Sea Side Social

If Saffron noticed that Jaeger was being reserved around her, it didn’t show in her mannerisms. Normally she was very adept at picking up when someone was acting oddly, but in all fairness the blonde had been thrown off her game by the brief interaction she’d had with the fan. She was almost hyper focused on pressing forward with their next activity in an effort to wash the conversation from her mind, more than happy to throw herself right into the swimsuit contest, and flirting from afar with some young women in the audience.

None of them won the competition, but that was fine. Saffron had always been more about the journey than the destination, so the experience of being in the contest was a happy enough one for her. Once that was done, Saiko suggested the sandcastle event. It was one that Saffron had mixed feelings about… she did love sand sculpting, but it was something she’d done the prior year with Trevor – or rather Xavier, as she’d later learned was his real name. It had been that day when their relationship had changed, turning into something more romantic. And given how that had ultimately turned out, well… needless to say, there were a lot of bittersweet memories wrapped up in doing more sandcastles today.

But she did her best to put Xavier from her mind, focusing eagerly on constructing as best a sculpture as she could. Her efforts paid off, and while she didn’t win first place she did score respectively high in the judging. As they walked away, Saiko was examining the tokens they’d been receiving all day and inquired as to what they were for. “If you really wanted to, you can turn them in for little freebie gifts. There’s a few stalls littered around that have small prizes, kinda like turning in tickets at an arcade.” Granted, Saiko had probably never been to an arcade before, which was depressing to think about. “But a lot of people just hang on to them. They’re basically little commemorative souvenirs. You can toss them if you don’t wanna keep them. I usually just give them to a passing toddler who might appreciate the prizes more than I would. Speaking of…”

Saffron scanned the crowds around them briefly until she found a younger child sitting on a bench with his parents, eating ice cream. She approached and, after a short conversation with the parents to make sure it was okay to do so, passed her tokens off to the kid who wiggled with excitement and thanked her. When that was over, she turned back to her companions. “Man, I don’t know about you guys, but I am parched. I could kill for a beer. Or even some ice cream. That kid’s ice cream looked hella delicious. You guys wanna grab something and find a spot to just chill for a bit?” They’d been running around basically non-stop since they’d met at the water gun fight, so she felt they’d earned a break.

Assuming they were amenable to the suggestion, they’d make their way to where the food vendors were set up. Saffron grabbed a beer and a bowl of chocolate ice cream before finding an empty table that was relatively clean, and had a large umbrella providing some shade. As she spooned a mouthful of the dark brown substance into her mouth, she glanced over at Jaegar. “So did you say earlier that you own a zoo? Cause that’s awesome. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a zoo. What kind of animals you got? Maybe I’ll check it out sometime.”