Quick Info~

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for joining me in the second chapter of CGACS! I can't wait for you all to check it out. To those of you who read/commented/favorited/followed the first chapter, a HUGE thank you goes out to you! The title of this chapter makes me giggle in the worst way because shortly after I titled it, I found out that Raeger's dialogue is actually bugged in game. So technically, he IS a Raeger bug. I'm laughing at my own jokes here... Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter! Please never hesitate to let me know what you're thinking; I'm always interested in hearing what worked well and what I could improve upon further.

"'Have a great day, Annie'?" Lillie was laughing, her back turned to Annie as she folded her little sister's clothes and placed them in a dresser drawer.

"Yeah," Annie said, flopping backwards onto the bed and resting her hands on her stomach, her eyes glued to the ceiling.

"That's really what you're so worked up about?"

"When you say it like that it makes it sound insignificant," Annie grumbled.

"That's because it is insignificant. I could walk in there right now and he'd probably say the exact same thing to me when I left," Lillie said, turning around and dramatically gesturing with her hands in the same manner that she did when reporting the weather.

Annie sat up and began to fidget with her apron. "It wasn't what he said but how he said it."

Lillie sighed and sat beside Annie. "He's a flirt. In the past three years that you've known him, how many of us girls have had crushes on him?"

Annie thought about it for a moment, although the answer came to her almost immediately. "All of us," she said.

Lillie nodded. "You're just the unlucky last one to catch the Raeger bug."

Annie felt irritation begin to bubble in the pit of her stomach again. "I've lived here for three years. Three long years. I've experienced love and even death with you guys, but I specifically avoided romantic attraction because of that. We're like a giant family and if I thought that if I ever liked someone it would be like throwing a bowling ball into a neatly set up row of pins."

Annie was frustrated after she visited Raeger the previous day. She immediately went back to her farm after speaking with him and didn't come back into town until the next day. Instead, she angrily tilled plots of land and slammed her hand down on top of the newly planted turnips. She even muttered to herself while she milked her cows and brushed her sheep.

The only reason she decided to go into town was to talk to Lillie specifically. Lillie had caught what she called the 'Raeger bug' within the first few months that Annie moved to Oak Tree Town. She had it bad, too. It got to the point where she would come back from her job in the city just to visit him for her lunch break. Eventually, the crush faded—thanks to Iris—and Agate was the next to take up the torch.

"He's just so unobtainable," Lillie continued, staring directly at her feet with such intense concentration that Annie was scared her eyes might pop out of her head. "One minute it seems like he's flirting with you and the next it's like you don't even exist outside of his restaurant."

Annie suddenly felt bad. She shouldn't have asked Lillie for advice. Hell, she shouldn't have even let her find out. The wound that Raeger left on her heart apparently hadn't healed the way that everyone thought it had.

"Yeah, you're right," Annie said, swallowing her feelings in one giant gulp. "He just uses it for business."

Lillie looked at her with sorrowful blue eyes. "Sorry," she said, shaking her head and forcing her lips to curve upward in an awkward, half-smile. "I'm completely over it. It's just awful wishful thinking coming up again."

"I'm sorry I even asked," Annie said, pulling Lillie in for a hug.

When they released, Annie stood up and walked towards the door.

"I've got to get going," she said. "Thanks, though."

Lillie nodded, although Annie could tell she wasn't really there anymore. She mentally kicked herself all the way back to her farm and trudged towards the water basin to fill up her watering can.

She glanced at her reflection in the water and realized just how similar she looked to some of the other girls in town. Plain brown hair that she shared with Lillie, Agate, and Angela. Dull green eyes that paled in comparison to Elise's. And even if she did have a fantastic personality, Iris and Licorice beat her to the punch on that one. If Raeger hadn't gone for any of them, there was no way in hell he would even attempt to go for her.

But when she really thought about it, why did she really care?

"So this is where the magic happens?"

Annie froze, a drop falling from her watering can into the basin and obscuring her view with ripples. Eventually, she managed to turn around to see Raeger. He was casually standing in the middle of her farm with his hands in his pockets and his eyes lazily fixed on hers.

"What are you—" Annie started to say, but quickly found the rest of her sentence had been obliterated into a jumbled mess inside of her brain.

"Doing here?" Raeger offered.

She nodded.

"I promised I would evaluate your crops for the showcase. The restaurant was pretty slow today so I figured I'd stop by."

"But you never quit working," Annie said, shaking her head as she tried to justify the situation.

Raeger shrugged. "This is sort of work, technically speaking. Although I think this will be far less lonely for both of us."

When he smiled, Annie felt her grip on the watering can loosen. About one fourth of the contents spilled down the side of her leg and settled in her shoe.

"Damn it," she cursed under her breath and turned around to fill the can again.

Her cheeks burned with embarrassment while Raeger merely laughed at her expense. Part of her wanted to be angry with him and another part of her—the confused, slightly insane part—wanted to laugh with him.

"Is now a bad time?" he asked, clearing his throat.

She spun around again. "No, not at all. But if you're just going to stand here and laugh at me then maybe you should come back."

Raeger's eyes widened and he held up his hands in earnest defense. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

Annie sighed. "It's fine. It's just sort of been a long day."

"Was it your visit with Lillie?" he asked and she could tell he instantly regretted asking.

With her lips quirking into a smirk, Annie realized that Raeger had been watching her. Or at least, he had glanced out the window long enough to notice her walking into the Inn.

"How did you know I was with Lillie?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest as sassily as she could with a watering can in tow.

He began to splutter for a moment and she saw a glimpse of him that she was sure no one in the town had seen before—his lack of confidence. "I just happened to be looking out the window at the right time. Why do you care?"

Now he was the one sporting a satisfied grin as Annie floundered.

"I don't," she said, firmly enough to convince him as she tried to convince herself of the same thing.

Raeger nodded. "Alright then. Since I came here for one thing, I guess we should get to work."

Annie was grateful for the sudden shift in conversation. He wasn't really one to dwell on things others didn't want to talk about.

"Okay," she said. "Where do you want to start?"

Raeger placed one hand on his chin in thought as he surveyed the fields. Annie watched him curiously, wondering just how many farms he had seen in the past. Judging by the way he didn't want to test the soil or inspect the leaves or even really walk around the plot must have shown his experience.

"So," he said after a moment, nodding like he had come to a conclusion. "I'll be honest, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for."

Oh.

"Well I don't exactly know what you're looking for, either. Elise said something about using chemicals to make the crops grow differently. Not only have I never considered that, but I don't even have the funds to afford that sort of stuff," Annie said, her nerves beginning to fade as she settled into her element.

Raeger nodded. "Yeah, that's good. My grandfather always said that crops that grow naturally taste better. So what are you growing?"

"Right now in this plot that you're looking at, I'm only growing turnips, but I also have potatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and cabbage," Annie explained, gesturing to a variety of fields on her farm.

"Which would be ready by next week?" Raeger asked.

"I always have some stored in my fridge, just in case. Most of the crops are close to being ready for harvesting, though, so they'll all be ready by next week."

"You'd just let me take them without anything in return?"

Annie grinned at him mischievously. "Not exactly. If anyone compliments your dishes, you have to tell them where you got your ingredients."

"Ah, so this is a publicity stunt?"

Raeger was smiling back at her and she was sure that looking at his eyes for too long was a surefire way to induce heart palpitations.

"Precisely. You didn't think I'd just give it to you for free because we're friends, did you?" Annie elbowed him playfully in the side.

"To be honest, I figured you'd want something tangible," he said, his voice immediately shifting into that same, smooth tenor that he often used to coax people into coming back to his restaurant.

Annie's heart leapt into her throat and she felt her cheeks burn again. "Something…tangible?" she asked, her voice a strained squeak.

"Yeah, like two free meals a week for the next year or something," Raeger said, straightening and returning back to the indifferent man she knew.

"O-oh," Annie said, locking her gaze on the ground. "Yeah, don't worry about that. Just the publicity is more than fine."

Raeger nodded. "Then it's settled. I'll drop by in a few days to pick out what I want to use. Don't overwork yourself, though."

Annie rolled her eyes. For someone who constantly overworked, he was always the first to scold others about it.

"Okay," she said. "Thanks again for doing this with me."

"Annie?" Raeger turned his head to the side to address her as he walked away.

"Yeah?"

"Your passion for farm work is really attractive," he said, flashing her a brilliant smile and eyeing her through strands of chestnut brown hair.

She nodded feebly, unsure of what to say in response. Instead of shutting down, a thousand different things tried to leap to the front of her tongue. Everything jumbled up and, she was sure if she opened her mouth, a whole slew of words that didn't match up together would come tumbling out. If this was a side effect of the infamous 'Raeger bug,' then she was most definitely infected.