Vehicular Man's Laughter ::Rupert::

When Rupert reached out to cup her chin, Riley nearly flinched away. A hand to the face was a far more intimate gesture than most people realized, and it hardly ever came without other intentions. Whether they were violent, forcing someone to look at you in the face when they were trying to do anything but that, or simply tipping someone’s face up for a look or kiss, it always meant something. Riley didn’t move though, just kept her eyes carefully focused anywhere but the face of the man who was once again giving her a very thorough once-over. This time it was her face he focused on. To her surprise, Riley found herself flushing slightly at the scrutiny. People looked at her all the time, people looked at her closely all the time, and at places far more flush-inducing than her face. She let Rupert turn her face one way, then the other, and let her eyes flick to his for just a moment when she was facing him again. His eyes were green, or maybe brown, Riley swallowed as he released her and studied her shoes for a moment as he spoke.

Riley wanted to look up in surprise, she was used to compliments on some level, but she was usually pretty unremarkable when dressed like this. At least in the crowd she was used to running with. She looked up again and shook her head, ”Don’t judge a book by its cover.” she said softly, good was the last adjective most people would use to describe her. At least in the sense she’d originally intended.

It was funny how fast a line could move when a person was having fun, and at some point the million people in front of them had shrunk to a half million, then a measly couple thousand, and now it was actually their turn. Rupert spoke again, and it took a moment for the words to register. A Taurus, Riley tilted her head. It was a fitting vehicular match. Nothing too flashy, nothing too new. Ohhhh, and he assumed, posed the question and didn’t even wait for the answer. Riley watched him move to the counter he’d been summoned to and wasn’t even mad that he’d cut her in line. It was the first time she could remember in a long time that she’d been caught this off guard by a man without something being slipped in her drink or injected through a vein.

Riley frowned a little bit, though, as she was summoned forward and set about getting her business taken care of. What kind of game was she playing here? Was it actually a game? All of that flirting, she’d let the man touch her face. At some point she’d even forgotten that she was trying to get a ride. She glanced to where Rupert had been and noticed he was gone. It wouldn’t be hard to slip out of the DMV and walk the other direction down the street. As Riley signed her name on the license form and took the still-warm piece of plastic from the woman behind the desk, she knew that wasn’t what she was going to do.

Out the door she went, pulling the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands against the chill of the New York winter. Across the street she went, eyes searching for the car that Rupert had described. It was there, just as he’d said, and he was waiting next to it, arms crossed and leaning casually. She moved up beside him and laid her hand on the top of the car and patted it, like she’d seen cowboys do to horses on movies, ”I do like a Taurus.” she said, ”As stubborn as a bull can be, there’s something reassuring about all that pigheadedness. They‘re passionate though. I‘m a Taurus.” Rambling about zodiac signs. Smooth.

”So.” she said, not taking her arm from the top of the car, but turning to face Rupert a little more fully, ”What does an insomniac asshole do to wind down after a harrowing experience at the DMV?”