Riptide

3

I walk inside and start looking around. I notice a second story/loft with a staircase on it that led up to a library and make note to check it out.

I scan the tables for the kid my dad described and see him sitting at a table in the corner. I walk over and he looks up at me.

"Hey Delphi." He says and smiles at me.

His smile is contagious.

"Hey Walker." I repeat back as I sit down across from him.

"I was kinda waiting for you before ordering. Do you wanna get something?" He asks awkwardly.

"Yeah sure." I smile. "Come on."

I stand up and wait for him to get up. We start walking toward the counter and got in the short line.

When it's our turn, Walker tells me to order first.

"Can I get a small iced coffee please." I ask the cashier, whose name was Andie.

"And for you?" She-Andie-looks at Walker.

"Uh I'll take the same. And two chocolate chip cookies." He orders.

"That's gonna be $10.47." Andie tells us.

I start to grab my money from my backpack but Walker holds my arm back. He hands Andie the money and tells her to keep the change before walking back to our table.

"Cute boyfriend." Andie winks at me.

"He's not- he's my dads friend, we just met." I tell her quickly.

"Uh huh." She nods. "That'll be out soon."

I give her a weird look and she laughs. I walk back to Walker and I's table and sit down.

"What were you guys talking about?" He immediately asks.

"Oh uh nothing." I lie. I feel a small blush of embarrassment creep onto my cheeks and he raises an eyebrow at me.

"So, Delphi, what's up with you? What do you like to do?" He asks.

"Uhm well I play volleyball and I sing. But I like reading and I'm in the process of getting back into acting." I nod.

"So you're a jack of all trades huh?" He jokes. "Have you done many acting jobs?"

"Uhm I've done a few. One Nickelodeon show, a small part in a bunch of Marvel movies, and a lead role in a movie." I recall.

"You were in Marvel movies?" He asks again.

"Yep." I smile. "I was about 8 years old though, so nobody really knows it's me unless they were filming or working on it with me." I explain.

"What kind of role was it?" He questions again. "Sorry for asking so many questions. I'm just really curious."

"No you're totally fine." I assure. "I played Wade Wilson's daughter, so essentially just my father's daughter. There was this whole thing Marvel did with it."

"That was you?" He asks, interested. "Holy shit I mean I would've never guessed that."

"Yeah." I laugh. "Like I said, nobody really recognizes me unless they knew me back then."

"So what about you?" I ask.

"I really just do acting." He shrugs. "That or memorizing every line to Deadpool 1&2." He chuckled.

"No way." I shake my head.

"Yes way." He argues.

"Do it then." I challenge.

"I'll do a part of it." He shrug.

"I don't speak Cantonese Mr...Well I'm not even going to attempt that. But I did take 8th grade Spanish, so donde está la biblioteca, which literally translates to I don't bargain motherfucker." He recites.

"Oh my god." I laugh.

"For Walker?" Andie calls out.

"I got it." He says and gets out of his seat.

I watch him walk up to the counter and grab our coffees and his cookies. He says something to Andie and she smiles before looking at me quickly.

I watch as he laughs and turns around, immediately making eye contact with me as he walks over. He sets my coffee in front of me and hands me a cookie.

"You got me a cookie?" I ask him.

"Your dad said you like chocolate chip cookies." He shrugs.

That just made my day

"Thanks Walkie Talkie." I wink at him.

"That's the worst nickname I've ever heard." He shakes his head as he takes a sip of his drink.

"Too bad, so sad." I laugh and drink some of my coffee.

"Wait wait wait!" I stop him from biting his cookie. "I need to take a picture for Instagram and Twitter." I tell him.

"Oh my god fine." He rolls his eyes.

"We need books first." I decide. "Come on!" I grab his coffee and put it in the drink carrier with mine. I stack our cookies next to it and pick it up.

"You're not carrying that." He tells me and takes it out of my hands.

"Oh my god you're annoying." I roll my eyes and grab my backpack and phone.

"My mom raised me right." He tells me correctively.

"Whatever." I mutter and start climbing the stairs.

We reach the top and I smile so widely, my face hurts.

A library that stretches across the entire top floor of the large building reveals itself to Walker and I as we reach the top of the stairs.

There are tons of rows of books all lined up with tables scattered around in a perfectly organized mess. Each table has 2-3 chairs around it and there are tables at the end of every row.

I start walking around the area, checking out what kind of books are where. I find the fantasy and romance section and start looking through them.

Walker comes up behind me and watches as I read every book title.

"Well now I know what kind of person you are." He laughs as I look up at him.

"And what kind of person would that be Mr. Scobell?" I ask as I pull out 3 different books.

"A romance reader." He says as he grabs the books from my hands.

"Well what kind of book would you go for then?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Oh I'm a romance reader too, don't even worry about that." He chuckles. "But I also dabble in horror."

"Ahh, interesting." I nod and look through the books I just grabbed.

The books I grabbed were titled 'After', 'The Things We Leave Unfinished', and 'Five Feet Apart'.

I put 'The Things We Leave Unfinished' back on its shelf and continue looking at the other two.

"So if we both read romance novels, you wanna get matching books? Then we can have hour long discussions about it." Walker suggests.

"You are now my best friend." I tell him. "Should we read After or should we read Five Feet Apart?" I ask him.

"I've already read Five Feet Apart." He tells me.

"After it is!" I announce as I hand him a copy.

"After it is." He laughs and repeats.

Part 2 of this chapter is coming soon.