He had been back from Hogwarts for several days at this point, and thus far had been able to avoid his aunt completely. Evan hadn’t even seen her, which was pretty impressive as normally they at least unintentionally came across each other at least one time by now. Working was more helpful than he had thought it would be, giving him an excuse to get out of the house more often than he would have been able to. Deanna didn’t even know that he had a job, obviously, but he doubted that she was giving much thought to him being gone a lot. But today had been the first day thus far that he hadn’t had to work, and it was also a day that his aunt normally worked from home in the evenings—since they both knew each other’s schedules for the most part. Him having a job would probably throw her off for a bit, but he still knew her schedule just as well as he always had and that meant that he wanted to get out of the house for a while.

In his mind, there was no better place to go than the ice cream parlor, since he knew that Isabella was working. With them both having been working, and her probably catching up with her family, he actually hadn’t seen her since the train station on Tuesday, which … really wasn’t that long at all, but it had actually been the longest time they had gone without seeing each other while dating. Well that’s a bloody ridiculous thought, he told himself, before pulling open the door to the ice cream parlor. It was near the end of the day, so he was hoping that he would be catching her near the end of her shift as well, but he wasn’t positive, clearly.

A smirk formed across his face when he saw his girlfriend behind the counter. “Well, don’t you look… bright,” he stated, chuckling under his breath after he had made it to the front of the shop. “How’s that challenge coming? I’ve been selling a hell of a lot, so it’s understandable if you can’t keep up.” Evan added, looking around the relatively empty parlor. It was an off time of day for ice cream, he supposed.

You know you want to see

@isabella

Isabella was just restocking some items as the customer count dwindled the closer they got to the closing of the shop. After just a quick rush of a group of teenagers, she was figuring it was time to start cleaning up before she left as she took out the broom to sweep up the floor of any of the debris that would have collected throughout the day. Leaving work was always slightly bitter for Isabella as she knew then that it would be time for her to return back to her aunt’s house, shutting herself in her bedroom almost immediately as she waited until she fell asleep. A part of her could hardly wait until the bonfire, excited to see her boyfriend again as well as the rest of the family, and then the crazy family dinner that same weekend. She was feeling a bit more confident in Evan meeting the rest of her family, though she was still slightly nervous that someone in her family was going to at least attempt to embarrass her, or them. Knowing her family, they probably would…just out of their own personal enjoyment. Isabella was also curious who else would be showing up to the bonfire, making her wish that her Friday would hurry up and finish.

Putting the broom away, she made her way back to the counter, blowing a loose piece of hair out of her face as she opened the drawer in order to start counting the funds received from that day. Before she could really get started, she heard the door open, glancing up briefly before doing a double take, a smile widening on her features almost immediately. Her first reaction was to go properly greet her boyfriend, though she figured she could at least wait until she was out of work to do so…as irritating as waiting was. She really hadn’t expected to see him at all until the weekend events, though she was pleasantly surprised at his visit. Perhaps she wouldn’t have to go be miserable at the house until she felt herself falling asleep, only to repeat the process again. “Sweetheart, I’m confident I’ve already surpassed you,” she replied, raising her eyebrows at him amusedly. “Care to up my sales with purchasing a delectable ice cream of your choice? I’ll be sure to add something special to your dessert later,” she winked, smirking.

There would be a lot more going on this summer than a bet about who was going to sell the most products at their job, and Evan knew that. He was sure that Isabella knew that as well, but he was just bloody glad that it all didn’t need to be addressed right now. Eventually, they were going to have to have a conversation about everything that was going on with her, including how she was actually doing. Evan knew that she was damn good at playing off being fine, but that definitely didn’t mean that she actually was. It was something that he had contemplated bringing up many times over the course of the last few months of school, but he had decided that waiting until the summer might be the better option. It eliminated one bit of stress with classes, and another one just with the drama and irritation of being cooped up in that castle for months on end. But now that they were out for the summer, it would be a conversation that they would be having sooner rather than later. Evan wasn’t exactly a damn… conversation bloke, as far as more serious topics were concerned—well, as far as being worried about someone, really. He could talk about anything and be fine, pretty much, but he wasn’t used to actually worrying about someone, and that would certainly be coming up when this conversation occurred.

But that wasn’t something that was going to happen right now, bloody obviously, so he had no idea why he was even momentarily pondering on it. For now, he was just going to hope that he actually had caught Isabella at the end of her shift. They didn’t yet know how complicated her aunt was going to be about letting Isabella out of the house or seeing him, since the woman might actually dislike him after all; it was still unclear to him. So in his mind, they most definitely had to take advantage of the fact that they were both here now. They were supposed to be having dinner later that weekend… which would be the first time that he would be meeting everyone else in her family, but Isabella had also mentioned the possibility of that getting postponed. If that occurred, then their next actual set plans were the bonfire, and that wouldn’t do; it was bloody defeating the purpose of him having to deal with worrying about her if they weren’t even around each other, because apparently that just made this ridiculousness worse. “You’re confident… I’ve heard that before right before quite a few of your defeats,” he countered, raising an eyebrow. “All of them, actually.” He was confident that he would be beating her in this challenge as well, but he supposed it was too early to call it. “I suppose I can contribute to your sales a bit… since I know you need it. I’ll take whatever and trust your opinion since you’re the expert,” Evan stated, before a smirk grew across his lips at her words. Perhaps they would really be taking advantage of their time together tonight, which was made handy by him being able to apparate. “You better,” he answered, his smirk widening..

She had just a few minutes before she was officially finished with work that evening, though she would delay herself, per usual, in taking her time to get back to the house she was staying at for the summer. Isabella refused to call the place home as it certainly didn’t feel like home in the slightest, merely staying at the location until she was able to get her first apartment. She had certainly been serious when she told Evan that she would get an apartment in Knockturn Alley if it meant she got her own apartment. Never in her life had she had a curfew, and it certainly wouldn’t start now…even if that was something that her aunt was going to press. When she saw Evan, she knew she didn’t have to try to delay leaving work, finally having something to look forward to. The brunette supposed that in a sense, Evan actually was becoming her best friend, the person that was still there amidst all of the crazy, and the person that she hadn’t managed to kick out of her life. Their relationship hadn’t been conventional in the slightest, but it was something that surprisingly worked for them. The Gryffindor that Isabella had dated was supposedly the ideal boyfriend, though that nearly drove Isabella mad within one week as she realized that certainly wasn’t for her. Evan, thankfully, was nothing like that. Though, others would probably look at Isabella as if she were crazy, willingly dating someone that had the reputation that he had, but they didn’t know the Evan that she got to know.

Isabella made a face at his response, humph-ing stubbornly. She watched as the last of the patrons exited the shop. “Have a good night,” she called out, waving towards them as they responded, before turning back to Evan. “When am I not confident? I hardly think that’s a fair assessment,” she pointed out, amused. Merlin, she could be sorely losing and she would still have the confidence as if she was about to win. It was simply how her personality worked, too confident for anyone’s good. Surprisingly, she wasn’t a sore loser…or this relationship would have never worked with the amount of times that Evan had beat her, irritatingly enough. “The expert, I like that. Don’t forget it,” she grinned as she went about getting him a treat put together. Not that she would actually admit it out loud, with words, but she really had missed seeing Evan. “I keep my word,” she replied simply as she handed him over a perfectly made ice cream cone without telling him what it was. “One of the new flavors; it’s on the house, because I’m that confident that you’ll owe me a week of servitude,” she grinned. “And I’ve already started my list of reminders of things I’ll be wanting,” Isabella winked before glancing at the time while she moved around the counter to start stacking chairs.

Evan was pretty damn sure that he had timed this perfectly, and that Isabella would be done with work soon. He hadn’t actually been all that sure when Florean’s closed, but apparently he had guessed well enough. After all, the place seemed to be clearing out, and that meant that they could find out other ways to spend the remainder of their night—assuming that she didn’t have to get back to her aunt’s house. Evan figured she probably didn’t give a damn about getting back in a reasonable amount of time, and that worked out well for him. The longer he could stay out of his own house, the better; that is, unless Isabella wanted to go over there, because he wouldn’t deny that suggestion. Although his mind had first gone to simply how long it had been since they’d seen each other, now it was wandering to how long it had been since they had shagged… which was another problem that they would be capable of solving. “True enough; but regardless of your confident, I assure you that you’ve practically already lost.” Evan replied, shrugging. He was not at all surprised that they had turned working into another one of their competitions, but the bet on this one meant that he absolutely couldn’t lose. Not that he thought he was going to—what she hadn’t taken into consideration was the release of the new Firebolt, which had meant that he’d been doing a hell of a lot of selling so far.

“The ice cream expert,” he clarified, grinning crookedly, “I won’t forget it.” She could be the expert at that, he supposed, finding no reason to deny her that one victory. Evan watched as she put together what looked like some kind of chocolate ice cream, but he would be surprised if that was all it was. He had found that ice cream in the wizarding world was a hell of a lot more unpredictable than the Muggle variety. “On the house—risky move,” he stated, taking the ice cream from her. “Thanks, but now you’re really going to feel like an idiot if I beat you by the price of one ice cream,” Evan warned, smirking. Really, he didn’t know how this was going to go, but he was sure that he would figure out a way to come out on top. A week of servitude… that was something that he had to win. “Oh, it’s long enough to be a list already? Now you’ve just solidified my need to beat you.” He shook his head, before moving to lean against a nearby wall to get out of the way of her cleaning. He took a bite of the ice cream, immediately tasting peanut butter and chocolate. Just when he thought that perhaps she really had given him a normal flavor, there was a popping sensation, causing him to cough slightly after swallowing the ice cream. “Thanks for the warning,” he said, laughing. It reminded him a bit like a kind of Muggle candy that he’d had before, he mused, taking another bite, but it was actually pretty damn good now that he knew what he was getting into. "So, you got plans?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Evan would assume she didn't, but it was bloody worth asking, he supposed; particularly since he didn't know how much of a hard-ass her aunt was being.

This summer should have been playing out much differently. He should have met her brothers and he should have met her parents. They would have all loved him…once they got over the fact that he wasn’t playing her or whatever people thought. Her father would probably have had the hardest time accepting Evan, but he would have had a hard time accepting any bloke she brought around. If her parents were still around, she wouldn’t be living with her aunt. Merlin, her aunt wouldn’t have even returned to London, bringing up that drama. She knew her family just wanted her to forgive and forget, but there was nothing for her to forgive and there was nothing to forget. It wasn’t that she hated her aunt; she simply saw no purpose in developing a relationship with that woman that had horrible personality traits, apparently. None of this would be happening if her parents were just here with her, as they were supposed to be. It was really good that she still had Evan amidst the crazy, she would admit.

“Well, you can’t carry me out of here so that you can win this time,” she pointed out, recalling their football game when, in order for him to win, he had randomly decided to pick her up, running with her until he scored, winning that bet. “I think I stand a desirable chance,” she concluded. Isabella was quite certain she would be quite the salesperson. “I like to live on the edge,” the Slytherin joked in response to the risky move. Really, Isabella supposed that this was one of their bets that they both kind of won on, obviously. She was quite certain she would be able to figure out what he would use as his week of servitude and she wouldn’t object anyways. “If you beat me…if, being the key word.” Isabella was excited to see his reaction to the ice cream flavor, organizing something as she watched him out of the corner of her eye until he tasted it. She let out a laugh as he coughed on the flavor, grinning widely. “Where would the fun be in that?” she asked curiously, quirking an eyebrow at him. Finishing stacking the chairs, she responded, “I do now,” she simply replied, smirking. It hadn’t even been a week yet, but she really had missed Evan, disgustingly enough to admit to herself.

He hoped that meeting the rest of Isabella’s family this weekend went well enough, because it seemed like that would be effecting how much time they could actually spent together with explicit permission. Granted, Evan was unsure just how much she cared about what she was allowed to do, but it would still be a hell of a lot easier if they didn’t hate him. The brief meeting at the train station hadn’t gone all that poorly, thinking that at least a couple of them didn’t hate him. But he wouldn’t know for sure until the dinner, and that was probably going to be bloody insane with the size of her family. Luckily, he wasn’t someone that cracked under pressure or had a hard time interacting with people. More than likely, he wouldn’t even deem it to be all that high pressured of a situation and would be able to talk to all of them just fine—unless they hated him already on principle, which would complicate it a bit more. He supposed that was possible, since he was pretty sure no one liked the boyfriend at first, thinking that it might be some kind of rule. He had never had to meet ‘the family’ before, so he wasn’t certain, but he was definitely prepared for some hatred right off the bat. That, and there was his previous reputation at school which Isabella’s aunt easily could have heard about and passed along to everyone with ears. That wouldn’t exactly be getting him many points either, but he would figure it out.

“Of course I can,” Evan countered, raising an eyebrow as if that was an obvious choice. “You can’t sell shit if you aren’t here so I might have to physically remove you during peak hours.” That would be quite the scene, really, and would be pretty damn amusing if it wouldn’t probably get her in trouble as well. However he didn’t see anyone else around, a manager or owner or anything of the sort, so maybe she was just on her own and he would be able to get away with shit like that. “Well we’ll see how much you like it after it’s what causes your defeat,” Evan answered, shaking his head. Although they were talking up this challenge so much, he actually didn’t know just how they were figuring out who won, so he doubted she would ever know if he did beat her by such a small amount—but it was an amusing thought all the same. “You’re right, I must have misspoke—when I beat you is what I meant,” he told her. He really did think that he probably was going to beat her at this too, already having sold a hell of a lot and it was easy to convince customers to buy one more item once they had already been sold on something else. Evan took another bite of the ice cream, now used to the popping sensation that his girlfriend had decided not to make him aware of. “Last time I let you pick out a flavor,” Evan said in response, grinning. That probably wasn’t true, since he would more than likely continue to just have her pick a flavor when he came in. He wasn’t all that picky, and it would test her supposed skills out. “Good, because I have some ideas of what we could do.” He added, glad to hear that her aunt didn’t have her on a strict damn curfew.

Beat This Summer
It was a shame that they had to practically sneak out just to spend time together, simply because hanging out on purpose would probably not go very well at all. Never in her life did Isabella really have rules from her parents and now, she was feeling suffocated. Hell, she wasn’t even certain if she had rules now, but she felt like she would if she mentioned spending some time with Evan, He was her bloody boyfriend; she should be able to spend time with him whenever she wanted. She really couldn’t wait until she turned seventeen. At this point, perhaps she’d save up enough money and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron or something for the final few days before school would start. That didn’t sound like that horrible of an idea and perhaps she’d see if that was something Evan would want as well. She knew he didn’t exactly come from the best family either so they might as well take the opportunity when they could. She was close enough to seventeen that it really shouldn’t matter, but she supposed the line had to be drawn somewhere, unfortunately.

Isabella shot her boyfriend an incredulous look, though she didn’t doubt that he would in a heartbeat. It was lucky to her that her boss had her closing the shop on some nights, this night included. At least some people could trust a sixteen year old, she thought to herself, glancing at the time. Only a few minutes before she could leave, setting up the wards that were needed and hopefully he wouldn’t go try anything first. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that now seeing as I clearly won’t be selling anymore tonight,” she pointed out, looking about the nearly closed shop. “Besides, maybe I’ll talk with my boss about having a ward put up against you coming about here,” she teased. She shook her head at his continuance, amused. “Doubtful. You like what I picked out,” she laughed, knowing from his expression that he wasn’t objecting to the flavor. He certainly wasn’t the type to continue eating something if he hadn’t liked it, thank Merlin for that. “Oh, do you now? Well, I certainly don’t want to keep you waiting lest you forget these ideas,” she grinned, getting slightly anxious for the minutes to tick by a bit faster.

Having his aunt avoid him as he simultaneously avoided her was always something that had been incredibly convenient. It meant that, for as long as he could remember, he’d had no curfew, no rules, and no one telling him what to do in general. Granted, there were exceptions to that shit, like if he had actually gotten in trouble enough back in the day that his aunt found out about it through other means; but for the most part, Evan really could do just about anything he wanted when he was home for the summer. It worked out well for him, and always had, because he did like having the freedom to do just about anything, obviously. But that meant that, really, he and Isabella had his house to go to whenever she wanted to go there. Tonight would be a good night for that, in his mind, as they really should be taking advantage of the fact that his aunt didn’t give a damn. Thus far, it seemed like they absolutely had not been doing that in the slightest. They needed to figure out this dating-during-the-summer thing, since they were so used to being a dormitory away from each other. He could admit that he missed her… to himself, at least, but probably not out loud. Working in the same area would help them with this shit, probably, but it still felt like they needed to make this easier on them, somehow. He supposed meeting her family would do that, but that wasn’t something that was entirely in his control. That would be happening this weekend, though, so that might help to make this summer run smoothly.

His smirk widened at her look, which meant that Isabella definitely knew that he would not even pause before carrying out of here in the middle of … whatever the busiest time for ice cream was. In fact, the image in his mind was amusing enough that he might actually contemplate turning that into a reality—if only for a moment, obviously, because he didn’t really want her to get fired. “Thanks for clearing that up for me,” he responded, looking around the empty ice cream parlor with an amused expression. He was glad that he had come at the right time, though he supposed he always could have waited a bit for the place to close if he’d been off in his estimations. “A ward… that is playing dirty, but fine, two can ward. See if you can ever buy a broom again after this,” Evan replied, grinning. They probably did need to set down some rules, or something, but it seemed like they had never been all that great at rules—they were Slytherins for a reason, after all, and he did do his best work when he could think up ways to win questionably. “Maybe I do, but I’ll never admit it.” Evan took another bite of the ice cream to emphasize his point. Evan looked around the parlor, wondering what else she had to do before they could leave. “Well, then don’t keep me waiting.” He replied, smirking. If she was done here then they should certainly leave and head back to his house, unless there was something else that she wanted to do beforehand. They could always stop in at the Leaky Cauldron first, if she wanted to test his restraint.

It really was useful that she and Evan worked in the same area and that they decently knew each other’s schedule so that they could at least meet up on occasion during the summer if hanging out with him with permission was off the table. Of course, even if Isabella hadn’t had permission, she would still work to hang out with Evan whenever she could, never one to follow bloody rules. She had spent her entire life thus far finding ways to sneak out of the house; doing that now would hardly prove to be difficult, she was certain. Evan had become her best friend, cheesily enough, over the past few months. He was someone she honestly just enjoyed spending time with no matter what they were doing, able to have fun with whatever was around. Work was just something they would have to work around as it was what she supposed they would be doing for the rest of their lives once school was officially over. Clearly, they couldn’t just see each other while they were working at all times, though she vaguely wondered what they would even be doing after graduation. She supposed they really should be thinking about that soon…though she probably wouldn’t because it could wait, maybe.

“Yeah, I know you’re a little slow sometimes so I clear things up when I can,” she grinned jokingly, glancing about the shop. Unwrapping her apron from her waist, she moved back behind the counter. “It’s in your best interest that I am able to buy a broom, or I’ll hold yours hostage,” she shrugged as if it were the obvious conclusion. Besides, her father had been the Head of Department of Magical Games and Sports meaning that even she had some connections that he had since he was a former beater on the English National Quidditch Team as well. “You don’t have to admit it. I know that everything I choose is perfect,” Isabella shot back, amused. She looked at the time again, sighing in relief. Thankfully, the minutes finally passed by and she was free to go. She held up her forefinger to indicate him waiting for just one minute while she opened a door and disappeared in the back. She came back a minute later without her apron and with her bag, smiling at him. Swinging the key on a lanyard around her finger, she nodded towards the door for him to exit first before she followed, closing and locking the door behind her. After locking the door, she put her key back into her bag and looked over at Evan, smiling wide with her arms spreading to embrace him.