"Goodnight Rigby" Eileen smiled. She decided to put her camping gear away tomorrow and started getting ready for bed. She couldn't help but smile as she changed into her pajamas. The ride home and the hug were the perfect way to end the trip. Those kind of interactions had been getting more and more frequent lately and Eileen couldn't be happier about it.
She started washing up as her thoughts began to wander. 'I almost thought it would never be like this, but now…' she blushed as she remembered the tender moment earlier. She washed her face and as she looked in the mirror, she saw herself a little differently. She usually never out much thought towards her looks, vanity was never her strong suit, but every now and again, she saw glimmers of beauty in her reflection. She did a few different angles and noticed the same glimmers and giggled. She loved these spikes in confidence. She quickly swished her hair back and gave a seductive glance to the mirror.
"Hey, Rigby~" she said as sultry as she could. "Not bad" she giggled. She looked at the clock and saw it was around midnight. 'Not really tired yet…oh well, I got the lunch shift tomorrow, I'll just watch some TV to wind down.' She brewed herself some chamomile and snuggled up on the couch and started flicking through channels. This late at night there was classic horror movies on Svengoolie, old sitcoms, tabloid shows, and the ilk. Eileen eventually found a good travel show and got settled in. The host was doing a three-part special on a round trip of Europe. It had an even mix of quiet gems of the countrysides, city adventures, and moving through Europe with the best sightseeing along the way. Eileen loved these shows, she felt so wistful and adventurous. She sighed "…maybe someday, for now I'll settle with this." After a while she heard keys turning the lock on the door. Margaret walked in and immediately took off her heels and waved to her friend.
"I wasn't expecting you to be up. I was afraid I'd wake you up."
"Just relaxing before bed. How was the broadcast?"
"Pretty good, the story about the turtle spa knocked 'em out. Our ratings have gone flying."
"That's great" Eileen perked.
Margaret walked to her room to get ready for bed. A bit later she came back in bed attire and plopped on the couch.
"What's on?"
"Rick Steves, I wish I could go on adventures like this."
"What are you talking about?" Margaret laughed "You go on adventures all the time!"
"Huh?"
"Don't 'huh?' me! Every time we hang out with Mordecai and Rigby something crazy happens! And you've probably been on a ton while I was away."
"Hmm…I guess you're right..and yeah I've been seeing a lot of them, especially-" then it hit her just how much time she's spent with Rigby. Putting together CJ and Mordecai's date opened the floodgates, after that a stranger would almost think they were dating. Thinking about the whole thing sent her blushing like mad.
"Especially who~?" Margaret smirked. Eileen recognized that tone instantly. It had been a while since they had proper girl talk and she could tell her friend was eager to catch up.
"Especially..Rigby." Here it comes, usually she would be nervous, but when she remembered how confident she was earlier, she felt prepared for anything.
"Oh my gosh, girl! What's going on there~?"
"Well~…we've gotten a lot closer. It started as just talking more often when we were hanging out. But as Mordecai and CJ started spending more time together, Rigby would come to the coffee shop to talk and before I knew it we started hanging out on our own."
"Look at you girl! Now what kind of hanging out are we talking about?" Eileen wasn't used to being the center of conversation. She didn't hate it, it felt kind of flattering. She saw a great opportunity for to quickly have some fun.
"Wouldn't you like to know~?" she said suggestively. The remark had an instant effect on Margaret, who gently froze for a second at what she may just learn.
"…Eileen?.."
"Hmm~?" Eileen felt a little bad for leading her best friend, but this was just too good to pass up.
"Eileen~!?" she almost jumped off the couch in disbelief. "What have I missed!?" Seeing her friend's reaction was too much for Eileen, who started to crack up.
Not that much, I promise! I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!"
Margaret let out a large sigh "Don't ever scare me like that again!" The two then spent a moment laughing it off. "But seriously, are we talking about just coming over when Mordecai is busy or are you giving him some competition?" Eileen was a little moved at her friend's confidence in her. This is why she loved their friendship, Margaret didn't see her as anything lesser, despite how most people would probably pass over her.
"Well I guess at first it was whenever Mordecai was busy, but it was so often that after a while it felt Rigby wasn't just trying to occupy himself. He even came with me to the Renaissance Fair, set up the TV I won while I was at work as a surprise, and shook off those spa grunts when they had us captive."
Margaret was quietly gushing as her friend relayed the great news. "Eileen, that's wonderful!" she said as she hugged Eileen. "Has he dropped any of 'the hints'?"
"The hints?"
"Y'know, stealing a gaze here and there, finding excuses to sit right next to you, stuff like that. Anything to tell you he may be a bit more interested in you?"
"I…I don't know. I didn't know there were hints! I dunno if I could catch them."
"Hmm…you need a look-out." Margaret then visibly realized the problem in her answer. "But who?..."
Eileen realized that Margaret couldn't between their now desynchronized schedules. The thought bummed her out, Margaret had cheered her on and helped her so much with her crush and she hoped she could help now that things had changed so much. She then thought of a good alternative, but hesitated before saying it.
"What?" Margaret asked "Do you know someone?"
"..I could ask CJ."
"Oh..how much does she know about you two and..you two?" She fidgeted a little.
"A fair bit, she's hung out with us a lot and I'm fairly sure she's caught on that I like him, if not, Mordecai probably told her."
"Okay…well yeah, sounds like she could do it. Do you think she would?"
"Hmmm, probably, she could try at least."
"Well see what she says! You need to know if you should step up your game!"
"I'll ask her next time I see her" Eileen giggled. The time and chamomile caught up with her and she let out a big yawn. "What time is it?"
"Getting close to 2" Margaret answered, a little surprised herself.
"Hoo~, good thing I'm not opening tomorrow." She sighed "I guess we oughta get to bed."
"Yeah…tomorrow's gonna be fun on low sleep. But girl talk is important" she smiled.
"Definitely" Eileen giggled "Goodnight."
"G'night."
-Back to the park-
"Dude…Rigby, wake up."
"Ooooogh…what time is it?"
"8:35, let's try to eat something before work, maybe we'll be less groggy if we do." Rigby had heard that theory before and didn't budge then, but with what he wanted to think about on his mind, he figured it was worth a shot. Now if only he had the energy to get out of bed.
"Okay…push me out…"
"…what?"
"I want to get out of bed, but I can't. Give me a hand and push me out of bed."
"O-kay.." Mordecai said before rolling his sleeping friend off of his trampoline bed. Rigby fell half a foot and thumped onto the ground.
"…Thanks.." He pushed himself up and yawned "okay..let's eat."
The two trudged downstairs into the kitchen "What cereal d'you want: Cap'n Crunch or Apple Jacks?"
"We got any Honey Bunches or something?" It felt weird to turn down his usuals, but he figured if healthy would help, he may as well go extra healthy.
"Uhh..yeah..I think Benson keeps a box in here."
"He won't mind a bowl." Rigby said as Mordecai handed him the box. After they were done, they had woken up more and went out to the porch to start the day.
Work was going by smoothly, Rigby found himself more focused with something to occupy his thoughts. His thoughts mostly kept settling on his newfound feelings. How long were they there? What should he do about it? He knew for certain he wanted to get closer to her, hopefully ask her out. He knew she most likely still liked him, but he didn't wanna take advantage of that, and he had a feeling she wouldn't let him. The thought made him smile and chuckle in the middle of picking up litter.
"What are you laughing at?" Mordecai asked. Rigby didn't catch himself being audible so he jumped a little and quickly tried to weigh how much he should tell.
"Oh, uh..nothing, just thinking about the trip."
"Hmm, it was crazy, I'm glad Eileen got to see the turtles in the end."
"Yeeaah~" Rigby smiled warmly. Mordecai took notice of his reaction and decided to probe a bit further. Rigby had been acting strange all day, and this may be why.
"Speaking of which, how did you two enjoy yourselves? Me and CJ had fun after some serious talk."
"Same, really. Eileen was kinda bummed about the whole Margaret-and-CJ-thing at first. Luckily that solved itself out when y'all called Margaret."
"That's good" disappointed with the lack of juicy info, Mordecai regrouped to think of a better way to get Rigby to spill the beans. Inspiration struck when he checked the time. "Oh hey! It's lunch time already! C'mon, we haven't taken a break all day and we've blasted through today's chores, let's go to the coffee shop!"
Rigby paused for a moment, he hadn't really decided on a game plan for when he next saw Eileen. He was afraid he would get nervous, but he pushed those fears down. 'I'm not gonna get anywhere keeping away from her.' "Yeah man, let's go! It'll be nice to take a break without Benson getting on us for once."
As they got into the cart, Rigby starting psyching himself out 'Don't worry Rigby. Just keep your confidence and everything will go fine.' They parked at the coffee shop and Rigby opened the door to see the one thing that never failed to make his confidence waiver. 'Where's her glasses?'
