It's Called Kissing

Alex took the car keys and drove the two of them home. Claire was grateful to have a few days of safety but what if the police came back? She would be screwed all over again. She doubted she would be able to get out of this a second time.

She was stewing so deeply in her thoughts that she was startled when he asked her a question. "What is a ninja?"

She let out a sharp laugh because he was very similar to one. "They were Japanese covert agents or mercenaries in feudal Japan. There are a lot of myths surrounding them and one of those is that they wore all black to seem invisible in the night."

"Oh. Do you think I should get a different hoodie?"

"Yeah…maybe rotate a few different ones and not wear the hood up so often. I know you use it to hide your face but a beanie will at least hide your hair and part of your forehead while looking a lot less suspicious," Claire advised with her eyes closed. She was still feeling woozy and being in the car wasn't helping.

"I see. I can order some online so we don't have to go out," Alex replied.

She wasn't sure when he learned about ordering things online either. He got up to a lot when she was asleep, didn't he?

"Let me help you pick them out."

Left to his own devices, he would probably go for neutral colors again and then they would be back at square one. He seriously needed more color in his life. What they needed was something bright enough to not seem like it would be worn by a stalker but common enough that it wouldn't stand out either.

When they got back to the house Claire changed back into her pajamas and made herself some chamomile tea in a desperate attempt to calm down. With the steaming mug warming her fingers, she was finally able to breathe a little.

Calm enough to think, she tried to come up with the best hoodie options that wouldn't look suspicious. One belonging to a local college would probably work but what about the others?

Something related to sports…and maybe a plain color that wasn't black, gray, or blue. Maroon might be a good option. As for the beanie he should probably stick with blue or gray because that was what guys around here tended to wear.

Claire relayed all of her suggestions and Alex ended up getting a white Boston University one with red letters, a plain olive green one, and a red Boston Red Sox one. All perfectly normal things for guys in their twenties to wear around here that did not make them look like a ninja.

She had known Ray had a sort of odd sense of humor but hadn't expected him to use it on someone he had only met once before. That didn't seem like him. He hadn't started joking around with her until they had worked together for a while.

Then again, she didn't know him that well. It wasn't like she ever saw him outside the context of being a pharmacist. All she knew about the man was that he recently celebrated his twelfth wedding anniversary and had three children under the age of ten.

She pushed thoughts of Ray out her head. What she really needed to do was figure out what to do about the police looking into her workplace. They had already connected several of the incidents to the area.

Claire supposed it was her fault for not wanting to transport anyone else Alex had taken down in her car. They could have moved the dumpster guy somewhere further away.

She had been banking on the theory that he wouldn't say anything about being paid to kill Claire Conway because that would land him more jail time than anything else they might be able to charge him with. Her name should be kept out of it but what if he cracked? Then her goose would be cooked.

She really didn't have the energy to keep searching for clues right now but she knew she should take advantage of the time she would be at home to do it. She just needed to calm herself down first.

Relaxing for a few hours should get her back into the right frame of mind to keep looking. She sipped at her tea and turned on the TV. Drowning out her problems in fiction had always worked before.

Claire was nearly done with her tea partway through the episode and spewed it everywhere when Alex asked "What are they doing?" during a kiss scene between the male and female leads.

She was not prepared to have this conversation! Oh, why had she gone with shoujo instead of shounen? None of the shows they watched before had any kissing in them so this hadn't been a problem until now!

She couldn't stop coughing, which gave her a tiny bit of time to try and gather her wits about her. Was this what the 'where do babies come from?' discussion felt like when you were a parent?

Claire sent an apology to her mother up to the heavens for every awkward question she had ever asked that required an answer. When she finally got a hold of herself, she took a few deep breaths before answering his question.

"It's called kissing. People do it when they are in love with each other."

"But I've seen you do something like that to Daisy. Are you in love with her?" Alex asked innocently.

She facepalmed. This was going so much worse than she expected. He really didn't know anything about love at all. "No, loving someone and being IN love with them are two very different things. Ah…how do I explain it…You can kiss things like pets or babies on the head or cheek because you love them and think they're cute.

"But kissing like on the show is something you only do with one person because they're special to you. Loving someone means you care about them a lot. Being in love with someone means you care about them the most, I guess. Does that make sense?"

"No," Alex admitted. "Because you seem to care about Daisy the most but you said you aren't in love with her."