It's a Date

Charlotte anxiously watched Henry step into the store and try to figure out which Joss was Joss. He didn't realize that he'd have to do that. Jasper was laughing, "Oh, Man. She could be ANY of them!"

"She's the one near the tree," Charlotte said.

"How do you know?"

"Because that's the only one looking at him. That's the only one who recognizes him." Jasper nodded. "I'm curious as to what she's doing here. How did she know where he works? What does she even want with him?"

"I don't know… But, maybe I should go help him out?"

She sighed and asked, "Jasper, do you want to try to go snag yourself a lookalike because somehow in your mind that'll mean that you are dating Joss Moss?"

He scoffed, "No!" But, it was obviously yes. He rushed to the elevator and Charlotte followed. "Are you gonna get yourself a Joss Moss, too?"

"No. I'm gonna watch her, because there are two idiots representing us in a room full of pretty girls." They got off of the elevator and split. Jasper went to ask Joss if she needed help finding anything and Charlotte casually watched, out of sight.

"No. I'm just enjoying the view," Joss said, still looking at Henry, speak now to the 5th decoy and groan in frustration.

Jasper called, "Henry! Look who it is! Joss Moss!" He pointed down at her head. She smiled tightly at him as Henry approached.

He smiled and nodded, "It IS you!"

She smiled back, "And there you are."

"What are you doing here? We don't really get high class clientele in this place."

Now, she stepped closer to him and flirtatiously said, "You made the mistake of telling me your whole name, and I realized that Piper Hart is your sister. I wanted to see if you were as… cute… in everyday life as you were crashing my party, dressed as a cute waiter. She did me a solid and told me where you work. She told me that you'd be a big mistake. She must not know, I like it when a guy is bad news."

Henry smiled, "I'm the worst news."

Charlotte sucked her teeth and Joss turned to glance at her. She ducked, but Joss could see her hair. Not to mention, Jasper was still standing extremely close to the two of them. "Uhm… You and your coworkers close?"

"Best friends!" Jasper cheered. She smiled awkwardly as he reached out for Charlotte, and forced her over by the arm. She smiled tightly and tried not to make eye contact.

Upon seeing Charlotte, Joss gasped and pointed between the two of them, "I know you. You're the couple that stole my Gherkin bag."

Jasper extended his hand and said, "We're Jasper and Charlotte, Henry's friends.." And his words drowned out Charlotte's, "We're not a couple."

Joss looked at Jasper's hand, but definitely didn't shake it. "Henry… You're friends with thieves."

"Well, you know, when you steal from a…"

"PERSON!" Charlotte interrupted Jasper, "Whatever wrongs you do come back on you. So… If we were thieves, karma will handle our kneecaps." She laughed uncomfortably.

Henry offered, "Besides, I saw a guy leave with way more than a Gherkin bag. He left with like four gift bags and a few boxes. So, if anybody's kneecaps need some work, it's that guy's…" As though on cue, Ray walked into the store with Katelyn in the stolen dog carrier, still sporting the diamond tennis bracelet on his wrist..

Joss looked at Henry and wondered, "What is this? A ring of petty thieves or something?"

Henry laughed nervously. "Hwat? Pssshht. Nope. We're good guys."

Ray walked up to them bragging, "Hey! Guess what I did - conned a sweet old lady out of her dog's spot on the doggie retreat waiting list. Katelyn's about to be living like a Real Dog-Housewife of Swellview!" He gave Katelyn kisses.

"Did he steal the dog, too?" Joss asked.

Ray threw her a look, then laughed and said, "As a matter of fact, I DID! Man, I've stolen a lot of stuff!" He casually walked towards the elevator and his three employees were quiet for a while.

"We'll… the three of us are good guys. He's…" Henry eventually broke the silence, but Joss lifted a hand and shook her head.

"I'm getting it all replaced, anyway. But, if this happens again, I may have to take action." Charlotte winced, thinking about her kneecaps. "Legal action, that is. It's a crime to steal from someone."

Jasper argued, "Not from a crim…"

Charlotte covered his mouth tightly with her hand, "From the creme de la creme! Or, at least it shouldn't be. I mean, you're loaded. We work in a junk shop… Not saying that we did steal anything. But, if we had, there's karma and also, we allegedly stole from the richest kid in Swellview."

"I looked right at both of your faces. I know that it was you."

"Well, it was nice to see you. We have to go back to work…" She backed away, pulling Jasper with her, vowing not to uncover his mouth until they were a distance away from the mobster's child. He was struggling to free himself. He really wanted at one of those lookalikes, but Charlotte shushed him and let go of his mouth when they were both out of sight again, but within hearing distance of Henry and Joss.

"They're a cute couple, but the stealing concerns me."

"Well… I told you that I'm bad news," he said, smiling and hoping she would let it rest. If Charlotte and Jasper got targeted by the mob, that'd be… quite unfortunate.

Joss smiled, "I can dig it. So, you should let me take you to dinner and a movie, or something. I hope you don't mind a girl treating you."

"As long as she's treating me goooood."

She squinted her eyes and wrinkled her nose as she smiled, "Why do you so frequently say things so oddly? I like it. Never change. So, Saturday, I'll have my car pick you up at home, around 6:00 pm." She opened a clack fan and at that sound, all of her decoys regrouped around her and they left the store, each commenting about how cute Henry was. One said, "I thought the other one was pretty cute!" Jasper wailed towards the skies and Charlotte elbowed him out of her way to go to Henry.

"That was weird."

"Yeah! The last time I got wooed by a rich girl was never."

Charlotte shook her head and said, "No… It was weird that Joss is walking about town with those decoys, like her dad. It's weird that she sought you out and came here. It's weird that she recognized me and Jasper from the party. All of it was weird. The only part that wasn't was her asking you out."

"Really?"

"I mean, the two of you KEPT flirting at her party," Charlotte commented, "But, I don't like the thought of her knowing your name, where you work and live. She's the daughter of a criminal, Henry. You have to be careful. If she were to find out who you are, that could be awful."

He and Jasper began to laugh and imitate her. "Yeah, Charlotte. It'd be awful if anyone found that out. That's why we always try to hide it."

She rolled her eyes and said, "I'm going back downstairs and doing some research, for whenever this blows up in your face for you being cocky and unprepared."

The three headed back to the Man Cave and now, Ray and Katelyn were in matching sweaters that he bought with one of the stolen gift cards. Charlotte paused at them, but then shook her head and decided that she didn't want to know. She sat down and began pulling up everything that she could find on Joss, Rob, her mother, their businesses, allegations, court documents, and anything else a vast search came up with.

"This looks familiar," Henry said. "Oh yeah, you did this to that one girl that Jasper dated that time."

"No. This is much more extensive than that search."

"Is that necessary? One of those girls tried to kill you, and one let you off the hook for stealing a very expensive bag from her…"

"Did you know that everything that he had was switched over to her immediately following his arrest? She owns all of the Moss fortune and only has a small team of advisors to assist her with the day to day dealings until she turns 18. She. Is. Now. In. Charge…" She was looking at the screens pretty deeply whenever he made a high pitched sound, like he wanted to say something, but also didn't want to. "What do you mean?" She imitated the sound.

"Well… I kinda saw something that maybe looked like she was maybe taking over… the night of the party…"

Charlotte turned around in the chair, "WHAT? And you didn't tell us anything? AND you decided to go on a date with her?"

"I wanted another kiss, if I'm being honest…"

"YOU KISSED HER?"

"She kissed me! Only on the cheek, but that's because we'd only have one night…"

Charlotte turned back around, annoyed and shook her head, "I don't think that you realize how dangerous this family is! Her dad was so slippery that he continued his business for over 30 years without anything ever being linked to him! If you think that for one moment that he never shared a single thing with his only child, you're thinking with the wrong head."

"Jasper's head?" He asked, in all seriousness.

"You might as well be!" She snapped. Then called out, "Ray! Please tell Henry that there's no way that he can actually date Joss Moss!"

Ray sat Katelyn down and came over, wondering, "What seems to be the nature of this quarrel?"

"It's not a quarrel. I have a hot date and Charlotte doesn't want me to have nice things."

"He has a date with Joss Moss, daughter of Mob Boss Rob Moss!"

Ray smiled, then stopped, "Wait. That was her up in the store, wasn't it? Think she noticed that I stole her stuff?" Henry made a high pitched "well" noise, but Ray ignored it, "Nah! I handled it expertly. But, what seems to be the problem with it, Charlotte?"

"The two of you just put her father away for good. What if she finds something out?"

"I think Henry is good at keeping his affairs in order. I've learned to trust him, with even the stupidest decisions. He'll make it work."

Charlotte sighed and shook her head, staring at the teen queen on the screen. "It's not Henry that I'm worried about not trusting…"