Nora let go of her phone as she gave a small sigh. Connie was busy with school although now with a bit of freedom just enough to talk every now and then. While Sadie and Lars were working for the summer season at their part time job at Big Donut, their surprise was great when they found out everything. Well, maybe not because she saw Lars handing a 10 dollar bill to Sadie.
She could only raise an eyebrow while questioning why these two were betting on her relationship.
The rest were working in family businesses so they were busy. This was true for everyone except Buck who is the son of the Mayor of Beach City and had nothing to do other than that hobby of painting shirts with clearly obvious subliminal messages.
As for her, she was divided between two things. First, her father had done everything possible to consume her free time by giving her a manager position at one of the car washes he owns. She will not admit that sometimes she does not want to see the car wash because of that incident involving traveling through time, because every time she sees that employee she feels her heart race out of fear. All of this was done so that she would not see Adrian or perhaps to build character, if she were to use an exact quote of his words at that moment.
Well, not everything was entirely bad. She saw Adrian almost every day at least for a while because he also had to dedicate time to some of his experiments. Even though he had explained things superficially to her, one thing was certain: too much scientific jargon could overwhelm anyone.
Regarding how they had been, she had not had the chance to give him the silver mirror she had found in Amethyst's room. This was because they mostly only saw each other through video calls or in the evenings when they took the opportunity to go out together or with their friends who were exhausted from the tourist season during this summer time.
She cheered up as she saw the mirror flicker with a formless static as if it wanted to show something failing. That seemed interesting to her because it appeared to truly be a Gem artifact and not just an ornate mirror from some human civilization with perhaps invaluable historical value or nothing at all. You know, that would not be the first time Nora encountered something like that, but the confirmation was the blue teardrop shaped gem that was quite broken behind the mirror.
In principle, she should have taken the object to the rest of the team and made a decision about what to do with it but she had not felt like it was a Corrupted Gem so she did not see it as necessary. Only for that reason did she decide to keep it before being able to give it to Adrian. Who knows, maybe he will find out how to repair it or what it worked for. Maybe the two of them could be together trying to fix it. Perhaps it would be fun or not and she did not know but that was not what mattered at the end of things. What mattered was spending time together.
...
It was already the end of the work day and despite everything a manager job might seem to be, she felt bored. She had not done anything more than calm down a rather snobby blonde girl who complained that her car had been poorly washed. That is clearly a false claim because first the car was clean before even entering and shiny after leaving. She could only understand that the girl just wanted to argue with someone so she decided not to play along and to end that matter at that exact moment.
Apart from that, the whole day had been frankly boring. Of course, the mirror at various moments showed static or a vaguely feminine distorted voice but no concrete words. Sadie called once when she took a break with Lars to find out how she was doing at her job. Connie sent her a couple of messages but only normal girl talk. The rest of the guys were too busy to even pick up their phones. Although she could bet that Jenny might have replied if she wrote to her, anyway. Adrian called a couple of times just to know how she was but nothing more. She had mentioned the mirror to him this time wanting to show it to him, to which he gave a rather calm response without the clever puns he loves to make.
That would be all if it were not for the fact that now that she was returning home she was waiting for Adrian along with Sadie, Lars, and Sour Cream to go out to eat something at the pizza place. They would meet Jenny, Kiki, and Buck who were already there. The first two were there for obvious reasons while the last one was there because he had been the one who proposed the plan.
It must be said that they did not have to wait long for Adrian to arrive. Lately, she had seen him be more daring in using his powers for the most trivial things except for those that amused him and one of those things included in that was walking. When he finally appeared in sight he was wearing the same clothes as always: white shirt, black pants, etcetera.
She smiled as he approached. He also smiled. The atmosphere would have become romantic if not for an exaggerated cough that came from one of their friends as well as a sound of flesh hitting flesh along with an exclamation of pain. But what can be done? Not all moments are perfect. She settled for just a hug.