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JK hid her smile as Tabitha pouted. She was adorable.
They got to the mall and headed for the movie theater. Tabitha looked at the different movie posters while JK watched the people around them.
“What do you want to watch, JK?”
“Anything you want. It’s your trip, after all.”
“We should at least try to find something that we’ll both like. Take a look at the offerings.”
JK reluctantly wrenched her eyes from the crowd and started perusing the posters, listening keenly to the surrounding conversations even as she allowed her eyes to wander.
“Hello, ma’am. May I take a moment of your time, please?”
“How can I help you?” Tabitha asked. JK glanced back to see that she had moved off to the popcorn stand and quickly abandoned the movie posters to get closer to Tabitha.
“I was just wondering if you know how to work this? It’s new and I’m not really sure how to log in…”
JK caught a glimpse of the man talking to Tabitha and hurried her pace. Something wasn’t right about him, and she’d learned not to ignore her gut feelings.
Tabitha leaned in to look at the phone he was holding out and he struck, grabbing for her purse. Tabitha squeaked in alarm as he snatched the purse out of her hands and turned to run—right into JK.
“I believe that doesn’t belong to you.”
“What are you going to do about it, bitch?” he snarled, drawing himself up to his full height. He was bigger and taller than JK, but that didn’t matter.
She didn’t bother to answer him. Instead, she grabbed his jacket and pulled. He was heavy enough that it was difficult to pull him toward her, but that didn’t matter either; she pulled herself to him instead.
Once she was close enough, she spun him and wrenched one of his arms up his back. With her other hand, she grabbed Tabitha’s purse back.
Mall security swarmed in on them. JK lifted her hands, pointing to the man who was now shouting from the ground. “He was trying to steal. I was just getting my friend’s purse back.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we know. This one here has been banned from the mall before. I don’t know how he got past us, but he won’t do so again. Come on, you.”
JK turned to Tabitha as the thief was hauled away. “Are you alright?”
Tabitha nodded, her green eyes wide with admiration. “That was so hot.”
JK chuckled. She didn’t seem too traumatized, at least. “Let’s get ourselves inside, hm?” They had drawn a small crowd of onlookers, and JK didn’t want people looking too closely at Tabitha. “Have you decided what you want to watch?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
They paid for tickets for some romance movie whose name was as unmemorable as its poster and hurried inside.
“Wait, JK, I want to get popcorn.”
JK hesitated. She wanted to get Tabitha out of sight as soon as possible, but she understood that movies just weren’t movies without popcorn.
“Fine but be quick about it.”
Tabitha bought her popcorn with little fuss and the two of them gained the relative privacy of the movie theater.
“You need to be less trusting, Tab,” JK said quietly. “That guy was clearly just trying to get close enough to snatch your bag.”
“Well, obviously I didn’t know that, or I wouldn’t have let him get close.”
Tabitha’s naïveté may be endearing at times, but right now it was more infuriating than anything else. How was JK supposed to take care of her when she couldn’t recognize even the most basic of threats on her own? It was just like that escort last night. Tabitha had no concept of people not being exactly who they said they were, and it was problematic.
“You’re angry with me, aren’t you?”
