Hi everyone! I'm very excited to share my new fic with you. It's different from my previous Rucas fics and I'm really happy with it. I have the majority of this story written, so updates should be pretty frequent as I revise next chapters.
Also, just heard the news that there will be no S4. Not sure how I feel about it.
Chapter One
"You've only been gone for couple of days but it already feels like it's been weeks," Riley sighed, resting her elbow on the counter at her family's bakery as she held her phone to her ear. She was on the phone with her long-time boyfriend, Lucas. They had been dating for a couple of years now, and it was their first summer apart since they got together.
"The summer will be over as soon as you know it," Lucas promised. He was back in his hometown of Austin, Texas, for the summer. He got the opportunity to intern for a well-known veterinarian thanks to his Pappy Joe. Of course he jumped at the offer, with him wanting to become a veterinarian himself. He was reluctant to leave Riley behind, though, even if it was just for a couple of months.
"It better be, I don't know how I'll survive without you," Riley said.
"Well you have my cousin Sienna there with you," Lucas reminded his girlfriend. "It'll be like I'm there too."
"Sure, Sienna's a sweetheart," Riley commented. She eyed a teenager across the room with long blonde hair and green eyes similar to Lucas's. Sienna had just recently moved to New York after finishing her sophomore year of high school back in Austin. Sienna was sitting at a booth with one of the bakery employees, informing Sienna about the basics of the job. "But she's not you, Lucas. You both may be Friars but you're my boyfriend. It's not like I can do couple-y things with her."
Lucas laughed, "Fair enough. I'm just saying you'll have Sienna to keep you company. It was nice of you to hire her at the bakery, by the way."
"Of course," Riley replied. "She's doing her orientation right now. Maya will be training her in a couple of days."
"I wish I could be there to help her adjust to New York," Lucas said.
"Don't worry about her," Riley said. "I'll take good care of her."
"I know you will," Lucas replied. "You helped me survive my first year in New York, remember?"
"Yes, I remember," Riley nodded even though she knew he couldn't see her.
The front door of the bakery opened and Riley's mother walked in with a young man. Riley immediately shifted her attention to Topanga and this stranger.
"My last interview is here," Riley informed her boyfriend. "I'll call you soon, okay?"
"Of course," Lucas said. "I'm really proud of you, by the way. I know you'll do a great job managing the bakery."
"Thank you," Riley replied. "But I'm even more proud of you! You're a step closer to your dream career."
"I love you," Lucas gushed. He was so lucky to have such a supportive girlfriend. Though Riley wouldn't admit it to him, she was reluctant to let him take the offer. But she knew she couldn't get in the way of his dreams.
"I love you too," Riley returned.
"Don't forget to call me, alright?" Lucas said. Before Lucas had left, the two had planned to make time for each other as much as they could. They promised they'd text each other all the time and call each other often.
"Of course," Riley said. "Enjoy the rest of your day, babe."
"You too," Lucas said. "Bye, bean."
"Bye," Riley said. She moved the phone away from her ear and ended the call before stuffing it in the front pocket of her jeans. She sighed and grabbed the clipboard that rested on the counter.
"Riley, Evan's here," Topanga said as she approached the counter with the stranger. He had curly hair and a chiseled jaw line. He had the nicest brown eyes Riley's ever seen. But then again, Riley was a sucker for green eyes.
Riley looked down at her clipboard and went through the list of names. She found Evan's name and put a checkmark beside it.
"Hi, Evan," Riley greeted, offering her hand. "I'm Riley."
"Hello," Evan shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you."
"Now Riley here is my daughter," Topanga informed the boy. "She'll be taking over the bakery for the summer because she wants some practice managing the place. She wants to start her own business someday."
"Oh, nice," Evan said, bobbing his head in interest.
"I've looked over Evan's resume and it's pretty impressive for someone his age," Topanga told Riley. "But also don't let me influence your decision. It's up to you to decide if you want him as your assistant manager."
Riley nodded at her mother. She was very grateful that Topanga trusted her enough to put the bakery in her hands for a couple of months. Topanga was proud that Riley took the initiative to watch the bakery when she noticed that Topanga was struggling balancing being a lawyer and owning a bakery. And it didn't help that their regular manager, Katy, was off traveling the world with her husband Shawn for the summer.
"This way, Evan," Riley gave Evan a friendly smile as she gestured for him to follow her. She led him into the back where the office was located. She offered him a seat as she sat at the desk. Riley went through a couple of folders on the desk until she found one with Evan's name on it and his resumé inside.
The interview went rather well. Since Riley knew Evan's work history, she spent the time asking questions that showed what kind of personality he had, and as well as his worth ethics. If she wasn't already impressed by his resumé, she was even more impressed with the answers he gave. One of the questions asked Evan what he would do in a situation where he had to deal with an angry customer, a question that Riley believed wasn't answered well enough by the previous people she interviewed earlier that day. Evan's answer showed how much he valued customer service and that he had a way with words that helped people resolve a conflict.
"Wow," Riley said, stunned. "That was the best answer I've heard all day."
Evan chuckled, "Thank you."
"So that was my last question for you," Riley replied, jotting down notes on her paper. She quickly looked it over as the room fell silent for a couple of minutes. After an internal debate with herself, she finally came to a decision. She looked up at the young man, "Evan?"
"Yeah?"
"Congratulations, you're hired!"
A couple of days later, Riley's best friend, Maya, helped her open Topanga's. Since Katy was gone for the summer with Shawn, Maya offered to help at the bakery in her absence. But really, Maya only offered because she was going to be at the bakery a lot anyway since Riley would be there every day. She thought it would be a bonus to be getting paid for hanging out with her best friend.
"I'm gonna get the paperwork and do them in the front," Riley announced as they entered the bakery.
"Aw, so you can keep me company while I set things up!" Maya gushed.
"Yes, Peaches," Riley laughed. She disappeared to her office and reappeared a couple of seconds later with some folders in her hands. She placed the folders on the counter and went through the opening checklist.
As Riley did her paperwork, Maya went ahead and wiped down the tables. When Maya was finished, she headed to the kitchen to put some pastries in the oven and make batter for other baked goods. The employees in charge of the kitchen weren't scheduled for another thirty minutes, so Maya decided to help them out a little.
"I don't know why you needed to hire an assistant manager," Maya said as she returned to the front of the bakery with some freshly baked croissants and muffins. "You should've just hired me instead."
"You know I love you, Maya, but we both know you wouldn't want to take on the extra responsibility," Riley replied truthfully, walking over to the blonde, who was placing the food in the display cases.
"Yeah, I know," Maya agreed with a chuckle, giving her best friend a quick hug.
"Besides, if you were assistant manager you'd be too busy to help keep me sane," Riley pointed out.
"And that's a full time job in itself," Maya nodded jokingly.
As Riley helped Maya with more food in the kitchen, the employees knocked on the front door. Hearing it from the kitchen, Riley rushed out to open the door for them. Among the employees were the bakers, Bailey and Carissa, and the servers and cashiers, Lucy, Ben, and Sienna.
Bailey, Carissa, Lucy, and Ben all respectively went to do their usual tasks, while Sienna stayed with Riley.
"It's your official first day, are you excited?" Riley asked the teenager.
"I am," Sienna nodded with a grin. "I can't wait to spend the summer with you! Lucas has said nice things about you."
"Well, I sure hope so," Riley laughed. "I am his girlfriend after all. And I'm excited to spend the summer with you, too. You're the only person in his family I've met other than his parents and Pappy Joe."
"You'll probably meet my parents soon," Sienna informed her. "They want to come by one day to see how I'm doing here."
"Can't wait to meet them," Riley smiled. She clapped her hands together. "Okay, so today we're going to start your training. Maya's going to train you. I'm sure Lucas has mentioned her to you as well."
Sienna nodded, "He said she scares him. And that he feels that she threatens your relationship because you guys are best friends."
Riley couldn't help but giggle. Riley knew that Lucas felt that Maya sometimes got in the way of their relationship, but she wasn't aware that he was scared of her. Maya wasn't scary, but then again, Riley knew her better than anyone else in the world.
"I heard my name," Maya said as she approached the two girls. She eyed Sienna and immediately identified her as Lucas's relative. "You must be Sienna."
"And you're Maya," Sienna said. "Lucas is very scared of you, even more scared than he was of Tombstone the bull."
Maya smirked, "I knew I got to that Huckleberry."
"Maya," Riley said sternly.
"What?" Maya responded. Riley gave her a look. "Oh, sorry. I know he's your boyfriend and all but I just love teasing him. He thinks my opinion of him is going to change yours. Like no, does he not realize how in love you are with him? Not even I can hold you back from him."
Riley blushed and rolled her eyes.
"Okay," Riley said as she pushed Sienna and Maya to a booth. "Work starts now. Maya, teach her everything you know."
"Alright, Riley," Sienna nodded. She teased, "We can talk about how much you love my cousin later."
Riley's cheeks flushed once again, "Yeah, sure, Sienna. You can tell me embarrassing stories about him from your guys' childhood."
"Of course! I have plenty," Sienna said with a grin.
"I wanna hear them too!" Maya chimed in. "I need new material to work with."
Riley shook her head with a chuckle, "Fine, Maya. The sooner you train Sienna, the sooner we get to hear his mutton busting stories."
"I have a lot of those," Sienna said, laughing to herself.
"Then get to work, ladies!" Riley said as she walked back to the counter.
Riley sat at her desk in the office. She had her arm propped up on the desk with her chin resting in her hand. In her other hand, she gripped her phone and it had a photo of her and Lucas on the screen. She sighed. The summer just began and he literally left just a week and a half ago, yet Riley couldn't help but feel separation anxiety kick her in the face. They'd been attached at the hip ever since the day they officially got together. The thought of not seeing each other for months annoyed Riley to no end. She wasn't sure how she was going to get through the next couple of months without him by her side.
"Riley," Maya said as she walked into the room. There was no response from Riley, as she stared lovingly at her phone. Maya was able to walk across the room and stand behind Riley without the brunette even noticing. She shook her head. She knew Riley missed Lucas, but she didn't realize how much she did until she saw Riley swipe to another photo of just Lucas and tried to kiss her screen. "Riley!"
This time Riley snapped out of her daze. She shook her head and her eyes grew wide when she realized someone else was in the room with her. She felt her cheeks turn a light shade of pink and was too embarrassed to ask her best friend if she had been there the whole time.
"I saw everything," Maya chuckled as she folded her arms across her chest.
Riley dropped her phone lightly on the desk and then slid down into her seat. Maya shook her head and walked around the desk to sit in front of her. She allowed Riley to sulk in her embarrassment for a little bit before she spoke up.
"You're disgustingly cute, you know that?" Maya scrunched her face.
"Shut up," Riley pouted. "I just miss him."
"I know you do, honey," Maya replied. "But I don't think you should be spending your summer moping around when you've got a lot of work to do."
"It's our first summer apart," Riley informed her. She sat upright. "If you and I were separated—"
"No, no," Maya wagged a finger in front of Riley. "That's never going to happen. Ever."
Riley sighed with a smile, "Yes, but if—"
"Riley, we talked about this," Maya waved her off. "When you get married to Lucas and I get married to your Uncle Boing, we're going to be neighbors."
"Are you and Uncle Josh even together?" Riley huffed. Maya had a crush on Riley's uncle ever since she was thirteen. Josh began to show interest in the blonde a couple of years later, but the three-year age different made him reluctant to start an official relationship.
"Actually, yes we are," Maya responded with a proud smirk. This took a few seconds for Riley to process, but once she did, her brown eyes grew wide.
"Peaches! Why didn't you tell me?!" Riley snapped. She slammed her hands on the desk, then she looked off to the side, "Why didn't Uncle Josh tell me?!"
"Calm down," Maya said, covering her hands with hers. "It's only been a few weeks. We both tried to tell you but you were too busy spending time with Lucas before he left."
"Well, can you blame me?"
"No, I can't," Maya shook her head. "Don't be mad it took me this long to tell you."
"I'm not mad," Riley replied. "I'm happy for you! Gosh, I'm totally looking forward to the day you become my aunt. You're already technically my cousin, so this is weird…"
"What's weird is your father could be my brother-in-law," Maya scrunched her face in disgust. She was very fond of Cory, being the father of her best friend and all, as well as being a father figure to her since she was seven, but the thought of possibly being his sister was strange to her.
"But anyway. Huckleberry. Don't be sad about him okay? You guys both know distance won't change a thing between you two. When he comes home it'll be like he never even left."
Riley stood up, "You're right, Maya. He and I are stronger than this. Sure, I miss him like crazy but that's normal, right?" Maya nodded. "I'll still be able to talk to him, which is the important thing. Meanwhile, I have a bakery to run!"
"That's my girl," Maya put a fist in the air as she stood up.
Riley marched out of the office with Maya in tow. They stood at the side of the front counter as Riley looked at the schedule that indicated when the employees' breaks would be. She then looked around the bakery until her eyes landed on Sienna. Sienna was following Bailey around, learning how to do her job.
"You done training her?" Riley inquired as she pointed at Sienna with the pen in her hand.
"Yup," Maya replied. "She caught on quick. Then Bailey offered to help her with the hands-on training."
Riley nodded, "I'm impressed with Bailey. She's been doing really well lately. Once Sienna's comfortable with the position I might promote Bailey."
"She's great," Maya agreed. "My mom said Bailey's a really hard worker. I think she deserves it."
"Well, that's settled then," Riley jotted down notes on a separate page on her clipboard. "Alright, so I think this would be a good time for Sienna to have her break. Call her over for me?"
Maya nodded and walked towards Sienna and Bailey, then quickly returned with Sienna by her side.
"Time for your break!" Riley said, putting an arm around Sienna and leading her to the break room. She looked back at Maya as they walked away, "Maya, you're in charge for the hour."
"Wow, really?" Maya raised a brow. "Maybe you should promote me too!"
"Maybe," Riley laughed. "You could always be a co-assistant manager."
"Thought you didn't want me to have more responsibility?" Maya reminded her.
"We'll talk about this later," Riley waved her off.
Once in the break room, Riley sat at the table as Sienna was looking through her bag. Sienna sighed with a frown and Riley quickly took notice. She turned to look at her boyfriend's cousin.
"Sienna, you alright?" Riley asked.
"Yeah," Sienna nodded, "I just forgot my lunch."
"No worries," Riley waved her hand, inviting Sienna to sit beside her. She took her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number. "I'll order food. You good with Chinese?"
"Yeah, I love Chinese food," Sienna replied with a smile.
"I know," Riley returned. "Lucas loves it too."
Riley ordered Chinese food and asked for input from Sienna on what to order. While they waited for their food to arrive, Riley took the time to get to know Sienna better. She learned that Sienna was an only child like Lucas, and she was a skilled guitarist. What impressed Riley even more was that Sienna owned a few bunnies back in Texas. Riley had found a lot in common with Sienna, and she was glad they got along. Every time she met a family member of a friend or significant other, she was always feared that she wouldn't get along with them.
"You're so much more fun than Lucas," Riley said as she took food containers out of a paper bag. The Chinese food delivery guy had just left, and Sienna was ecstatic to see the food.
"Don't flatter me," Sienna replied as she helped Riley set out the food. She winked, "You know you have more fun with Lucas."
"Oh god," Riley said with a scrunched face. "What do you know?"
"Nothing," Sienna innocently responded. "You guys have been together for a while. It's inevitable."
"Okay, let's not talk about my love life anymore," Riley said, leaning away from Sienna. "I'm uncomfortable."
"Alright," Sienna said, shrugging. "Wanna hear those embarrassing Lucas stories now then?"
"Duh," Riley said a little too enthusiastically.
As the two began to eat, Sienna felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She took her phone out and saw that it was just a message. It was a text from Lucas asking how she was doing. Sienna quickly tapped on her phone to send a reply ignoring his question and asking if he was free at the moment. Within seconds, Lucas replied.
"Hey, Riley, can I borrow your laptop?" Sienna turned to the brunette as she stuffed her face with fried rice.
"Mhm," Riley nodded with her mouth full. She swallowed, "It's in the office."
"Thanks," Sienna smiled as she got up. She quickly left the room and returned moments later with Riley's laptop. She turned it on and let Riley type in her password.
"What do you need it for?" Riley asked.
"Wait," Sienna instructed, turning the screen away from Riley. Minutes later, she turned the screen so that both her and Riley could see. Riley's face lit up as she realized they were on a video call with her significant other.
"Lucas!" Riley yelled, moving her face closer towards the screen.
"Babe!" Lucas returned the genuine excitement. "I texted Sienna to see how she was doing. I didn't realize you'd be with her. I assumed you'd be busy."
"Hi to you too, cousin," Sienna reminded the two of her presence.
"Hi Sienna," Lucas waved through the screen.
"I was busy," Riley nodded. "But I decided to schedule my break with Sienna so we could bond."
"And how is that going for you girls?"
"I love her!" Sienna declared, attacking Riley with a hug. Once they parted, she pointed a finger and leaned closer towards the laptop. "If you don't marry her, I will never let you live it down."
Riley chuckled in the background, flattered that Sienna thought so highly of her already even though it was their first time really getting to know each other.
"Calm down," Lucas held his hands, palms out, in front of him. "I intend on marrying her someday. Just not now, not when she and I are both still in school."
"So what I'm hearing is, you're gonna ask me to marry you?" Riley cocked an eyebrow and smirked.
"Someday," Lucas whispered.
"You guys are adorable," Sienna gushed. She gestured to her noodles that sat in front of her and turned to Riley, "Thanks for the lunch, by the way, Riles."
"Oh, no problem," Riley replied.
"Oh," Lucas raised both eyebrows. "You guys are having Chinese food without me? How rude."
"Oh hush, babe," Riley said. "Let us have this moment."
Lucas nodded, "I'm glad you two are getting along. How's your first day, Sienna?"
"It's been pretty chill," Sienna replied. "Maya taught me the technical stuff earlier and then Bailey was helping me with some customers. The customers were pretty understanding that I'm still a trainee."
"When I get back you better give me some good customer service," Lucas said.
"I will, don't worry," Sienna confirmed.
"By the way, Riles, if you're on break, who's supervising right now?" Lucas asked.
"Maya is," Riley said with a mouthful of food. This made Lucas laugh to himself, noting how cute his girlfriend was even when she was stuffing her face with food.
"Oh really? Do you trust her to be running things?" Lucas pressed.
Riley nodded and furrowed her brows. She swallowed her food before saying, "Of course I trust her, Lucas. Her mom's been managing the bakery for years, she's learned a lot from her. Don't be scared."
Lucas looked at the two with wide eyes. She said to Sienna, "You told her I was scared of Maya?!"
Sienna proudly nodded.
"For a tough guy it's hard to believe how scared you are of a five-foot blonde," Riley laughed then turned to Sienna, "You still have to tell me those Lucas stories."
"Sure! I'll tell you them now," Sienna offered.
"Oh, no," Lucas lowered his head in embarrassment. Sienna knew all sorts of embarrassing things about him, and although he was extremely comfortable with Riley, he didn't want her knowing certain things.
"Oh, come on, Lukey," Riley said in a sweet voice that always got to him. "I bet they're not that bad."
"Wanna bet?" countered Sienna.
"You two give me a headache," Lucas palmed his face and shook his head disapprovingly.
How do you guys like Sienna so far? Personally, I think she's the cutest thing.