Another honest one

"Uhmmm..." Jack repeated, taking another glance around the room. "I could chose... anything that I like...?"

"Whatever you like the most!" The pretty shopkeeper agreed, still smiling at him while leaning back against a shelf and crossing her arms under her ample bosom.

"O... okay..." He mumbled, trying his best to return that playful smile of hers and make it sound like a joke as he continued. "I think... that what I want the most, in your whole shop, would actually be.... well... you...?"

"...You....?" The woman queried, as if trying to make him finish the sentence, raising an eyebrow while gesturing for him to continue. "....You.... what...?"

"Just... you." He managed to stammer, feeling his cheeks quickly getting red again as this was not quite going in the more playful direction that he had wanted it to.

"Me?" She asked in mock surprise while letting out a soft laughter. "And what makes you think that I could be bought, just like anything else in this shop?"

"I... I never said that..." Jack nervously objected. "You just told me... that I could chose whatever I like the most in your shop... And... and I like you the most... so, I thought..."

"Hmm... Yeah..." The young shopkeeper nodded thoughtfully. "That's the way I phrased it, wasn't it?"

"Well... Yeah..." Jack mumbled. "I meant it like... a kind of joke, I suppose... but that's the first thing I would pick, if I ever got the question... But if you didn't mean it like that, then... maybe I should pick something else...?"

Again she waited until he had finished talking, watching him with a patient smile as he slowly stammered his way through the words with obvious regret in his voice.

"Well..." She finally said when she was sure that he had finished. "Wheter you meant it or not, your request has picked my interest at least. So tell me: What did you have in mind with a choice like that?"

"Uh... what...?" He asked, still embarassed by his own failure of making a joke, and not at all understanding what she was getting at.

"With any other thing that you could pick from my store, I guess you would have taken it back home to your appartment..." The young woman started, all the time watching him with that thoughtful smile on her lips. "And you would probably have tried it once, or watched it in case of a movie, and then eventually put it away for the time being, to be used every now and then when you felt like it. But in what way are you thinking when you say that you'd pick a living being like me in place of an object that you could buy in a store?"

"What do you mean...?" Jack queried, even though he could allready start to see how she was thinking.

"I just want to know what you thought of when making your choice." She calmly replied. "Did you think of me as an object, to be taken home and used at your leisure? Or did you think of me like a hooker? A one night stand? Or did you wish for my love eternal? To be your wife for all time?"

"Wait... wait...!" He told her to make her stop, feeling sickened by her way of describing his obviously thoughtless and selfish wish. "I... I just..."

"I just want an honest answer." The woman interrupted him while shrugging her shoulders. "I'm curious to know what you actually wished for."