the point she had thrown the battery across the room. Of course, that resulted in Carpet having to help her find it. And every night, she had to clear out her inbox, as Rhys’ voice filled the inbox. There had been texts too, all of which she deleted without even bothering to read. Come to think, she hadn’t listened to his messages either. He was probably calling to yell at her, because he had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, or something, or was afraid she was going to steal his famous recipie and get rich of it. Or something.

Even still, Adeen hadn’t called back. She had cried, and moped plenty of times. And when Carpet had been napping, she curled up on the porch of her apartment, and obliterated her mind. So she couldn’t feel anything but numb, empty, and desolate. Maybe it was melodramatic, but something had clicked with Rhys, so well. That she felt hollow, without seeing him smile. But at the same time, she was almost certain it wasn’t a mutual feeling.

Carpet had finally gotten sick of her moping, and had put her credit card into her mouth, and crossed his tassles at her, before pointing at the door. Which resulted in attempting a completely depressed, very pink, shopping spree. Something was almost missing from her wardrobe. She was of course, decked out in pink. But it seemed to miss the overloaded stacks of accessories, or the extravagantly styled hair. Of course she looked glamorous as usual---but for someone who would be used to Adeen’s style, it was totally off the mark.

She sighed, and stood in front of one of the stores. She hadn’t found anything yet that sparked her interest, and she didn’t want to walk into the store. It was simply getting out in the open, outside of her apartment, that Carpet decided was what she needed. She had even tossed out all of the ginger in the house. He had liked ginger—and now it only made her frustrated and sad. She touched her lips idly, shifting her focus to stare at her reflection in the glass of the store. Using it as a mirror, she glanced behind her, watching people pass by, not paying attention at all.

Notes:MORE RHYS AND TREY OMIGOD.
Outfit:Oh shiat.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Rhys hated shopping. He really did. He avoided it like the plague, and paid his personal assistant an extra grand every other month to fill his closet with stuff for him to wear. She was competent enough at it that he didn't have to fear he'd walk out in plaid or something, so he usually left her to it.

But Candace was on vacation (who the hell gave her that?) and in the past two weeks since The Day, he'd managed to ruin just about every piece of clothing he owned that could be worn in public. For the first time in his life, Rhys was making mistakes in the kitchen. Big, messy mistakes, that left his oven, stove and counter tops looking like he'd let loose a horde of kindergarten kids in there and walked away. He didn't know just what the hell he was going to do about it either.

He'd kind of lost the will to live.

And by living, we mean cook. He couldn't eat, because he refused to go out and buy food, and everything he touched was either burnt to a crisp or exploded in a shower of raw ingredients. He figured he'd have to give his cleaning staff a huge bonus this month, and the thought just added thunder to his personal raincloud.

But, because Candace was out of state (he totally would have called her in if she wasn't), Rhys had to go out and buy something for himself to wear, lest he walk around in nothing but boxers and give his staff heart attacks. Not to mention the chance that he might maim himself.

So Rhys was walking through the mall, a bag around his wrist so he could stick his hands into his pockets as he walked. The woman in the store had spent a good fifteen minutes flirting with him, even before he'd gotten to the cash register, and the only thing he could think about for the whole time was how absolutely repulsive it was to be undressed with someone's eyes, especially when he had already bathed in the sweet innocence that had been...Adeen.

He ran a hand through his hair agitatedly, not paying much attention to where he was going. He just didn't understand! Did she have a boyfriend or something? Was she already pregnant for someone, and hadn't expected thing to get so intense so soon and felt bad and just had to leave, to spare his feelings? Granted, he hadn't expected to fall in love with a pink haired woman hours after he met her either, but there was very little Rhys wouldn't do for Adeen, if she needed it. If he could just get her to answer her freaking phone, then they could talk about this. Like adults.

Besides, who kisses someone and then runs? It's just not right! It's liek a bad high school movie, where the bad boy falls for the good girl and makes her rethink her morals, or some crap. Rhys breathed out hard through his flared nostrils, and focused on where he was going. He had a few more stops to make and one of them was for -

Adeen. There was Adeen. Standing there, mere feet away from him, heavy pink shades covering her eyes and small lost frown on her lips...She looked like she wasn't quite sure what she should be doing, and all Rhys wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and never let go.

"Adeen?"

[safetypinalert3]

“Adeen?”

Her name echoed in her head over and over, and over. She looked down at her purse, it hadn’t been Carpet. He had stayed home---and he didn’t exactly have much of a voice. Just emotions. Hm…whatever. She sighed, and leaned into the glass to adjust her pink lipstick, when she noticed she was being stared at. She squinted, the figure somewhat distorted by the gleaming glass. Perhaps it was dumb, because she knew that voice. It started every message that got hasilty deleted.

She turned carefully, and stared at Rhys. Oh. Shit.What the hell. Her mouth was suddenly dry, and her heart was skipping like a broken CD player in her chest. Part of her wanted to abandon her shoes where she was, and literally fly into him. But at the same time, she had a painful memory of a very, very bold kiss she had landed on him. She visably winced. “No, sorry, no Adeen here.” What possessed her to use that utterly retarded British accent?

As though there were hundreds of five-foot-nine pink-haired women strutting the streets of New York. Where was the women’s bathroom. That’d be a safe place to hide until Rhys went away, right? Unless his lawyer was a female or something. She put her hands up at Rhys, “Look, I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what happened. I’m sorry if some, tabloid or something got a picture. Somehow. Or if your staff really was hiding, and is teasing you. Or if your psycho girlfriend is threatening to kill me or something, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She shook her head, backing away. She felt herself digging a deeper, and deeper hole.

Adeen turned on her heel, and quickly began to walk. She kept her head down. Hopefully, her apologies, or word vomit would keep him completely stunned. While she walked, she opened her purse, rummaging. Where the hell were her damn car keys. She just publically humiliated herself again, with Rhys Sprinter, and it was only going to get worse. She was going to get sued for everything she had. They were going to take the last of her funds, and her rugs. God help her if some tabloid leaked a photo.

Her brain went into overdrive, part Adeen, part modified cigarette. She used the store glass that she passed, to use as a mirror, checking to see if Rhys was following her.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Was she...running?

Rhys was floored, frozen where he stood. He'd come to the mall to pick up a few necessities, but had managed to run into the woman that had sent him into this downward spiral in the first place. Adeen looked just as adorable as she had two weeks ago, all covered in pink, but kind of glowed this unhappy vibe. It was insane. He felt like he was falling all over again. His heart raced, and his vision tunneled till all he could see was Adeen, Adeen, Adeen. Every question he'd asked himself, every stab of pain thinking about her sent through his heart, every single remembered quirk of her lips or that glint in her eye that caused his world to tilt in pain rushed through him, and for a moment Rhys could hardly breathe.

"Wha - "

His brain finally caught up with him, and Rhys took off after her. He shoved through the crowd as he tried to keep her in sight, long strides eating up the polished floor of the shopping center. He couldn't understand it. Why was Adeen running away from him? And what the heck was she rambling on about before? Tabloid? Staff? Crazy girlfriend? What?

The only crazy girlfriend he had was her, or he would, if he could just get her to talk sense. And the tabloids always had a way of finding pictures of everything, not that he cared. Were they here now? But, that didn't seem to be what she meant. Rhys growled. What difference did it make? This whole thing was insane. They just needed to talk this out.

"Adeen! Come back!" Rhys neared a wall of windows into a lingerie store, and groaned. One minute she had been right there, the next... Adeen was gone.

[safetypinalert3]

Of course he was following her. Shit, shit, shit. Adeen wanted to look over her shoulder, to see exactly how close he was—but she knew from every movie ever made, if she looked over her shoulder, she’d be toasted. Tripping over her own heels, and sprawling out across the ground. No, that wouldn’t be good.

She quickly shoved through the doors to the mall. The hard, rough asphalt was easier to run across, then slipping and sliding across a waxed floor. Her chest heaved, and the pain caught up with her, and she leaned over for a moment, grasping her side. Fucking hell. She tossed her head back, trying to take as deep a breath as possible. This wasn’t very easy with the corset, nearly crushing her ribs.

Adeen quickly moved for the black Trans Am that was parked in front. She glanced over her shoulder, fumbling with her keys, before trying to shove the key into the door of the car. She was cursing herself for not updating her car—automatic unlock would be absolutely amazing at this time. Or to have Carpet inside to unlock the door for her. She nearly wanted to cry; why the hell was this car being so absolutely difficult today. And shit, her ribs were hurting so bad.

Corsets were not made for running. The shock of Rhys finally caught up, and her legs nearly gave out. She couldn’t run forever, could she? He was going to just end up finding her. Her nerves kicked into overdrive, and she shoved the key into the door again, and yanked it open. Slamming the door behind her, while jamming the key in the ignition. Often, she was found needing to have the car jumpstarted. Luckily, some wonderful divine creature was looking out for her.

Her car started with a growl, she locked the door, and pushed the window down. She quckly peeled out of the parking lot, glancing one last time at the mall.