Cal and Lara entered the Supermarket. She had made him wear a cap partially covering his face - which raised several alarms in Cal's mind - before entering the mart hand in hand, Cal had tried to wrest his hand free but Lara held on to him with an iron grip and gave him a threatening glare to silence his protests. They got a trolley and went about buying items from the list Jenna had left behind. The mart was pretty empty, a few people here and there, spread out. By the time they were done collecting the items the counter was empty.
Cal found most of the stuff on his own and the ones he couldn't were picked out by Lara. She also bought many chocolates from the goodies section and told him that he would be paying for those. Cal found her craving for chocolate amusing.
By the time they were done with their shopping the counter had emptied out. The clerk was a cute girl probably in her 20's. She was probably a college student working part time at the mart. She saw the two of them approaching and seemed to check Cal out. Cal noticed her actions and couldn't help but smirk in secret. He did have a pretty good build, he worked out regularly and kept himself in shape. He was around 6 feet but wasn't so bulky that he towered over others but was built well enough that he looked solid, stable. He rarely had trouble picking up girls but that first date barrier seemed too high for some reason, they kept bailing on him after the dinner date. Some of them used to leave in a huff after getting offended for random reasons, blaming him for being rude. His thoughts were derailed by a sharp pinch on his butt, apparently Lara had noticed the clerk's actions too.
"Hello, how are you?"
The clerk gave a cheerful smile as she looked at them, well mostly Cal. Her lapel said Rose.
"...."
Cal could hardly say much without letting the proverbial cat out of the bag. He looked towards Lara but was met with only a smirk.
He pushed the items on to the clerk and gestured for her to bill them up. Rose's smile waned a bit but was replaced by curiosity at Cal's weird actions. She tallied the items one by one all the while sneaking peeks at Cal all the while ignoring Lara. While Cal was flattered he was also anxious for he wasn't sure if Lara might get pissed off and do something rash. He in turn took a few hidden peeks at Lara but could only see a slight smile on her face and could hardly read her thoughts.
"Here you go, that will be $20."
Cal silently pulled out his wallet and paid her in cash.
"Thank you, have a nice day."
Cal silently accepted the receipt and started unloading the items into his bag. Rose looked on with some hesitation in her face but couldn't seem to hold herself back.
"I'm sorry to ask, but are you dumb by any chance... ah, I mean mute?"
She gestured with her hands trying to get the message across. She looked towards Lara for confirmation as well.
Cal felt like crying, a girl was interested in him but he could hardly respond back. He held himself in check and shook his head indicating no, which seemed to puzzle her even more.
Cal finally glared at Lara making Rose turn to her for an explanation. Lara had a hard time holding her laughter in as she laughed out loud before turning to Rose
"Don't worry dear, all his parts are working just fine. We're just having a little bet. Take it as a vow of silence until I say otherwise."
Rose finally seemed to comprehend the situation before looking back and forth between Cal and Lara.
"Ah... I see."
"So, do you like what you see.?"
Lara gestured to Cal while questioning Rose. Rose stiffened at her question, she wasn't above looking and flirting with committed guys but not really willing to get into a confrontation with their girlfriends just for that.
"I'm sorry if I overstepped."
"Nonsense, it's a honest question, don't worry, I'm not his girlfriend if that's what you are afraid of."
Rose seemed to relax at that as she took another once over at Cal before blushing a bit.
"Yeah, he seems well built and handsome, I'm a bit partial towards older guys, can't really see his face properly with the cap and mask but facial features are irrelevant in the dark. I'm sorry."
Rose seemed to realize she had run her mouth off and apologized promptly.
"It's okay dear, I get what you mean. But I just saved you from an unpleasant time. He may not really look it but he's a really prideful prick with a nasty mouth, constantly disrespecting women and seeing women as inferior. That's the reason for the bet, to see if he can hold his tongue for a day and not deride any women."
Cal felt like he was watching a train wreck was happening in slow motion. He was pretty happy with Rose's description of him. He did have an okayish face, a 7 out of 10, maybe an 8 depending on the girl's preference. He had been thinking of returning to the mart later on to talk to Rose before Lara started spouting shit about him trying to sabotage his chances.
He let out a low groan but could hardly refute her claims with the sock in his mouth.
"Is that so? That's really sad."
Rose seemed genuinely disappointed as she took one more look at him before giving him a glare. Cal shook his head to refute Lara's claims but it must have seemed like the standard denial that all accused give when their crimes are pointed out. Rose snorted at his denial, refusing to believe him.
"But worry not, I'm in the middle of training him to be better. Hopefully he'll become a better human being after that."
Rose didn't seem to understand what she meant as she looked on questioningly. Lara leaned in and whispered in a conspiratorial tone so that only the three of them could hear..
"Oh, you know, guys like him need a firm hand to fix their ways. He is pretty cute though when he is silent. The thing is, prideful assholes like him are just balloons of hot air, they secretly have feelings of inferiority but they blow themselves up and speak harshly in order to hide that part of them. He can tell himself it's for the bet all he wants, but see, I have him so well trained that after just one day he's now sucking on a pair of my gym socks with love.
