Brush it off

You pull off your mask with a sigh, shaking your head.

“Some protestor that came to the booth,” you tell her, looking around. “I knew it was going to happen. Someone was going to be upset about this.” You gesture at your T-shirt.

Colby stares at you. At least she’s making eye contact.

“How does that lead to…” she trails off.

“Fuck if I know. I explained some stuff to her,” you say, guiding her into the line for an ice cream booth. “You know, about how CCL stands for some important stuff, and how tough things are. How we, like, have to do what we have to do to make it work. She understood. I mean, I agree with her. This is tacky and wrong and there’s a better way for us to make money.” You shrug at Colby. “And I think we can get there, maybe. But we can’t change what we’re doing today. She understood that.”

“And then you kiss,” Colby says, still giving you a skeptical look.

You laugh. “No. Then she does what everyone does,” you say, poking her in the side. “Asks if the rumors are true. So she’s intrigued, you know? But then Yuki hit me with the vibe that she had in here,” you say, pointing vaguely downward.

“Wait, what?” Colby asks, her face turning a shade brighter.

“Oh, I didn’t mention that? Yeah, they stuck a vibe in my costume,” you whisper to her so the people in line won’t hear. “It’s out now.”

“What the fuck…” Colby says, gazing off into the distance. “What have you gotten into?”

“Yeah. Anyway, it just got out of hand. Trust me, I wanted to talk her down so she’d quit yelling in front of our booth. I wasn’t trying to go the horny route, but I guess she was.” You shrug at her. “I’m still processing it.”

“Jesus,” Colby says, taking a deep breath. “That place is changing you.”

You aren’t sure what to say to that.

“So we’re having ice cream, I guess?” she says. “Glad we discussed that.”

“It’s hot in here. And I just did all that stuff. I’ve earned it,” you say defensively.

“Ice cream for lunch. Awesome. They canceled our panel. The guy has COVID. So I guess you have more time to fingerbang strangers.”

“Are you mad at me?” you ask bluntly. “I’m not going to apologize for kissing you. You were really cute.”

That shuts her up.

“Next you’ll say that you don’t like ice cream,” you say.

“I like ice cream,” she mutters.

You get some and get away from there, escaping the **** crowds of the food court and getting back to the rows of booths. You avoid the big expos. You and Colby don’t care about most of that; you can catch up on those highlights on Youtube later. But the little booths with the interesting things—this is your best chance to cruise those.

Things aren’t completely back to normal between the two of you, but you don’t know how that would be possible. You feel like you played it correctly, though. You minimized the damage.

“I’m not mad at you,” Colby says as you admire a bunch of sick anime swords on display at a blacksmith’s booth. This booth doesn’t belong here, it belongs at a renaissance fair. “It’s just there’s a lot of changes and it’s all you. I just have to get used to it. It’s OK. I know things couldn’t stay the same forever.”

“Hey, I still know you,” you say worriedly. You don’t want her to feel like you’re drifting apart. Last night doesn’t matter. You just want to make things right now.

“Yeah? Which knife do I want?” Colby asks, poking you with her elbow.

“To stab me with?”

“I told you, I’m not mad.” She’s not being completely truthful. She resents you for creating this distance.

“Hmm.” You frown at the display. They have a lot of stuff from movies and things. Lots of cool ones. Colby loves this kind of merch.

Buy her a cool blade? Not as a bribe, but to show her that you still know her well.

Or

Just give her the yuri hentai that you bought earlier?