It was a Thursday morning, ten-thirty and I am walking through the mall. Walking through a practically deserted mall is the only time I enjoy walking through one. A mall on Saturday, no thank you, I have to be in a shopping mood to suffer through that. I have the next two weeks off and I have no clue what I will be doing. I never take vacations and it was nearing the end of the fiscal year and I had fifteen days to use or I would lose them. Everything in my life revolved around work; I moved to the city a year ago and I still didn�t know one person I don�t work with. I never went out, I never took trips. I was about as exciting as vanilla ice cream. I woke up early, as usual and before I knew it I was in the shower before I realized I didn�t have to go to work. I never understood how someone could sleep until noon, to me, that is physically impossible. I wasn�t going to work and I was too anxious to sit in my apartment so here I am, at the mall. Since I�m here I have resolved myself to not exercising my favorite characteristic: procrastination. Others may be annoyed by it but I say it gives me personality and spontaneity. OK, granted I don�t believe that but the look of gall it evokes when I say it is entertaining. That may be odd, but seriously it�s the little things in life that make me happy; a sunny day with a bright blue background and puffy white clouds, finding a great shirt or pair of shoes on sale when I didn�t plan to really buy anything or a pair of pants that fit perfectly. Hell, that last one was damn near orgasmic, ok slight exaggeration but being tall and having long legs can be a pain in the ass when it comes to buying a pair of pants.
So, the mission was to buy my little brother a birthday gift but I had managed to hit Express, The Limited and Victoria�s Secret. I was shocked; shocked I tell you when I didn�t find anything for him. I rolled my eyes at myself and smiled as I walked into a men�s shop I didn�t even bother to read the name of the store. There were only two other customers in the shop and I am so proud of myself for noticing that; usually I am completely oblivious to my surroundings. A mugger�s dream my boss calls me. I do however wait for the older man that is helping them to acknowledge my presence; he does and I decide I�m going to like this place. Now, I don�t need someone running behind me every five minutes but in a small store when there aren�t a lot of customers I at least expect a nod of the head or a smile. I walked over to a table of sweaters, something about sweaters that I love, so comfortable. My brother�s color is blue but it�s my money so he�s getting my favorite color sweater cream; and never mind it�s his birthday. I found one I wanted and as I maneuvered for his size I could tell the other customers were near me. Just as I turned to look for another size his drink all over my chest stopped me. Great, I had been up for three hours and the day was going to hell, I knew my utopian day wouldn�t last long. Wiping the drink with my hands failed miserably and I smiled graciously at the shop clerk when he handed me a few napkins. A pair of large hands came between us as the klutz spoke,
�I�I�m sorry.� I didn�t bother to look up as I quickly figured the napkins were not helping,
�Forget it, I was hot anyway.� My attempt to lighten the mood came out a little harsh. I felt a little bad about that and tried to soften the mood,
�Really, I mean, at least I�m in a mall, I can go buy another shirt.� I looked up for the first time and stared into the most amazing eyes,
�Uh, it�s no big deal.� He smiled and I thought I was going to faint,
�I�m really sorry. Hi, I�m Kevin and this is Carlos.� I know who the hell you are and obviously they knew I knew from the amused looks on their faces. If I had any nerve I would check to see if I were drooling instead frantically worrying about it,
�Uh�yeah I know�guess you do too. I�m Quinn.� I looked over to see Carlos waiting on me to pounce his boss. Yeah man, like I orchestrated him almost drowning me with a slurpee.
�Why are you smiling?� Kevin brought me back to attention; I really need to stop mentally wandering off like that. That, I admit, is a bad habit,
�Oh nothing�I better get going.� I looked down and smiled at my new designer shirt, wonder if I could get something for it on E-bay. I dare not say that, I can only imagine how many times he has had to endure that joke. He placed his hand on my arm and I thought I was going to die. Ok, get a grip,
�It was my fault�let me pay for it.� Kevin Richardson wants to buy me a shirt as cool as that sounded I couldn�t,
�No, that�s ok�really.� He shook his head and all I could do was look at his hair, eye contact was out of the question,
�I insist, come on you lead the way.� He gestured at himself and Carlos then at the door. That�s when I realized he wasn�t going to just give me a twenty and send me on my way; he was going with me. I may be nervous but I nodded my head, there was no way I was going to miss out on this opportunity,
�Is The Gap ok with you?� He smiled,
�Works for me. How about you Carlos?� Carlos simply nodded and rolled his eyes at Kevin and I took a deep breath and led the way.
Stories
Mixed Feelings
Chapter 2