A/N: I hope you like it! Also, I hope you've warmed up to Lottie's character because I love her, lol. Dedicated to Fabasian because she's wonderful and made me a beautiful cover!!

Chapter 14: Sour as a Cranberry

Lottie's doe-eyed gaze was fixed on me, a fond smile on her face. I stared at her. I could still feel the warmth of her breath fanning against my back, the way her laugh vibrated against my shirt. Thankfully, I was good at not showing how affected I was by the simplest of gestures.

"Charlotte Carter!" that brunette from the bakery screeched, and Lottie turned, a panicked look on her face.

"Bye, Ben!" she cried to me, tossing me a smile before she turned on her heel and pelted away from her friend.

The brunette whose name I'd forgotten stopped in front of me and made a face. "I knew she was behind you," she said.

I raised an eyebrow. "So why didn't you say anything?"

"Because all she did was touch you and you got all hot and bothered," she said smugly. "And it was fucking hilarious."

My fists clenched up and I glared at her. "I did not!" I protested angrily. Lie.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Your face went from normal to white to red in two seconds flat."

"Not."

"It actually did."

I pointed in the opposite direction Lottie had taken off to. "You know what? Why don't you stop fucking talking to me and go find her?"

The girl flipped me the bird and said, "Denial isn't healthy, you know," and sprinted off in the direction I pointed to. I smirked; she didn't even suspect a thing. That was what she got for being an annoying little pest.

"Boo!"

Without turning around, I rolled my eyes. "You're not scary, Lottie."

She trotted over into my line of sight and pouted. "I thought I'd got you this time."

"Maybe if you were more frightening," I suggested. "But you're about as frightening as a little baby."

She giggled. "Except in the mornings," she joked. "You never want to see me before I've had my chocolate milk."

Christ. Chocolate milk? I thought she was going to say coffee. "I actually never want to see you anyways," I said. Lottie's face fell slightly and I immediately felt guilty. I was so used to saying the rudest thing I could, that I'd forgotten how much it bothered her. My eyebrows furrowed and I stretched out my hands before quickly dropping them. "I was just kidding," I said. 

She peeked at me with her wide green eyes, and she perked up. I felt a little better when I saw her smile. "You are so weird," she said, her eyes crinkling at the corners.

"I'm weird?" I said, affronted. "What about you?"

She giggled into her hand and glanced over my shoulder. "Good afternoon!" she called, waving energetically at a girl who was making her way past us.

When Lottie smiled at the girl, I felt my heart stutter when I realised that it was a different smile than the one she gave me. I frowned, thinking about it. When she smiled at the girl, it was sweet and welcoming, polite, if anything. But when she smiled at me, no. Stop it. I internally shook my head.

I couldn't think about stuff like that, because it most likely wasn't true. Lottie was a friendly person, of course she would be nice to me. No use getting my hopes up when anything more was impossible.

"Benny? Are you okay?"

I looked at her and automatically took a step back at the sight of the warmth in her expression. "I'm fine," I managed to say.

Lottie didn't look convinced, but she glanced at her watched and squawked. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at the sound. Lottie seriously made some of the strangest noises I'd ever heard.

"I'm late!" she cried, her arms flapping around like a madwoman. "Oh jeez, I'm so late, I'm going to be late for work!"

She twirled around in the spot as though it would magically transport her to the bakery. "Lottie, are you late?" I asked sarcastically.

She let out a quick, bright laugh before patting my arm and darting away. "Come visit me later, okay? I have a long shift today!"

"Probably not," I called.

Another lie.

***

Three hours later, I got out of my car and noticed Lottie washing the windows of the bakery, swaying side to side.

I chuckled to myself when I noticed she was squirting water onto the windows using a huge Nerf water gun that was almost as long as her torso.

I tiptoed closer until I was right behind her, close enough to hear that she was humming the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. She still hadn't noticed me, so I leant forward until my lips were right at her ear.

"Boo," I whispered.

Lottie let out the single most adorable squeak I have ever heard in my entire life and swung around, her hand automatically spraying me with her water gun. I spluttered and spat out the water, wiping some of it from my eyes. I groaned when I saw the wet drops staining my shirt.

"Oh!" Lottie exclaimed, her face flushing pink, her hands hovering over me as though she wanted to do something but didn't know what. "I'm so sorry, Ben!"

I pushed away her fluttering hands and lifted up the corner of my shirt to wipe off my face. I grinned to myself when I saw her determinedly looking away from my stomach. I laughed into my shirt and then let it fall back over me. "Don't worry about it," I said, striding through the bakery doors.

She pattered after me and smiled as she positioned herself behind the front counter.

Don't think too much of it, I scolded myself.

"Thanks for visiting me!" she exclaimed. I could tell that she was genuinely pleased to see me, and for some reason I felt myself becoming more pleased at the thought of that.

I leant against the counter. "I had nothing else to do," I said casually, trying to play it off. It was so hard to keep calm around her when I kind of just wanted to hug her. Just then, the door to the bakery opened, and I heard the clicking of expensive high heels. My eyes snapped up and widened as I realised who it was.

Lottie, meanwhile, smiled brightly. "Good evening!" she trilled.

I could feel a hard expression creep up my face, and my eyebrows furrowed. Mrs. Wellington saw me at the same time I saw her, and we death-glared at each other.

"Is this who you serve here?" she spat. "I thought this was a respectable place!"

Lottie's eyebrows fairly disappeared into her hairline, and her smile immediately dropped. "Pardon?" she said faintly.

I felt a familiar anger crawl up my spine. I hated this woman and her family. They were all a bunch of gold-digging, snobbish aristocrats - and good friends of my parents.

"Seeing how you behave towards your parents, it's a wonder you can still strut around like you own everything," Mrs. Wellington said, her voice cold as ice. I didn't care a whit for the woman.

My hands clenched up into fists. I felt something touch me, and glanced at Lottie to see her hands covering one of my own. Her gaze was focused on Mrs Wellington.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but I have to request that you be a bit more polite to my friend," Lottie said in the firmest voice I had ever heard her use. Friend?

Mrs Wellington glared at me with a hatred so fierce that I stepped back. She had no right to be such a complete and utter bitch to me. "Polite to whom?" she hissed.

"Ma'am," Lottie said, her tone still firm, but her eyes were now flashing. It surprised me, because I didn't expect anything like this from her. "There is a strict no-unwanted-negativity in this bakery, so I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

I didn't speak, too shocked by Lottie's anger, even when Mrs Wellington slammed her fist on the counter and twirled around. She was just as bad as my parents, and seeing her sent an unwanted reminder of them to me.

Lottie frowned as Mrs Wellington left the bakery, and I felt something gnaw at my stomach. Something that felt overwhelmingly like fondness. It made my gut clench up and my face flush, and try as I might to deny it, I had to admit that that girl had done what I thought was impossible. In the span of a few days, she had dug down and managed to settle herself inside my heart.

Because of her, I didn't really care how shitty anyone else thought I was. 'Cause if that sweetheart liked me, how bad could I be?